One of the reasons I read cookbooks cover-to-cover is to get to know the chef by understanding their culinary point of view and their favorite ingredients. From each cookbook, I want to be inspired by the recipes and learn something new from the author/chef. I’m not usually impressed by the foreword in a cookbook, but this one, by Chef Bobby Flay, was like a window into the life of Jonathan Waxman. Chef Flay has a great deal of respect and admiration for Chef Waxman and I loved what he added to the cookbook.

I must admit I have a bit of a culinary crush on Jonathan Waxman. As a result of his cookbook, I’ve gained a deeper respect for simple ingredients and their combination. In the foreword, Chef Bobby Flay says of Chef Waxman, “He taught me how to dress a salad, respecting each tender green that landed on the plate. Jonathan used to say that the leaves should look like they had just fallen from the clouds, light and individual.”

On page 72, in the “Salad” section, you’ll find this note before recipe for Garden Salad:

There is inspiration in compliments. It used to bother me when people at dinner parties asked me to dress their salads. Why in the world would anybody want another cook messing up the works? Finally, when one friend told me his dressings always tasted greasy and flat, I started to analyze what made mine different. What was that inexplicable detail that could make all the difference? First, have good ingredients (that seems obvious), and second, always add the vinegar first. “That can’t be all there is to it,” my friend said. He was right – there is a more difficult matter: how much dressing to use.

I love this cookbook and learned quite a lot about food and flavor combinations…and Jonathan Waxman. For the most part, the ingredients in the recipes are simple and easy to find. I started to list the recipes I liked and then realized I pretty much liked them all. In the cookbook you’ll find chapters on starters, soups, salads, sandwiches and pizza, pasta, poultry, meat and game, fish, shellfish, vegetables, and desserts. And, edicts on selected ingredients and techniques.

First try the Guacamole and Fresh Chips on page 19. It’ll rock your world!

You know you’re headed in the right direction when a restaurant changes the menu on a daily, weekly, or seasonal basis. Their website is simple but the menu made me smile when I noticed the cheese course offered both goat and cow’s milk cheese.

I called and made reservations for four…forgetting to include myself. When we realized we’d be late, I called and changed the reservation by thirty minutes. It wasn’t until we were on the way to dinner that I remembered there were five of us. We called to change the number of diners and they had to bump us to a later time. That’s a good sign – it means other people like to eat there.  When we arrived we sat outside on the little benches and waited our turn. They graciously offered us water several times and never forgot we were out there. I’ve got big love for good customer service – and Piedmont delivered over, and over again.

The decor at Piedmont is simple, yet elegant. The tables are nicely spaced to give diners plenty of room for conversation and privacy. We didn’t meet the chef, but with a little research I was able to determine the chef/owner is Andy McGowan.

Once again, I find myself using the word “simple” to describe another aspect of Piedmont. The menu: Cheese course, 1st course, 2nd course, Etceteras, and Dessert. We asked our waiter to explain the menu rules, and he assured us we could order as much or as little as we wanted in no particular order. I love options.

From the cheese menu, we ordered all three cheese selections to share. The cheese came with almonds, figs poached in red wine, and a lovely raisin bread with a tight crumb. In addition, we ordered the housemade charcuterie selection to share: country pâté & chicken liver mousse with pickled vegetables, dijon & grilled bread. We darn near licked the plate.

For the main dish we divided and conquered. I went for the housemade Italian sausage with creamy polenta, braised greens & tomato jus. Laura and Jo both ordered giant-sized pork chops covered with lovely peaches (pictured at right). Jo’s Dad selected the chicken, and Chelsea went for a lovely salad with a side of pomme frîtes with aïoli.

If I lived anywhere near Durham, I would find my way to Piedmont as often as possible. You’ll find them at 410 Foster Street, just down the street from the Marriott hotel and Bull Durham stadium. They serve dinner Wednesday through Monday and brunch on Saturday and Sunday. Dress is casual. Check out the menu on the website and call Piedmont and make your reservation today at 919.683.1213 and tell them Lucy sent you.

While having lunch at my friend Mackenzie’s house, she handed me a copy of The Flavor Bible (Page, Karen & Dornenburg, Andrew. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2008), a gift from her oh-so-clever husband. I flipped through the pages and noticed I was holding my breath. It was as if I’d found a secret map to carry on my culinary adventures. I waited a few weeks before purchasing my own copy because I’ve discovered that delayed gratification makes me appreciate things more. Needless to say, I love this book. It’s not a cookbook, and you won’t find recipes in the ordinary sense; however, you will find thousands of flavor combinations and an exciting, culinary resource.

There are three delicious chapters:

1. FLAVOR = Taste + Mouthfeel + Aroma + “The Factor”: Learning to recognize the language of food
2. GREAT COOKING = Maximizing Flavor + Pleasure by tapping Body + Heart + Mind + Spirit: Communicating via the language of food
3. FLAVOR MATCHMAKING: The Charts

By far, my favorite chapter is Flavor Matchmaking – chapter three. The book is 380 pages and 339 of those are in chapter three. I’ve haven’t had this much fun with reference material since the first time my Dad let me use his set of Encyclopedia Britannica. I loved those big, brown books. The giant-sized map book was my favorite. Alas, I digress. The charts in chapter three are listed in alphabetical order and include both ingredients and the flavors of a particular country or region. Below each ingredient, the authors “distilled and summarized key aspects of an ingredient’s essence” by: season, taste, weight, volume, and primary function. They also recommend cooking techniques and some useful tips.

Thank you, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, for a thorough and generous treasure chest. I really, really love this book and I’d like every cook to own one. However, I’m pretty sure many folks won’t recognize its beauty. Buy one for yourself and for that person in your life who appreciates flavor. You won’t regret it. And, thank you, Mackenzie. I owe you one.

Unlike iTunes, the Lala website was super speedy to negotiate, the layout was clean, oozing white space, and music was clearly the main attraction. The social aspects of Lala were fun, not pushy, but plentiful. You could follow another listener’s taste in music, read their reviews, listen to their playlists, follow their suggestions, and watch the most popular music rise to the top.

Lala gave you the option of uploading your own music or searching for more. My favorite aspect, by far, was the ability to listen to an entire album for free. Let’s face it, 30 seconds a song, such as iTunes offers, isn’t enough to get the true vibe of an album. My second favorite aspect is the ability to buy a web-based song for $0.10 – which means you can listen to the song as many times as you want online. In addition, you could buy the entire album for web-based use. And…MP3s for about $0.89 a piece or the whole album for about $8.99.

I will miss Lala and I’m so thankful for the best two musical years of my life. I’ve learned so much more about music, opened up my mind to genres I’d ignored in the past, and enjoyed the large collection of Christmas music available. Unfortunately, Apple got their greedy little hands on Lala and tonight they’re shutting the site down. Thankfully, in an uncharacteristic manner, Apple is refunding the “web-based” funds we’ve invested in Lala, for use on iTunes, but I’m really disappointed because iTunes is messy, cluttered, navigation sucks, and it’s super, super slow and clunky. Hopefully, Apple with keep the best parts of Lala and spit out the bits of iTunes that make exploring music less tasty.

Fortunately, I was able to copy all my playlists so all is not lost and the music will continue.

Here’s to Lala! A brilliant way to celebrate music.

In August, I bought tickets to see Steve Martin in Spokane, at the Fox. Silly me, I thought it was an evening of Steve Martin the comedian – wild and crazy – or some variation thereof. A few hours before we (Paula, Doug, and I) leave for the show, I check online and find out that it’s actually an evening of bluegrass and banjo, and joining Steve Martin on stage is The Steep Canyon Rangers. He’s on tour to promote the release of his first bluegrass album, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo (Rounder Records). The album was released in May 2009, and reached #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Album chart where it stayed for 12 weeks. But it’s still banjo music.

I was a bit disappointed. I send my brother an IM to let him know just in case he was looking forward to a night of Funky Tut and Cruel Shoes. He already knew. And Paula heard Martin interviewed on NPR. And…we’re still going.  Banjos. Seriously? Banjos? I’m not sure I can do it. I throw a bottle of aspirin in my purse.

It’s a lovely theater. Our seats are dead center stage and very, very high up. Paula leans over to me, motions to the ceiling and says, “Watch your head.” Austin and Laura Storm come walking up the aisle and end up sitting next to us. Laura knows it’s a night of banjos, too. How did I miss this important fact? I say to Paula, “Do you think all these people know it’s banjo music?” She laughed and reminded me about the NPR interview. I look around at the crowd and wonder if they are a sampling of an NPR audience.

Well…shut my mouth! It was a fantastic evening of great music. The Steep Canyon Rangers , from Asheville, North Carolina, are very, very talented musicians. In addition to Steve Martin on the banjo, the Rangers are: Woody Platt (guitar and lead vocals), Graham Sharp (banjo, harmony vocals), Mike Guggino (mandolin and harmony vocals), Charles R. Humphrey III (bass and harmony vocals) and Nicky Sanders (fiddle and harmony vocals).

I’ll admit it. I was totally surprised by how much I enjoyed the music. The instruments and vocals blended flawlessly. The performers wore beautiful suits – no overalls, and not a jug, saw, or washboard was played. Steve Martin managed to weave his comedy throughout the performance. We laughed and clapped for eighty minutes. And, after three curtain calls, Steve graced us with King Tut. Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia, King Tut. He was buried in his jammies.

Unfortunately, the tour is over. If you didn’t get the chance to see Steve Martin in concert…you missed a great evening of entertainment. You can check out his website here. And thanks to lala, you can listen to the album on that little gadget below. The album is good, but the live performance was priceless. I’m happy to report I lived through a night of banjo and bluegrass music, and I’d do it again if Steve Martin or The Steep Canyon Rangers were on stage.

I wasn’t raised in a traditional Greek family, with two Greek-speaking parents; nevertheless, my Mom and her family made it their quest to infuse us with a love for all things Greek. My Dad graciously allowed it to happen, although, over the years, he’s made every attempt to stick a Scottish label on us, but not much sticks to Greece (pun intended). Somehow, I managed to make it through thirty years of life before I realized my “Greek” family originated from Italians. So four generations ago, the grandparents of my grandparents left Italy and made their lives in Greece. And so, I willingly embrace all things Italian.

My Mom did a good job of incorporating American food in to our lives. I’m pretty sure she did it so my Dad wouldn’t starve. And though he loves her cooking, he doesn’t fully appreciate the more colorful aspects of Greek cuisine. Thankfully, I inherited my Mom’s palette and have no food fears. Well, except for lima beans, and badly cooked okra. Oh…and liver.

At an early age, I learned to eat first and then ask, “What is that?” When a plate was set in front of me, regardless of the smell, texture, or look of an item, I was required to take a bite. This small obedience was, as I look back over my life, one of the best gifts my Mom gave me. If not for that little rule, I would have missed out on so many wonderful and exciting flavors from many different cuisines.

When I was eighteen, my family, in different variations, spent the summer in Greece. We lived many days on the beaches of Glyfada, Tolo, and Vouliagmeni, only coming out of the sea for a few hours to eat a delicious lunch. We ate fresh fish, village salads, crispy potatoes, slabs of cheese, lemony horta, and loaves of fresh bread. With wet hair and wet bathing suits, sand between our toes, and sunburned skin, we took pleasure in eating the simple but scrumptious food. Bread was for dipping, lemons for squeezing, fingers for licking, and forks were, well, forks were optional.

The other night I saw an episode of FoodTV’s Chopped: When Chefs Collide (Episode 3.1). In the appetizer round, the chefs were tasked with creating an appetizer out of Manila clams, kumquats, and croissants. The Greek chef, Peter Giannakas, Chef and Restaurateur of Ovelia Psistaria Bar, New York, NY., was eliminated in the first round. He created a dish that, according to the judges, was difficult to eat. They also commented about the flavors of his dish; however, since they were too afraid to get their hands messy, I question whether or not they actually tasted the dish. As the chef was eliminated, he said to the judges, “Don’t be afraid to eat.” I laughed so hard I nearly cried. My Mom would be proud of him.

Thanks to her, and the generations of Greeks who came before me, I am not afraid to taste – even if it means getting messy or trying new flavor combinations. I believe my love for cooking is in the genes, seasoned by my Mom, and whipped in to shape by hours of practice. For that I am thankful and, Lord willing, I will have many more years to eat like a Greek.

For about a year now I’ve been working with a friend in his San Diego based company – in my spare time. I’ve enjoyed learning about a different industry and wearing a different hat. Basically, I work in media services (aka Marketing). With the help of Rachel Hoffman at Orangepeal Design, we’ve changed the “look” of EAB and still managed to keep the boss happy.

I’d just finished reading a book by Steve Krug entitled, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (New Riders Press, 2005, Berkeley), when the boss said it was time to give the website a fresh look. Actually, I’d wanted to get my hands on the website from day one, but I was patient. Hey…I was. The idea was to create a website with minimal words that still manages to communicate the essence of our business in a professional and fresh way.

While the website was under revision, I had the opportunity to sell my first car – a Land Rover Freelander. It turns out the experience was extremely  beneficial. I got a chance to understand the whole process from start to finish.  And, as a result, I saw the website with new eyes.

My first client, my niece Amanda, loves her new car. The loan officer at the financial institution was so shocked by the low price, he thought the car was salvaged. Far from it. She paid slightly over wholesale and it’s a beauty.

If you’re looking for a pre-owned car in excellent condition, give ExecutiveAB a try. We’ll ship the car, free of charge, right to your front door. Use my marketing/ad code: LucyZoe on the Quote Form, on the website…and you’ll get a discount.

Meanwhile, I’m in my slippers, watching TV, working on Phase Two and the next email campaign, and resting my feet on the coffee table. Life is good.

This season Bravo TV premiered a new show, Top Chef Masters. There are many television food shows with "chefs" competing against each other: Bravo’s Top Chef, Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen, FoodTV’s The Next Food Network Star, Chopped, two versions of Iron Chef, Throwdown, and more.

I’ve learned quite a bit watching the chefs compete: timing, bravado, teamwork, back-biting, creativity, failure, skills, and great taste combinations. You take what you learn, duplicate the good and make every effort to avoid the bad.

And then along comes Top Chef Masters. It’s ALL good. What a refreshing difference. The competitors are all professional chefs with proven skills and over-the-top talent. It’s truly inspiring to see the good-fellowship, humbleness, deep respect, and courage they display for the competition and each other.

If you haven’t watched Bravo’s Top Chef Masters, you’re missing a great experience. The competition has just passed the first round of the final challenge, so you still have a chance to catch a few more shows. You’ll be glad you did.

In Season 2 – Episode 7 of In Plain Sight, entitled Duplicate Bridge,” Marshall Mann walks in to Norman Baker’s house and there’s an album on the turntable. Marshall holds up the album and I recognized it right away:

Count Basie off the album Count Basie’s Finest Hour (Verve), and the cut is Li’l Darlin’. Just in case you were wondering. Scroll down and listen to it.

Tonight is the Season Premier of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. My Mom came over and watched last season’s finale in preparation for tonight. Goren’s back and I’m a happy girl. I’ve missed him.

And this season, we’re getting a taste of Jeff Goldblum on L&W:CI. This should be interesting. I’m hoping there is some interaction between the two characters.

Goren’s back! He’s older and perhaps slightly more imbalanced and quirky. After all, he’s the son of a serial killer. I don’t care. Welcome back, Mr D’Onofrio. It’s time to get your Goren on.