The Homegrown Cookbook's Chef Rosa Ross' Easy to Make Blender Soup Recipe featured on Craftside

This news story and recipe were featured on the Craftside Foodie Friday post, January 11th.

http://tiny.cc/qmh4qw

The Recipe is from the North Fork, Scrimshaw restaurant, the delicious Homegrown creation of owner and chef, Rosa Ross.

Recipe for vegetable blender soup from the book The Hamptons and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook

This vegetable blender soup from the book The Hamptons and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook sounds just like my kinda recipe. It's made with what you have around and is quick and tasty!

Click on this page from The Hamptons and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook to enlarge and read the full recipe for vegetable blender soup or yummy soup made from what you have in the fridge!

 More about the Voyageur Press book:

The Hamptons and Long Island Homegrown Cookbook:

Local Food, Local Restaurants, Local Recipes

by

Leeann Lavin

Photographers:

Jennifer Calais Smith

Lindsay Morris

This inspiring book takes the reader on a private tour of outstanding chefs of the Long Island area and their gardens. Each profile reflects the chef's personal style, cultural background, desire for healthy, just-picked ingredients, and gardening philosophy. Recipes, plant lists, garden layouts, and color photos fill the pages!

For the past five-plus years, Leeann Lavin was the Director of Communications at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. As principal of Duchess Designs, LLC, Leeann is an award-winning landscape designer. Her garden book reviews have appeared in The TwoRiver Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Food & Drink to Celebrate Bastille Day and Wedded Bliss

Lucky for Francophiles Bastille Day, July 14^th falls on a Saturday this year.  So it’s really more of a Bastille Weekend. 

Chef Jean-George. Photo, Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for the NY Culinary Experience

All the more opportunity to enjoy all things French, including Petanque, Lillet and the second Annual Dan’s Taste of Two Forks, whose host is the celebrated, award-winning chef, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Chef Jean-George is an author, with five cookbooks in his culinary library.  

He owns and operates six all-star restaurants in the United States, including Jean-George, The Mark Restaurant, Spice Market, Mercer Kitchen, Perry St., and JoJo. And four restaurants worldwide in such far-flung locales as France, the Bahamas, Bora Bora and Shanghai.   Along with co-host, Paris-trained fashion designer, Nicole Miller, recently named food critic of "The Daily Dan."

Foodies from across the region celebrated all things food and drink at The Taste of Two Forks, held at Sayre Park, Bridgehampton, NY. (http://tasteoftwoforks.com)

Executive Chef Gerry Hayden, who, along with his wife, Claudia Fleming, is co-owner of the North Fork Table & Inn, was honored for “his dedication to the local community and commitment to native Long Island produce and ingredients. Chef Gerry has been nominated every year for the last two years to a James Beard Award for Best Chef, Northeast.

All together, nearly forty chefs from the East End of Long Island wowed attendees with their culinary artistry. 

Seven chefs featured in my just –released “The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook” demonstrated their farm-to-table gourmet magic:

·      Chefs Kevin Penner/Matt Birnstill --1770 House/Cittanuova  (www.1770house.com/)

Chef Lia Fallon (R) Amarelle Restaurant at Andrews Farm

·      Chef Lia Fallon  - Amarelle (www.amarelle.net/)  

·      Chef Robby Beaver - The Frisky Oyster, By popular demand, Chef Robby was asked/lovingly “told” to make his peerless Oysters Friskafella--with garlic-scented spinach, chipotle and parmigiano aioli.  Do you need to ponder why the emphatic request??  (www.thefriskyoyster.com/)

Chef Robby Beaver, with KK at The Farm

Chef Keith Luce, Jedediah Hawkins Inn

·      Chef Keith Luce - Luce & Hawkins (www.jedediahhawkinsinn.com/)  

·      Chef Joe Realmuto - Nick & Toni’s (www.nickandtonis.com)

·      Chef Gerry Hayden - North Fork Table & Inn (www.northforktableandinn.com/)

·      Chef Joe Isidori, Southfork Kitchen (www.southfordkitchen.com/)

What to Sip while enjoying the Taste of the Two Forks and chef Jean Georges? Playing Petanque and singing the La Marseillaise?

Maison Lillet, the celebrated French aperitif producer in Bordeaux, recently previewed their first new product in 50 years: Lillet Rosé.  

This Examiner was reignited with the unique, subtle taste of  Lillet’s lovely, perfect-for-summer aperitif.

For most Americans, the mere concept of aperitif is off-putting.

Sounds funny? Doesn’t fit the beer, wine, cocktail category slot?

Drink adventurers recognize a jeweled discovery when they sip one.

Lillet has the pedigree and the newness while capturing the mantel of being new and yet a classic all at ten same time.  

Lillet Rosé and its sister, Lillet Blanc, are an embodiment of French savoir-faire and the perfect drink for every occasion: a lazy summer afternoon, an icebreaker at a casual get-together and the beginning of an elegant dinner.

Lillet Rosé has already garnered top industry accolades notably the top-honor Chairman’s Trophy at the 2011 Ultimate Beverage Challenge plus a 94/Excellent Rating and a Gold Medal in the 2011 San Francisco Spirits Competition.

Lillet Rosé is created from a blend of the classic red and white Grand Cru Bordeaux wine varietals used to produce Lillet Blanc and Lillet Rouge. The careful combination consists of Semillon grapes for structure and a long finish, Sauvignon Blanc for fruitiness and aroma, and Muscatel for a floral bouquet and elegance. The wine is then married with fine artisanal orange liqueurs crafted from sweet orange peels from Spain and bitter orange peels from Haiti, and a secret blend of fruit liqueurs sourced near and produced in Lillet’s distillery in Podensac, a village in Southwestern France. A small amount of Peruvian quinine is added to the final blend in the same time-honored manner since the 19th century. The beautiful rose color and taste profile is achieved by adding additional red fruit liqueurs and a very small amount of Lillet Rouge, using a traditional champagne blending method to ensure a consistent color throughout. The result is a lush, fruity, elegant tonic wine with the taste of ripe summer berries, wildflowers, melon and stone fruit, as well as the traditional sweet and bitter citrus notes.

First created in 1872, Lillet encapsulates the unique spirit of L’Apero, the French traditional apéritif hour, and is widely regarded for its unique bittersweet and refreshing character. Lillet is now available in three varieties—Blanc, Rouge (launched in 1962) and Rosé—and is a blend of 85% Bordeaux grapes and 15% citrus liqueurs.

As a classic apéritif, Lillet is best served on the rocks and garnished with a fresh orange slice, or in the case of Rosé, a grapefruit slice. It is also an essential ingredient in many traditional and modern cocktails, including James Bond’s Vesper Martini, and easily serves as a substitute for vermouth in many recipes.

Recipes

Blushing Manhattan

2 parts Lillet Rosé
1 part Hudson New York Corn Whiskey 1 bar spoon gum syrup
2 dashes grapefruit bitters

Combine ingredients in a mixing glass and stir with ice to chill and dilute. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a fresh strip of grapefruit peel.

Rougissant

2 parts Lillet Rosé
1 part Hendrick’s Gin
0.5 part true grenadine 0.25 part orgeat
0.5 part fresh lemon juice 2 parts soda water

Short shake all ingredients except the soda water with ice; Fine strain over fresh ice in a tall glass. Add soda water and stir to combine. Garnish with a straw and freshly spanked mint.

L’Elephant Rosé

3 parts Lillet Rosé
0.75 part peach liqueur
1.50 parts fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish

Don’t Forget the Cake!

“And don’t forget to eat cake this weekend,” admonishes Karen Seiger of “Markets of New York.”  Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/article/discover-artisanal-food-drink-treasures-bargains

Seiger has curated the best of New York’s food and drink markets for a celebrated Bastille Day, most notably,

Saturday Only, July 14, 2012

•    Chelsea Bazaar and Bazement

•    Dekalb Market Bastille Day Celebration with The Skint 

•    Weeksville Farmers Market 

Saturday and Sunday, July 14 & 15, 2012

•    Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market & Third Ward’s Member Made 

•    Super Duper Market by Paper Magazine

•    Shout out for the Long Beach Arts and Crafts Festival!

Sunday Only, July 15th, 2012

•    Alliance Française Bastille Day on 60th Street 

For a full listing:   

 http://tiny.cc/hnnfhw

And Bastille Day is my wedding anniversary. 

Amour Dinner Menu:

The celebration began with Lillet.

The dinner menu included an organic chicken from Whole Foods.

I stuffed the bird with a lemon and just-picked from our garden, rosemary.

I rubbed the chicken with Carter &  Cavero Meyer Lemon extra virgin olive oil, rosemary and sea salt.

We tried out the rotisserie feature on our new gas grill to much success.  

It was a very cool cooking process too. The cool, blue flame looked like a light show... 

I marinated fresh, Jersey peaches in Carter & Cavero black cherry balsamic vinegar, then we grilled them on the BBQ.

A just-picked salad with our homegrown, Jersey tomatoes, baby sweet onions and savory, crunchy, salty, spicy-ish, nutty, garlic that I cannot stop eating!  

The garlic is so delicious cut up in salads, smeared on Mother's homemade bread, and then dipped into the basil extra virgin olive oil every other bite or so...

I made garlic mayo too. Perfect on BLTs. 

A cold, crisp French rose wine was a perfect summer complement to this make-it-up-as-we-go-along late night seasonal dinner. 

Dessert was homemade vanilla ice cream, with the grilled peaches.

Dinner was an indulgent, languorous affair, where flavors and tastes mixed with laughs, a killer view and a new dining room.  The memory will last until next year's wedding anniversary dinner....

Happy Bastille Weekend.

The "Push" is on at Empellon Mexican Restaurant

If looking for some different, some fabulous New York City restaurant to celebrate Cinco de Mayo -- the day when Mexican soldiers defeated Napoleon’s French forces, then look no further.  Celebrated Iron Chef Alex Stupak’s new Mexican restaurant Empellon restaurant sticks it the eye of the French yet again.  Here, Chef Alex shows traditional French haute cuisine to the door.

Empellon is surely the place to celebrate Mexican culinary culture. It’s a place to eat – to dine – to enjoy real food; the cultural cuisine of elegant Mexico vs. the tasteless ubiquitous, margarita and cheese-bombed Kraft-inspired version of what passes for Mexican. http://empellon.com/

Empellon – which means push – is different. 

Likewise, Chef Alex is an inveterate contrarian.

The result is that customers are pushed or rather gently seduced with a come-hither menu that lures the diner to experiment. 

Flavors and tastes are more often than not unfamiliar, defying food description.  “It’s smoky, it’s spicy.  It's hot. It’s a combination of sweet and refreshingly citrusy. Or roasted.” Or just “mmmm.” Or “wow.” 

The delightful joy of eating at Empellon is discovery.  Pure and simple and exhilarating and delicious. And affordable.

Chef Alex Stupak

Chef Alex takes pains to claim he is not an artist.  However, he practically defines art!  He shares a passion. And his work  -- or art -- is constantly changing and evolving. 

If fine art patrons can’t stop looking at that Andy Warhol, Empellon patrons can hardly be blamed for seeing and tasting nuance in every dish.

When asked if he is recreating a cultural heritage cuisine or taking the inspiration and re-crafting the recipes, he thoughtfully stops to consider.  While Alex has done his share of solid research in Mexico, studying and inculcating the local food style – particularly in Oaxaca, there is no denying he can’t suppress his creativity. Chef says he is inspired by the impressive variety of plants and spices and the endless combinations found in Mexican cultural cuisine.

Perhaps Chef Alex is looking to put some distance between his first foray as an acclaimed pastry chef to the savory side of the restaurant.  His pedigree is impressive: Iron Chef, WD-50, Alinea’s wunderkind and master of the manipulated.

Some questioned his move away from desserts and his opening a restaurant with Mexican food.  His standard response is that he likes Mexican food.  While that may be true enough, it’s evident that his artistic DNA is boundless. 

One meal will have anyone asking, “Who cares?” 

This food is amazing! 

The food ingredients are sourced from local greenmarkets, especially Union Square. For the unique, Mexican-grown ingredients, including the variety of nearly 20 chiles he needs and the plantains that don’t grow in the local NY climate Chef Alex has developed regional relationships there in order to get the best and freshest for the restaurant. 

The large living room-sized dining room is up front and a smaller dining room in the rear.  

The lighting is low and candles set off the dark wood tables.

One wall of the main room is white-washed brick and the bar runs the length of the other side, backed by a Diego Rivera-like mural that is ablaze with red-hot chile colors.  

The spirit of the Mexican painter’s labor murals could almost be said to inspire the servers and staff when observing their steely energy and crisp focused customer attention. 

The restaurant is a family-run business.  Alex’s wife, Lauren Resler, of Babbo fame, is the pastry chef here.  Her brother, Matthew is the beverage manager and bartender. 

Matthew has curated a drink offering that is nothing short of astounding.

With nearly 25 Mezcals, Empellon has more than any other bar in New York. And with names like Ilegal and Scorpion, the agave-based drinks are an illicit-sounding yet completely legit drinking adventure, setting the explorer back a mere $8 to $26.

There are also more than 35 different Tequilas, including Blanco, Resposado, Anejo and Ultra Premium and Infused, priced from $7 to $75.

There are plenty of beers with Modelo Especial and Negro Modelo on tap, along with six other brews. Beers run $5 to $9.

Por Que No?! Coctele

The Cocteles were an explosion of flavor.  

The kick of the Por Que No? is one of the most popular with its silver/cilantro/Serrano/pineapple blend.  Wow!

The comprehensive wine list includes vintages from all the top wine producing areas.  What is intriguing and thoughtful here, as explained by the super-professional, uber-knowledgeable and gorgeous assistant manager, Rose Thompson, is that the list is arranged by attributes.

Rose Thompson, Empellon

So if the traditional European two-step of white with fish and red with meat leaves a lingering question of what to order with Mexican fare, it’s all been tied up with a bow here.  For example, Red can be Light & Fruit Driven or Rustic & Earthy or Bold & Velvety. Whites are Crisp & Bright or Rich & Full.

Rose said the restaurant chose to pair the wine by its fruit or spice rather than match it to the food by the protein.

The dinner menu can start with a rich, creamy, flavorful and chunky guacamole. 

But no tomatoes or citrus.  It is prepared with smoke cashew and arbol chile.  It comes with limes on the side and two salsas – that can go with everything. The Salsa Veracruz is roasted tomato olive and caper that is a blend of salty and smoky.  

There are plenty of appetizers to choose from. 

That’s the problem. They are all too tempting. 

Who can resist Antojitos – which means craving?!

The taco dinner comes with three per order.  The Lamb Barbacoa is cooked all day, melts in the mouth and served with Salsa Borracha and one of the most popular.  

Lamb Barbacoa with Salsa Borracha

Beer Braised Tongue with Potatoes & Arbol Chile Salsa 

The Beer Braised Tongue with potatoes and Arbol Chile Salsa is a surprise treat—smooth and best eaten with the accompanying onions- that will have people talking!  

The Fish Tempura taco with cabbage and lime mayonnaise is startling for it’s blend of flavors  - the Dogfish Tempura was served on a bed of layered radish, cilantro and sauce for a burst of flavor.

Dogfish Tempura with Cabbage & Lime Mayonaise

Seared Scallop over Peeky Toe Crab

The Seared Scallop over plantains and peeky toe crab with shredded taco- like potato sticks is a fantastic blend of textures and tastes. 

The desserts are a sweet confection and just as difficult to decide what to order. 

Recommended are the Bunuelos with Cafeta and Warm Honey and the irresistible Chocolate Flan with Masa-Cocoa Streusel and Cinnamon Ice Cream.

Bunuelos with Cafeta & Warm Honey

Chocolate Flan with Masa-Cocoa Streusel & Cinnamon Ice Cream

The flavor-packed dessert creations are on the same page as the Empellon savory menu offerings.  Zing! Without a punch.  The afterglow hits just the right note of fresh and flavorful. Chocolate is velvety, the cinnamon sparks and the streusel is served like graham cracker crumbs. 

The Bunuelos are like sparkly pillows made all the more heavenly with warm caramel sauce…

 

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo in style.  Go to Empellon for the special Prix Fixed Menu: four courses and open bar. Seatings are 6 ($70) and 8:30 pm. ($85). Chef Alex will keep the integrity of the menu for the celebration.

Return again and again for the variety and excitement of the delicious food waiting to be discovered at Chef Alex’s powerful and compelling Empellon.  Hey, no pushing! There's plenty of delicious food for everybody!

Empellon serves Lunch, Dinner, and Brunch. 

The restaurant is open 5pm to 2 am.

230 West 4^th Street at 10^th St. near 7^th Avenue South

New York, NY

212-367-0999

 Don't call him a molecular gastronomist.: An article from: Art Culinaire

It's Official

“It’s official.” 

I started this entry almost two months ago.

 

I got my damaged, useless, hard drive returned from the second of the companies who bill themselves as experts in retrieving information from damaged hard drives. 

It's official.  It is dead.  Nothing more they could do.

I feel so betrayed, by data doctors, the first company who sweet-talked me all the way through a month, my account rep Kelly cooing and reassuring me that “It looks good, they are sending out for more equipment.”  And “Looks good, starting testing.”

And so on. 

Just like someone nervously waiting and clinging to every word the doctor administers to the attendant family members while their loved one lays in the recovery room, I am fearful and at the same time, understandably hopeful. 

I hear “Looking good” as the constant refrain.  I hang on those words. That’s not surprising is it?

This goes on until I get a call on my mobile a hot afternoon in late July.  I recognize the Arizona area code by now. I’m driving so I pull over, foreboding.  When I hear a man on the other end, rather than my soothing Kelly, I know it is bad.  I should’ve hung up.

This new persona informs me there is nothing more they can do.  Dead. Morte. 

I say I can’t believe it.  Where’s Kelly?  Thinking she might be my rabbit’s foot, I resort to the known, the familiar.  This pronouncement of finality is more than I can manage. 

I refuse to believe there is nothing that can be done.  “What if there were state secrets on there? Or the cure for cancer?”  I had invented a litany of “what if “scenarios that could be most catastrophic and momentous to the world unless retrieved. 

To me, nothing was more important to me than my book.  And my pictures. 

But I was trying to appear more concerned with the welfare of the world and how a situation I describe could indeed happen and they just needed to take measures now to save the world.

Reality like this crash never really settles in. I had to ignore the “Why me?” explorations and blaming myself and wanting to turn back the hands of time…

I had already started to rewrite the chef’s profiles for the book, “Homegrown Long Island.”

I couldn’t let this disaster get in the way of publishing the book.

I owed it to the noble chefs, their farmers and gardeners and fishermen and herders and dairymen. 

And to my family and friends.  To my garden design clients. 

So many people had supported me throughout the process of the concept – securing the first publisher in 2002, getting the green light from Voyageur in 2008, the contract in 2009, the selection of New York City and Garden State and Hampton chefs in 2009 and 2010, and the change in direction or switch to expand the Hampton and to make the first book focus on Long Island. And to make the book about the New York City chefs, that was such a completed work by last November when the change was made, the second book. 

I’d come so far. I couldn’t let this crash derail the integrity of the project.

I had to complete the chef’s profiles for the book.

As I said, we did try another data recovery company and while they read to me from the same soothing script about doing the “testing,” “looking good,” blah, blah… I knew better than to be lulled.  While we had to try – figuring it is always necessary to secure the second opinion before declaring it terminal– it was useless. I knew. Dead is dead. 

(When this is all over, I swear I want to work with some techies to develop some way there can be a gas gauge kind of meter to alert the user that the hard drive is heading for the cemetery.  There must be a way.) 

Immediately, I had started writing from the very beginning.

Meanwhile, almost a month had passed since disaster struck. 

My wonderful, kind editor gave me an extension to September 15^th.

 

I had 15 chefs to write about. 

The profiles offer an intimate look into what makes these sterling chefs the leaders of the local food movement.  And such outstanding cooks. 

The profiles chronicle how they doggedly got to the elevated, joyful, frustrating and rewarding position they are in today.  How they give back to their communities.  How they nurture and develop local food sources to meet their exacting standards. How they respect their terroir and their food relationships.  And oh, how they can combine ingredients to create such amazing, over the top culinary art. 

It was a very tall order to honor them.  Even with a lot more time to do it.  Now I had to crunch.

In terms of writing the profile, it is a four-step process for me.

From the notes I took for every chef interview I write the profile overview – a more fully- fleshed out outline, if you will. 

Next, I add to the overview draft from the digital recordings I made during the interview.  Whether on the phone or in person, the recordings help me capture the nuance that is part of a shared conversation. 

Plus my handwriting is so bad and I get so swept up in the interview that oftentimes when I return to the notes, I have to ask myself, “What does that say?” 

It’s a little like putting together a puzzle.  More so for step three, which is putting the text into some kind of order that makes sense – chronologically, mainly.

Then I have to think. Dream.  What makes this chef and his or her vision so unique?  Why are they leaders in the fork to table or fin to table movement? 

They offered me a very personal look into their culinary art -- what compels them to create delicious food that is full of local flavors – and to want to share their gastronomic alchemy.

The profile narrative has to be sweet to read.  So interesting for the reader to want to learn more about each chef and their unique story.

Then I write.

And write and write. 

It wasn’t always pretty… The process was filled with more drama and not a few frustrations.  I am hoping I will look back at the time and laugh.

It’s too raw to laugh yet….

It's Official also, that I can report the Manuscript is complete! 

I prevailed.  With help from family – mainly my talented, academy-award winning cousin Maryann who read through the profiles, offering input and support on the individual narratives, I made the September 15^th manuscript deadline!  (Those email exchanges could be a book unto itself – the give and take and learning on both sides...) 

The profiles are now in the hands of the chefs for them to fact check. 

I am now rendering the gardens and farms into the watercolor art for the book and securing the plant lists and the four recipes from each chef.

Getting the manuscript written in time for the deadline was a huge, seemingly impossible task given the amount of time, or lack thereof, the work that had to be done for the extended photography sessions where we photograph the chef in their inspired garden or farm with their farmer or gardener friend, in the kitchen cooking, and of the plated food. 

And a myriad of other issues and things to tend to in this, the hottest summer on record in the northeast.

Now that the manuscript is completed, I can take the time to chronicle the making of the book. 

It’s been more than an adventure, I can assure you! 

So now I can start the Prequel.

Catching up with the book

Today is my first posting about writing my first book.  

I had every intention of doing this much earlier - years ago, in fact.  

Maybe because we just came home from seeing "Julie & Julia" at the cinema or maybe I seemingly have more time now (more about that later), but I was determined to launch writing about the book today.

The soon (too soon?!) to be published book started as a concept in early 2002.  At that time, I was most interested in how the garden inspires artists -- all artists: musicians, painters,  fashion designers, cinematographers, writers, photographers and .... But most significantly, culinary artists, because they so obviously utilize the bounty of the garden to create their own art.  

So I thought a book franchise might start there --exploring the art of the garden from the perspective of how provocative and compelling a garden is to the creativity of  artistic endeavor.  

And it was!  I was over the moon when I was able to secure a publishing contract at that time for the book, "Celebrity Chefs & Their Gardens."  But then, all too soon, that publisher said there were too many garden books on the market and we needed to wait.  

For me?  Other opportunities arrived and I put the book concept on the shelf, so to speak. 

 

I had a new publisher interested in 2007 and we worked through the concept throughout 2008.  

At the same time, the world of gardening changed. A lot. Increasingly, gardeners were focusing more on growing their own food.  More and more, community gardens were turning from ornamental plants to vegetables and fruits.  Food scares and concerns about the safety of our food were news headlines!  Michael Pollan and Alice Waters were becoming icons for what seemed to be a growing (sorry) movement..

So I could feel the book subtly migrate to explore and learn about the unique chefs that celebrated not just the art of the garden but the integrity and tradition and purity of the garden and what that meant to our culture.  

I set out to identify those "celebrity chefs" who I now prefer to refer to as master chefs or noble chefs, who are leaders in marrying culinary art with garden art in an almost truer sense.  They grow their own food for the restaurant, their gardens do indeed inspire their work in the kitchen, and/or they elevate their local farmers and growers as partners in their pursuit of truly fine dining.  Menus imbued with seasonal, fresh local food. Not imported. Not exotic in the old way.  

I hoped these chefs, these culinary artists, could illuminate how they heroically changed the way we think about dining, about food, about nutrition.  They helped lead a revolution - a movement.  It soon became about lifestyle and politics too.

The book contract was finalized around Christmas 2008. I was so honored and so excited.  The book is to be published for spring 2010.

This will be the story of how that book came about, my overture to the chefs, my interview adventures (and there have been some epic tales!) and securing the perfect lineup of celebrity, er, noble chefs. And  finding the most wonderful photographer, food stylist and of course, working with a fantastic and supportive editor.  

Whenever I tell my friends and family about the chefs and their philosophy, not to mention the struggles and "triumphs" to coordinate all the elements of the book, they love it. I hope you do too. It is so exciting to learn from these culinary leaders.  

This first book focuses on chefs from New York City, the Hamptons and the Garden State.  I will share the list of chefs later...  

(Tell me who you would nominate to include in the book?)

I hope you will enjoy this story....