ALL ABOUT FOOD:Meet some of Laguna’s serious foodies

Just in case you are a first time visitor to the home of Fritz Knauss and Bill Klenner but don’t know that two serious foodies reside here, look to your right as you ring the bell.

Next to the front door you will find a large carved wooden plaque that reads “Good Food, Fine Wine” and beneath it another smaller sign declaring “We will drink no wine before its time — and it’s time!”

Upon entering their lovely home, our genial host, Fritz offered us a glass of wine and a tour of his culinary domaine, including a multitude of eating areas, an extensive herb garden and a recently re-designed kitchen.

This beautiful space, unlike many other beautifully appointed showplace kitchens, is actually extremely functional. The well-thought out design took them a year of thinking and planning with the help of Euro Kitchens in Laguna.

It includes a six burner Dacor gas cook top, each with space for extra- large pots, a round vegetable sink in the center island and a really large, deep sink for washing those huge pots, built-in, felt lined silverware drawers, an oven and a microwave /halogen oven that crisps as well as heats, a built-in expresso machine and, our favorite, a central vacuum system in the floor. There is also a TV that can access recipes from the computer.

Entertaining is an important part of Fritz and Bill’s lifestyle, and Fritz, who does most of the cooking, has always wanted a kitchen that wouldn’t isolate him from his guests, so it is open to the living/dining area and includes bar stools at one end for chatting while sipping champagne and nibbling on crostini with hazelnuts and proscuitto.

At the other end, out the patio door, is a small eating area and a huge barbeque grill. Past the large open kitchen window, whose ledge doubles as a buffet, around to the rear of the house, is another outdoor eating area featuring a large dining table and overhead heating.

Fritz, who is of German extraction, has a repertoire of German dishes which he learned beginning at age five, helping his stepmother in the kitchen. He lost his mother when he was four and a year later he and his father traveled from their home in San Francisco to Germany to visit relatives, some of whom were bakers and wine makers.

While there, his dad met and married a German girl who was an excellent cook. Back in San Francisco, hanging out after school in the kitchen, Fritz began a long apprenticeship learning to cook her complicated traditional recipes including Maultaschen, a meat, sausage and spinach stuffed pasta served in rich beef broth. She also cooked organ meats and innards like tripe and sweet and sour hearts and kidneys.

Describing himself as a late bloomer, Fritz lived at home until he married at age 23. He and his wife did a lot of cooking together for the seven years they were married. Trained as a lawyer, he eventually became the head of an insurance company.

Re-coupled, he and Bill moved to Laguna Beach in 1994. Unfortunately, his job forced him to commute to Sacramento for nine years, so that the weekends, which included cooking and entertaining, were his form of relaxation. “Cooking has always been play for me,” he says.

He prefers to cook with Petrou’s olive oil and Sam’s fish from our farmer’s market. If it’s not Saturday, he’ll go to the Japanese market in Costa Mesa. He likes Costco meats for their flavor (as did the late, great Julia Child) and he travels to Huntington Beach to the Old World Deli for such German specialties as vanilla sugar and egg cream liqueur.

Having just returned from a trip to Europe, Fritz was thrilled to have found tellicherry peppercorns (a specialty black peppercorn). He confesses to buying ice cream at Gelato Paradiso in Peppertree Lane when he doesn’t have the time to make his own, but he always makes his own spaetzle.

The menu for this weekend’s dinner party includes the aforementioned hors d’oeuvres, pasta carbonara, standing rib roast (which he ages for seven days in the refrigerator before slow cooking in a covered clay plant dish) and an egg cream liqueur bundt cake with Chocolate hazel nut ice cream. Yum!

Here is his recipe for a classic choucroute. This is the first in a series of occasional profiles of Laguna’s best home cooks. If you know of someone that you think would be a good subject, please e-mail us at the address below.

CHOUCROUTE A LA FRITZ

1. In a large pot, cook bacon over medium heat. Don’t let it get crispy. Once the bacon is cooked, add the diced onion and cook until translucent.

2. Add the sauerkraut, sugar, salt, red wine vinegar, bay leaf, juniper berries, pepper corns and dry white wine. Bring to a boil. Add enough water and the jullienned apple so that the mixture boils, but does not stick to the bottom.

3. Add the back ribs, return to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 2 --2 1/2 hours. Check occasionally for moisture and add water if necessary.

4. Once the meat is falling off the bones, remove meat and discard bones. Keep meat warm. Bring the mixture to a boil and grate the peeled russet potato directly into the sauerkraut. This will absorb the moisture and make the texture of the sauerkraut creamy. Remove from stove and keep hot or reheat before serving.

5. Boil the red potatoes in salted water for about 20 minutes. Halve potatoes.

6. While the potatoes are boiling, grill sausages.

7. To serve, place the hot sauerkraut on a large platter, ring with gilled sausages and reserved meat from ribs. Serve with boiled potatoes.