I Love Apalachicola Bay Shrimp

Most of the shrimp we eat speak a foreign language. Like most folks, I’d never really given a lot of thought to where the shrimp I eat come from. During my last trip to my favorite fishing grounds, Apalachicola Bay and St. George Island, Florida, I learned quite a lot about shrimp! Before this I was just happy to be able to eat all the shrimp I wanted and not care where they had spent the night before! My family and I were preparing a huge pot of shrimp that we’d bought from the back... Read more »

The Best Gift for a Chocoholic

Most people have a chocoholic in their life. It’s the person who loves chocolate. But not just any chocolate. They go for the gourmet stuff. A Hershey bar just isn’t nearly good enough. Honestly, this makes them really easy and fun to shop for. Find some unusual, high quality chocolate and give it to them. Sometimes shopping really is too easy. But what makes a high quality chocolate? Dark chocolate is very popular with chocoholics. If the packaging states the cacao percentage it’s... Read more »

7 Rules for Cooking When the Kids Won’t Cooperate

There are some days when kids just don’t want to be out from underfoot. Or you just have too much going on with them that day, and despite being home it’s really hard to find a way to get dinner cooked. No parent ever claimed that it was easy every day. If you’re wanting to provide your family with a home-cooked meal every day you have to figure out how to make it work. If you plan ahead and have a few tricks up your sleeve, you can do it. Rule 1: Plan ahead. You don’t always... Read more »

Why Is Healthy Eating So Hard?

Many people complain that eating healthy is really, really difficult. They just don’t know why it has to take so much time to provide healthy meals for themselves and their family. Truth be told, it’s about as difficult as you make it. And it can be much more affordable than eating out all the time or eating convenience foods. Your cooking techniques matter, for example. Just about everyone these days knows that frying foods is unhealthy. Yet we eat them all the time at fast food restaurants.... Read more »

Why Cook with Cast Iron Cookware?

I’m a recent fan of cooking with cast iron cookware. My interest started with my frustration with Teflon coated pans and their tendency to lose their nonstick coating over time. I really dislike replacing my pans. And of course some people express concerns about the safety of ingesting tiny particles of Teflon, although there’s so far no definite evidence of health hazards. While talking with my mother I learned that she was looking at cast iron cookware as an alternative. When properly... Read more »

A Comprehensive List of Food Safety Tips

Whether you have a career in food preparation, entertain privately, or just cook for your family, food handling has some science to it that you should know. What with hearing a story in the news every other day about yet another Salmonella or E. Coli outbreak, we could all stand to hear a refresher course in the sanitary preparing of food. Handling food Wash and dry hands thoroughly before handling food. Always use clean kitchen utensils for handling foods. Keep raw and cooked food apart at all times.... Read more »

Join the Club: Wine Clubs

One of the best ways to get access to great, and sometimes less accessible, wines is to join a wine club. These clubs are free to join and can result in you enjoying a greater variety of wines. Whether retailer operated, or direct through the winery, wine clubs will enhance your wine drinking pleasure. The first consideration for most consumers is price. Just know that there are a range of wine clubs to meet most consumer tastes and budgets. Being in a wine club does not necessitate spending big... Read more »

Don’t Be The Belgian Chef a Tale of a Plunge Into the Abyss

At the top of the kitchen career chain lies the Executive Chef position. The executive chef is the general of the kitchen troops, overseeing and deploying the kitchen staff in it’s day-to-day operations. Not all chefs aspire to this position, as the executive chef doesn’t actually have time to cook. And since the position is one of management rather than engaging in the culinary arts, the position of executive chef is one that you only have when your operation is so big that you really... Read more »

Niche Markets in the Food Service Industry

You could pretty much sum up the restaurant scene in America in one sentence: Hamburgers are dead; and beef itself is losing some appeal. The kind of restaurant that is making a name for itself these days is the one that gets a cult following rather than marketing to a general broad appeal. Consider this as an open letter to the food service managers of America. For pity’s sake, do something different! We might as well face it: only the young care about general appeal any more. A ten year old... Read more »

Bartending with Style

As opposed to the other food service careers, bartending is one job where personal style counts the most. The best bartenders I’ve known always have a personality to them, and some even have a little edge of attitude. Always remember that the whole point of your job is recreation. The best bartenders are good conversationalists. Have a joke or two ready. Read up on the news daily before your shift, so you’ll be able to keep up chat on sports, politics, and business. Working in America,... Read more »