San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
In fall, the beauty of native salvias calls
Salvias are a popular plant to add to a fall garden and there are many hybrids to choose from at your local nursery. But did you know that there are a good number of attractive native sages to add to a sunny garden bed? Here are a few.
One of the best known native salvias is S. apiana ( white sage). Not only does it feature bold silvery foliage and white flowers but it is one of the most aromatic sages around. Some may know it as the plant for “smudge sticks,” used in rituals for cleansing a sacred space. It grows to a full 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide and is incredibly drought tolerant.
Salvia leucophylla ( purple sage) is perhaps the most widely used of all salvias, its dense sprays of fuzzy purple flowers immediately recognizable. They are often planted in places that have tough growing conditions and can be planted in multiples for use as a hedge. Two hybrids have come to be popular in their own right: Salvia ‘ Bee’s Bliss’ ( S. leucophylla x clevelandii) crosses purple sage with Cleveland sage, another California native, to produce this pale purpleflowering hybrid that, yes, attracts all manner of bees to your garden. Discovered by Roger Raiche of the UC Botanical Garden, it’s a lowgrowing sage ( to 10 inches tall by 8 feet wide) that is great as a high ground cover or on a neglected hillside.
Another leucophylla x clevelandii hybrid that is gaining attention is Pozo Blue. Introduced by Las Pilitas Nursery in Santa Margarita ( San Luis Obispo County), it was named for the stagecoach stop town of Pozo near the nursery. Staff have seen as many as 30 species of butterflies as well as many hummingbirds working the flowers. Quail love the seeds, too.
Salvia clevelandii earns its common name of musk sage because it is one of the most intensely fragrant of all salvias. Native to Southern California, it is one of the most drought tolerant and heat resistant of all the sages. I’ve even seen it prosper in abandoned lots. Forming a dense bush 3 feet tall and up to 5 feet wide, it features grayishgreen leaves and pale lavender flowers. One of the longest blooming sages, it can bloom from May through November in the Bay Area.
This species also has a wonderful selection named Winifred Gilman. Originating at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, it claims a deeper bluishpurple to its flowers. It, too, is heat and drought tolerant. Given the
more intense flower color, this true selection ( not hybrid) is often more commonly available than the straight species.
Powerfully fragrant Salvia mellifera abounds in California’s coastal chaparral regions, stretching from the East Bay down to Baja California. As the day heats up, resin is released from the stems and the wrinkled, grayishgreen leaves, exuding an herbal scent that many a hiker thinks of as the perfume of the chaparral.
Black sage forms a 3foot evergreen shrub, with white to pale blue flowers from March to July. It earns its common name from the postbloom stage, when stems and flowers harden and turn black.
One of the most unique salvias, Salvia spathacea is instantly identified by its huge felty leaves. Reaching a modest 12 to 18 inches in height, it spreads by underground rhizomes. Hummingbird sage is native to coastal California, from the Napa Valley south to Orange County. The vivid 1inch magenta flowers, 10 to 20 per spike, are especially attractive to hummingbirds.
Salvia sonomensis more than earns its common name, staying completely flat to the ground except for 6inch high whorls of violetblue flowers that adorn the grayishgreen foliage in May and June. It is native to dry slopes found in the coast ranges and Sierra Nevada foothills. It thrives in part shade such as afforded by nearby manzanitas or California lilac. Single plants may spread up to 10 feet wide.
Most of the sages mentioned here, with the exception of creeping sage, prefer warm, sunny locations and very good drainage. And with the exception of hummingbird sage, all are very drought tolerant, able to make do with very little summer water. They are all cold hardy, withstanding temperatures down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit or colder. The salvias here can be quite long lived, and with proper care will bring many years of pleasure.
Earl Nickel is an Oakland nurseryman and freelance writer. Email: food@ sfchronicle. com
Thomas Keller’s first cookbook in nearly a decade, “The French Laundry, Per Se,” has debuted and it comes at a time when diners are looking for more casual, diverse and affordable experiences. But in his new cookbook, Keller argues for fine dining’s lasting power as a genre — and explains why he thinks there will always be a market for luxury experiences at high price points.
While Keller’s defense, and celebration, of fine dining is scattered throughout the book, some of his strongest stances appear in the chapter titled “On Fine Dining: It’s all about precision.” It’s here that Keller laments reading the obituary of fine dining “many times” but adds that it will never die because it’s constantly being “pushed forward by new generations with new ideas,” like chefs implementing counter service or putting more casual dresscode policies in place.
The main talking point in the section is cost, which Keller says fuels criticism of the fine dining world — the French Laundry, for example, has offered an $ 850 special tasting menu during the pandemic that quickly sells out. Keller says the price people pay reflects the level of service and the rare nature of certain ingredients used at highend restaurants.
“Part of what defines us is the precision of the work,” he writes. “You can get a poached egg at Denny’s, or you can come here and get one of Brent Wolfe’s ( owner of Wolfe Ranch Quail in Vacaville) quail eggs, poached and served on its own spoon sauced with beurre monté and a pluche of chervil. They’re not the same thing and, of course, they have different values.”
In fact, the $ 75 tome overall is an ode to fine dining as a craft. It is brimming with the most popular recipes used at both of Keller’s Michelinstarred restaurants, the French Laundry in Yountville and Per Se in New York. In the book, Keller explains how the recipes aren’t simplified for home cooks, and compared to the famed, 1999 French Laundry cookbook, may even be more complicated. Keller added that the goal of the book is to give people a glimpse into “the actual ingredients, recipes and processes” used in the kitchens of both locations.
The cookbook has recipes for about 70 dishes from the restaurants, including smoked sturgeon rillettes on an everything bagel, made with pickled onions and a dollop of caviar, and a shrimp bisque with brioche croutons, tarragon and caviar. Alongside the intricate recipes, the cookbook dedicates space to the basics of French cooking, from how to properly create a beurre manié, a mixture used to thicken sauces and soups, to properly mixing a bechamel.
Keller isn’t the lone author of the cookbook’s essays and stories. A trio of coauthors — Corey Chow, chef de cuisine at Per Se; Elwyn Boyles, pastry chef for the French Laundry and Per Se; and David Breeden, chef de cuisine at the French Laundry — all shared stories related to their experiences working in the fine dining industry over the years.
But the significance of the cookbook comes back to Keller’s nonrecipe contributions. The pieces offer a rare glimpse into how Keller sees his career. In a chapter titled “Reeboks in the Kitchen: JeanLouis Palladin and the evolution of fine dining,” Keller breaks down fine dining into generations, with his being the most recent. He explains how French chef Palladin, who became one of America’s first modern celebrity chefs, helped his generation make food that felt more personal. Through this shift, chefs went from being just a part of the kitchen to the stars of the restaurant, as is the case at the French Laundry.
Fine dining “became a cuisine of interpretation, a cuisine of expressing personality,” he writes. “We were going to Charlie Trotter’s for Charlie’s food, and we were going to Norman’s for Norman Van Aken’s food.”
Recently, the concept of a single talented chef as an auteur being the draw for restaurants has been widely criticized, with accusations that it has fostered an environment where abuse is tolerated in kitchens. Keller, though, writes that he doesn’t see the focus on personalities changing in the future. ( His team did not immediately respond to questions on how the cult of personality plays into equity and inclusion; in 2017, he responded to criticisms by saying, “No matter what your circumstance, you need to find your own way out. In order to get ahead, you have to work hard. It’s pretty simple.”)
That’s not to say he doesn’t think there will be changes. Keller says restaurants are going to continue tweaking service formats, including using more counter service. He used César Ramirez’s Brooklyn Fare counterservice spot in New York and James Knappett’s similarlystyled Kitchen Table in London as examples.
“This is an important part of the evolution of fine dining: involving the diner. Bring the diner into the process of cooking — this is relatively new. It’s all very exciting,” he writes.
“The French Laundry, Per Se,” by Thomas Keller ( Workman Publishing; 394 pages; $ 75 hardback; $ 24.95 online edition).
Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@ sfchronicle. com. Twitter: @ JustMrPhillips