Restaurant Recipes: Santa Barbara County - Ever wanted to know how restaurants make their dishes sooo delectable? Well, check out our series on chef’s recipes from the best restaurants in Santa Barbara County here! All recipes originally printed in Edible Santa Barbara magazine.
Vin Chaud: Heavenly Mulled Wine - I once attended Christmas Eve Mass in an old cathedral built in the 1100s in Lausanne Switzerland. What I loved the most about this was the musty, mystical feel of the church filled with villagers in the cold night, the fact that I could understand much of the sermon in French, and the vin chaud […]
Chateau Gruyeres + Gruyere Cheese = Swiss Heaven - The Castle of Gruyères — Château de Gruyères in French — is located in the tiny medieval town of Gruyères in the canton of Fribourg. It is one of the most famous places in Switzerland, not only for the castle and the historical town, but also for the cheese. Visiting Gruyères is a very Swiss experience. […]
Thank God It’s Foieday: Foie Gras Lives on in Dordogne, France - In Périgord, Dordogne France, it’s always foie day. It happens to be the foie gras capital of France (and the world), producing 90% of all foie consumed in France. And the French consume a lot of foie: 18,450 tons — 78.5% of the world’s estimated total production. This region also produces high-quality almost-Bordeaux wines at a fraction […]
Château Bouscassé: Wine Worthy of a Lover’s Last Night - Matching the right wine with specific foods/dinners can dramatically enhance both the food and the wine, as well as the dining experience. And sometimes your dinner company too. To accomplish this, the wine needs some acid, good balance and something interesting to offer for pairing — like a pleasing mix of spice, fruit aromas or bold […]
Culinary in the Country: Gourmet Food & Wine in North Carolina - There’s at least one winery in every state, but that doesn’t mean you should taste the local wine when you’re driving through Oklahoma. But in North Carolina, they’ve been slowly converting tobacco crops to grape vines over the last 10 years, thanks in part to an incentive by the state government to do so. In […]
Favorite Breakfast Now: Farro & Eggs - Breakfast/Brunch is probably my most favorite meal of the day. I love the morning sun, the smell of pork belly, coffee and mimosas. Levain sourdough toast with butter and strong coffee with cream is all I need to feel happy and well-fed. Add a fried egg on that and it’s gonna be a special day. […]
The Ham & High: Locally Sourced Ingredients in Montgomery - Montgomery Alabama is, as one would expect, full of down home cookin’ and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. Being from a central mid-western state myself, I loved the barbecue, mashed potatoes with mounds of butter, baked beans and hot dogs with all the fixin’s. And don’t forget the grits! But I was very excited to find […]
Wine Cocktail: White Peachy Bloody Mary - In the South, cold drinks are mandatory near the close of each work day…or maybe I should say just somewhere around 3 pm, when the day is at its hottest… and its humidest (and this is what humidity does to your brain in Alabama). This is featured in the new book The New Bloody Mary: […]
Txakolina: Basque Wine with the World’s Best Grilled Food - On my recent trip to Spain, I got to eat at the world famous Asador Etxebarri (Anthony Bourdain’s best meal of his life – and mine now too) in the middle of Basque country in Spain. Home of the world’s Grill Master Victor Arguinzoniz, he’s known for cooking with fire over coals and wood, and […]