- Technically, it's illegal to forage on public land, but yeah, we do have some blackberries right here.

- You're breaking a law.

You see it?

Get it on camera.

- No, I didn't take it.

I'm just touching it.

I'm just touching it.

(upbeat music) Today, on "Geronimo Eats the Bay," we are here in beautiful San Francisco on the Divisadero Corridor at GiGi's.

Co-owner here with me, Chef Tu, my longtime friend, Bay Area Chef, Oakland native.

We are going to walk around the neighborhood, but we won't forage anything because you can't do it legally.

But we do have forage ingredients we got from all over the Bay Area to make some beautiful, tasty desserts here at GiGi's.

So you ready to check out the neighborhood?

- Let's go.

- Let's go.

Chef Tu is also a "Top Chef" contestant, author and filmmaker and just- - But before those things, friend of Geronimo.

- Yes, friend of Geronimo.

- We're both husbands.

Right?

(Geronimo and Tu laughing) - Dog fathers.

- Dog fathers, yes.

- Dog fathers.

- That's more important than all the other titles, right?

- Yeah.

- Nasturtium.

- Yes.

- Nasturtium?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- These are orange flowers.

- Kind of like lily pads.

- They're super peppery.

A lot of people make them in a pesto 'cause they're reminiscent of that arugula bite.

The flowers are super delicious.

We're not going to pick 'em, though.

- Yeah, we're, like, in a park here in San Francisco and there's a lot of plants and shrubbage, and there are reasons why we don't forage and just pick things from here.

Pollution from the street or chemicals leaching, like pesticide and dog poop, yeah.

- These are berries.

- Oh, yeah.

You're right.

Yeah, you could see the thorns, so you know this is, like, blackberry.

- I mean, if you want to know what's going into your food, like you don't want to pick these in San Francisco, unfortunately.

I have this like double-edged sword love for foraging.

Like, things that grow in a wild, it's just more aromatic, more perfumed.

It has a wild flavor to it, but at the same time, if you activated foraging and every single person in the city foraged, it would destroy the ecosystem.

It would deplete everything.

- [Geronimo] Yeah.

What challenges have you had foraging in the Bay Area?

- Knowing where to forage.

For example, I'm from West Oakland.

- Yeah.

- And in my neighborhood, they didn't give us any proximity to nature, but we were by the docks there where all the shipping containers are, oil refineries.

Over the past few decades, I think the general public is being more aware of land rights and access and Indigenous land rights and access and who we're actually taking for.

It's not just the law that leaves out people.

I think it's the system that leaves out people.

And I, I have faith.

I have faith in our communities.

I have faith in people where they understand the true nature of how we exist and how we live.

I think people will want other people to live equitably.

(gentle upbeat music) - I remember my 20s out here.

It's already changed so much.

(gentle upbeat music) Let's go.

(gentle upbeat music) - Welcome to GiGi's.

(gentle upbeat music) - So we are here at GiGi's after walking around Divis, and now we are going to make some beautiful tarts from foraged ingredients that we found all over the Bay.

- Legally foraged ingredients.

Legally, yes, actually.

We've got Himalayan blackberries here, both delicious and sweet.

We got some wild mustard, beautiful for garnish.

And then we got the California bay from the Bay and smells beautiful all day.

- A lot of people when they use bay leaves or bay laurel, they think of dried bay leaves.

These are fresh bay leaves.

It's extremely potent.

So you don't need a lot of it.

Like one leaf right now in this pot, this whole dining room smells like bay laurel, right?

- Yeah.

- Because this has a very distinct, strong, beautiful woody flavor, I'm going to offset it with ginger and lemongrass.

I bruise the stalks.

- None.

- And then out of that, I'm just going to sweeten the liquid.

And the water's just, once again, barely simmering.

I took it off the heat, so it's just enough to melt everything.

You want to taste that?

It's very soft, right?

- That's delicious, yeah.

- Right?

- Great salt coming out.

- It balances everything.

So we're just going to do a little bit of that water 'cause I still want to taste the blackberry.

Go a little bit of salt here.

Big bowl of berries.

I'm going to mix.

See all the juices coming out?

I'm just going to spoon it into this cheese tartlet.

I'm just going to top this off.

This is our house-made laughing cow cheese.

We make it with Point Reyes Toma.

- I love that.

It's local.

- It is local.

Now we're going to do the second tart.

I'm going to line the bottom with cheese.

- Cheese first.

- Yeah.

(upbeat music) Some nice berries.

- Fresh berries.

- And if you notice people, I'm not using tweezers.

It's unnecessary 90% of the time.

These berries are so beautiful.

Like, sometimes when they're beautiful and sweet, you want to keep 'em whole and show them off.

And then we'll just slightly garnish, right?

Now, if I want that essence with the bay laurel and the lemongrass, just get some of that juice.

You want to help me pick some flowers, my brother?

- I got you.

I remember filming with Ambre.

We found tons of wild mustard by the creek.

We got tons of bay laurel in Oakland with Chef Crystal.

I remember on John Mill's property, he had Himalayan blackberries everywhere.

(gentle upbeat music) (torch whirs) - So this melts the sugar.

You get like a candy shell on top, just like creme brulee.

So when you crack into the cheese, you get a nice crunch.

And the cheese gets melty too, so.

- That looks delicious.

(gentle upbeat music) The big thing living here in the Bay Area is California cuisine.

Foraging ingredients, obviously, that's the most, like, California cuisine you can get.

Like, what does that mean to us also as children of immigrants?

- Cuisine like identity changes over the years.

In my late adolescence, young adulthood years, California cuisine was very white adjacent.

And I think Brown peoples in California, Black peoples in California, they didn't have voices at the time, as integrated and essential as they have been to the identity of California, Japanese Americans in Central Valley with the farms, Black populations migrating west, the Mexican immigrant farmers all up and down California, if not across the United States.

As a society, as a people, as a community, we start to learn more.

And then we start to integrate that into what that means to us in California cuisine.

- I mean, even here, you got Southeast Asian influence, and this foraged ingredient tart with the lemongrass and the ginger.

- [Chef Tu] And the cheese is super French, and tart is super French, and I'm okay with that.

- Yeah.

So I'm just going to dig in right here.

So we got the beautiful brulee.

- Yep.

- A little bit of a crust.

- I'm nervous 'cause the wild foraged ingredients needs to shine through.

- Here we go.

- Bone appetite.

Oh, yeah.

So good.

Not too sweet.

That's what I want in a dessert.

- [Chef Tu] That's the Asian thing, right?

We're not too sweet.

- Yeah, it's got, like, crispy, crunchy, gooey, cheesy.

And then I taste the bay laurel.

It's, like, very subtle, but it's in there.

We have this tart here with the fresh berries on top, but also you get the pretty wild mustard here.

- Yeah, I think we're putting a little bit bitter in there.

I think bitterness and fresh work really well together.

- Oh, yeah.

- Right?

- Mm.

- Is it different?

- Very good.

The juices came through.

- It's interesting how it's the same ingredients, but the way you put them together, they have very different eating experiences.

- Mm-hmm.

I could do half and half if that was possible.

(Geronimo laughs) You know, you're a friend/chef I've always looked up to.

a Southeast Asian, being a child of immigrants, Thank you too for sharing your perspectives, stories, and experience with us, cooking for us.

Where can viewers find you?

- You guys can find me on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, everything else in between, at cheftudavidphu.com or cheftu.com.

If you're in the city, come to GiGi's.

We're here in the Divisadero Corridor.

Come check us out.

- So that's a wrap for "Geronimo Eats the Bay," our season finale.

For NorCal Public Media, I'm Geronimo Ramos, and I'll see you in the next one.

(upbeat music) Hi, everyone.

Geronimo here.

This show is supported by public media viewers like you.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to like and subscribe and consider donating to NorCal Public Media so we can keep making quality content, and I can continue eating the bay.

Visit norcalpublicmedia.org/donate, and I'll see you out there.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music fades)