Tucked beneath the Koolau Mountains on the leeward side of Oahu is Nalo Farms, salad bowl to Hawaii’s top chefs. There I met Dean Okimoto, owner and president. As we walked past neatly tended rows of produce, he explained that the greens he grows are different from their Mainland cousins. “Our environment is hotter — 74 to 90 degrees — and we have volcanic soil.” The conditions produce a different leaf structure and flavor.

Tiny leaves of arugula are more tender in the Islands and the additional sunlight makes the flavor more pungent. Because the leaves are thinner and lighter in weight than the Mainland variety, you get more volume. “One ounce of salad looks more like two ounces,” Okimoto said. [more…]

Terry Blonder Golson, who lives in a small town west of Boston, loves chickens. For ten years, she has kept a small flock in her backyard. The hens, of different breeds, are very individual and quite beautiful.

Terry calls them “my girls” and they have such names as Buffy, Ginger, Edwina, Eleanor and Aunt Petunia. You can take a peek at them strutting and scratching via Terry’s hen cam, but only during the day — the hen cam shuts down at night when the hens go to bed. [more…]

You can’t be a “local” in Hawaii without loving plate lunches. A Hawaiian plate lunch recognizes just two food groups: meat and starch. Whatever the main dish — teriyaki beef, fried mahimahi or pork katsu (breaded pork cutlet) — it comes with macaroni salad AND two scoops of rice, with a nominal nod to vegetables by a bit of shredded cabbage, a lettuce leaf, or a few pieces of kim chee (Korean pickled vegetables).

This uniquely Hawaiian food expression is now gaining ground in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado — nine states in all. The mastermind is Honolulu’s Eddie Flores, who came to the United States as a 16-year-old Filipino immigrant and built a multi-million foodservice empire on a Hawaiian plate lunch franchise. [more…]

I’ve always loved grilled food and we have certainly grilled our share of ribs, steaks, burgers and hot dogs over many summers. But until recently we fell short of the 26 times per year average grill usage per household, as reported by the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association.

We just purchased our first gas grill last month and now I get it. Almost-instant heat. Minimal food prep. Nominal cleanup. Delicious, healthy meals. What’s not to like? We’re now grilling several times a week, weeknights included.

Gas grilling is hardly different from broiling in the kitchen. Which may be why, although still a heavily male activity, more than 35 percent of women are now grilling, according to the same survey. [more…]

I just returned from a business trip to Ireland with my client, the Irish Dairy Board, hosting some VIP guests on a culinary tour of the Emerald Isle. For people who plan their vacations around their passion for food, it’s the perfect place to visit.

Contemporary Irish chefs who have worked at high-profile restaurants abroad are returning home to apply their talents to fabulous food using local ingredients — lamb, salmon, duck, fresh garden vegetables, dairy products and grains. Traditional Irish breads are stellar, and there is nothing more satisfying at breakfast or any time, than hearty Irish brown bread slathered with Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter.

So hot is Irish food today that Saveur devoted most of its March issue to Ireland. “With its wealth of raw materials, its burgeoning artisanal food scene, and its innovative chefs, Ireland is fast growing into a food lovers’ paradise,” the magazine raved. [more…]

As Dana Jacobi tells it, timing is everything. Her first soy book, published in 1996, won culinary awards, but it didn’t really catch on until five years later, when the public was ready to embrace the benefits of soy. On the other hand, 12 Best Foods, her latest book, has been an instant success, due to the public buzz about antioxidants.

Keeping ahead of trends is a big part of what makes Dana a successful book author. She is a sought-after prognosticator who spoke at the Natural Products Show press briefing earlier this fall. Dana, a friend of many years, shared with me the information she presented. It represents her projections of food trends we can expect to see six to 12 months out. [more…]

Busy, busy, busy. Last week was so jam-packed with work that there was no time to blog. Most of the work I was doing involved food influencers.

Who are food influencers? They are the cookbook authors, freelance food writers, chefs, cooking teachers and others who shape America’s appetites about food. Getting to know these influencers — what they think and more importantly, how they think — is key to being successful in my field. [more…]

Before there were Mario and Lidia and Rocco, there was Marcella. And before there was Marcella, “Italian” cooking was spaghetti and meatballs smothered in tomato sauce.

In 1973, Marcella published The Classic Italian Cookbook and introduced authentic regional Italian cuisines to Americans. “I wanted to tell the story — the way we eat, the way we shop,” she said to me recently, as we sat down at the Sonesta Hotel in Coconut Grove, Florida, where Marcella was to be honored with a Grande Dame Award for lifetime achievement from Les Dames d’Escoffier International.

How Marcella came to be the Grande Dame of Italian cooking is quite a story. [more…]

Last Saturday, I was sitting on a tour bus in Florida with Jerry Di Vecchio, the legendary former food editor of Sunset magazine. We were on a tour of the Everglades with Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI) an organization of women leaders in food, beverage and the hospitality industries.

Retired from Sunset after 40 years, Jerry is now a freelance writer and an active food consultant. Just for fun, as we watched egrets and exotic scenery fly by, we started brainstorming some of the foods we take for granted today that weren’t so prevalent or didn’t exist in American supermarkets earlier in our lifetime: [more…]