Garlic Festival cooking duo to hang up their aprons
The Gilroy Garlic Festival won’t be the same without SakaBozzo.
For the past quarter century, Sam Bozzo and Gene
Sakahara — the cooking “twins” known as SakaBozzo — have fired up the crowd at the Gilroy Garlic Festival with their cooking demonstrations. But the aromatic artisans are hanging up their aprons after their appearance Friday afternoon at this weekend’s 38th annual festival. The pair of retired Gilroy school administrators, who culled a degree of culinary fame with their cookbook, “Any Bozzo Can Cook,” will no doubt delight the festival crowd at noon Friday with, appropriately, a family cooking demo and special farewell.
If you wonder how the Gilroy Garlic Festival has managed to maintain its fun, family atmosphere despite tremendous growth over the years, it’s because of people like Sakahara and Bozzo. Let’s hope their example lingers on even longer than the aroma from their dishes does.
While it’s SakaBozzo’s last appearance, a few events will be making their debut at Christmas Hill Park this weekend.
On Friday, teams of first responders — police officers, firefighters and EMTs — will compete in the first “Champions for Charity” cooking contest, with the winning team earning $3,000 for the charity of its choice. On Sunday, the festival is hosting the first “Gil-
roy Garli-Que BBQ Challenge,” with a backyard barbecue ribs competition for amateurs on Sunday.
But when it comes to old favorites, you can also look forward to the Great Garlic Cook-Off, with amateur chefs from around the country competing on Saturday. On Sunday, four pro chefs — Fisher’s Delicatessen and Catering’s Michael Fisher; Andrea Froncillo of Bobo’s Restaurant in San Francisco; Yu Min Lin of The Sea by Alexander’s in Palo Alto; and hometown favorite Adam Sanchez of the Milias Restaurant in Gilroy — will face off Iron Chef style in the Garlic Showdown.
By the way, a fun way to get to and from the festival is via the revived Garlic Train. A Caltrain special will depart San Jose Diridon Station at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, with a return trip leaving Gilroy at 5 p.m. Riders will be bussed from the Gilroy Caltrain station to the festival. Garlic Train tickets, which include admission, are available only through the Garlic Festival website, http://gilroygarlicfestival. com. That’s also where you can get advance festival tickets and check out the whole schedule.
ALL-STAR KICKOFF: Hiphop star Flo Rida and Latin rockers Belanova turned up the downtown vibe in a big way for the MLS All-Star Game with a free concert at Plaza de Cesar Chavez. There were only about 2,500 people were in the park, and I’d guess that having to register in advance for the concert kept the numbers low, but it was a wildly energetic crowd.
And downtown San Jose really has embraced the MLS All-Star Game. Besides the fan zone at Plaza de Cesar Chavez, both the Fairmont and Hilton hotels are decked out with MLS banners and other decorations, and San Pedro Square Market’s been transformed into MLS Digital HQ.
This is the kind of saturation it seems that people expected for the Super Bowl. It just took a different brand of football to make it a reality.
BRITISH INVASION: It’s a surprise San Jose hasn’t raised the Union Jack at City Hall given all the British visitors here this week.
Arsenal FC arrived for Thursday’s MLS All-Star Game and were welcomed by Mayor Sam Liccardo and the MLS All-Star players at a kickoff reception Monday night at the Silicon Valley Capital Club. Several of them, plus Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis and MLS Commissioner Don Garber, headed down to Plaza de Cesar Chavez to catch the Flo Rida show afterward.
Liverpool FC players, here for their match against AC Milan on Saturday at Levi’s Stadium, have been making appearances around the South Bay this week, including a Special Olympics soccer clinic at Bellarmine College Prep.
And, of course, Adele — Britain’s biggest musical export — will be in town to perform at SAP Center on Saturday and Sunday. The singer does hail from North London, but she’s a well-known supporter of Tottenham, not Arsenal.