Crimini (Baby Portobello) Mushrooms

These beautiful criminis were admired and purchased (for personal use!), dusted off with a damp kitchen towel, trimmed, sliced and cooked off saute-style with an ungodly amount of butter. Deglazed with touch of aged sherry vinegar, a sprinkling of kosher salt and cayenne pepper in the pan. Plated with paper thin shavings of firm goats cheese and crisp heart shaped microgreens! Consumed with torn bread. Lunch. What's not to love?

The Littlest Sous Chef

Having worked with a lot of food professionals in the past years, none is better than my Sous at home, who also happen to be my 5-½ year old son, Miles! He has been a trooper through lots of changes these past few months, and as ever, cooking is a way for us to bond and have fun, while feeding ourselves as much fresh, seasonal and organic food, as is feasible.

Children and the kitchen go hand in hand, there are built in lessons for them about teamwork, respect and gratitude. As well, when a child can partake in the preparation of their foods, they are more willing to try things they would not otherwise – bonus!

I hope you take a Little Chef of your own into the kitchen and work on something safe with them; there are lessons in this for you, too, dear Reader! Patience, kindness and helpfully guiding others, are all tools that can translate into our everyday lives and dealings with others.





He’s got a bit of Julia Child’s energy going on, don’t you think? Especially modeling his apron from Yvoire, France!

Food Network Magazine

Well, it's that time again...on the road again....this time I am working with Food Network Magazine as Food Stylist for an amazing spread featuring Chef Guy Fieri.

Blackberry Salt

I should really test this before posting about it but I am too excited to wait!!! My friend Anton and I were talking about a salt incorporating blackberries and sugar and I gave him some advice on how to proceed making one...but then I couldn't stop thinking about it and had to try making some. I will post a specific recipe later once I have the chance to test it more extensively and know you will have good results.

Some things I suspected, and were true:

~ Moisture affects this blend. As a finishing salt it's nice to see the colors turn from a lavender purple, to dark violet, as the blackberries take on the moisture of whatever food it is being paired with (pate and chicken are a couple of winners). It's not so nice when you've left some out for sprinkling over an extended period of time - just the air moistens it to a sticky consistency within hours.

~ Dried blackberries have an interesting smell, kind of funky actually, and I knew this, but blending the powdered blackberries with sea salt brought out a fishy type odor - not quite what was expected! Kosher salt and sugar augmented this odd effect and helped with the end result of a sweet/salty/tangy balanced product.

~ Using this salt as a baking rub on chicken yielded a darkly caramelized color when cooked.

~ I made a pate using this blend, both in the prep while cooking the livers, and as a finishing salt. If I do say so myself, it tasted and looked beautiful; more pics of that to come with pate recipe.

Pumpkin Season Rolls Into Town

Photo by Eli Kinne


We have carved our first pumpkin this evening; surely the first of many this season! We hunt for, and make, all kinds of treasures with the formidable pumpkins that proliferate in the holiday season, and forge bonds with friends and family alike over the final products: toasted pumpkin seeds, pies, cookies, breads, even curries!

Tonight, a beautiful array of Cinderella (Rouge Vif d'Estampes) pumpkins where displayed, so vibrant and deeply orange in color that they were reminiscent of a siren red lipstick. As alluring as they were, in the end, a quiet pumpkin with traditional coloring was chosen, and gave us a delicious bounty of seeds. I rinsed them several times, spread them on a sheet pan lined with parchment and drizzled them with McEvoy Ranch olive oil, one of my favorites. A light sprinkling of Jane's Krazy Mixed Up Salt finished the prep, and then they went into a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. I stirred them several times throughout cooking and while they were still warm, added just a touch of fresh salt. The Jane's blend includes celery, which develops nicely during the toasting process and adds another dimension of flavor without ruining the intrinsic flavor of the seeds. Nutty, crunchy and delicious, I hope this post inspires you to find that special pumpkin and make some toasted seeds, and memories, of your own; this Autumn season, and always.

On the Road Again

A month after acting as Back Kitchen Cook/Chef for Joanne Weir's Cooking Class Series II, under renowned Culinary Producer Chris Styler, I was afforded the opportunity to work with Food Network and Chef Guy Fieri as Food Chef/Stylist for the "Dear Food Network" Holiday Series. If you are interested in learning more about this dynamic dude, feel free to visit his site!

Next up is another job with A La Carte Productions, this time as a Production Assistant for Chef Eric Ripert's latest venture. Very excited to work with him and the crew. This time I get to learn the process from the set itself. I will be taking the filming notes, wardrobe and whatever!

Aubergine

Aubergine & Neufchatel on Pumpernickel with Fresh Oregano and Maldon Crystal Salt. This was part of the welcome food offered to my students at The Champagne Cooking Class that I was fortunate enough to teach at Joanne's beautiful home in Pacific Heights. I have the BEST friends!!!