Table Talk » Miscellaneous Archives

January 17, 2010

Something different for Valentine's Day: Love, Lust, and Desire

I'm taking a break from the usual food-related posts to tell you about an upcoming art exhibit that features three pieces made by one of my clients. Claire Larrabee makes jewelry unlike anything that I've ever seen. It's beautiful and it makes you think. Three of Claire's pieces are featured in McGowan Fine Arts upcoming exhibit called Love, Lust, and Desire. McGowan calls it a low fat alternative for your sweetheart just in time for Valentine's Day. The exhibit features over 50 artists showing works that are 11 x 8 or smaller!

These are Claire's pieces featured in this exhibit


It's Complicated Claire Larrabee Mixed Media Necklace	Tangled Up In Love Claire Larrabee Mixed Media Bracelet

Cool Passion Claire Larrabee Mixed Media Necklace

You can see more of Claire's designs at Seafire Design. I get to see her newest pieces every few weeks.

Posted January 17, 2010 6:25 PM | Comments (1)

April 1, 2009

Playing with food

I wanted to do something fun with food as April Fools' Day treat for my April 1st client. My searches for April Fools' Day food came up with some pretty gross stuff, like kitty litter cake. Gack, just looking at a picture of kitty litter cakes makes me feel ill. Just when I was about to give up, Google led me to sweet sushi from the Brownie Points blog. Hey, I can do that. And more importantly, it uses real food and I can make it gluten-free and dairy-free, which my April 1 client requires.

The recipe starts with rice krispy treats. OK, that's butter, marshmallows, and crisped rice cereal. Or in my case Earth Balance Buttery Sticks, Kraft mini marshmallows, and Erewhon Rice Twice cereal. I'm sure I made rice krispy treats with my mom when I was a kid, but I've only made them once as an adult and I didn't have fun. The mixture was like boiling hot cement. So I really wasn't looking forward to the rice krispy treat part of this recipe. But, it surprised me. I don't know if the ingredient ratio was different from my last attempt, but these were easy to mix and handle. It probably helped that I used a huge pot (6 qt). The recipe on the Brownie Points blog calls for using a 1" round cookie cutter to cut the rice krispy treasts. I used to have a small round biscuit cutter, but I never used it so it went to Goodwill last summer. I thought I could simply use a 1" cardboard circle as a template to cut the cylinders, but that didn't work. The still warm mixture didn't hold its shape when cut this way. Ugh, what to do. Hey, can I roll the mixture into long cylinders and cut them into small segments? Yes! That worked. The still warm mixture was easy to roll into cylinders. I coated my hands with the Earth Balance to do this step. If I ever make this again, I'll buy a 1" round cutter because it would have been faster and my rice krispy rolls had smooth tops from being sliced. Ideally, you want the bumpy rice krispy top. More about that later.

I really wish I had more pictures of the entire process. I had to work quickly and didn't have time to stop for many photos.

Here are my rice krispy rolls.

Next up, dipping the rolls in chocolate. The Brownie Points recipe has you add green and black food coloring to the chocolate to mimic the color of the nori. But there was no way that I was going to add food coloring to my beautiful 72% dark chocolate. After dipping the rolls, I popped them in the fridge to set up.

How do I dip them? Well, my method is not elegant, but it works. It involves toothpicks and a fork. The fork's job is to be a spatula. Stab what will be the top of the roll with a toothpick. Dip bottom and sides of roll in chocolate. Let excess drip off. Hold the dipped roll so it looks like a lollipop (toothpick held between thumb and index finger, dipped roll pointing straight up. Hold it with your nondominant hand. With the fork in your dominant hand, place the fork under the undipped part of the roll. Roll is now sitting on fork, toothpick is between tines of fork. Pull toothpick out off roll. Use fork as spatula and place on wax paper covered rack or baking sheet. This is where I should have pulled out the mini video camera. But I was elbow deep in chocolate before I thought of that.

The next step is dipping the tops in white chocolate and topping each with a dried papaya square. The papaya needs to be cut up and ready to go when you start dipping because the melted chocolate is the glue that makes the papaya stay in place. So cut up your papaya squares as your white chocolate is melting. Since I sliced rolls of rice krispy treat mixture into cylinders rather than cutting them out with a cookie cutter, my pieces were totally flat. I think they would look better if they had some of the bumpy texture of the rice cereal. Next time! I didn't want to handle the chocolate covered rolls, so I stabbed the bottom of each roll with a toothpick and used the toothpick to dip the top of the roll in the white chocolate. I pulled the roll off the toothpick, set it on a wax paper covered rack, and plunked the papaya on top.

Here are the dark chocolate dipped rolls waiting to get dipped in the white chocolate.

And the finished sushi!

This was a fun project. A little messy, but so what. And my client loved them.

Posted April 1, 2009 8:47 PM | Comments (1)

February 26, 2009

Top Chef 5: it's a wrap

I wanted Carla to win and I think she could have if she hadn't let Casey influence her so much. My heart sank when Casey said sous vide. What a huge mistake! Carla didn't need the judges to tell her what she did wrong, she knew.

Once that went down, I was sure that Stefan would clinch it. Stefan skills are top-notch. It cracked me up when Stefan picked Marcel but said something about Marcel being a jerk (I can't remember his exact word, but whatever it was, it described Stefan to a T). Ohmigod, that dessert was so ugly. It looked like 1980s bad wedding food. Stefan's squad looked luscious. I wanted to reach through the TV and get me some of that. I knew that he would rock the alligator challenge that Hosea threw at him. Stuff like that doesn't phase him.

Hosea was a surprise. I find him unmemorable. Maybe it's not him but it's because Top Chef's coverage of him has been all about his whining. Did he actually win any challenges? He did put out the best meal last night and that's what it comes down to.

Posted February 26, 2009 9:36 AM | Comments (1)

February 1, 2009

Gluten Alert: Heinz says that their organic ketchup IS NOT gluten-free

Given the recent news about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) containing mercury, if you are a Heinz ketchup user, you might have switched to Heinz Organic Ketchup to avoid HFCS. I just learned that unlike Heinz original ketchup, Heinz organic ketchup is not gluten-free. So if you need to be gluten-free, stay away from this HFCS-free ketchup.

Posted February 1, 2009 6:12 PM | Comments (0)

October 7, 2008

My entry for the HP laptop giveway on CookingForEngineers.com

HP is giving away 15 laptops at 15 different web sites. Here's my entry for the CookingforEngineers.com site.

Posted October 7, 2008 6:59 PM | Comments (1)

September 28, 2008

Gluten-free culinary heaven (part 3)

The last day of the Gluten-Free Culinary Summit was a Hands-On Holiday Baking session. We worked in groups of four or five. Each session started with a demonstration of the recipe, then we worked on it at our tables while the instructor walked through the room offering advice. We didn't bake any of the recipes we made, we were learning how to mix and form the doughs.

Holiday baking isn't complete without sugar cookies. So, first up was Chef Wendy Vietro, Pastry Chef/Owner of Ursula's European Pastries (Cranston, RI). Chef Vietro demonstrated Traditional Holiday Sugar Cookies. After her demonstration, each table mixed a batch of the sugar cookie dough. Wendy gave us some great tips about working with the dough. Her tips included making sure that the butter was very soft before mixing the dough. This helps avoid a crumbly dough. She also showed us a "cheat" for rolling out the dough: rolling pin rings. I've seen pictures of these but I've never seen them in use. My favorite rolling pin is tapered so the rings won't work on it. I'll have to get a new rolling pin to try them. Chef Vietro also told us how to use this recipe to make Russian Tea Cookies and also a pistachio coated thumbprint. She shared how she grinds nuts in a Zyliss rotary grater. What a great tip. Chef Vietro's dough went together easily and was easy to roll out and cut. At the end of the session we all received a package of cookies made with the sugar cookie dough.

Our second demonstration was presented by Chef Lee Tobin of Whole Foods Market Gluten-Free Bakehouse. Chef Tobin demonstrated a Gluten-Free Raspberry Linzertorte. This linzertorte has a hazelnut-based crust, but it can be made with walnuts or almonds. A tip that Chef Tobin gave us was to toss the cubes of cold butter with a bit of the flour to keep the butter from sticking to itself when you cut it in. We were also instructed to form the dough into a round before rolling it out. And to roll the dough out on parchment. The linzertorte has a bottom crust that is spread with raspberry jam, then topped with a lattice crust. For this session, the dough was already made; we rolled out the bottom crust and placed it in the tart pan, spread it with the raspberry filling, then rolled out the top crust and cut it into the strips for the lattice and placed the lattice on top of the filling. Rather than making a large tart, we can use this dough to make thumbprint cookies. At the end of the session, we all got a small piece of the tart to try. It was delicious!

Next up was Judith Mann, owner of Good JuJu Bakery (S. Yarmouth, MA), to demonstrate a Holiday Braided Cinnamon Fruit Bread, which she said was like a fruit cake, only better. This dough had yeast to help it rise in the oven. It was scented with cinnamon and studded with dried fruit. She included instructions for mixing in a stand mixer or mixing by hand. Our group mixed it by hand. The dough was very thick and hard to mix (I did most of the hand mixing). When I make this, I'll mix it in the stand mixer. The bread is braided, but rather than braiding ropes of dough, the bread is made in a La Forme braided loaf pan. I'm not a fan of traditional fruit cake, but this bread was delicious. I was thinking about what a great peanut butter sandwich it would make.

You can't have holidays with pies, so in our last session, Chef Renee Zonka from Kendall College demonstrated Traditional Pie Crust. Her crust is made with both butter and shortening. What I loved about this demo is that Chef Zonka went through the ingredients in a pie crust and described why she choose each of the ingredients in her gluten-free pie crust. Her pie crust uses both butter and shortening and she freezes the butter and shortening. Rather than white rice flour, she uses sweet rice flour, which is finer ground and less gritty than white rice flour. Her flour mixture also includes sorghum flour, which has properties similar to wheat flour. Xanthan gum pulls the dough together, vinegar softens the dough, and baking powder lightens the dough. I've made gluten-free pie crusts and I've never been 100% happy with them. I'm looking forward to working with this recipe. Another thing I learned is that when I cut the fat into the flour mixture, I've been working it too much. I need to leave larger bits of fat in the dough. At the end of this demonstration, we got pieces of a baked crust to try. It was light and flaky. Much better that the gluten-free crusts that I've made before.

These baking demonstrations were great. It was fun to get our hands on the doughs to see what they should feel like and to get tips from the chefs to help us to improve our gluten-free baking. It's one thing to watch a demonstration, but when you get to participate, you learn so much more.

Again, Suzanne Bowland of GF Culinary Productions, Inc. did an outstanding job organizing and running this conference. I left the conference with so much knowledge and inspiration. I plan to attend future summits. Thanks Suzanne, for the incredible opportunity to learn from the presenters and the attendees.

Posted September 28, 2008 6:23 PM | Comments (2)

September 27, 2008

Gluten-free culinary heaven (part 2)

One week ago I was enjoying a gluten-free feast as part of the Gluten-Free Culinary Summit. The theme of the Gala dinner was "For the Love of Gluten-Free Italian Cuisine". Seriously, it was the best meal that I've had in recent history.

Here's the menu:

Farinata
Chef Walter Potenza, Walter's Ristorante d'Italia
A chickpea bread with herbs. We drizzled it with olive oil. Everyone wanted more, but alas, there was only one piece per person. That was a good thing because the feast was just beginning. The bread was dense, about an inch thick. Chickpea flour has a distinct, but delicious taste. It's very common in Italian households. I want to make this bread for my dad. His family is from Sicily. He loves chickpeas, but I don't know if he's ever had a bread like this.

Antipasti
Italian Sausage and Porcini Zuppa with Roasted Polenta
Chef Lee Tobin, Whole Foods Gluten-Free Bakehouse
This rustic soup was perfectly seasoned. A bowl of this would make a hearty lunch or dinner. The delicious broth was swimming with bits of sausage, mushrooms, vegetables, and cubes of polenta. Our table finished every last bit.

Roasted Artichoke Dip with Bread Crumb Topping
Carol Fenster, Cookbook Author
Who doesn't love artichoke dip? It was served with zucchini rounds and red pepper slices. Garlicky and delicious.

Secondo
Braised Chicken with Sicilian Olives and Tiny Potatoes
Jacquline Mallorca, Cookbook Author

Chianti Braised Short Ribs with Creamy Parmesan Polenta
Chef Robert Landolphi, University of Connecticut

Seared Mushroom, Pea, and Carrot Risotto Cake with Spicy Tomato Relish and Goat Cheese
Chef Joef Schaefer, Walt Disney World Resort

We thought that we would each have to pick one of these dishes and everyone was struggling with that decision, but, when it was time for this course, they announced that these dishes would be served family-style so that we could try each one. What a relief! The chicken and short ribs were served family-style and everyone was served a dish with a small risotto cake. It's hard to say which dish was my favorite. Each was beautifully executed. I think I'll give a slight edge to the short ribs. But then again, I would be delighted to be served the chicken or the risotto cake over and over again.

Dolci
Chocolate Molten Cake
Chef Richard Coppedge, The Culinary Institute of America

Tiramisu Trifle
Pastry Chef Mary Schaefer, Walt Disney World Resort

Fruit Sorbets
The Biltmore

The desserts were presented as bite-sized, which was perfect after this rich and delicious meal. The chocolate cake melted in my mouth. The tiramisu was redolent with espresso. The hotel provided adorable molded fruit sorbets for diners who could not have the dairy or eggs in the other desserts.

I wish I had written this last week when the meal was fresh in my mind. I hope that we will get the recipes from dinner because these dishes are ones that I would love to make at home and for my clients.

This dinner was outstanding and proof that gluten-free food does not have to be plain or boring. Dinner was a celebration of deliciously prepared gluten-free food. The diners loved every bite.

Part 3 will cover Sunday's hands-on holiday baking session.

Posted September 27, 2008 8:05 PM | Comments (1)

September 22, 2008

Gluten-free culinary heaven (part 1)

I had the pleasure of attending two days of the Gluten-Free Culinary Summit this past weekend. I couldn't attend all three days because on Friday I was flying home from vacation.

Suzanne Bowland of GF Culinary Productions did an outstanding job of organizing and running the summit. For her, it is truly a labor of love. The summit presentations focused on an abundance of delicious gluten-free food. The presenters and attendees offered delicious recipes and tips. The room was always abuzz with positive energy and excitement about good food.

Saturday started with Jacqueline Mallorca, author of The Wheat-Free Cook, presenting an overview of the future of gluten-free gastromony, then headed right into cooking demos complete with tastings.

In a session titled Paradise Found Celebrating the Art of Gluten-Free Desserts, Chef Dean Lavornia demonstrated a Honey Pecan Tart with a Gingerbread Crust. It would be a perfect Thanksgiving dessert. Like pecan pie, only better. It was very sweet, but delicious. The gingerbread crust was perfect. Chef Lavornia told us how to use the crust recipe to make graham crackers, gingerbread house parts, and gingerbread cookies. Pecan pie and similar desserts are too sweet for me to eat more than a bite or two. Our tasting pieces were 1 1/2 inch squares and that was perfect for me. I know that I'm going to be using the gingerbread crust recipe.

Next, Chef Joel Schaefer, Manager of Product Development & Special Diets for Walt Disney World, presented a session called Much Ado About Dumplings! When I think of dumplings, I think of Chinese dumplings, dim sum, etc. But Chef Shaefer's demonstration was for Chicken and Dumpling Soup. It wasn't Chinese dumplings, but it was delicious. The dumplings were gluten-free, egg-free, and dairy-free. Perfect comfort food. I wanted a bowl of this for lunch.

Chef Robert Landolphi, Director of Culinary Operations at UCONN, presented Brave New Bisques and Breadings. Chef Landolphi made Creamy Shrimp Bisque, which used rice rather than a roux to thicken the bisque. I was really happy when I saw this soup on the lunch buffet. While the soup was simmering, he demoed Tri-Spiced Onion Rings with Horseradish Dipping Sauce. The room was buzzing with excitement about the onion rings. Many of the attendees had not had onion rings in years and were delighted to have an onion ring recipe that they could eat. The batter used gluten-free beer. The breading was spiked with chili powder and cumin. The dipping sauce sour cream, ketchup, seasoned salt, horseradish, cayenne, and paprika. It could easily be made dairy-free by using soy sour cream. When the samples were passed out, there was silence in the room, then a collective sigh of contentment. I know a lot of people will be making onion rings at home this week. Chef Landolphi talked a lot about the special diet operations at UCONN. It was impressive. Every cafeteria provides gluten-free options so students are not limited to eating in just one cafeteria. Every item in the cafeteria is labeled with potential allergens so that students don't have to ask about every item. Gluten-free snacks and cereals are available in a special case at all times. UCONN works hard to make students with special diet needs feel normal.

Lori Sobelson of Bob's Red Mill walked us through many recipes in a 30-page booklet of gluten-free recipes provided by her company. One recipe that she talked about, a hazelnut quinoa salad, was one of the dishes included in our lunch on Sunday. Quinoa, hazelnuts, red grapes, and green onions with a strawberry-balsamic dressing. It was light and refreshing.

The last session on Sunday was presented by Chef Walter Potenza. Chef Potenza demoed three dishes: Castagnaccio (flat chestnut cake), farinata (similar to polenta, but made using chickpea flour), and Tortino di cioccolato et bieta rossa (chocolate and red beets molten tart). The tart was made with Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake mix. The only "added" sugar in the cake was in the bittersweet chocolate and 2 tablespoons of strawberry spreadable fruit. The recipe makes 12 servings and includes 1/2 cup beet puree. I love beets, but you would never know that there are beets in this cake. This was the recipe we tasted in this session. It was the hit of the day. I'm making plans to make this cake for some of my clients.

At the end of these sessions, there was a question and answer time with all of the presenters. Any questions that didn't get answered during the sessions were answered. Presenters and attendees offered lots of advice during this session.

And that was just the beginning. Saturday ended with a four-course gluten-free dinner. More about that in Part 2.

Posted September 22, 2008 11:48 AM | Comments (0)

September 21, 2008

It feels great to cook again

I was on the road from September 9th until just a few hours ago. A 10-day motorcycle trip out west with Tom followed by 2 days at a gluten-free culinary conference with Marcy. More about both of those later. So since breakfast on September 9th, I've eaten every single meal away from home.

When I got home tonight, I was delighted to learn that Tom had picked up some chicken (and green beans!) so I could make one of our favorite dinners. Spicy Chicken Cutlets Boneless chicken breasts rubbed with a mixture of 3 types of paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, and basil, then seared in olive oil. The pan is deglazed with cider vinegar, tomato sauce is stirred into the pan and the chicken is simmered until cooked through. Easy and delicious.

It felt really good to be back at the stove.

Spicy Chicken Cutlets

Posted September 21, 2008 8:34 PM | Comments (2)

June 8, 2008

Making music with vegetables

I thought vegetables were for eating, but today I discovered that they are also for making music. Check out the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra. They make instruments from vegetables and play concerts. I love that some of the leftover vegetables that are used to make the instruments are used to make vegetable soup that is served to the audience after the concert.

Posted June 8, 2008 7:25 PM | Comments (1)

April 14, 2008

What, no shallots in the house?

I just read about these Caramelized Shallots on the Smitten Kitchen blog. I want to dive into this dish. Right now. Damn, I don't have any shallots in the house. Not a one. Last week I had a pile of shallots. Why did I use them all? Why don't I have an emergency shallot supply?

Posted April 14, 2008 9:26 PM | Comments (0)

January 5, 2008

Mini Pie Revolution Roundup

Be sure to check out the results of the Mini Pie Revolution blog event. My mini lemon meringue pie is shown in the center of the mini pie revolution collage of entries. The roundup includes a brief description of each submission and an announcement of the winner. All of the pies look delicious.

It's fun to participate in events like this. I love seeing what other participants do. I've made only sweet mini pies, but entries like this cornmeal crusted tomato tarts inspire me to try some savory mini pies.

Posted January 5, 2008 1:50 PM | Comments (1)

December 24, 2007

My contribution to the Mini Pie Revolution

Ann and Karyn over at The Mini Pie Revolution Headquarters are seeking to liberate the world from cupcake oppression by taking cupcake pans and using them to make mini pies. You already know that I am a fan of mini desserts. I read about the Mini Pie Revolution on Serious Eats just after making my mini pumpkin chiffon pies.

Since Christmas is tomorrow, and Christmas means desserts, and I have a thing for mini desserts, and my dad loves lemon meringue pie. I made Mini Lemon Meringue Pies.

OK, so before these pies, I've made pie crust twice in my life and both times were in the past month, and those pie crusts were gluten-free for one of my clients. I knew that the biggest challenge of making these mini lemon meringue pies would be figuring out how to work the miniature pie crusts. I decided to use foil cupcake pans to bake my pies. Why? Because I knew that if I had trouble getting the baked crusts out of the pan, I could use my kitchen scissors and release the crusts from the pans. My first attempt at the crusts was a wreck. Sorry, no picture. The crusts shrunk down to nothing. For Take 2, I did a better job of pricking holes in the crusts and I also placed a paper muffin cup liner inside each pie and filled it with dry beans to weigh down the crust. My second set of mini pie crusts didn't shrink. Yay!

I made a simple lemon filling, which I let cool then refrigerated for a few hours. I went back and forth about adding the meringue topping tonight or waiting until tomorrow, but I didn't want to have to haul all the meringue makings to my parents' home, so I did the meringue tonight. I've made meringue before to mix in to a recipe, but I've never made a meringue-topped pie. The meringue recipe has you whip in a bit of cornstarch once stiff peaks form. A mini pie doesn't give you a lot of room to make a beautifully swirled meringue top (at least not if you have my meringue spreading skills). But it was easy to spread the meringue on the mini pies. The meringue browned nicely after about 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

lemon meringue pie

Posted December 24, 2007 9:19 PM | Comments (5)

November 5, 2007

Eww, Spray Can Pancakes and Waffles

What will they think of next? How about Batter Blaster, which is a spray can filled with pancake/waffle batter.

Ewwwwwww. It's just wrong.

Posted November 5, 2007 5:50 PM | Comments (1)

October 15, 2007

National Meatloaf Day

The folks at Serious Eats have declared October 18th to be National Meatloaf Appreciation Day. On October 18th, I'll be making my favorite meatloaf for one of my clients. I love traditional ground beef meatloaf, but all of my favorite meatloaves are made with ground lamb. The one I chose for National Meatloaf Appreciation Day is a great company meatloaf, but it is also easy enough to make for every day.

Both in my house and with my clients, meatloaf is not cold-weather food. I make it year round. It's good hot and cold. I always make huge meatloaves so that there are plenty of leftovers. One of my clients has me make meatloaf almost every time I cook for his family.

My favorite meatloaf is based on Lamb Spiral Loaf Stuffed with Feta and Mint from The Weekend Chef by Barbara Witt. Since I can never leave a recipe alone, I turned it into Lamb Spiral Loaf Stuffed with Spinach, Feta, and Mint.

I love making this meatloaf. You mix chopped red onion, minced garlic, fresh parsley, dried oregano, cumin, egg, salt, pepper, and ground lamb. Then spread it out on a sheet of foil into a large rectangle. Cover the surface with wilted baby spinach, feta, and chopped fresh mint, then use the foil to help you roll it up like a jelly roll. Bake it on a broiler pan to 160 degrees F. I always want to cut it immediately to see the spinach feta spiral, but it is better to wait 10 minutes before cutting it. For a dinner party, I serve it with a sauce made from diced tomatoes, red wine, mint, and oregano. For weeknight meals, I serve it without the sauce. It is delicious either way. It just came out of the oven. I can't wait to try it.

Here it is.

Lamb Spiral Loaf Stuffed with Spinach, Feta, and Mint

I use a probe thermometer when I cook it, so it always comes out moist. The combination of lamb, feta, spinach, and mint is exquisite. This meatloaf forms a delicious crust. Gotta go, my meatloaf is calling me.

Posted October 15, 2007 8:13 PM | Comments (1)

August 28, 2007

Little Trees (this is not about broccoli)

Where have I been? Well one reason for my absence is that Tom and I took a motorcycle trip to the White Mountains and Vermont.

This has nothing to do with food or cooking, but I can't resist sharing my favorite photo from our trip. While riding through Berlin, NH, we came upon a manufacturing plant for Little Trees. We love goofy roadside attractions, so we had to stop and take this picture.

As we pulled into the parking lot, we were surrounded by the overwhelming smell of Little Trees. I can't imagine how strong it must smell inside the building.

Posted August 28, 2007 1:44 PM | Comments (1)

May 18, 2007

PCN Personal Chef of the Year

Wow! My fellow personal chefs at Personal Chefs Network honored me with the 2007 Golden Whisk Award for Personal Chef of the Year.

The award was announced last week at the end of the PCN convention. Since we didn't go to the convention, some of my local PCN buddies and I got together for lunch on the last day of the convention. We were finishing up our lunch when Sharon Worster, the CEO of PCN, called me to tell me that I was the PCN Personal Chef of the Year. I was speechless. My friends made so much of a commotion that that everyone in the dining room wanted to know what was going on. Since I couldn't be at the convention this year, it was wonderful to share this moment with my PCN buddies. It really hasn't completely sunken in. My prize, a red Artisan stand mixer, arrived today. It screams "you're a winner!" There's a plaque on the way too. It will hang in my office next to my 2005 Golden Whisk Award for New Personal Chef of the Year.

I'm blessed to be part of such a great organization. PCN has been with me through all the ups and downs of my business. The cooking is the easy part of running a personal chef service. I'm sure that I wouldn't be in business if it weren't for what I have learned and shared with colleagues. They bring out the best in me. This is a solitary business. PCN truly encourages collaboration among its members. By helping each other, we help ourselves.

Posted May 18, 2007 12:13 PM | Comments (5)

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