Wedding cake designer Shinmin Li started baking wedding cakes after training in fine art. It's not that jarring of a change, if you think about it. Li owns I Dream of Cake in San Francisco, and spends her time obsessing over cake consistency, design details, and whether her clients will eat the finished product. Video by CHOW.com.
An oven built by hand, tile by tile. Four pizzas on the menu, with no fancy-pants toppings. Anthony Mangieri does one thing at Una Pizza Napoletana, and he does it the very best way he can. Video from CHOW.com.
It's very simple: alcohol, wormwood, and some anise characteristics. But not simple at all: The carefully calibrated mix of aromatics and herbs that goes into the absinthe made by Lance Winters of St. George Spirits took extensive testing to get just right. Video by CHOW.com
Sonoma County beekeeper Serge Labesque treats his bees with respect, though that's probably not all that's needed to save the world's swarms from Colony Collapse Disorder. The sticky stuff's far-reaching power includes healing burns and adorning a fine panna cotta recipe. Video from CHOW.com.
CHOW wades into shark's waters of perfection: the burger. Josh Ozersky, author of The Hamburger: A History and editor of New York magazine's Grub Street, confers with Gail Simmons of Top Chef and Food & Wine magazine. For Ozersky, it's the burger at Veselka in New York. Video by CHOW.com.
Pumpkin Pete Glasier, Jose Ceja, and Leonardo Urena are Napa growers competing against each other for the Peanuts-esque title of Biggest Giant Pumpkin, as awarded by the International Pumpkin Association. To find out how large these pumpkins actually get, and who won the 2008 competition, watch our first CHOW Field Trip!
Fatty, soggy, and burnt are words you never want to hear applied to your bacon. Scott Vermeire of Prather Ranch Meat Co. offers a quick and easy primer on bacon perfection. He also addresses the very important question of flipping: when to do it, and how often. Video by CHOW.com.
Arno Holschuh, barista at Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco, discusses the big and the little: the surface area of the bean, the thousand small cuts that will kill your espresso, and why Starbucks is not so bad. Video by CHOW.com
Meet John and Barbara Stephens-Lewallen: They harvest seaweed. Operators of the Mendocino Sea Vegetable Company in Philo, California, the Stephens-Lewallens are farmers/fishermen of another stripe. Their catch includes bladderwrack, sea lettuce, kombu, and nori.Video by CHOW.com
Tia Harrison, owner of the Lucky Cooky Company, takes simple ingredients and creates a soft, sweet, crisp-crusted cookie, full of melty Guittard milk chocolate drops. It is, indeed, the superior-est chocolate chip cookie. Video by CHOW.com.
Jam maker June Taylor has a rabid following in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she creates and sells her preserves. Here, she explains how she makes marmalade, including the mysteries of natural pectin, the importance of instinct, and the economies of scale in artisanal production. Video by CHOW.com.
Craig Ponsford, founder of Artisan Bakers and chairman of the Bread Bakers Guild of America, discusses the intricacies of kneading, starters, and fresh bread. Plus: the quest for holey bread. And the money question: What, really, does artisan mean? Video by CHOW.com
Beau Timken of True Sake is proud to be called a sake samurai. His fanaticism comes across in his enthusiasm for junmai, daiginjo, and ginjo, and he rails against those who encourage libation without education. Take the hint: learn from Beau. Video by CHOW.com
![CHOW Giant Pumpkins - You\](http://img.youtube.com/vi/cCgGOk7HIAU/2.jpg "CHOW Giant Pumpkins - You\")
