Lunch, Chez Panisse

Berkeley, September 18, 2009—

BACK IN BERKELEY today for a morning meeting and then lunch. I began (the lunch, not the meeting) with tomatoes with savory and aïoli, a simple but delicious plate nicely suiting an uncomfortably hot day, and went on to

Coho salmon baked in a fig leaf with green beans, eggplant, and anise hyssop, with a teeny bit of pickled sweet red onion to heighten the dish. Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), also known as licorice mint, green leaves on the side as garnish and, like the onion, pointing up the delicate salmon. A beautiful combination of flavors.

Greco di tufo, Cantina del Taburno, 2008