Behind the Masque
A Profile of Chef Angelo Auriana

Story by Jennifer Cliff • Photographs by Carole Topalian

Angelo Auriana of Masque Ristorante in El Dorado Hills has been a professional chef for 25 years. He immigrated from Italy to the United States in 1984 at the age of 22, after training for 10 years in kitchens throughout Italy. Fortunately, he met up with Piero Selvaggio in Los Angeles, and together they opened Primi, a small-plates restaurant near 20th Century Fox Studios. Regrettably, they were way ahead of their time; customers then wanted large servings of one taste. Primi offered Italian-style tapas, with innovative cuisine but no parking - a combination that would never work in car-crazed Los Angeles.

Angelo laughs about it now, and other culture shocks as well.

"Piero helped shape me into a good chef, by understanding wine pairing. But what is this - breakfast? It took me a while to get used to people eating lunch at 11:30 in the morning. I guess they started work early, so they were hungry by then."

In the Summer of 1986, at the age of 24, Angelo was offered the coveted position of executive chef at Selvaggio's venerable restaurant, Valentino. Angelo, young but certainly not inexperienced, accepted the position partially because it was dinners-only - not to mention that it was one of the most renowned restaurants in Los Angeles.

"I started doing dinners for customers who could easily average a $2,000 wine tab, and I had the immediate challenge of figuring out what to cook for them. In fact, that became my specialty - you come to me with the wine, and I'll cook for that. It's Italian-based prep, from Puglia to Sicily, my own take rather than northern versus southern regional cooking. In the U.S., people don't distinguish Napa cuisine versus Sonoma cuisine."

Angelo followed his heart and prepared innovative, seasonal cuisine with inspiration from all regions in Italy. He notes, "People today are exposed to more, have traveled more, and have learned more. Then expect more from their dining experiences."

Angelo worked as the executive chef at Valentino until his friend and future partner, Nick Rivieccio convinced him it was time to orchestrate their own unique venture together: Masque Ristorante. Masque was a collaborative effort with developers Jon Douglas and Roger Hume to design and build not only their own restaurant but an entire shopping center that Masque would anchor.

Today, Masque is a superb example of no-expense-spared craftsmanship. The La Borgata shopping center was designed to resemble a Tuscan village in Italy. The decadent yet very comfortable dining room seats 100, in addition to a large bar area, where customers are offered a choice of the full menu from Masque or from the café menu from the Cantinetta.

The Cantinetta is Angelo and Nick's gift to the neighborhood - for those who can't wait for Masque's dinner hours, here you can shop and dine on a wide variety of Italian delicacies. The café's menu offers casual fare such as salads, thin-crust brick oven pizzas, specialty cheeses and meats, as well as wines by the bottle and glass. Angelo describes the Cantinetta as his casual laboratory to experiment in - they have a drying unit for aging meats and a huge pizza oven shipped from Italy. Special wines, fish, meats, and other gourmet goodies are available as well.
Just like any good business man, Angelo wants to develop his retail business slowly, over time, to develop it into a truly unique specialty food outlet that grows and evolves over time.

"The Cantinetta is really a food and wine boutique," says Nick. "It gives us a different entity, and supports the community for lunch and dinner."

As Angelo sees it, "Fine dining n El Dorado Hills is very different here than the intensity of fine dining in Los Angeles. At Primi and Valentino, customers dined in power suits and conducted business. Here, it's more casual and relaxed - they come after the work of the day is over."

That's understandable, adds Nick. "When you've been wearing a suit all week you want to come here, unwind and relax - but still be able to enjoy the finest cuisine."

Nick is adamant that their first priority is quality, and the partners will never compromise in their desire to bring the best of everything to their customers. One can almost consider them designers - Angelo does not adhere to any set of rules, instead he creates his own classics. He is a food artist; style is critical to him, so the following metaphor is appropriate.

"As an Italian born, style is everything. You need new jeans, new shoes, and you care about how everything looks. You can put on an Armani suit and you know it's the best."

Fast forward to today: His plates, the flavors, and the presentations are spectacular. Nick explains: "Angelo has developed his own style of cooking - like cavatelli and crawfish. He was innovative in Los Angeles in the '80s, and he's still innovative today."

Adds Angelo, "My generation of Northern Italians grew up knowing they wanted to be successful. We were ready to bloom, explode, and make it happen. You must be yourself - you must be an innovator. I'm not someone setting new trends - I'm forging new traditions."

Angelo enjoys using local ingredients - the produce is best, and he has started attending a weekly farmers' market for chefs in Yolo. Called "Sundays in the Barn," the market lures chefs from the area and Angelo has grown very fond of going there. Nick boasts that "Farmers started growing things they didn't know they could grow because of Angelo's influence. Italian beans, broccoli rabe, bok choy - anything Angelo wants, they'll grow."

Masque is truly a labor of love for these men. The partners admit they virtually live at the restaurant, which opened on March 29, 2004. A year later, they consider all of their 58 member staff extended family members.
"This is not work," says Nick. "This is a lifestyle."

The staff is clearly happy; during a quick meal at Cantinetta our waitress confirmed Angelo and Nick's feelings.
"I've worked here since they opened, and this is the best job I've ever had. They make you feel successful, and appreciated, which makes you want to do a great job for them. Everyone who works here adores them."

Angelo is proud of Ginger Powers, pastry chef, whose desserts are highly sought after and the extraordinarily gracious and lovely hostess, Aurelia - he feels it was good luck that led her to them. "She was living nearby, looking for a job and just came in - she's perfect for us."

On the first Thursday of the month the Cantinetta offers wine tastings. Nick and Angelo like to feature small, out-of-the-mainstream winemakers whose wines they truly enjoy. They're not out to impress anyone but themselves. They laugh when they say: "We want to support guys with dreams - winemakers with limited production and lofty goals."

Masque's wine list offers over 400 selections, and "Simon the Smeller" (Masque's wine guy) is a favorite of customers. Although he's not yet reached sommelier status, Simon leaves no stone unturned in his quest to learn everything he can about wines, and he has an encyclopedic memory of Masque's wine list.

The restaurant offers seasonal outdoor dining, alongside a small herb garden planted with tomatoes, eggplant, fennel, and herbs. Though it hardly provides enough produce for the restaurant, it gives the staff a visually appealing reference point. Angelo explains, "It doesn't really produce enough for the restaurant, but it helps us teach young chefs to know a zucchini blossom when it's growing." Even the occasional wedding takes place in the garden - one was recently officiated by Nick Rivieccio himself.

We finished our visit to Masque with a tour of the restaurant and its jaw-dropping 3,000-square-foot kitchen. (This is not a typo.) The kitchen features an extravaganza of professional cooking equipment and stations - a virtual mecca for any chef. It rivals the finest commercial kitchens in the world, as do the smells that emit from within. The gallons of simmering veal stock nearly made us weep from desire alone. Angelo smiles and admits, "They tried everything to entice me to come here. I guess it worked."

Main on a Mission
Story by Tracey Ryder • Photographs by Carole Topalian

When I meet up with Annie Main in the kitchen of her rustic farmhouse, it's been raining for days and she's trying to stay ahead of the mud by mopping floor tiles and rearranging doormats. It's 8:30a.m. and I'm a half hour early for our appointment because the drive from Sacramento out to western Yolo County's Hungry Hollow area, where her farm, Good Humus is located, took less time than I had expected. Even with the mud, my early arrival, and the fact that it's a Friday - the day when the entire Main family works together harvesting produce for their weekly trek to the Davis Farmers' market - she offers a freshly brewed pot of chamomile tea and serves sliced oranges and dried persimmons, which I happily eat until they disappear.

Before we officially begin the interview, and while Annie finishes up in the kitchen, I sit at the large dining table trying to absorb everything I've seen in the past hour. The rainy drive through a constantly changing landscape, the beautiful green hills of the Capay Valley and its expanse of open space, ninety-degree turns through tiny towns, and finally the blast of bright pink color emerging from the grey skies that signal our arrival at Good Humus farm, all leave me feeling exhilarated, yet calm.

As we begin, Annie gives me some history on both her family and the farm. She and husband, Jeff Main, met when they were students at UC Davis back in the 1970s. She was studying renewable natural resources and Jeff was becoming a civil engineer. Together they've been farming for 29 years with 22 of those years spent here, at Good Humus. This twenty-acre organic spread provides roughly 160 families - in San Francisco, Woodland, Davis, and Sacramento - with weekly subscription boxes through the Good Humus CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. Good Humus produce can also be found at the Davis and Sacramento Co-ops, as well as the Davis Farmers' Market every Saturday from 8a.m. - 1p.m., which is also where you can purchase the delicious preserves and syrups Annie makes with her friend, Ann Evans, under the brand name Evans and Main. (Do not miss the lavender syrup!)

Jeff and Annie have three children - Zachary, Alison, and Claire - all of who help as much as they can with the farm's operations. Their chores range anywhere from creating and maintaining the farm's website, to working the family's booth at the Davis farmers' market, and everything in between.

I ask Annie if she thinks her children will want to be farmers and she replies by saying that Zachary, her oldest, went to New Zealand with a friend where the two boys participated in the apple harvest. "There's some interest there I guess," she says. "He went all the way to New Zealand and did some of the very same work he does when he's here."

In fact, the future of this farm and how it will endure through future generations is the real reason I'm here today. I have been told that Jeff and Annie, in an attempt to ensure their farmland stays farmland forever, have entered into the process of preservation called a Shared Equity Agricultural Easement. In an era where family farms in California and across the nation are struggling to hold onto their farms, this process unites local communities with family farmers in a partnership "committed to stewardship of agriculture lands in accordance with sustainable and environmentally sound practices," according to the Good Humus website (www.goodhumus.com).

In simple terms, the way this works is that the easement allows the value of the land to be based on its "agricultural value" and not its "fair market value," thus removing it from the speculative real estate market. To facilitate this process, a land trust that is experienced in developing and managing agricultural easements, (in this case, it is Equity Trust, Inc., of Maine) creates the legal documents necessary to ensure the land remains affordable enough so that future generations can afford to farm it.

Through a series of fund raising events and charitable donations, Jeff and Annie are in the process of raising the $300,000 required to purchase their Agricultural Land Easement and to make their Farm Preservation Campaign a reality. Annie goes on to further explain their motivations behind these efforts: "This is a good way for the community to share in the responsibility for preserving farmland and for making sure they have local foods available to them for generations to come. To make sure there are going to be fresh, healthy foods that are grown using sustainable methods, available to people in communities across this nation, is going to take a lot more effort than what farmers can do on their own."

The Mains are not alone in this thinking. In fact, they were inspired to go this route by Steven and Gloria Decater of Live Power Farm in Covelo, who put their farm into this type of preservation model back in 1995 and have served as Jeff and Annie's mentors and role models ever since. And, for the very first time, the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) has included a requirement for active farming in one of its recent easements. Let us all hope this trend prevails. With highly intelligent, forward thinking, involved farmers like the Decaters and Mains leading the way, surely others will follow.

By the end of our interview, I am acutely aware that farming is not what it used to be when Annie and Jeff's ancestors were farming. I doubt they ever had to consider the difference between the unrestricted fair market value of their land versus the restricted agricultural value. Nor would they have considered farm events or the Internet to be necessary fund raising vehicles to preserve their land for active farming. They might agree that both represent progress in the ability to communicate with larger numbers of people, albeit with their inherent obstacles and complications. But the thing I take away with me today, aside from having learned more than I could have imagined about easements, is summed up in Annie's own words as well as her prevailing positive attitude toward a future where people in communities across the country will still have the opportunity to know the name of their local farmers and to know where their food comes from. "I really love people loving the food. When they get our newsletter in their CSA box each week, it's like a letter from home - it has recipes and talks about the produce." What the customers of Good Humus might not know, however, is that, as Annie says, "selling our produce to people feeds me as much as it feeds them. I don't always like the struggles that come with farming today, but I love doing this."

To learn more about Good Humus Farm, their CSA program, or their Farm Preservation Program, visit www.goodhumus.com

To make a tax-deductible donation toward their efforts, contact:
Equity Trust, Inc.
P.O. Box 746
Turner Falls, ME 01376
(413) 863-9038
www.equitytrust.org

Swirl of the Season
Story and Photographs by Daren Cliff

"Would Miles give it a 90?"

Welcome to the premiere issue of Edible Sacramento and the "Swirl of the Season" column. Miles, the neurotic enophile with humorously poor judgment from the movie Sideways, would never give a rating of 90 or above to a Merlot regardless of how good it is. Most of us would probably not have any regard for what Miles would score a wine anyway. So why, in this period of "vino enlightenment" that this country is going through (statistics show that premium wine sales have risen every year over the last decade), do we as consumers put so much value into a couple of publications reviews and ratings?

I once saw a cartoon in which a gentleman is tasting at a wine bar. The caption reads, "God, this Cabernet is terrible - it's vegetal, tart, and unbearably tannic." The pourer replies, "The 'Wine Review' gave it a 95" - and the customer says, "I'll take a case." What makes this cartoon funny is the fact that I have stood next to that customer many times!

So why do we take a couple critics' opinions as divine edict when purchasing a bottle of wine? The two most widely read wine critics have both cautioned that their reviews should be used as a starting point for the readers to ultimately find the wines that they love. Let me shed some light on the subjectiveness of individual taste. There is a famous Napa Valley Estate that produces world-class Cabernet Sauvignon; many of its vintages have been highly sought after. These same two critics disagreed entirely on the 2001 vintage of this great Cabernet. One scored the wine 96 points while the other mirrored that score with 69 points. Whom shall we believe or trust? The only thing for certain is that this wine will probably fall somewhere in between these extreme opinions, depending on who is drinking it.

The purpose of this column is to suggest wines to seek out and try. If a wine is listed here, the staff and I think it's a "good" wine. My feeling is that there is way too much energy being expelled on researching, cataloging, and keeping stock of wine scores. I would like to encourage you to spend your energy researching wines and the regions they are from, including the history, the culture, and the cuisine. In the end, your enjoyment is the only validation necessary. To me there is a lot of value in reading about a particular wine and its backstory, then seeking out that bottle of wine to give it a try.

"Swirl of the Season" will always have a spotlight on a local producer and a couple of wines that they produce. By local I am referring to the Sierra Foothills, Lodi, and the Delta Area. In this issue we tracked down Rich Gilpin from Lavender Ridge Vineyards. In addition, this column will always feature several other wines from virtually anywhere in the world that are linked by some sort of commonality, such as regional, varietal, etc. In this inaugural column we take a cue from the movie Sideways and explore the Santa Rita Hills appellation of Santa Barbara County and some amazing Pinot Noirs.

Lavender Ridge Vineyards

The first wine of Lavender Ridge that I tried was their 2003 Sierra Foothills Grenache and suffice to say after the first sip I knew which local producer I wanted to feature in this inaugural issue. Lavender Ridge is a boutique ultrapremium producer of strictly Rhone varietals. My wife and I met up with Rich Gilpin at his tasting room in Murphy's the second week of March in the midst of abnormally gorgeous weather, 80 degrees. Immediately we got right into tasting the whites while Rich began to tell us how he and his wife, Siri, ended up starting their own winery in Calaveras County.

Rich's parents own Windwalker Winery in El Dorado County. Until a couple years ago Rich was the wine maker for 10 vintages of Windwalker wines. Prior to that, Rich had held a wine making position with a boutique winery in the Chalk Hill appellation of Sonoma. He is a graduate of the enology program at UC Davis. While making wines for his father he began to ease into the production of his own wines a barrel at a time, using several different facilities that he was consulting for on the side. Three years ago he planted seven acres of Rhone varietals on a site he bought in Copperopolis. It was a little over a year ago that he decided to get serious with this project and moved his family to Valley Springs.

He is currently sharing a facility with his good friend Matt Hatcher of Hatcher Wines in Fair Play. However, plans have been drawn up for a facility at the vineyard site and within two to three years he plans on being entirely estate grown. The estate vineyard is certified organic, which Rich notes "will make buying other grapes difficult in the future, because we will want to show off the fact that we are organic." The land they purchased had sat idle for 150 years and since day one the Gilpens did not put a chemical on it. This streamlined the organic certification process considerably.

In 2001 Lavender Ridge produced a small amount of Syrah only. In 2002 he crushed Syrah, Viognier, Rousanne, Mourvedre, and Grenache. He has continued to focus on these varietals since. All of the wines produced use native yeast and are unfiltered. Rich's feeling on style is to "steer away from over-the-top wines, opting for fruit-forward wines that show off their varietal characteristics." Each vintage Rich tries to do a special bottling of some "other" Rhone grape, such as his 2003 Carignane.

The first wine we tasted was the 2003 Viognier ($18), which is a blend of young vine fruit from Amador and El Dorado counties. It is 100% barrel fermented (20% new oak) and aged on the lees giving it a very creamy quality without being cloying. It is a pale straw color with gorgeous aromas of apricots, pear, and brioche. In the mouth there is great acidity and a distinct minerality that supports the intense fruit flavors.

The 2003 Rousanne ($22) is young vine fruit from a vineyard in Amador County. Rich is striving to make Rousanne that "is not over-ripe and Viognier-like … more French in style." The wine is straw-colored showing complex aromas of toasty oak, almonds, white stone fruits, and honeysuckle. It has a very viscous mouthfeel that blends well with the vanillin oak undertones.

Rich's 2004 Grenache Rose ($14) should be the model for those attempting to make dry rose. It is a light cherry color and bursts with vibrant aromas of fresh-cut strawberries. It is bone dry with incredible intensity of berry flavors from start to finish. With Spring upon us, seek this wine out!

The 2003 Grenache ($24) comes from a vineyard on Apple Hill in El Dorado County. The '03 is the second harvest from this vineyard. It is 100% Beucastel Clone and shows the elegant side of Grenache. It is a garnet red color with bright aromas of strawberries, cocoa, and spice. It has incredible texture with loads of jammy fruit flavors and hints of white pepper lingering in the finish.

The only wine to come from "old vines" is the 2003 Carignane ($24). The vineyard is off of Jackson Ridge and is 87 years old. This was, as Rich put it, "a one-time deal" and I was glad to be around for it! The Carignane is deep red color with aromas of tart cherries, raspberries, and tobacco. As with all of Rich's wines the mouthfeel is very complete with lots of upfront briary fruit and, in my notes, simply an "amazingly long finish."

The 2002 Syrah ($28) is the most structured of the reds, but is still impeccably well balanced. The Syrah was aged in 25% new French oak. It has an almost opaque purple hue and aromas of crème de cassis, vanilla stick, and fresh provincial herbs. In the mouth the wine boasts intense raspberry, kirsch, and spice flavors on a glycerol frame that leaves you reaching for more.

These wines are some of the best expressions of Rhone varietals in California I have tried. They are worth the time to seek out. You will end up going back for at least a case - trust me, I did! They are available at local wine shops such as Taylor's Market, Il Forno Classico, Corti Brothers, Carpe Vino in Auburn, and Dolce Vino in Cameron Park.

You can visit the winery website at lavenderridgevineyard.com and order directly. The tasting room in Murphy's is open Saturday and Sunday.

Santa Rita Hills

Back to Miles and his journey through Santa Barbara wine country and life. In the movie their first stop is at Sanford Winery, in the heart of Santa Rita Hills. Santa Rita Hills is the newest appellation in the Santa Barbara region. In the mid 1980s, grape growers and wine makers alike started to notice this valley for its unique microclimate and growing season. What they realized was that this area produced distinctly different wines than that of neighboring Santa Ynez and the Santa Maria valleys. Santa Rita Hills lies in the Santa Ynez River valley beginning west of the town of Buellton (on Highway 101) heading toward the coast and the town of Lompoc. It is just in the past 10 years that local wine makers have taken cause with giving this area distinction with its own AVA (Appellation Viticultural Area). Wine makers such as Brian Babcock, Rick Longoria, and Greg Brewer lobbied heavily for the approval of the AVA . . .

Today there are more and more vineyard projects popping up within Santa Rita Hills. Famous wine makers from all over the state are going to great lengths to secure vineyard contracts within the area. Why? The microclimate is incredibly different. Fog settles in from the coast through Lompoc on into the greater Santa Ynez Valley. As it burns off inland near Santa Ynez proper, it stays socked in much longer in Santa Rita. The daytime high in the central Santa Rita Hills can be as much as 25 degrees cooler than in the town of Santa Ynez, just 15 miles inland. This maritime influence creates incredible "hang time" for the grapes and a long ripening season. Syrah grapes from certain vineyards in 2003 were not physiologically ripe and picked until November.

What grows best? It is the general consensus that the three best varietals are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah. The wines here have a common thread: concentrated colors, amazing depth of flavors, great acidity, and a firm tannic structure in the reds. The Pinot Noir grown here is gaining incredible recognition. As mentioned above, many wine makers across the state are seeking it out. Thus the best vineyard sites yield some of the most expensive fruit in the state. Pinot Noir here is usually a very dark saturated purple color, some say Syrah-like. On the nose and the palate it usually has intense dark fruits, shying away from the higher tone fruits and herbal quality typically inherent to Pinot Noir. Consumers are definitely tagging room in their cellars for these wines as many of them are small production and are selling out upon release. As in all great appellations, there is a certain unexplainable quality that is inherent and quite provocative.

Here are seven Pinots from Santa Rita Hills that are worth seeking out:

Melville Estate 2003, $26
Foley "Rancho Santa Rosa" 2002, $30
Loring Wine Co. "Clos Pepe Vineyard" 2002, $60
Longoria "Fe Ciaga Vineyard" 2002, $40
Lafond "SRH" 2003, $18
The Ojai Vineyard "Clos Pepe Vineyard" 2002, $56
Sea Smoke Cellars "The Botella" 2002, $25

They will take some searching to find. I suggest going to your favorite wine retailer to see if they have the wine and, if not, asking them to order it for you. For more specific questions and tips on wine buying, I can be reached at daren@ediblesacramento.com.

CHEERS!