Our October 8, 2007

Featured Guests

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This month's show had a storyteller, a pastry chef, a former firefighter and a wild-child standup comic as a surprise guest. We are definitely aiming to NOT let anyone get bored on Monday nights! Seriously, the audience was spellbound as Tim gave a scary rendition of some actually very grim Grimm's fairy tales. Emily took us on a different kind of trip -- you can be sure our foodie San Francisco crowd couldn't get enough dish about what goes on in the kitchen at high-profile places like Farallon and Stars. And even though she's not with the SFFD anymore, anyone would feel pretty comfortable knowing that Caroline was around if their house was burning down.... Plus the North Beach Irregulars AND an awesome, edgy short set from acclaimed NYC solo performer Reno, who just happened to be in town -- to our great good fortune!

OUR SPECIAL GUEST, RENO

Solo performer Reno is a stream of consciousness comedic performer living in New York City. Her evening-length shows have had several runs Off-Broadway, both commercially and at non-profit venues and tour regularly to the leading regional theaters, museums and performance spaces. In addition to writing and performing nationwide in her solo shows, she has made other, short-form tragicomic “essays” for various outlets such as PBS, VH-1, Comedy Central and National Public Radio, and occasionally contributes written articles to magazines. She's made feature films (with the assistance of such luminaries as Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner), as well as writing and starring in her own "non-fiction sitcom" on Bravo, Citizen Reno, to rave reviews.

TIM ERENETA

Storyteller Tim Ereneta tells stories: old stories ... the kind in which parents abandon their children in the forest to let witches eat them, where wildly improbable talents and magical objects win the day and justice is often served with the blade of an axe. He was the recipient of the National Storytelling Network's J.J. Reneaux Emerging Artist Grant for 2006. He is a co-founder (along with our host Kurt Bodden) of Storytellers Unplugged, an ensemble of performers who use improvisation to reveal the power of story in our everyday lives. Tim brings over 18 years of theatre experience to his storytelling. For ten years, he was in the mainstage company of BATS Improv, the perennially "Best of San Francisco" improvisation troupes. A former bus driver, science teacher, and camp counselor, he has performed in schools from San Jose to Sacramento.

EMILY LUCHETTI

Emily Luchetti, the James Beard "Pastry Chef of the Year" for 2004, is a San Francisco culinary star. In 1984, she joined the opening team of Stars Restaurant as a line cook and by 1987 had become its pastry chef. She also co-owned StarBake, a retail bakery. Since 1997, Emily has been the executive pastry chef at Farallon.

Emily has written many acclaimed cookbooks, including Stars Desserts (HarperCollins 1991), Four Star Desserts (HarperCollins 1995),  A Passion for Desserts (Chronicle Books, 2003), A Passion for Ice Cream (Chronicle Books, 2006) and Classic Stars Desserts (Chronicle Books, 2007). She contributed to The Revised Joy of Cooking (Simon & Schuster, 1997) and created the dessert recipes for The Farallon Cookbook (Chronicle Books, 2000). She also teaches baking classes internationally, in person and on television. Fundamental to her passion for baking is the belief that desserts increase the social experiences and interactions of friends and family as they linger around the table eating great desserts. Emily and her recipes appear regularly in national newspapers and magazines. Emily has been featured on numerous news programs and The Food Network’s The Ultimate Kitchen, Sweet Dreams, Cookin’ Live with Sara Moulton and Sara’s Secrets.

Emily was chairwoman of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs from 1994-1999. She has been a national spokesperson for Northwest Cherries, Washington Apples, The Sugar Association, and The National Butter Board.

CAROLINE PAUL

Caroline Paul grew up in Connecticut with a twin sister, a younger brother and a menagerie of animals. As a teen, she tried to set a Guinness world record for crawling, stopping after covering 8 1/2 miles on her hands and knees in the rain. As an adult she became a whitewater rafting guide, a private pilot, and competed in the U.S. Nationals for the sport of Luge. She has seakayaked in Alaska, mountain biked in places like China and Vietnam, flown her paraglider in Brazil, and skied the backcountry of Denali and the Sierras. Most recently she learned to fly an ultralight.

Caroline graduated from Stanford University with plans to become documentary filmmaker. Instead she fell into firefighting and eventually wrote Fighting Fire, a memoir of her time as a San Francisco firefighter. Fighting Fire went on to garner a large readership and critical acclaim. It was a Book of the Month Club selection, voted a Top Ten Summer Read by the Today Show, highlighted on the Rosie O'Donnell Show, and received HIGHEST HONORS from the Library Journal, which represents libraries around the country. Her second book, East Wind, Rain, is a work of historical fiction.

Caroline is a member of the Writers' Grotto and lives in San Francisco.