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. ...
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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....
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So says Robyn Samra, owner of Pickle Licious, a pickle-making company and all-things-pickle retail store in Teaneck. If Samra's customers are "pickle crazy," what does that make the owner and her family? There may be no adequate word for their degree of picklephilia......
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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 Samba, his restaurant in Montclair, he recently showed me the real deal....
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Julie Jacobson did her utmost to follow in her mother's footsteps. As a girl she took up her mother's instrument and style of music--classical piano--and followed a precocious path right through graduation from the Juilliard School of Music. But something was missing in her life, and not until she thought about her grandparents and their literal mom-and-pop market in Morristown did she realize what it was....
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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.”...
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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!...
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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....
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Cooking up dreams of running a highly-rated kitchen, restaurant or TV food show, a lot of people in this tenuous economy are applying to cooking schools. Most are in for a boot-camp experience with an ivy league price tag, as two NJ students can attest....
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Kimarie Santiago, 34, a self-professed "salt junkie," does magical things with the world’s oldest flavor enhancer. Her latest creation is ‘Krossed Keys,’ a rich black-truffle salt that she calls her “dirty habit.”...
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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......
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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....
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The fresh flavors of New Jersey produce and seafood will cross the Hudson this Thursday for a “Garden State Bounty” dinner prepared for 70 guests by chef Corey Heyer of the four-diamond Bernards Inn in Bernardsville. Says Heyer, a Shore native, “All the items on this menu I have caught, harvested, picked, cooked, eaten and celebrated with.” ...
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Hungry beachfront strollers in Sea Isle City tired of pizza and pork roll should flock to Baja Blend, a beach grill with a healthy, delicious menu featuring items like fish tacos and Ahi tuna burgers....
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When Kim Osterhoudt of Belle Mead talks about a ‘jam session,’ there are no musical instruments involved. Instead, Osterhoudt, 56, owner of Jams by Kim, uses her creative juices to produce up to 18 flavors of all-natural, preservative-free, sweet and savory jams, jellies and preserves....
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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."...
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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....
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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....
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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 Garden State summer staple will be celebrated on June 23 at the 29th Annual Whitesbog Blueberry Festival, from 10 am to 4 pm in Browns Mills....
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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....
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