Guten Morgen meine Damen und Herren! Steve and I are just back from a trip to Berlin, staying at the super deluxe Hotel Adlon on Under den Linden, lavishly and lovingly refurbished to its storied glory. Right out the front door is the great Brandenburg Gate and beyond that lies the green expanse of the Tiergarten. Sitting right next to the former … [Read more...]
CHICKEN KIEV BERAGON
My Chicken Kiev Recipe is a rumination of the classic, kitschy delicacy as it might have been served at the grandest tables of 1930s Pasadena, where well-dressed Haute Society gathered after a day of the men playing polo down at the club, as the wives watching bemoaning the troubles of securing appropriately subservient servants. Well-dressed and self-satisfied, a good … [Read more...]
ST. LOUIS HILL MEAT RAVIOLI
St. Louis's Italian neighborhood is called the Hill, home to an abbodanza of old-world tradition and treasure like the Volpi Salumeria, America’s oldest and most prestigious manufacturer of hand-crafted, authentic Italian meat products. As the USDA didn't lift their ban on Italian prosciutto until the 1980s, props to the … [Read more...]
LIBERACE PROSCIUTTO SCAMPI
This lavishly embellished Scampi Prosciutto recipe from the culinary maestro and gifted showman Liberace is quite different from any scampi I -- and daresay you -- have ever come across. Is it any wonder? Only a naif would expect Liberace to whip up a simple sauté of shrimp with garlic, wine and lemon juice. In today's world, … [Read more...]
SMOKED SALMON PIZZA DELUXE: 100 MILES.COM INSPIRED RECIPE
Smoked Salmon Pizza is one of the signature iconoclast recipes that launched Wolfgang Puck's Spago into the gastronomical stratosphere. Wolfie's a wanderer, though, and props to him for turning his unique flavor compositions into an international lifestyle brand. Wait -- "international lifestyle brand" -- did I just … [Read more...]
ST. PATRICK’S DAY SAUSAGE: CORNED BEEF, CABBAGE, POTATOES, CARROTS
Corned Beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots: St. Patrick's Day on a plate, reimagined and reinvented with this original recipe for St. Patrick's Day Sausages. Before setting out, consultation with the parents was in order. We got on the horn for an "ideation session" -- my office's preferred euphemism … [Read more...]
BALLYMALOE STEAK AND OYSTER PIE
County Cork's Myrtle Allen and her Ballymaloe cookbooks and cooking school are the source of this recipe for a deeply delicious Steak and Oyster Pie. But before assumptions are made let me 'fess up: the shamrock embellishment atop the puff pastry is my own Irish-American embellishment. . As most know, our March 17th bacchanals are an American invention. On the old … [Read more...]
TURDUCKEN SAUSAGE: ORIGINAL GOURMET RECIPE
Until now I'd thought that the monster that is Turducken (a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken) sprang fully-formed from the head of Chef Paul Prudhomme, a Zeus and Athena kind of thing. Probably due to the go go days of ragin' Cajun cuisine, when everything was blackened-this, Zydeco-that, and we cared about the difference … [Read more...]
QANTAS BARRAMUNDI MACADAMIA: GOURMET RECIPE
Why a recipe for sautéed barramundi from the flight galleys of Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Services, founded 1920)? Long gone are the days when you'd dial up the travel agent, book your airline trip and anxiously await the tickets in the mail. The subtle excitement of soaring the "Friendly Skies" aboard gleaming … [Read more...]
BACON EXPLOSIA: GRILLED BACON MEATLOAF RECIPE FROM MR. WALLY
I remember seeing this recipe for a bacon-braided bomb of meatloaf a little while back. As did my BFF Warren Ser, aka Mr. Wally (not to be confused with Chef Wally of baked papaya fame). This is the Wally of the previously discussed, extremely elite Bloated Pleasure Seekers club. About the recipe title: Our cliquey club-speak … [Read more...]