Features reporter
John Metcalfe
John Metcalfe is a Bay Area News Group features reporter for The Mercury News and East Bay Times, covering nature, food, the arts, and notable things to do in the Bay Area for the Eat Drink Play section. He lives in Oakland with no pets unless you count a thoroughly embedded family of backyard raccoons. Follow him on Twitter at @citycalfe or on Facebook.
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7 new food-centric shows you should be watching right now
The current food-TV offerings include Iron Chef sushi, Kristen Kish visiting extremely remote restaurants and José Andrés touring with family in Spain.
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Recipe: Pumpkin-Cannoli Cheesecake Cake by Molly Baz
"More Is More: Get Loose in the Kitchen" by Molly Baz is a cookbook from a former Bon Appétit food editor that emphasizes big, bold flavors.
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Recipe: Chocolate Pumpkin Pie from chef Michael Symon
Chef Michael Symon's elevated take on Thanksgiving pumpkin pie throws in the decadent feeling of a flourless chocolate cake.
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4 delicious ways to freshen up your pumpkin baking this fall
Molly Baz and other cookbook authors around the country share four new autumnal desserts that aren't your classic pumpkin pie.
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Fancy mocktails are here to stay, as Gen Z embraces nonalcoholic living
A Michelin-starred restaurant in San Francisco serves a $95 nonalcoholic beverage pairing for its tasting menu â and that's actually cheap.
âThe Ice Bookâ traces a cocktail writerâs obsession with designing perfect, diamond-clear ice
Camper English has strong feelings about clear versus cloud ice: "You can eat filet mignon out of a ditch, or you can eat it off of a plate at a...
The best places to bike in America? Check out the list.
What are the most cyclist-friendly cities in America â where the bike lanes are protected, the intersections safe and greenways stretch far into the horizon?
‘Baking It’: Q&A with the Berkeley sorority sisters who made it to the finals
"At the end of every episode we kind of looked at each other like, 'How are we still here?'â
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We’re all going to die but it’s OK: The enduring hope of dystopian and apocalyptic sci-fi
There's evidence that dystopian stories trigger something powerful in the human brain.
Whales are swarming off of San Francisco â hereâs where to see them
There's a spouting, breaching, vocalizing superhighway of whales off the California coast. Here's where to see them.