WITH A SEASONAL STYLE
A Profile of Rachael Levine, Executive Chef, RH Phillips

By Daren Cliff

Rachael Levine Photo Submitted

There is a difference between being a restaurant chef and a winery chef. Not to say that one is any less difficult than the other but they do come with a very different set of challenges. Every great chef brings to the table their background, their influences and their idea of what food should be, without even realizing they are making that kind of impression. Rachael Levine is a "great" chef in every sense of the word. Her philosophy is simple "food should be cooked with the season in mind." She shies away from defining what her style of cuisine is, so with a shrug she says, "seasonal, is that a style?" But that one word - seasonal - is what makes this chef, and her food, so wonderful. No over analyzing or complicating the profession she has come to love.

As a child Rachael often cooked and worked in the garden. She would love to tell you that she did it because she found pure joy in it, but that came much later. No, she worked in the kitchen because her family had plenty of mouths to feed. Her mother was one of ten children and her grandmother ran a boarding house, so you get the feeling there was always a cousin or sibling who was hungry. And the garden? Well, that is how they fed everyone - it was needed - not like the hobby it is for most households today. What she didn't realize at the time was that this very way of life would eventually form her "style" as a chef.

During college Rachael took on a job as dishwasher at a now defunct brewery in Woodland. It was there that a woman linecook took Rachael on as her apprentice of sorts. Granted, it took a while before Executive Chef, JR Stockton, took notice of Rachael's quick assent up the line, but once he did, it didn't take long for him to recognize her proficiency in the kitchen. From there the mentoring role became his and she credits him as a major influence to this day. After her stint at the brewery she did time in a coffee house, deli, and wine-bar before landing an interview with RH Phillips. RH Phillips was looking for a chef to create an identity for their kitchen and Rachael out cooked seven other chefs for the position.

Six years later, as I am sitting down with her next to a gorgeous and burgeoning garden, I realize that being in the kitchen is just one of the many roles that Rachael has at RH Phillips. Executive chef is her primary role, but the title of chef in this kitchen also means tending to their vast garden, going on marketing trips as the lead contact for Vincor (the corporation that now owns RH Phillips), and doing guest chef appearances around the world. She is so well regarded for her culinary skills that even the folks from the California Wine Institute invited her to be a representative for the institute in Germany this past spring, where she cooked "California Cuisine" paired with California wines. The event was so successful they have asked her to represent them again this fall, in China. While in China she will be a guest chef and will teach the local staff what she aptly describes as "regional cuisine - food that exemplifies were you live."

However, Rachael is anything but a perennial globe trotter leading a lavish celebrity chef lifestyle. Rather, it is her day-to-day dedication to her craft and the innate ability to run her kitchen while keeping up the gardening and marketing duties, that have led to these rare opportunities for her to strut her stuff abroad. At the winery, one of the daily chores consists of preparing box lunches for the staff, which enables them to save the gas required for trips into town, while savoring delicious food made from local meats, cheeses, and of course, produce from their own company garden.

When I arrived to conduct this interview the savory aromas of braised pork shoulder filled the air outside of her kitchen. There was a small group of executives from a key retailer visiting the winery. Sensing what the next inevitable question was, Rachael saved me the energy of asking, "with the braised pork shoulder I have made a fig puree with Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and the starter course is a baby watermelon gazpacho with early season pears, and Dungeness crab," she explained.

Often, her challenge in creating such delectable dishes is that she always has two distinctly different goals in mind. The first, according to Levine, "is to passionately incorporate the fresh local produce, meats, artisan oils and cheeses into a meal that fits the guest. If a trade visitor is here from a national Asian-fusion chain, I have to cook food that is representative of their cuisine in order to highlight how well our wine pairs with it." Her second goal is to accomplish the first while remaining creatively open and not falling into what she describes as a "cellar palate", constantly churning out set flavors that she knows to be safe with their wines. What specifically defines cooking for a winery is that it is the antithesis of restaurant cooking. "In a restaurant you start with a menu and go to the wine list for pairing, here I have to start with wine and then pair food, all the while keeping it fresh and new," she explains.

Rachael spends a significant amount of time in the cellar. She tastes the finished wines and barrel samples, as well as wines made by their competitors. These are always blind tastings. She finds them to be very interesting in that the common denominator for her is, "how well will this wine synergize with food?" It is here that I find perfectly common ground with this incredibly talented woman. Wine has historically been produced to be the sole accompaniment to great food. Great food is at a loss without wine. Or as Rachael puts it, "it is not a spirit, it is best with food!" Spoken like a true Winery Chef.

ENJOYING A MEXICAN HARVEST
In Season with Walnuts & Pomegranates

Story and Seasonal Menu by Ann M. Evans and Georgeanne Brennan
Photograph by Carole Topalian

As fall harvest time will soon be upon us, we thought we'd like to celebrate with a Mexican harvest menu that showcases our areas rich ethnic heritage as well as our rich land. Ann's family friend, Mexican-born Isabel Lopez, beloved grandmother of Davis ceramicist Susan Shelton, showed Ann how to make Chiles en Nogada (chilies in nut sauce) with Susan translating as "Abuelita" (as she was known to all of Davis) cooked. The recipe is below and we both agreed that such a dish, with its focus on walnuts and pomegranates, was a perfect centerpiece for a celebratory Sacramento Valley harvest meal.

As you know from driving along the highways and back roads of Greater Sacramento Valley, where vast canopies of walnut trees stretch for acres, walnuts are a significant crop in the region. Yolo County alone plants out just under 10,000 acres to walnuts, the seventh largest of its crops in terms of farm gate receipts. The state of California produces 99% of the walnuts consumed domestically and 40% of the world production, and most of the production is now here in northern California, having shifted over the years from southern California where the industry used to be centered. In fact, the world's largest independent nut processor, Mariani Nut, is located in Winters, just off highway 505.

Although there are native American walnuts, it is an import, the Persian walnut, Juglans Regia, commonly called the English walnut, that is the foundation of the state's huge walnut industry. The Persian walnut was first introduced, via Spain and Mexico, into what would become California, by Franciscan missionaries. These came to be called the Franciscan type, and had a small, hard shell and small meat, and while orchards of them were planted in the 1800s, it was the large-meated, Santa Barbara soft-shell, another variety of Persian walnut that was first grown in Southern California from a bag of purchased walnuts that started the state's walnut industry. By the 1870s, walnut orchards were flourishing in Southern California. But the Santa Barbara variety didn't thrive in the north, which was frustrating to would-be orchardists. Fortunately, pioneer nurseryman Felix Gillet, near Nevada City had begun introducing French varieties in 1871, such as the Mayette and Franquette, which were frost hardy and thrived in the north, and it is these varieties, along with other French ones that formed the early basis of Northern California's walnut industry. So, as you drive through our orchards today watching the harvesters gather up walnuts by the truckloads to ship across the country and around the world, to be made into candies and cereals, used fresh in salads, and eaten out of hand, give a thought and a nod of thanks to the French immigrant Felix Gillet who first introduced them to our valley.

The pomegranate trees lining our roads, growing in a backyard here or there, are a true specialty only available now in fall. Mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible 29 times, this regal bronze, dark crimson or ruby colored fruit is a shrub of Asiatic origin and is one of the oldest known fruits. There is a great deal of symbolism in general in Christian iconography. In Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Christ Child, one often sees the child holding a pomegranate, which academicians suggest represents the Universal Church (inner unity of many thousand seeds within one fruit.) Greco-Roman myths, such as Persephone, also feature the seeds of the pomegranate. It is cultivated in many tropical countries and it also grows in the south of France. In France it is usually eaten fresh or used to make refreshing drinks (grenadine) but in Mexico is used as an ingredient; fresh seeds in salad or spread on top of foods such as in the recipe below.

Like the walnut, the pomegranate is one of the many missionary fruits of California, brought here by Spanish missionaries in the 1770s. Though there are a few local plantings of pomegranate trees in Yolo and Sacramento Counties, most of the nation's commercial crop comes from the hot, dry climate of the San Joaquin Valley, especially Kern, Tulare and Fresno counties. Pomegranates' availability peaks in October and November. The best known fruiting variety of PUNICA granatum, the pomegranate, is "Wonderful" which according to some sources, a Porterville farmer propagated in 1896 from a Florida cutting. Yet another reason to include pomegranates in our meals is for health reasons. Pomegranates are a good source of Vitamin C and contain high levels of antioxidants. Whether for health, color, flavor or texture, eating a local pomegranate this fall is a very Edible Sacramento habit to cultivate.

Chiles en Nogada by Isabel Lopez
(Chiles in Nut Sauce)

This recipe is traditionally served in the fall in Mexico, just as it should be here, when the pomegranates, raisins, and walnuts are in season. There are five parts to this recipe: advance preparation; making the filling and stuffing the chile peppers; making the sauce; making the frying batter and frying the stuffed chile peppers; and assembling the platter. As you can see this is show-off dish, which "Abuelita" very much loved to do. She died in 2003 at the age of 99 and a half years old, five months shy of her 100th birthday. On November 1 of that year, Susan Shelton held "Abuelita's" 100th birthday party at which friends cooked Abuelita's recipes, the most honored of which was Chiles en Nogada.

The filling:
20 Poblano, Pasilla or Anaheim chile peppers
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 cans diced tomatoes (14 1/2 ounces each)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 cup chopped green olives with pimento
1 tablespoon brine (olive water from the jar)
1 cup black raisins
1/2 teaspoon oregano leaves
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Flour

For the sauce:
2 heaping cups walnuts
8 ounces cream cheese
6 ounces "Queso Fresco Mexicano" (there is no substitute for this cheese)
1 cup Mexican crèma (or French crème fraiche or sour cream)
1 cup milk

The frying batter:
2 teaspoons baking powder
12 eggs (give or take one or two)
1/2 cup flour
Olive oil

For the final assembly:
2 pomegranates, seeded
Parsley, sprigs

Directions:
Roast and skin the chiles over a gas burner or a grill until the skin blisters. Put them in a plastic bag for 30 minutes or so and then peel, leaving stem on. Remove the seeds from the pomegranate and reserve them. While the chiles are resting, start soaking the walnuts for the sauce in water. After one hour of soaking, remove their skins. Otherwise the sauce will be bitter.

Put the chicken in a pot and cover with water. Add salt, half an onion and a clove of garlic. Simmer until tender, about 20 minutes, remove from water and shred. set aside.

Heat the olive oil in frying pan. Add tomatoes, onions and garlic. Cook briefly. Add the olive brine, chopped olives, oregano, parsley and pepper. Stir. Add sugar. Simmer for 10 minutes with salt to taste. Add chicken. Adjust consistency with chicken broth or water to make a moist mixture. Stuff skinned chile with 1/3 cup filling, close the chile. Coat with flour and set aside.

To make the sauce:
Mix all ingredients in blender at high speed until creamy and smooth.

Make the frying batter and fry chilies.

Separate egg yolks from whites. Add baking powder to egg whites. Beat until soft peaks form. Add flour. Beat until stiff peaks form. Fold in egg yolks with a whisk. Heat pan with olive oil. Coast each chile with "meringue style" batter, as if cooking chile rellenos. Fry each side until golden brown. Add oil as necessary. Remove from the pan. Drain on paper towels.

Arrange fried chiles on serving platter. Spoon sauce over them. Leave some of the chiles showing. Sprinkle the pomegranate seeds over the top. Garnish with parsley around the edge of platter. If prepared in advance, heat chiles and add sauce right before serving.