Here’s what it’s like to work as a chef on Valentine’s Day

Macarena is offering mil hojas as a Valentine’s Day special, featuring layers of Greek yogurt mousse and white chocolate, raspberry cream, bergamot sablé breton and a crown of cotton candy. Courtesy Macarena.

Back in November, I sat down with Hikmat Babayev at his new restaurant NAR in Mountain View, and he said something that intrigued me: “When the people have (a) holiday, you work. My birthday is Feb. 14. I never ever celebrated my birthday (at) that time because it’s Valentine’s Day and (it’s) always busy.” 

It got me thinking: When the rest of the world is celebrating, what is it like for a chef to be working, especially on the busiest night of the year? How do chefs celebrate Valentine’s Day?

And why do so many restaurants offer prix-fixe menus? Turns out there’s a practical reason I hadn’t even considered as a guest. And the methodology that goes into curating a romantic evening is fascinating. More on that in this week’s feature.

Stay tasty,
Adrienne

Peninsula chefs dish on working Valentine’s Day, the busiest night of the year

For many people, Valentine’s Day is a relaxing evening of being wined and dined and sharing a kiss or two. But for those working in the hospitality industry, it’s the most hectic night of the year.

Fine-dining chef opens Palo Alto cafe, hard-to-find moles are coming to Burlingame and a grand opening with camels

Mole rosa, or pink mole, originates from from Guerrero and is made with white chocolate, nuts, beets and yellow chiles. Amado in Burlingame will offer seven moles from different regions. Courtesy Amado.
  • Rikyu, a cafe concept from the team behind high-end omakase restaurant Hiroshi, is opening soon in downtown Palo Alto.
  • Amado, an ambitious project from prominent Bay Area chef Gloria Dominguez, is opening soon in Burlingame.
  • The Millbrae Lunar New Year Festival is Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Hello! Rice, a casual Taiwanese eatery, recently opened in the former Chick & Tea in Sunnyvale.
  • Ma’alot Farms in Los Gatos is hosting a truffle making class Thursday from 7-9 p.m. 
  • Garam Mirchi, a Rajasthani and Indo-Chinese restaurant, recently opened in Santa Clara.
  • The IFES Society is hosting a crab cioppino dinner in Mountain View Feb. 21 from 5-8 p.m.
  • The Good Life Sandwich recently opened in San Carlos.
  • The People’s Matcha is holding a pop-up at Nighthawk in Redwood City on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • Chinese noodle restaurant Blissful Noodle recently opened in Burlingame.
  • Arwa Yemeni Coffee in Sunnyvale is hosting its grand opening Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with live camels and hawks, face painting and henna.

Salt bread at Milldang

From top clockwise, mentaiko salt bread, onion cream salt bread and original salt bread at Milldang in Santa Clara ($3.75-$4.50). Photo by Adrienne Mitchel.

If a buttery dinner roll and a croissant had a baby, it would probably be salt bread, also known as shio pan.

Invented in Japan about a decade ago and recently popularized in Korea, salt bread is going viral globally. Recipes call for quite a bit of butter to get its soft, airy interior and crispy exterior, and many variations are now stuffed with cream cheese mixtures and other fillings.

When I was in Los Angeles in June, nearly every cafe I visited offered shio pan in some form, and I knew that it was only a matter of time before the crispy, buttery bread would make its way to the Bay Area.

On Thursday, I walked into a new Santa Clara bakery called Milldang at 1:30 p.m. and was disappointed, but not surprised, to see that they were sold out of salt bread. Luckily, they were dropping a fresh batch at 2 p.m., so I waited in my car (all the seats in the bakery were full) and emerged at 1:55 p.m.

Surely there would be plenty of salt bread to go around in the middle of the work day, right? Wrong.

There was already a line out the door in anticipation of the 2 p.m. drop, with signs letting customers know there was a limit to how much one person could buy at a time. At 2:20 p.m., I finally was able to purchase one of each of the three salt bread flavors for $13.

I started with the plain salt bread ($3.75). While generally tasty, I felt the texture was a bit tougher, more like a bagel, than other renditions of salt bread I’ve had. It also wasn’t quite as crispy or buttery. That being said, if you’ve never had salt bread before, I think you’d still enjoy it; it just wasn’t in the upper echelon of salt bread.

The onion cream salt bread was my favorite out of the batch, as the cream filling added moisture and flavor, but it still had the same texture as the original salt bread ($4.50). The mentaiko salt bread was my least favorite, as the pollock roe added too much moisture to the bread and made it just a tad soggy ($4.75).

I expect the salt bread craze to continue growing in Silicon Valley, with more bakeries and coffee shops introducing the item. But is it worth waiting 25 minutes for three pieces of bread? Not really.

To watch my review, follow @peninsulafoodist on Instagram.

Milldang, 1488 Halford Ave., Santa Clara; 408-246-2434, Instagram: @milldangbakery. Open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

From Nini’s Coffee Shop to Kiki’s: A new take on a neighborhood institution arrives in San Mateo
Kiki’s Coffee Shop will offer breakfast, lunch and baked goods by Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef-owner siblings Jacob and Sarah Marotta

FROM THE FOODIST

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Adrienne Mitchel is the Food Editor at Embarcadero Media. As the Peninsula Foodist, she's always on the hunt for the next food story (and the next bite to eat!). Adrienne received a BFA in Broadcast...