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Casa Gispert – One of Barcelona’s Oldest Food Stores
Not only do they roast all kinds of nuts in house (the place smells heavenly), they also feature many Catalan spices and ingredients as well as foreign delicacies. I may or may not have bought a ton of small bags of freshly toasted nuts to bring back home. We visited…
Three Melon Soup
This soup, a real showstopper, is as much fun to look at as it is refreshing to eat. The key, though, is to start with the ripest and most fragrant fruits available. In the case of the cantaloupes and honeydews, the first move is to smell the stem end to…
The Negresco! A Very Special Cocktail
In the early eighties I worked at a restaurant called La Tulipe on west 13th Street in New York City. It was a fine dining establishment, awarded 3 stars by the New York Times. Every part of the menu was well thought out including the house cocktail called the Negresco.…
My Jacques Pepin Dinner was a Hit!
On July 12 I prepared a dinner for 16 people at my house to celebrate Jacques Pepin’s 90th birthday and raise money for the Jacques Pepin Foundation. Not only did I bring in $1600 for the JPF but I also had a great dinner party. It made me realize how…
Tomato Mozzarella and Basil Tart
There are very few things more delicious than tomatoes in season. Sure you can buy them all year round, but these imports tend to be mealy and flavorless, so why bother? This tart is a celebration of the tomato at the peak of its perfection, namely right now. One important…
Fresh Corn Spoonbread with Cheddar and Chiles
Start to finish: 1 hour 10 minutes (45 active) Servings: 6 2 cups fresh corn kernels 2 cups buttermilk 2/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, optional 4 ounces extra sharp Cheddar cheese, coarsely grated one 4.5 ounce can chopped green…
The Best Thing I Ate on My European Trip!
It is called Bomba, literally “the bomb.” I ate it at a hole in the wall place in Barcelona, called La Cava Fumada. The Bomba is made of highly seasoned mashed potatoes mixed with some ground pork, shaped into patties, coated with bread crumbs, fried and topped with an extremely…
Grilled Caesar Salad Steak
Let’s say you wanted to land a luxurious rib-eye steak at the center of your Fourth of July picnic, but worried about being able to afford it. Here’s a simple way to make it happen: Instead of serving every guest a huge slab of steak, slice up a smaller portion,…
An Amazing Restaurant/Inn in Turkey!
I just shot a segment for season 14 of “Sara’s Weeknight Meals,” with Damla Ugurtas, the chef/owner of this spectacular place in a little town called Caferli near Kusadasi Turkey. As Damla says on her website: “We like to call ourselves; a ‘Village Restaurant’ with rooms, cooking Mediterranean dishes with…
Stuffed Fried Zucchini Blossoms
Zucchini are marquee items at your grocery stores right about now, but zucchini blossoms – which are generally not for sale at a standard grocery — are a different story. So this recipe is aimed at home gardeners, who know two things for sure. First, like caterpillars to a butterfly,…