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Caffé Museo at SFMOMA Serves Alice B. Toklas-Inspired Menu, Sans Brownies

Henri Matisse's portrait of Allan Stein (left) was the inspiration for this parfait, with its own blue
Henri Matisse’s portrait of Allan Stein (left) was the inspiration for this parfait, with its own blue “sweater.” Photo: Courtesy of SFMOMA

In connection with the Stein Collection show going on right now at SFMOMA, the museum’s downstairs café is offering a series of rotating specials adapted from The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook — one and the same cookbook that contains the infamous recipe for hashish fudge, which of course came to be known as Alice B. Toklas brownies. There’s no fudge or brownies on the Caffé Museo menu, but there is a delicious petrale sole with a tomato fondue sauce, served with a spinach soufflé; and a bouillabaisse that’s pretty close to Toklas’s own recipe. Also, available upstairs at the Blue Bottle Coffee stand next to the sculpture garden, is something called the H. Matisse Parfait, created by pastry chef Caitlin Williams Freeman (and wife of Blue Bottle founder James Freeman). It’s a vanilla frozen yogurt parfait with a strawberry sauce and chocolate curls, sitting on a hand-knit blue coaster — all of which are meant to echo Henri Matisse’s 1907 portrait of curly-haired Allan Stein, wearing a blue sweater against a strawberry-pink background.

This is actually the second time the museum has done a coordinated menu for a show; the first was for the Frida Kahlo exhibition a couple of years back, inspired by Kahlo’s own cookbook.

The Stein/Toklas-inspired dishes will rotate on and off the menu through the run of the show, which closes September 6.

Also be on the lookout for the Picasso Palette Cake — a pale-brown frosted cake, with paint-like smears of color and gummy bears on top.

Caffé Museo at SFMOMA Serves Alice B. Toklas-Inspired Menu, Sans Brownies