Chef Charlie's new restaurant

Charlie, former head chef at Google, is opening a restaurant at Town and Country Village in Palo Alto. It's called Calafia.

I managed to elicit an invite to his Friends and Family pre-opening tasting event this past Sunday. This was very exciting for me.

My reservation was at 9pm, and by 5:30pm I was ravenous. I cooked some pasta with meat sauce to tide myself over.


My handiwork, in progress.


Tom gave me advice on cooking this meal.

I asked him, "Which do you think will taste better, this pasta or dinner at Charlie's restaurant?"

This was supposed to be a joke, because Charlie is a famous chef with a cookbook of his own recipes, whereas I can't even get my own mother to acknowledge that I can cook.

But Tom thought carefully, trying to come up with an answer that wouldn't hurt my feelings. Finally he said, "If this meal is better, that would mean we can open our own restaurant. So I think the other one will taste better."

Finally the ordained hour arrived, and I drove to Calafia.


The interior space just inside the door.


Bar area. The font on the wall boards (over-exposed in this photo) reminds me of Google cafe fonts, for some reason.


Lovely open space for the kitchen.


I had the fiery bbq pork rice bowl (with brown rice, yay!). It was great.


Happy.

It was better than my pasta, I can tell you.