Friday, April 30, 2004


coffee of the barista queen

and by now most coffee lovers know that seattle barista bronwen serna took the u.s. championship at the recent scaa conference in atlanta. she won it with her incredible talent and the espresso at her workplace, hines public market coffee.

i was so honored yesterday to have a quick lunch at the french culinary institute with john hornall of the hines. he was kind enough to give me a pound of the same batch of coffee that bronwen won with at the show.

naturally, this stuff was too interesting to keep to myself.

so i sent john off to meet don schoenholt of gillies today and give him a pound to try; i ended up dropping a half-pound of my own with oren over lunch today before running back to my desk.

(hilarity is me hopping out of a cab at the corner of prince & the bowery to meet oren, who's lurking there beneath the scaffolding. he zips open his mysterious black briefcase; pulls out a brown paper coffee bag; i dump some of my coffee, from its own brown paper bag, into his; he takes a sniff; i leap back into the cab; he disappears among the restaurant supply shops with the speed of a greyhound. . .)

what many people don't realize about john h. of the hines is that he's been a barista forever; he started with mauro cipolla of caffe d'arte. the hines hasn't been open very long; i think barely 2 years, in the funky eastlake district of seattle.

and already their barista and their coffee's taken the top spot in the u.s.a. that's pretty amazing when you think about it.

what's great about john is his undiluted passion, his grunge energy, his quirky originality, his wiry cheerfulness. as we sat before a plate of incredible freshly poached rouget in court bouillon, he said with a huge grin thru his seattle-style goatee, "i love food! food is all good."

whenever you meet anyone so devoted to moving the cuisine of espresso forward, you have to share the smiles. all coffee lovers would enjoy how much john h. really cares about great, fresh coffee. . . .

the poached fish was simple, fresh, seasonal. (and by the way, he choose a pinot from the northwest to match.)

the dessert was honey mousse with candied rhubarb -- another homey, simple, seasonal dish. light, delicate, garnished with pignons, not the least pretentious.

as john said, all good! it ws a rare time when an intense chocolate cake would have been out of place.

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