A friend of mine dreamt that she could plug an Ethernet cable into a chocolate chip cookie and hear what was going on inside of the cookie’s mind. What a great dream. I’d love to dive inside the mind of a chocolate chip cookie. I wonder if there is a caste system among cookies? Are [...]

Several weeks ago I wrote the first in a series of columns that will chronicle the progress of our two-acre organic restaurant garden. Today’s update is brought to you by the Roma Tomato Growers Cooperative. There is a strong possibility I might have gotten carried away while planting our Roma tomatoes. A year ago we [...]

The two longest-running loves of my life have been food and music. Fads, trends, and people have come and gone, but my love for food and music are constants that have never changed. I spent countless hours of my youth in record stores looking at albums and listening to music. We didn’t have much money [...]

In the upcoming days you are going to read a lot about offshore drilling, oil slicks, and preventative measures that can be taken to prevent future spills. Do we need to drill offshore? If not, what do we do with the 3,500 oilrigs off of our nation’s coasts? If we take away that production (about [...]

I gave up carbonated beverages eight weeks ago. I don’t think I gave them up for good, but for the immediate future I am laying off of all soft drinks. Friends who know me well, don’t believe it. I have been a huge consumer of soft drinks all of my life. I was probably drinking [...]

Spring is the beginning of food season. Everything is coming alive. Winter is past, the first crops are coming out of the ground, and everything begins to taste earthy and vibrant. Spring brings fresh morel mushrooms and fiddlehead ferns. In spring, our environment begins to turn green, and our foods begin to turn green. Fresh [...]

I’ve worked in the restaurant business for 30 years. During the last 23 of those years I’ve owned restaurants. There have been a lot of exciting and challenging times in those two decades and there have been several key events that have changed or altered the course of our company, mostly for the better. However, [...]

“Many’s the long night I’ve dreamed of cheese— toasted mostly.”— Robert Louis Stevenson I live in a house full of cheeseaholics. My wife, 12-year old daughter, and eight-year old son’s palettes are much more refined when it comes to cheese. The man of the house might be the one getting them to try pork cheeks, [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the origins of food and certain dishes. I can usually trace most of the dishes I’m interested in, to meals I had in my youth. My culinary style— and most of the foods I’m interested in— comes from meals I remember eating at home, at relative’s homes, and [...]

A few short years ago a beautiful, young, and energetic, Latino mother of four drove by a building every day and dreamed of the restaurant she hoped to open there. The building wasn’t much to look at— a former convenience store that had housed several failed restaurants— but to this driven and determined lady it [...]