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Photograph by George Sakkestad

Harold Lee works the deli counter at Saratoga Foods.

Saratoga Foods offers fresh and healthy edibles

By Suzanne Cristallo

An old Petrini's Market, empty for nearly three years, has new owners, a new look, a new philosophy and new food to excite even the fussiest of the health-conscious. It's called Saratoga Foods, a health-food market opened just last month at S. DeAnza Boulevard at Prospect Road.

Brightly painted in lemon yellow, blue and coral, the refurbished building houses its own bakery, tofu factory, bulk food and produce sections, a vitamin and supplements area offering more than 9,000 items, a vegetarian deli and a cooking school.

"We're just a small, local store," says general manager Peter Wong in reference to comparisons to giants like Whole Foods, "but we have our own character." He says his store embodies a mixture of Eastern and Western health philosophies in an area where the education and income supports it. Wong, a Cupertino resident, has spent a year at the location overseeing market and product research, training employees, conferring with vendors, creating a floor plan and shepherding the remodeling. He says the store is in a state of flux, changing as the tastes of new customers evolve.

"We're looking for other choices," he notes. "We're going toward Indian and more international tastes."

Presently, vegetarian patrons enjoy a selection of prepared dishes for take-home, or they can eat at one of several slat-wood benches and tables provided for dining on the premises. "We find vegetarians tend not to go out to eat, so we want to cook for them," Wong says.

Each day, six chefs create box lunches which, at $4.99, contain up to nine food items--some are vegetarian, while others contain chicken and fish. They also prepare sushi and sashimi, tempura bowls, seaweed salad and urakami along with potato and pasta salads, Greek dolmas and Chinese sweet tamales--a concoction of rice and red beans with a touch of sugar wrapped in banana leaves.

The hot side boasts dishes like steamed taro root with cabbage and carrots, which is great accompanied by a fresh fruit smoothie or vegetable juice.

The Sogo Bakery offers some unusual breads for toasting like coconut, raisin custard, red bean and rustic wheat. They are baked daily from 7 to 9 a.m. and again from 3 to 4:30 p.m. A Santa Cruz bakery provides a variety of fruit tarts, honey cakes, eclairs, mango mousse and tiramisu.

Each day in the Tofu Shoppe, customers can watch cooks process organically grown soy beans into soy milk, yuba--a high-protein product used in stir-fry--tofu custard and many other side products that Wong, grinning, refers to as "weird and healthy."

Wong, 45, came to this area four years ago with his family from Taiwan, where he spent the previous 17 years working in international copyrights and patents--a far cry, he admits, from the food business he relishes now. Saratoga Foods Market is the first of a series of markets planned by the fledgling corporation Sogo Foods, Inc.

Customers are encouraged to taste their dishes, and employees are encouraged to be generous. Look also for the smiling face of Monta Vista High School sophomore Harold Lee, who is spending his summer in the deli offering generous tastes to curious shoppers.

Saratoga Foods Market, 1610 S. DeAnza Blvd., San Jose. Open daily 9 a.m.-10 p.m. 873-0608.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, August 26, 1998.
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