San Francisco chef and restauranteur Gary Danko and I had met many decades ago when I attended an artichoke trip on the 
west coast. Since then, I’ve watched his career explode as he opened his eponymous restaurant in San Francisco.
Gary’s won three James Beard Foundation awards, including Best Chef California, Best New Restaurant and Outstanding Service. If you haven’t been to Restaurant Gary Danko (800 North Point St, San Francisco, CA 94109), I suggest you add it your must try places to dine. Yes, it’s that good. The restaurant received his sixth Five Star rating from Mobil as well as a Relais & Chateau designation.
I recently caught up with Gary Danko as he was heading east on a Provincetown (MA) adventure to renovate his second home and asked him to respond to our Guest Foodie queries.
Which food product or gadget would you never give up? Tools: Joyce Chen Scissors, Microplane – with a sea of gadgets out there – these are actually tools that make your job easier. Joyce Chen scissors are great for garden work, flower arranging, cutting up 
lobster, chicken.
Microplane: grate Parmigiano into a fine strands allowing your tongue more surface exposure thus more flavor less calories. I like to use the Microplane to grate garlic instead of mincing with a knife.
Food products: NY or Vermont maple syrup, Greek yogurt: these are foods I grew up on and I still love them to this day.
What do you like to serve when you entertain? My favorite entertaining is brunch because it gives you a mixture of sweet and savory. I like to put everything on platters and let people serve themselves. Some classics are spiced buckwheat pancakes with caramelized apples, maple syrup, eggs poached in a tomato sauce with ham, smoked paprika and Manchego cheese, fluffy omelet with crab meat, bacon and avocado (I do not like color on my eggs – it changes the flavor and the texture). Duck and potato hash with poached eggs and duck skin crackling, blintzes with cream cheese and blueberries………..
Describe your “last meal?” For complete details of my last meal, read My Last Supper by Melanie Dunea. Her book describes my somewhat decadent meal with large format wine pairings. “Gary Danko would go for the gold” feasting on caviar, foie gras, and truffles. My last supper will be a celebration of cultures of the centuries.
It would be a multi-cou
rse rare and seemingly decadent feast, with food from the four corners of the world. The first course would be original pack (5 pound tins) of caviar served with buckwheat blinis. Next a roasted whole Bleu Bresse, spit-roasted suckling pig and black truffles wrapped in thin slices of salt pork, wrapped in foil and cooked in glowing embers.
And I’d be drinking bubbles and enjoying the caviar with two drag queens! Because life without champagne and caviar would be a drag…
What food is your secret guilty pleasure? I tend to have a savory palate for salted nuts and my new favorite potato chips fried in avocado oil – sinful and addicting. Peanut M&M’s, gummy worms over gummy bears, moist chocolate cake – no deconstruction ever allowed, perfect cheesecake.
What is your go-to neighborhood restaurant? Zarzuela (2000 Hyde St, San Francisco, CA 94109), a Spanish restaurant is three blocks away. Andy and Lucca know me so well I don’t even order it just flows – one of my most favorite dish in the world is the warm octopus served over sliced potatoes, extra virgin olive oil, paprika and coarse sea salt. I could eat it every day!
Cotogna for lunch – one of the best lunches in town. Try anything pork, the pizzas are amazing and Michael’s best dishes are the pastas. I love anything with burrata. Dinners great too – I tend to be more available for lunch!
Farther from my neighborhood would be LaCiccia. Chef Massimiliano and wife Lorella are very caring, hospitable and passionate owners. Delicious food with no butter in true Sardinian fashion and they have an amazing Italian and Sardinian wine selection.
What is one food product most people don’t know about, but should? When in Cabo, I was turned onto “Sal de Gusano,” sal de gusano, gusano salt or “maggot salt.” It is sea salt from Mexico that contains: sea salt, toasted and ground agave worms (100% chinicuil) and chile costeño. Gusano refers to the larvae in the salt. You can purchase it by clicking here.
This is one incredible smelling and flavorful salt reminiscent of mescal. Smoky and a touch of spice. Purist say the worm belongs only in related product from mescal. Strictly speaking, mescal is a generic term meaning any distillate of the many species of agave (or maguey) plant, tequila included. Rim this on margarita glasses, sprinkle over a roast before slicing, sprinkle on a caramels dipped in chocolate like they do with flor de sel, sprinkle on oranges or mangoes, use in ceviche.
Describe your worst kitchen disaster and how (if possible) you saved it: I worked in restaurant in upstate New York 35 years ago where one of the dishes was flambéed cherries prepared tableside by the waiter; the waitstaff assembled all the components for the flambé from their cooler. One shift we had a new employee working who unknowing at the moment reached into a can of black olives and quickly scooped them up and proceeded to prepare the guest flambéed black olives over vanilla ice cream! It would probably be accepted today in the world of “Anything goes cuisine.”
Who was your most influential mentor? There are three of them: My three cooking mothers who influenced me at different stages of my career!
My mother – Opal Danko: as long as I can remember my first influence on cooking and cleaning.
Mabel Cecot: The first chef/owner that I worked with when I was 12 and all the way through the Culinary Institute of America.
Madeleine Kamman: Acted as a finishing school – I was an already trained chef when I started studying with her in 1983, She appointed me to Beringer externship in 1984 and when she started working at Beringer, I was on her Faculty for The School for American Chefs at Beringer Vineyard – I was working at Chateau Souverain and Beringer back then.
– bonnie
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