.Food

From novice, clumsy kitchen explorers, to kids hungering to use their own hands to make oodles of noodles or pizzas from around the world, to master chefs shoring up established skills or learning new techniques, anyone can...

Having only been open a couple of weeks, Pizzeria da Laura is already making a ton of dough. Alongside the Grandma, Meyer is making a classic New York thin crust, Sicilian squares and a Detroit deep dish. It sounds like a TV slogan from the 1980s, but there’s really something for everyone.

The warming flames that emanated out of the stone hearth downstairs inspire a pub-like coziness. Risotto, pizza and gnocchi are on the menu, along with the feeling that intimate conversations, epiphanies and revelations are taking place at every table.

At the start of a weeknight meal service, a young, curly-haired commis, or assistant chef, asked his boss if he was plating an oyster dish correctly. Chef James Syhabout studied the plate for a nanosecond before directing the commis to rearrange the layers. Unlike a reality TV kitchen, the Michelin-starred chef of Commis didn’t shout at or berate his employee. Syhabout answered the question simply, neutrally, without an emotional flourish. The commis nodded, replied with an affirmative acknowledgment and returned to his station for a second attempt.

The Rendez-Vous is a new Frenchified boîte on the other side of Temescal.

“A party without cake is just a meeting,” Julia Child purportedly said, and we’d have to agree. Allow us to present the following specialty bakeries in the East Bay for your next big gathering or special day.

The kids in Stranger Things wouldn’t feel out of place if they traveled forward in time to eat at Delirama. Advancing beyond retro chic into a warm embrace of kitsch, the interior doesn’t look like it has been touched since 1979. For a brand new restaurant, this seems like an extraordinary approach. On one hand, Delirama looks like it has been in business for decades, which provides a sense of easy informality and homey déjà vu. You think to yourself, “Have I already eaten here, or just other places exactly like this?”