When you grab a head of romaine or packet of herbs at the supermarket, “it could’ve taken five to seven days” to go from the field to the store, says Paul Kneeland, VP of Produce and Floral for the 23 Kings Food Markets in New Jersey. Kneeland wanted to better that—and has, by a lot, with Local Fresh 24/7.

Stand-up comedian Esther Paik Goodhart of Demarest points to a grocery shelf stacked with Spam, calling it “the canned meat of our people.” Daughter of a Korean-American minister, Goodhart converted to Judaism and now teaches Hebrew school. Her schtick can't help but raise the question, Which people?

When Johnny McLaughlin was selling supplies to tattoo parlors (he sports “a significant amount” of ink himself), or eking out a living as a visual artist, he never imagined he would win the inaugural episode of CNBC’s new Crowd Rules.

Chef Patrick Yves Pierre-Jerome's food has been hailed almost everywhere he has cooked in his 30-year career. Yet he has endured too many days like the following: Arriving for work one day and discovering that the restaurant doors have been bolted shut.

What started as a one-time party thrown by a Good Ole Southern boy who was homesick and spice-deprived, has turned into a Jersey exclusive paying homage to the saucy rhythms and spicy flavors of the bayou.

Melody Kettle, who lives in Montclair, has something in common with Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, Chez Panisse, the French Laundry and even Georges Auguste Escoffier, "the king of chefs and the chef of kings." Each has been inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame.

Bavaria's fall festival gets all the ink, but Maifest rocks, too, with better weather! You can enjoy it here in NJ.

Chef Jose Garces likes to ride his long skateboard around Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, propelling himself with a land paddle called a Big Kahuna Stick. What’s more surprising than a 40-year-old skateboarding is that this Iron Chef and James Beard Award winner—whose empire includes three restaurants at the Revel in Atlantic City—has time for recreation.

Jeff Feldstein's career in marketing helped him spread the word when he launched Down to the Bone Barbecue & Company last spring. Still, it took old-fashioned shoe leather to get his bottled sauces into stores.

When chef Thomas Ciszak was growing up in Waltrop, Germany, near the Dutch border, it was common to see people buy a whole pickled herring from a street vendor, pick it up by the tail and down it in a single gulp.

Eating and reading both involve taking something in and digesting it. "I devoured that book," people will say. Turns out you can do that literally. April is when people who love books and baking put the two together in festivals that celebrate the art of the edible book, creating fanciful cakes that are anything but prosaic.

At Valley Shepherd Creamery in Long Valley, they are getting out the clippers. About 700 sheep need to be sheared this month, and you're welcome to pitch in. Sheep are giving birth, too, and you are welcome to cuddle the newborn lambs. And then, not least, there's the cheese.

As crocuses pop out of the ground this time of year, at Polonia Bakery in Passaic traditional Polish Easter babkas pop out of the oven in even greater profusion, and are gone just as quickly.

Coal and wood are the two most traditional fuels for pizza ovens. Each has its proponents, but in this era of gas ovens, neither is easy to find. A new restaurant makes pizza in both a coal oven and a wood oven. Try both kinds, and you be the judge.

Chestnuts make most of us think of street vendors hawking the hot, blackened nuggets during the holidays. Or Nat King Cole (more recently, Justin Bieber) singing, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at some rum." Okay, the lyrics didn't go quite that way. The point is, there is much more to chestnuts than our associations suggest.

The weekend of March 16-17, you can watch Frank Hennion and his tireless crew make maple syrup at Lusscroft Farm in Wantage, Sussex County. Feeling hardy? He needs volunteers to help set things up, starting now.

As a Jersey native, chef Barbi "Red" Newman has eaten her share of Philly cheesesteaks. But ever since her days as pastry chef of Chicago’s Ritz Carlton Hotel, Newman's heart has belonged to another city's hot sandwich--and now she's bringing it to New Jersey.

Spencer Rubin has been thinking like an entrepreneur since he was six years old, when his dad would take him fishing and Spencer had the idea of selling the dishes they made with their catch. Now, at 26, the Montclair native not only is the founder and managing partner of Melt Shop grilled cheese restaurants, but Forbes magazine has certified him in its annual list of "the entrepreneurial, creative and intellectual best of their generation."

What kind of eater are you? Whether upscale or down home, the fifth annual New Jersey Wine and Food Festival March 15-17 has you covered. New Jersey Monthly is a proud cosponsor...

Symbolically, I mean. Still, it's a nifty new twist to the same-ole-same-ole, and it does involve dipping something relatively large in a vat of molten chocolate...

Maybe it takes a man who was a picky eater as a child. ("I hated everything!") Maybe it takes a man who skipped his 2002 Rutgers graduation to go to Italy, and who came back telling everyone, "I need to learn how to cook." Whatever it takes, Dan Richer--owner of Razza in Jersey City and Arturo's in Maplewood--now bakes bread and churns butter that you don't blink an eye to pay $4 for. We caught up with him after a recent trip to Italy.

Whoever wins the game on Feb 3, gourmands have to like the spread—and I don't mean the point spread. I mean the beer, wine and food spread suggested by the two home cities, Baltimore and San Francisco. Here are some ideas from all-pro Jersey chefs and wine experts.

That was one of the more striking ideas floated last week by the owners of DeBragga & Spitler, the venerable meat purveyors, during a tour of their big, new facility in Jersey City. The owners, Marc Sarrazin, 57, and George Faison, 56, age beef in two refrigerated rooms. But they are anything but chill about the state of meat production in the U.S.

Dominique Filoni, executive chef of Avenue in Long Branch, grew up in the south of France foraging for wild leeks, exotic mushrooms and snails. But he has never hunted for truffles. “It is a very secretive process," he says. "And very competitive as well.” Pigs and dogs do the actual hunting. And though the animals aren't harmed, you have to feel sorry for them.

Denise Cerreta, an acupuncturist in Salt Lake City, used to run a café in the front of her clinic to make ends meet. One day in 2003, searching for a higher purpose in her life, she made a decision. "A huge energy came over me," she recalls. She had been thinking about "letting people price their own food," according to what they could pay. "The next person who walks through the door..." she told herself.

A decade later, the consequences of that decision, here in New Jersey and elsewhere, are astonishing.

Dana Marchione majored in Italian at Rutgers, studied two semesters in Italy, and moved there after graduation to teach English and work as an au pair for an Italian family. Back home, she missed the food and the language tremendously. Then one day, on the street in Hoboken, she overheard a young man speaking her beloved language. She turned, their eyes met...and well, that man is now her fiance.

“I guess now I know," she says, "why I spent all those years studying.”

Few holiday meals are as elaborate as the Southern Italian Christmas Eve festa, the Feast of the Seven Fishes, or La Vigilia, meaning The Vigil. For more about the feast, a recipe and my tribute in verse--and you thought I only cooked prose!--you'll just have to click.

The devastation Sandy wreaked along the Shore has been well documented. But the superstorm also pushed the Hudson River over the sea walls in Hoboken and Jersey City, damaging homes and businesses, including a large number of restaurants—many still recovering.

We’ve had Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Super Sunday and Cyber Monday, so why not a whole week devoted to delicious food gifts made right here in the Garden State? Call it NJ’s Delicacy Days. Dig in, folks, now you can eat local and give local…

Making scrumptious frosted cupcakes without butter, milk or eggs would seem like painting a beautiful sunset without red, orange or yellow pigments—you can create something, but not the real thing.

Well, I bit into a frosted cupcake from Pink Frosting Bakery in Verona, and I thought, "This...is vegan?! You've got to be kidding."

We Americans may feel we invented the deliciously flaky pies that will adorn our Thanksgiving tables, but like the Pilgrims themselves, the concept of sweets or savories wrapped in dough actually came from across the Pond. Thanks to the Pie Store in Montclair, all you have to do to serve one of these heritage creations is warm it up in the oven.

In Burlington 46-year-old Donna Hopkins clutched her dogs and cried uncontrollably as she waited in line at a local food pantry supplied by the Food Bank of South Jersey.

Says Food Bank SJ CEO Val Traore, “Food drives are helpful but money is better as we can get truckloads of nutrient-dense food from other parts of the country for pennies on the dollar."

The last sound I heard before the lights went out at 5 pm last Monday, October 29th, was the sizzle of a little boneless leg of lamb searing on my stovetop. It had been marinated in wine and fresh herbs, and it smelled marvelous. As it always does, that sizzle held so much promise, but this time it was not to be.

Serenity the state of mind is fine in its place, but right now the state of mind at the Serenity Cafe in Toms River is euphoria--and with good reason. Its chef/owner, Greg Manning, has won a national award from the readers of Cooking Light magazine: The Neighborhood Chef Award.

Vincent Price, the wicked voice of film horror for over half a century, once sprinkled Kermit the Frog with salt and threatened to gobble up his delicious legs. This might be a perfect example of the actor’s campy approach to the macabre, but few people realize that Price was actually a sophisticated gourmet and cookbook author.

At Pickle Licious, her all-things-pickle store in Teaneck, Robyn Samra sells chocolate-covered pickles, pickle-flavored gum and toothpaste, lifelike pickle Christmas tree ornaments and 28-inch inflatable pickles, not to mention at least eight kinds of actual pickles.

Say "Brazilian food" and you can't help but think "Rodizio," the all-you-can-eat skewered meat feast popular in restaurants in Newark's Ironbound. Rodizio is great fun, but it isn't the Brazilian food Ilson Goncalves grew up on in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. At his restaurant Samba Montclair, he recently showed me the real deal.

Julie Jacobson did her utmost to follow in her mother's footsteps. When she was 5, she took up her mother's instrument and style of music--classical piano--and followed a precocious path to the Juilliard School of Music. But something was missing.

The class Rama Ginde will teach on Oct. 9 will have “a very sexy vibe,” she says. “We want people to just have fun, enjoy, let loose. We want to show the connection between food and feelings, food and love.”

You know that Oktoberfest means beer, schnitzel and oom-pah bands. That is the easy part. But there is also a hard part, the part that separates the strong from the weak (regardless of gender). It requires steely determination and superhuman indifference to pain. It is Oktoberfest’s ultimate test. Masskrugstemmen!

When the Food Bank of South Jersey discovered that one local peach farm was tossing out nearly a million undersized and blemished peaches every season, the seeds of a brilliant idea began to germinate. The Campbell's Soup Company, based in Camden, had a lot to do with bringing the idea to fruition, no pun intended.

Cooking up dreams of running a highly-rated kitchen, restaurant or TV food show, people are applying in greater numbers to cooking schools. As two NJ students can attest, most are in for a kind of boot-camp experience with an ivy league price tag.

Kimarie Santiago, 34, a self-professed "salt junkie," makes magic with the world’s oldest flavor enhancer. Her latest creation is Krossed Keys, a rich black-truffle salt that she calls her “dirty habit.”

In Italy, you can have artichoke ice cream; in France creamy caviar. Asia pushes the limits with chili pepper, chicken wing and octopus flavors. One shop in Venezuela is even rumored to make spaghetti-and-cheese ice cream. But you don't have to risk jet lag to try bizarre, or just unexpected, ice creams. Here's where to find them in Jersey...

You all know the adage, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." On the first episode of the Food Network’s new season of Extreme Chef--Thursday, August 16th at 10 pm--Montclair chef Lance Knowling and his six competitors discover there is no escaping the heat. That's because their kitchen, if you can call it that, is actually the blazing California desert. Or, as the show calls it, "a post-apocalyptic wasteland."

Four to six times a week, year round, the James Beard Foundation in Manhattan holds small, exclusive dinners at which noted chefs are invited to cook. Since 1991, a total of 212 of these dinners have been presented by New Jersey chefs (more on this inside). The latest honoree is chef Corey Heyer of the four-diamond Bernards Inn in Bernardsville. The theme of the August 9 dinner is "Garden State Bounty."

Says Heyer, a Shore native, “All the items on this menu I have caught, harvested, picked, cooked, eaten and celebrated with.”

Hungry beachfront strollers in Sea Isle City tired of pizza and pork roll should flock to Baja Blend, a beachside grill with a healthy, delicious menu featuring items like fish tacos and Ahi tuna burgers.

When Kim Osterhoudt of Belle Mead holds a jam session, it involves no musical instruments. Instead, Osterhoudt, 56, owner of Jams by Kim, frees her creative juices to produce up to 18 flavors of all-natural, preservative-free, sweet and savory jams, jellies and preserves.

Odds are there will only be winners at the 2012 Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival, Thursday July 26th through Sunday July 29th. Rub elbows with Tom Colicchio of “Top Chef” fame, Food Network stars Paula Deen, Tyler Florence and Ann Burrell, the Travel Channel’s outrageous eater, Andrew Zimmern, and New Jersey’s own home-boy baker, Buddy Valastro, "The Cake Boss."

Independent filmmaker Aileen Bordman of West Orange brings a whole new meaning to the term culinary arts with her documentary, “Monet’s Palate: A Gastronomic View From the Gardens of Giverny.”

Clambakes--the delectable mix of steamed seafood, potatoes and corn--are almost as American as apple pie and hot dogs. Trouble is, done the traditional way, they're a lot of work. Now here is what in the tech world they call a workaround.

For deep dining discounts, there is a new kid in town. With savored.com, savvy diners can now reserve tables and enjoy discounts up to 30 percent at 24 fine New Jersey restaurants.

A century ago, in 1912, the highbush blueberry was first cultivated for commercial production. Today it is, of course, New Jersey's official state fruit. This delicious staple of Garden State summers will be celebrated on June 23 at the 29th Annual Whitesbog Blueberry Festival, from 10 am to 4 pm in Browns Mills.

“When I first told my folks I wanted to pursue cooking, Dad was pretty against it, because he knew how tough the work is," says Juan Placencia, chef/owner of Costanera in Montclair. But today, Juan and his father, Pablo, who runs Oh! Calamares in Kearny, work happily just a few miles from each other.

Cape May, a National Historic Landmark city, is not only a Mecca for sunbathers and bird-watchers; it has also become one of the state’s dining hotspots. This week, June 3-10, you can sample Cape May cooking at bargain prices.

Weather is not the only thing heating up. On June 2, chef Anthony Pino, 42, of Hoboken’s Anthony David’s Gourmet Market, The Dining Room at Anthony David’s, and BIN 14 Trattoria and Wine Bar, will fire up his latest venture, On The FlipSide, a burger shack. The open-air grill will be the centerpiece of the new Hoboken Family Farmers' Market.

Flying Fish Brewery is about to become a bigger fish. In July the company will move from its original Cherry Hill location to a brand new solar-powered brewery in Somerdale, quadrupling its size and allowing it to become what owner Gene Muller calls “the biggest of the little guys.”

Simon and Garfunkel may have thrown together parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme to create an iconic love song, but right now foodies are trolling their local garden center for fresh herb plantings to inject new interest and freshness into their cooking. Even if your garden is just a sunny window ledge, there are endless possibilities for infusing your meals with ‘just-picked’ flavor. Now is the perfect time to begin.

While many of us run around, looking for a way to honor Mom this week, Jonathan Lea, 24, already has that in the bag—literally. The 2009 Princeton economics grad has taken a, shall we say, kernel of an idea and turned it into a sweet and salty business.

As a cooking instructor, I am often asked, “What kind of oil should I use?” The answer can vary, depending on what you are making and what your health concerns are. But clearly one of the most beloved, and versatile, is olive oil. The differences between particular olive oils can be subtle or striking, depending on where the olives were grown, how the oil was pressed and whether it was infused with herbs or other flavorings.

Every year about this time, residents of Lambertville, along with thousands of visitors, go a bit daffy, flocking to the soggy spring shores of the Delaware River and dancing and feasting in the streets. What causes this temporary insanity? Why the annual shad run, of course.

Maria Carlino grew up on good Italian home cooking, including lots of pasta. Her parents, Franco and Danica, own La Riviera Trattoria in Clifton. Maria is the manager, and her brother, Antonio, works beside Dad as his sous chef. Then three years ago Maria discovered she had celiac disease.

Who knew that my beloved beefsteak was not the most popular red meat in the world? Apparently, Jim Lechner of Pittstown has known this for quite some time. In fact, goat is the world-wide winner in the red meat category, and Lechner, owner and operator of Goat World, has devoted his life to enlightening others on the subject.

When Jersey people refer to ‘ramps,’ they usually mean getting on or off the highway. But at this time of year, ramps are not a traffic subject; they are a food frenzy that can often involve foraging in the woods.