The Wine and Cheese Place year of the bacon continues....with a bang. We are very excited about Bacon #8.
Bacon #8 - California
Hobbs Apple Wood Smoked Bacon...$12.99 / lb
Hobbs uses Berkshire Black Hair and Duroc Red Hair pigs for their bacon. All of their hogs are from Canada which they claim gives them much more flavor in the meat because of the colder temperature. They cure their bacon the old-fashioned way with just enough sugar and salt and they also smoke their bacon for 2 hours longer than most bacon producers to take out more moisture.
Thomas Keller arguably the best chef in the country and owner of the French Laundry, uses it at his restaurants and calls it the best bacon made in numerous articles that I have found. French Laundry is considered by many to be the best restaurant in the country (if not the world).
"Thomas Keller of the French Laundry in Napa Valley loves Hobbs’ bacon, smoked for 16 hours over applewood chips in California’s San Joaquin Valley. His favorite way to eat it: “In a BLT. It’s classic” -- Food and Wine Magazine
Here is how it appears on the French Laundry menu:
CORN-FRIED “TÊTE DE COCHON”
Hobbs’ Bacon, Hass Avocado, Petite Lettuces and Herbed Buttermilk
"Hobbs' Bacon Business Is Smokin' / Economist's hobby turns meats into millions
Twenty years ago, Hobbs Shore retired from a career as an economist and moved to the sleepy west Marin town of Marshall. But the tiny village proved to have even less of a pulse than Shore imagined, and two years into retirement, he was thoroughly bored.
At the urging of a commercial fisherman friend, Shore turned an old refrigerator into a smoker and began smoking salmon and the occasional ham or turkey for friends.
One Monday morning, a few days after he had made some smoked meats for a friend's dinner party, he got the call that brought retirement to an abrupt end.
"This is Bradley Ogden," said the caller, the chef-owner of the Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur. "Can I place an order?" Today, Hobbs Applewood Smoked Meat is a $4.5 million business with customers from California to Florida's Disney World. Thomas Keller of the French Laundry in Yountville calls Hobbs' bacon the best in the world. Ogden uses 50 pounds of his ham hocks a week at the Lark Creek Inn. Insalata's in San Anselmo, Bay Wolf and Caffe 817 in Oakland, and Bizou, Boulevard and Park Chow in San Francisco are among the restaurants that have made Hobbs' name almost as common on local menus as garlic. In an industry dominated by meat-processing giants, Shore's experience reflects, in part, how a small business can thrive by addressing Bay Area chefs' concerns about how their raw materials are produced.
"If we use prosciutto at all, his is the one we use," says Michael Wild of Bay Wolf. "It's the one that's actually made by a human being with some kind of care."
At Park Chow, where Hobbs' pepperoni tops the pizza, chef-owner Tony Gulisano is another enthusiast. "We can't touch the pepperoni pizza," Gulisano says. "It's really, really good. It's so clean when you eat it, it feels healthful. It feels like you've eaten food that's been taken care of. Let alone all the love that (Shore) puts into it. I believe you can taste that, too."
For a 78-year-old who says the best part of his business is hanging out with chefs, the approval of these demanding clients is a huge ego boost. When Keller, who reportedly has time for no one, stands around with him in the French Laundry kitchen debating whether to put truffle oil on Hobbs' bundnerfleisch, Shore is in heaven. When he recalls bringing liverwurst to Boulevard's Nancy Oakes and watching her and her staff eat it all on the spot, his elfin face lights up with delight."
By Janet Fletcher, Chronicle Staff Writer
Hobbs Apple Wood Smoked Bacon...$12.99 / lb
Hobbs uses Berkshire Black Hair and Duroc Red Hair pigs for their bacon. All of their hogs are from Canada which they claim gives them much more flavor in the meat because of the colder temperature. They cure their bacon the old-fashioned way with just enough sugar and salt and they also smoke their bacon for 2 hours longer than most bacon producers to take out more moisture.
Thomas Keller arguably the best chef in the country and owner of the French Laundry, uses it at his restaurants and calls it the best bacon made in numerous articles that I have found. French Laundry is considered by many to be the best restaurant in the country (if not the world).
"Thomas Keller of the French Laundry in Napa Valley loves Hobbs’ bacon, smoked for 16 hours over applewood chips in California’s San Joaquin Valley. His favorite way to eat it: “In a BLT. It’s classic” -- Food and Wine Magazine
Here is how it appears on the French Laundry menu:
CORN-FRIED “TÊTE DE COCHON”
Hobbs’ Bacon, Hass Avocado, Petite Lettuces and Herbed Buttermilk
"Hobbs' Bacon Business Is Smokin' / Economist's hobby turns meats into millions
Twenty years ago, Hobbs Shore retired from a career as an economist and moved to the sleepy west Marin town of Marshall. But the tiny village proved to have even less of a pulse than Shore imagined, and two years into retirement, he was thoroughly bored.
At the urging of a commercial fisherman friend, Shore turned an old refrigerator into a smoker and began smoking salmon and the occasional ham or turkey for friends.
One Monday morning, a few days after he had made some smoked meats for a friend's dinner party, he got the call that brought retirement to an abrupt end.
"This is Bradley Ogden," said the caller, the chef-owner of the Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur. "Can I place an order?" Today, Hobbs Applewood Smoked Meat is a $4.5 million business with customers from California to Florida's Disney World. Thomas Keller of the French Laundry in Yountville calls Hobbs' bacon the best in the world. Ogden uses 50 pounds of his ham hocks a week at the Lark Creek Inn. Insalata's in San Anselmo, Bay Wolf and Caffe 817 in Oakland, and Bizou, Boulevard and Park Chow in San Francisco are among the restaurants that have made Hobbs' name almost as common on local menus as garlic. In an industry dominated by meat-processing giants, Shore's experience reflects, in part, how a small business can thrive by addressing Bay Area chefs' concerns about how their raw materials are produced.
"If we use prosciutto at all, his is the one we use," says Michael Wild of Bay Wolf. "It's the one that's actually made by a human being with some kind of care."
At Park Chow, where Hobbs' pepperoni tops the pizza, chef-owner Tony Gulisano is another enthusiast. "We can't touch the pepperoni pizza," Gulisano says. "It's really, really good. It's so clean when you eat it, it feels healthful. It feels like you've eaten food that's been taken care of. Let alone all the love that (Shore) puts into it. I believe you can taste that, too."
For a 78-year-old who says the best part of his business is hanging out with chefs, the approval of these demanding clients is a huge ego boost. When Keller, who reportedly has time for no one, stands around with him in the French Laundry kitchen debating whether to put truffle oil on Hobbs' bundnerfleisch, Shore is in heaven. When he recalls bringing liverwurst to Boulevard's Nancy Oakes and watching her and her staff eat it all on the spot, his elfin face lights up with delight."
By Janet Fletcher, Chronicle Staff Writer
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