This Week in Food #234: Chicago Restaurant Favorites

This week I am all alone in the podcast loft. Often, I am asked which are my favorite restaurants in Chicago. My wife and I visited one of our those restaurants last night and I decided to talk a few of the restaurants I visit the most. They are Tavern at the Park, R.J. Grunts and Mon Ami Gabi. These three represent the best in food and good service. When you visit Chicago, I think you should try them.

ReMARKable Palate #237: Finger Lakes Wines with Steve Shaw

This week, we speak with Steve Shaw, owner and winemaker of Shaw Vineyard in the Finger Lakes Wine Region of Upstate New York. We met at a lunch at Savoy Restaurant in SoHo to taste Finger Lakes wines paired with seasonal winter foods. Steve spoke a bit about his Cabernet Sauvignon to those gathered, adn then he sat with me to tell me about what drew him to the wine business and what he sees for the future of the Finger Lakes.

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

Chef Mark pays a visit to Kauai Coffee Company, the largest coffee plantation in the United States. Marty Amaro shows us around the fields, explaining the growing process, and into the factory, where we see some of the roasted coffee being packaged.

A production of the Culinary Media Network.
www.culinarymedianetwork.com

Travel & Accommodation provided by the Hawaii HTA as part of the “So Much More Hawaii” tour.

ReMARKable Palate #234: In The Kitchen Cooking School

This week, I speak with my old friend Kathy Gold, who owns and runs In The Kitchen Cooking School in Hadonfield, NJ. Kathy is a former personal chef who branched out into running her own school, which gives scheduled classes, private lessons, and corporate team-building exercises. I visit her there, and we speak about what it’s like to run a cooking school.

www.inthekitchencookingschool.com

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

Chef Mark Tafoya visits the Sumida Watercress Farm in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Celebrated Hawaii Chef Mavro shows us how to make one of his signature dishes: Watercress Salad with Maitake Mushrooms, Sunchokes, and Watercress Essence.

A production of the Culinary Media Network.
www.culinarymedianetwork.com

Travel & Accommodation provided by the Hawaii HTA as part of the “So Much More Hawaii” tour.

Our first Brooklyn Cookin’ Workshop this past October was such a huge success, we decided to do it again this summer! I’ve teamed with Chris Marquardt from Tips From the Top Floor, one of the most popular photography shows on the web, to develop this parallel track workshop. Chris leads the photographers, sharing tips and tricks of photography in general, and food photography in particular. I lead those interested in cooking as we explore the kitchen, learning foundational cooking techniques, and several great recipes that help us practice these techniques. Then every once in a while we get together to shoot the food we made, and then enojy the fruits of our collective labor.

This is the perfect (and rare) workshop where couples can learn together, even if they have different interests.

There are still a few spots left. Learn more about the workshop and register at www.tfttf.com/bk2010

Brooklyn Cookin’ – Be a Chef! Be a Food Photographer! And bring someone to share… from Chris Marquardt on Vimeo.

Theme: Food Photography & Cooking
Date: July 16-18 2010
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Price: starting at $699
Language: English
Instructors: Chris Marquardt (photography) & Mark Tafoya (cooking)

http://tfttf.com/bk2010 – This workshop is for couples, or for friends who share different interests. One’s a cook, one’s a photographer. And finally they can share a great workshop experience together. Personal Chef Mark Tafoya (http://culinarymedianetwork.com) and photographer Chris Marquardt (http://chrismarquardt.com/) share their knowledge about their respective fields with the workshop participants to make them great Chefs and perfect Food Photographers. Extend your horizon and upgrade your knowledge.

Here’s my AUDIO PODCAST from this past year’s workshop, inlcuding words from many of the participants.

And the Podcast we did for TIPS FROM THE TOP FLOOR.

“I can not say enough about how much I enjoyed the cooking workshop — learned a lot and use what I learned all the time: Pork Adobo, poached pears, and having fun in the kitchen!”
-Jacqui North, 2009 Participant

“Mark was great. He is so patient, understanding and knowledgeable. Very easy to talk to.. He showed us how to pick out the proper cuts of meat and ripe vegetables. He was very helpful to anyone who asked him questions, even if they were not in the class. He was a very understanding instructor and made cooking seem simple. This was my first cooking class and Mark made me want to take another one.”
-Sally Lovers, 2009 Participant

“Mark adds so much more to his classes than “just” his expertise and love of cookery. Mark can take you through the full culinary experience, from sourcing the ingredients at local markets through to magazine-cover presentation at the dinner table. His style is informal and entertaining, but still professional and extremely knowledgeable. And if you get the chance to be out and about with him in New York City, his knowledge of the area is encyclopedic!”
-Martin McNeil, 2009 Participant

To Register, CLICK HERE

It’s been an intriguing couple of months. I originally posted this on Food Philosophy, but realized that some of you may read my stuff here instead of there, so I wanted to share it here, too, because it sets up a lot of things to come this year. Hee.

At BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas, I found myself being introduced in the following manner: I’d like you to meet Jennifer. She does “Sex on a Plate.” To my pleasant surprise, many people already knew about it — or wanted to. Marsha Collier and I talked about it on her radio show for KTRB in San Francisco, and 4 million more people were let in on the secret. I loved that.

I then spent a few days with Kelly Cline, the early inspiration for turning my blog into something more. I am drawn to her food photography like a bee to honey, as she is the only person on earth who can see inside my mind and bring my thoughts to visual, four-color reality. We’ve had a magnificent five years of collaboration, and I’m coming away from my time with her newly inspired. It also turns out she takes more than good food photos…but more on that another time.

Kelly and I breathe a tandem rhythm of sensual stimulation, but we don’t want to be the only two in on the melody — and it looks like many of you feel the same way.

On Facebook, in e-mail and at events, people are asking me what it all means. So what kind of food should I eat? What dish gets you really hot? But that, my friends, is the result, not the cause. Let me explain a bit.

On Food Philosophy #87 I talked about experiencing Zumanity, the Sensual Side of Cirque du Soleil. I’m eternally grateful to Jess Berlin for offering me a ticket, because seeing the show brought all my recent thoughts together in a flash of inspiration. Zumanity artfully and powerfully evokes the sensual desires in our minds — even the ones we hide in the light of day — and strikes a chord so deep it’s impossible to leave the theater without an overwhelming need to satiate them. Whether we shiver at the sight of light blue silk rippling in the breeze, or feel a rush of desire at the crack of a whip, something in that show triggers our senses until the hunger in the room is palpable. Every body shape, every sexual preference — every fantasy — is captured on stage, drenched in perfect lighting and pulsating rhythms.

I found myself in such a heightened state of sensory indulgence, I actually purred. Out loud.

After walking out of the theater I realized that if the world could step inside my head in that moment, they would get the idea of Sex on a Plate at its core. It’s not the food, you see, though that is a magnificent component of the satiety; it is what I’ve awakened inside that enables me to feel that kind of passionate arousal in such a moment, and see the world exploding with color and texture all around me. Imagine feeling like that on a regular basis. Oh yes.

The good news is that I’m not an anomaly — I’ve worked to get my senses to this place, but there are lots of you out there, even if you don’t know it yet. I’ve discovered that some of you took my tips to heart in getting started, and are beginning to see food in a whole different way. That excites me. Some of you have taken the tips into the bedroom. That excites me more.

If you haven’t yet started on the road toward Eden, I’m putting out a personal challenge to you, because it’s no fun here with just a few of us: Do something today to satiate your senses. Take a few extra seconds when you nibble that bite of chocolate, and feel its silkiness as it melts on your tongue. Run a finger down your lover’s spine. Drink in a moment of beauty, whether it’s a perfect flower or an exquisite woman.

Do this and you will soon be rewarded in the Garden, because things are in motion to bring Sex on a Plate to life, off the digitized page and right in front of you. Do you want your senses to be tickled? Titillated?

If the answer is yes — and I hope it is — I’ll need you to prepare.

Top photo: Kelly Cline
Bottom photo: Cirque du Soleil

ReMARKable Palate #227: Christmas Food Traditions

On this week’s show, Jennifer and I discuss our family holiday traditions, and what it was like growing up making our favorite holiday foods. I grew up in New Mexico, and talk about my love of posole, tamales, and biscochitos, and Jennifer talks about making both lasagna and Cloutie Dumpling for Christmas growing up in an Italian and Scottish household!

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

ReMARKable Palate #226: The Red Wines of Long Island

On this week’s show, we take a trip out to the east end to visit 4 different wineries in Long Island. We tasted a couple dozen red wines in one day from just about every producer in Long Island, and got to meet the folks from the Merlot Alliance, as well as get tastes of Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and even BlauFrankish!

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

ReMARKable Palate #224: History in a Glass – New Orleans Cocktails

Chef Mark visits the Museum of the American Cocktail, part of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum, for the History in a Glass seminar. Elizabeth Pearce led us through the history of New Orleans as told through the stories of 3 of it’s most celebrated cocktails, The Sazerac, The Hurricane, & The Cafe Brulot. Of course, we just had to sample them while we studied!

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com