Cookbooks

Three Thrills 2014 – Inspired Chef Dishes for Home Cooks

Chefs, Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes By January 14, 2015

Dining out or eating in the homes of friends and family, teaches me new techniques or ingredient combinations. They are dishes that send me home to develop my own spin, simplifying the creation if it’s complex, changing it just enough to make it approachable for home cooks without sacrificing flavor. Here are three of my 2014  FAVORITES (whittled down from…

Best Selling Author Mark Bittman Goes Vegan, Part Time

Chefs, Cookbooks, Recipes, Videos By May 29, 2013

Bittman’s lentil salad is delicious! No deprivation, honest! Mark Bittman is a part-time vegan. A columnist for the New York Times and author of the best-selling How To Cook Everything cookbooks, Bittman abstains from eating meat, dairy or processed foods until six every evening. Nix before six on alcohol, too. After six he eats what he likes, usually (but not…

Sitting Down with Martha Stewart

Celebrity Interviews, Chefs, Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes By December 6, 2011

I had a one-on-one interview with Martha before she taught a cooking class at Macy’s Home Store at South Coast Plaza.  People magazine had their fifteen minutes before I had mine. Martha was promoting her newest book,  “Martha’s Entertaining: A Year of Celebrations” by Martha Stewart (Clarkson Potter, $75, hardcover, 432 pages). I started our interview with a question about…

Pizzeria Mozza, Go There or Copycat at Home

Chefs, Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes By October 21, 2011

Butterscotch Budino with Caramel Sauce and Maldon Sea Salt … I could hardly wait. My mid-morning arrival was greeted with the cacophony of cooking. Entering Pizzeria Mozza in Newport Beach through the rear kitchen door, the preopening clatter of pots and knife-work blended with well-chosen words from busy workers. Freshly ground pork sausage formed an aromatic rope as it erupted…