1. In case you missed it, there's a very nice piece on Rancho Gordo in the month's Culinaria Mexicana. They have no archives so you need to see this before the end of the month. I've loved this site from the their inception so it's particularly sweet for me to be included. (Photo by Ruth Alegria. In the Culinaria Mexicana studios.) 2. The great Emeril LaGasse was here in the Napa valley filming his Emeril Green show. The air date for this Planet Green channel show has been confirmed as November 2nd.

Based purely on my unnerving good looks and animal magnetism, I have been selected as one of Bon Appetit magazine's "Hot 10". My attractiveness, which has been a burden, is now to be rewarded. I AM HOT. All those hours of practicing and learning to "smile with my eyes" have been worth it. Oh wait. It's about the beans. In the October issue, you'll read that Rancho Gordo is being honored, along with Daniel Boulud, Jeremy Fox and others at a swank party in New York. I can't wait!From Bon Appetit: "Steve Sando has made the simple bean a big...

I just taped a segment for Emeril LaGasse's show, Emeril Green. I had no idea what to expect. His staff had thought of everything in preparation and everything went off without a hitch. I'm not a TV veteran so it was all pretty new to me. Emeril is intense and casual at the same time but he made sure I was comfortable and was a generous host. At one point the crew was involved with some technical things and Emeril turned around and gave me a wink, as if to let me know he knew I was still there. It's...

A segment I taped with Bruce for ABC's KGO-TV is being aired today. Locally, the show starts at 3:00 pm. If you're inspired, you can watch it live here. I have no idea what you'll see but my memory was of a really fun day and I remember enjoying Bruce's intelligent questions about beans. I think this was just after Thanksgiving and I made a mock cassoulet. I think. Update: The link is here.

The following passage was in the Washington Post article about Rancho Gordo: Heirloom beans' biggest selling point is their flavor. "I work a lot with U.C. Davis," a leading agricultural science university in Northern California, Sando says. "They have this big bean day where they talk about uniformity, disease resistance, size and yield. And you ask about what they taste like -- how it affected the flavor -- and they say they haven't cooked them. After four years of a bean trial, they've never cooked one pot. "That's what's wrong with American food, in a way. They see it as...

It's too funny. I feel like Patty Duke in Valley of the Dolls. Well, not really but my life is taking a glamorous turn! Saturday:KPIX Morning NewsI'll be on at about 9:20 am for a segment on the book and beansWest Coast LiveBroadcasting live from the ferry building. Come on down and give me a hard time. I'll be on at 10:48 am if you're listening from home. Here's a list of affiliates to see if you can listen live from home. Book Signing and DemoCUESAFerry Plaza Farmers MarketI'll be whipping up some Christmas Limas with mushrooms and queso fresco,...

One of the nicest write-ups I've seen on what we do is in today's food section of the Washington Post. Check it out when you have a minute.

From an article in the New York Times:“I don’t know if it’s going to be the youthful, happening Woodstock they want it to be, but it certainly has the potential,” said Corby Kummer, a food columnist, book author and Slow Food board member. “It will be a failure if it is only well-dressed people over 35 from the Bay Area treating it as if it’s another Ferry Plaza Farmers Market” — a reference to the place where well-fed San Franciscans and celebrity farmers chat over perfect peaches and soft, ripe cheese.

If you happened to wonder why Baby Mama is the number one movie in the country right now, I think I can frankly say it's because the film features Rancho Gordo beans. There's an outside scene with Steve Martin arguing with Tina Fey and you can clearly see our super-photogenic packages of beans! Hollywood is fickle but there's also a chance the beans will be in future films about underground street fighting and food blogging. Really! Call Harry Winston! I wonder if this year they'll have to create a special category for us at the Academy Awards. I wonder if...

It's a small but very nice entry about our beans in current issue of New York magazine. Link.

The first time I was in Mexico City, I wasn't in love with the food I found in restaurants. To be fair, I had just come from Oaxaca where I don't think I put anything less than stellar in my mouth. The best thing I ate in Mexico City was some kind of fried masa treat with cheese and chiles that I had right on the street outside of a Metro station. I still dream about it. But there were lots of uninspired meals and I realize now it was mostly because I didn't know where to go. I wish...

We thought our recent media lovefest was over. Well, it turns out the icing on the cake is a nice feature on Spicy Heirloom Bean Chili in Domino magazine that features five of our best heritage varieties. To make things easier for our new friends from Domino, we made a sampler of all the beans needed for the recipe. Click here to see the 5 bean sample. Click here to see the recipe from Domino magazine. Stock Update: Some very good news fans of the Marrow beans: they're back! We've just finished cleaning a new batch and found more than...