Save-the-date: April 10

Kristy R. prepares dessert for Extreme Eats Filming

Mark your calendars for April 10. You have a date with Canvas Underground to watch the premiere of  “Extreme Dining” on the Fine Living Network.

Please RSVP for this event ($20) at http://canvasextreme.eventbrite.com/

The tasting menu will feature grilled local asparagus with agrumato and shaved Bellwether Farm pepato cheese, County Line Farm chicory salad with crispy homemade pancetta, fava beans and aged balsamic and more.

Remembering Rule #1

Thank you…

and raise a glass! We were delighted that 42 adventurous diners joined us for dinner at Anna and Theo’s lovely home in West Oakland this past Sunday evening. Together, we raised more than $1,200 for Agrariana.

There were lots of paparazzi (thanks to Michael Bonocore and Brittany Piehl) in the room. Please check out the following links below to articles and photos taken that night and see if you can spot yourself or even your quote. Also, thanks to Allison Arevalo (@LocalLemons), an article about this event will appear in the Food and Wine section next Wednesday in the San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune and the Contra Costa Times.

Again, we couldn’t have thrown this dinner without all our diners as well as our volunteers; food producers, @EatSlowJams and @LindenStBrew; and musicians, The Sweet Trade and Vagabondage. We always need volunteers — not only in the kitchen, but also talent and venue hosts, so please don’t hesitate to contact us or send your friends our way.

Join us on Facebook if you haven’t already, or post photos you took at dinner to our Flickr group.

Pressed| OaklandLocal: Foodies dine in splendor in vacant Victorian

Blogged| Appeale: 03.01.10

Blogged| Bon Vivant: Underground Dining

Snap! | Michael Bonocore Photography

Secret Supper in W. Oakland a Success!

OaklandLocal - Photo and story by Emilie Raguso

Check out Emilie Raguso’s OaklandLocal.com story on last night’s dinner.

More photos and stories to come.

In the meantime, we’d love to thank all our hardworking volunteers from SAFE (Mat, Brenna, Danielle, Rachel) and the Canvas crew (Tamara, Yasmin, Heather, Marie, Juaquin, Rachel and Marcie), and the generous donation of black lager from Oakland’s homegrown Linden Street Brewery. The rousing pirate drinking songs of Vagabondage and beautiful tunes from Sweet Trade also rocked the house!

Secret Supper in West Oakland 2.28.10

SAFE Founder; Source: NY Times Magazine

Canvas Underground just wrapped up an exciting dinner filmed for the Fine Living Network last week — be sure to check out what you missed, including a Slow Jams tasting, sisters rocking out on ukeleles and a tableside carving of geoduck.

We’re pleased to announce our next dinner — to be held in an empty Victorian in West Oakland (spooky!) on Sunday, February 28, and the menu will feature the season’s best produce from local organic farms. There is limited seating for this dinner, so be sure to reserve your seat today by clicking here.

Our Canvas dinner will help benefit Agrariana, an organization that was founded on the mantra “To Rescue for Human Society the Native Values of Rural Life.” Agrariana has hosted events featuring many of the Bay Area’s most dynamic farmers and food artisans, as well as leaders in the sustainable food movement such as Michael Pollan, The Next Iron Chef contestant Nate Appleman, GRUB author Anne Lappe, and Slow Food Nation Director Anya Fernald. Past programs have featured working tours of local farms, a Food and Farming Film Series, Women in Sustainable Agriculture panels, and skills workshops for making sauerkraut, mead, and leather.

Your attendance will support Agrariana’s Spring 2010 programming including a series of authors’ readings and ‘grandmother’ workshops and a campaign to establish a permanent, annual Bay Area Food and Farming Film Festival.

1.31.10 Our “15 Minutes”

Just got home from tonight’s Canvas Underground dinner in San Francisco. Completely exhausted but ecstatic how it all wonderfully it went thanks to all the super awesome people that helped bring it together: the venue’s owners, the crew (Kristy, Dave, Juaquin, Sarah), Guitar Fred, the Alegre Sisters, Shakirah of Slow Jams, Kerri and her film crew and tv host, Tyler, and of course, the dinner guests! Turns out the show will air on the Fine Living Network on April 10, so we’ll definitely have a viewing party!

Here are some love notes from some of tonight’s guests and some videos from the night (more details to come):

Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity. Who knew all this would be so easy? Such a great group. – K & B (venue hosts, January 2010)

This was one of the very best dinners of my entire life. What an exciting night! - GLW

Thank you sooooo much. Chef Peter outdoes himself yet again! - DC

1.31.10 Canvas Underground Fine Living Network Filming

11.06.09 Soul Food Farm Benefit

Wow, what a fantastic night we had on Sunday! Remembering rule #1, we’d love to give thanks to Susa Hart again for opening up her lovely home, the musicians (Jonathan Alford, Hugo Wainzinger and Jard Davis) who donated their time to keep us entertained, and of course, all of you who stayed out late on a Sunday night to eat for good on behalf of Soul Food Farm.

Check out Dominique Channell’s write-up of the event at the Examiner.com (follow her @oakland_eats) and Brittany Piehl’s photos (follow her blog, Appeale). See the full set of photos at Britt’s Flickr page and video on my Flickr page. Keep in touch at our Facebook Fan page and we’ll see you soon at the next Canvas event.

12.13.09 Oliver Ranch Beef Tasting

On Sunday, December 13, Canvas + Oliver Ranch hosted an Artisanal Beef Tasting! We had lots of fun putting together this event and couldn’t have done it without Carrie and Stephen of Oliver Ranch, Tracy Smaciarz of Heritage Meats, Seth Nischke of Open Space Meats, Rebecca Alon of Slow Food Berkeley, and our volunteers in the kitchen, Kristy R., Dave “as seen on TV” Kim, Guitar Fred, Neil C. and Brittany P.

Click here for more photos of the event by Brittany Piehl. And here’s a recipe of the Meyer Lemon Sauce that was drizzled over the sweet potato agnolotti from Chef Peter Jackson:

Meyer Lemon Sauce
Juice and grated zest of 1 large Meyer lemon
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup water
1 lb butter
1 tablespoon lecithin powder
salt and pepper to taste

Combine the lemon juice, zest honey and water in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and reduce by half. Whisk in the lecithin powder, then the butter a little at a time. When all the butter is incorporated, remove from heat and whip until very frothy with a hand blender. Adjust to taste with honey, lemon, salt and pepper.

Have a great holiday and see you in the New Year!

1.31.10 Secret Supper Filming

Photo by Britt Piehl

January 31, we’re throwing a secret supper in San Francisco. Here’s the menu by Chef Peter Jackson. Delish!

• Soul Food Farm Egg Poached in Smoked Red Wine with Crispy Becker Lane Pork Belly, Happy Boy Farm Chicories, Grain Mustard Croutons
• Parsnip and Meyer Lemon Soup with Pickled Ginger, Herb Salad
  

  Canvas Underground - Meyer Lemon Soup - Photo by Britt Piehl

• Vanilla Butter Poached Black Cod with Oregon Black Truffle Satsuma and Watercress Salad, Celery Root Puree
• Banana Chocolate Napoleon with Bourbon Caramel Sauce, Crème Fraiche Marshmallow Cream

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the 31st, so here’s my reply to the FAQs:

1. What the heck is the name of the show? ANSWER: Unknown.  The crew just returned from filming another group in Miami this week — wonder what they were eating (cooter or alligator?).
2. I can’t wear stripes? Damn, that’s all I’ve got! ANSWER: You can wear stripes and patterns, just not teeny tiny polka dots, gingham, pinstripes — you get the idea. Wide stripes (like a rugby shirt) are okay. Again, stay away from solid white and red. In fact, I might even wear a red and white patterned outfit.