Gourmet Ghetto Food Tour: The best sixty bucks you'll spend this year

May 1, 10:18 AMNorthern California Getaways ExaminerMichele Bigley

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OK, I’ll admit it. I am a food snob.

I turn my nose up at the fixings in most non-Bay Area kitchens--can you believe people still eat American Cheese???--and a bad dinner can affect my whole weekend. So when I signed up for Lisa Rogovin's In the Kitchen With Lisa's Gourmet Ghetto food tour, I intended on being impressed, just not that impressed.

After having lived in the East Bay (and making special trips over the bridge for Chez Panisse, Cheeseboard, and Cha-Ya), I thought I could lead a tour about how the Gourmet Ghetto had earned its moniker. But my Epicurean Concierge, showed me more about the birth place of the food revolution than I could have imagined.

I was told to meet in front of the Cheeseboard rain or shine and I would not let the current downpour hinder my arrival. One of the co-op owners of Cheeseboard brought us back to the kitchen to taste French and Wisconsin cheeses as she explained the inner-workings of this Berkeley temple of cheese. Besides offering stellar cheeses (of which she said the one rule they have at Cheeseboard for the workers is that they have to taste the cheeses: poor them!), the rich smell of fresh bread made me want to hang out there all day.

But we had other stops to go--a lot, Andrea (our Epicurean Concierge) told us. We headed over to Saul's deli, now run by a Chez Panisse alum. Peter brought us Niman Ranch pastrami on organic Acme bread with fresh made celery soda. He explained that he caters to his Berkeley population, offering organic tofu scrambles and ecologically-friendly pastrami. Move over New York delis, this here is the real deal.

Around the corner, we popped into Berkeley Vintage wine shop to taste organic small batch wines in the vintage water and power plant building. Then we headed across the street to the Juice Bar Collective, where we tasted a delicious polenta, black bean and cheese plate, smothered in tangy salsa. I'll tell you, by this point I was saying I couldn't muster another bite of food. And Andrea just laughed as she guided us to the original Peet's Coffee. She knew I wouldn't be able to turn down a new Sumatra blend and a sugar free mocha, before heading to the cupcake store (Love at First Bite) around the corner.

2 Mini lemon cupcakes later, we traversed towards the Gourmet Ghetto's Epicurious Garden to meet the owner of Soop, who offered up a generous taste of his red lentil coconut soup (the perfect antidote for a rainy day). He exchanged recipes with others in the group before guiding us towards the decadent Chocolate Alegio in the back of the food court.

I will say this: I have never tasted such chocolate before. Not only is the owner's passion for the cocoa bean contagious, but the taste of these single origin Brazilian chocolates made everyone in the group giddy. Make sure to try the mustard and chocolate covered almonds. And as if we could handle more sweets, our next stop was Ciao Bella gelato for some rosemary olive oil, rose petal and Lebanese yogurt gelato.

I threw in the towel. Then Andrea said the magic word: Gregoire--Berkeley's gourmet takeout hole in the wall. We camped out on picnic tables and stuffed our faces with potato puffs, with views of the bay in the distance and the rain clouds making way for a bit of sun. Nothing made me forget the recession like an afternoon of food education, a dash of healthy gluttony and a passionate ode to food.

LIsa Rogovin's In the Kitchen With Lisa also leads guided food tours of San Francisco. You can tour the Ferry Building Marketplace, and get an exclusive behind-the-scenes taste of the Bay Area’s exciting food scene, plus learn about local producers from a local’s perspective. You’ll sample your way through chocolate, cheese, olive oil, and organically grown, seasonal fruit, vegetables and meat.

On Tuesday, May 19, Tuesday, June 2 and Tuesday, June 16 from 10AM - 2PM, Rogovin is also throwing in a streetcar ride to Bloomingdale’s San Francisco for an culinary demonstration and tasting. The cost of the San Francisco tour is $65 which includes a $25 Bloomingdale's gift card, an 11% savings certificate and a Bloomingdale's signature gift with purchase to be used that day.