Chef mom

<p>Not many kids can boast that their mom beat out superstar chef Mario Batali on the Food Network's "Iron Chef" challenge.</p><p>But Traci Des Jardins -- chef/owner of Jardiniere in San Francisco and Mijita taqueria in the Ferry Plaza Building -- is not your average, garden-variety mother.</p><p>Des Jardins bested Batali -- chef/owner of New York's Babbo and seven other restaurants -- with an array of shrimp dishes that showcased her disciplined French technique and flair for ethnic flavors.</p><p>After the battle, Batali gave Des Jardins a bear hug so strong, he lifted her completely off the floor. But the diminutive Des Jardins got the last word when the judges frowned on his dessert and crowned her the new Iron Chef.</p><p>That was three years ago, the same year Des Jardins moved part-time to Sebastopol to help care for her son, Eli, now a second-grader at the Summerfield Waldorf School in Santa Rosa.</p><p>Boasting deep dimples and a head of soft brown curls, Des Jardins has taken to motherhood with the same quiet confidence and serenity that she's brought to the kitchens of her award-winning restaurants.</p><p>Cyrus chef/co-owner Douglas Keane, who worked for Des Jardins as chef de cuisine and executive chef of Jardiniere, said his mentor has always been a natural mom.</p><p>"She was confident enough in her abilities to give me exposure, and pushed me to the next step," he said. "She'd sit there and listen to all your problems... She's got great heart."</p><p>Now at the pinnacle of her career, the 42-year-old Des Jardins enjoys introducing her young son to the delicious world of fresh California flavor.</p><p>"I ask him to do chores with me in the kitchen," she said. "He picks herbs for a salad or shucks peas."</p><p>Although she rarely cooks at her restaurants anymore -- after 25 years in the business, she manages the managers -- Des Jardins spends more than a third of her time volunteering for charitable events. And on those special occasions, she often picks up a saute pan again.</p><p>This Saturday, she'll be dishing up some of her signature cuisine at Farm to Feast, a fund-raiser for the Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm in Santa Rosa. The dinner at Healdsburg's Medlock-Ames winery offers a rare opportunity to catch the celebrated chef, who was named Best Chef in the Pacific Region by the James Beard Foundation in 2007, cooking in Sonoma County.</p><p>"At last year's benefit, I organized the chefs," she said. "This year I'm just coming to cook."</p><p>When not overseeing her two restaurants and managing the Acme Chophouse, a steakhouse at AT&amp;T Park serving all grass-fed beef, Des Jardins spends two days a week in Sebastopol, where she dedicates all her attention to Eli, who just turned 8.</p><p>During the rest of the week, Eli lives in Santa Rosa with his birth mother, Des Jardins' former partner. Des Jardins legally adopted the boy and the two moms share custody.</p><p>Having helped raise Eli from infancy, Des Jardins has picked up some first-hand knowledge on the art of nurturing a child.</p><p>"When you see a child being born, you realize that they have a distinct personality, and you need to nurture their strengths," she said. "So you try to get them to be well balanced and encourage their proclivities."</p><p>Des Jardins likes the teaching philosophy at the Summerfield Waldorf School, where creativity and individuality are stressed. The school also uses its extensive garden as a teaching tool.</p><p>"The children get an opportunity to work in the gardens every week," Des Jardins said. "They grow wheat and make it into flour and make bread in the bread oven. . . . It's amazing. When kids see where food comes from, and plant a garden, they are more apt to eat a radish, a fava bean or a pear," she said. "They have a greater connection to it."</p><p>Des Jardins grew up in Firebaugh, a small farming town west of Fresno, in a multicultural family with deep roots in the earth. Her father farmed sugar beets, cotton and rice. Dinners were not fancy -- salad, grilled meat, rice and a vegetable -- but always fresh.</p><p>"My father didn't like casseroles or processed food," she said. "We had no fast food in our town."</p><p>Her paternal grandmother was Scandinavian and an avid baker. Her paternal grandfather was a French-Acadian from Louisiana.</p><p>"My grandfather was very attracted to seafood, having come from the bayou," she said. "He would go to the coast and buy crabs and shrimp and fill his suitcase, then drive back the same day."</p><p>Her maternal grandparents -- Angela and Miguel Salazar -- hailed from the Mexican state of Sonora. By the time she was 5, Des Jardins was helping Angela roll out flour tortillas with a sawed-off broomstick.</p><p>Des Jardins has built her culinary reputation on using locally sourced, seasonal and organic ingredients whenever possible. Her dedication to fresh food sprang naturally from her family's penchant for hunting and farming.</p><p>At 16, Des Jardins went to UC Santa Cruz to pursue her dream of becoming a veterinarian. But she quickly decided her true love was cooking.</p><p>Before opening Jardiniere, she trained and worked in some of the finest kitchens in the U.S. and France, including Troisgros and L'Arpege in France, Montrachet in Manhattan and Patina in Los Angeles.</p><p>In San Francisco, she helped open Aqua and became the executive chef of Rubicon, where she honed her signature Cal-French cooking style.</p><p>In 1997, she opened the lovely Jardiniere with partner and restaurant designer Pat Kuleto. Located a block from the War Memorial Opera House, it is popular among patrons heading to or from a performance.</p><p>In 2002, she became a managing partner at the Acme Chophouse, then opened Mijita, an organic taqueria featuring the simple Mexican food of her childhood.</p><p>"Each restaurant reflects a different part of my life," she said. "Jardiniere -- my extensive culinary training in French cuisine. Mijita -- my ethnic background and exposure to those foods in my childhood. And Acme -- how I would cook at home."</p><p>When she does cook at home -- either in Sebastopol or her flat in Noe Valley -- Des Jardins sticks with simple, seasonal cooking.</p><p>Although she has yet to write a cookbook, Des Jardins writes a regular blog on</p><p>Epicurious.com that ranges from cooking tips to restaurant reviews and provocative essays on questions like, "If you had to kill what you eat, what would you eat?"</p><p>She doesn't have much time to watch TV, but she does miss the educational cooking shows.</p><p>"These new shows are about entertainment, and the programming is going away from cooking lessons," she said. "If I had a show . . . I'd want to do something more serious."</p><p>At Mijita, Des Jardins serves a small bean and cheese burrito for kids. At home, she often makes her son a bean burrito for dinner. Here are some of her family recipes for refried beans and flour tortillas. To build a burrito, put a dollop of beans plus a filling of your choice -- such as cheese and avocado -- on top of a tortilla. Fold and eat.</p><p>Grandma Salazar's Tortillas</p><p>Makes 12 tortillas</p><p>3 cups all-purpose flour</p><p>2 tablespoons baking powder</p><p>1 teaspoon salt</p><p>2 tablespoons bacon drippings, lard or vegetable shortening</p><p>In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add bacon drippings and mix by hand or with a pastry cutter until mixture is crumbly. Slowly mix in 1 cup cold water. Add just enough additional water (about a third of a cup) to make a smooth, slightly sticky dough.</p><p>Divide dough into 12 balls of equal size. Place on a board or baking sheet and cover with a kitchen towel; allow to rest for at least 20 minutes or up to an hour.</p><p>On a lightly floured surface, roll tortillas into 8-inch rounds. Place between sheets of waxed paper. At this point, dough may be covered and refrigerated until cooking time, or used immediately.</p><p>Heat a griddle over medium heat. Remove tortillas from waxed paper and cook one at a time until puffy and slightly brown, about 30 seconds a side. Wrap in a clean kitchen towel to keep warm until serving.</p><p>Des Jardins will be cooking braised short ribs this weekend for the Farm To Feast benefit for the Summerfield-Waldorf School and Farm. Ready-made veal stock is available from high-end grocery stores. The ribs must be marinated a day in advance.</p><p>Red Wine Braised Short Ribs with Creamy Polenta</p><p>Makes 6 servings</p><p>1 bunch leeks</p><p>1 white onion</p><p>3 carrots</p><p>½ bunch celery</p><p>6 beef short ribs</p><p>1 bay leaf</p><p>1 bulb of garlic, skin removed, cloves separated</p><p>1 bunch thyme</p><p>½ teaspoon black peppercorns</p><p>6 cups red wine</p><p>3 tablespoons butter, divided</p><p>Salt and pepper</p><p>Grapeseed oil</p><p>4 cups veal stock</p><p>6 cups prepared polenta</p><p>½ cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated</p><p>4 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley, divided</p><p>Set aside 1 leek, ¼ onion, 1 carrot and 1 stalk of celery. Cut the remaining vegetables into ½-inch pieces for a mirepoix. Place the short ribs into a deep baking dish and cover with the mirepoix vegetables, plus bay leaf, garlic, thyme and peppercorns. Cover with the red wine and place in the refrigerator for 24 to 28 hours.</p><p>Cut the reserved leek, onion, carrot and celery into ¥-inch cubes. Place 1 tablespoon of butter into a saute pan. Over medium heat, sweat the vegetables for 5 minutes, or until soft. Set aside.</p><p>Preheat the oven to 250-300 degrees. Remove the short ribs from the red wine and pat them dry with a paper towel. Pour the wine through a strainer and reserve the vegetables. Place the wine into a pan and reduce by half.</p><p>Season the short ribs generously with salt and pepper. Place a skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add the grapeseed oil and sear the short ribs on all sides, being careful not to burn the ribs.</p><p>Place the seared ribs into a roasting pan and cover with the vegetables reserved from the marinade. Then pour the reduced red wine on top of the ribs. Cover with the veal stock and place the roasting pan in the oven. Cook for 3 hours at no more than a simmer. Warning: If the ribs are allowed to boil, they will be tough, no matter how long they cook.</p><p>When ready to serve, cook the polenta according to the directions and stir in 2 tablespoons of butter, the Parmigiano-Reggiano and half of the parsley at the end. Remove the ribs from the cooking liquid and discard the vegetables. Place the cooking liquid into a pan and reduce slightly. Add the remaining parsley and the ¥-inch cut vegetables.</p><p>To plate, place a generous spoonful of the polenta in a bowl and put one rib on top. Cover with the vegetables and sauce mixture.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287</p><p>or diane.peterson@</p><p>pressdemocrat.com</p>