Mom Approved Food

  Kaldi's Delicious Discovery! I find it hard to start my day without a big cup of coffee. No one knows the actual origin of coffee, however it is believed its history started in Ethiopia. Legend says Kaldi, a goat herder, in the medieval kingdom of Kaffa, discovered coffee plants in 850 A.D. His goats after eating the coffee berries had extreme energy. Kaldi informed local monks about the berries who proceeded to make a drink out of the berries.  From these humble beginnings coffee eventually spread throughout the world Coffee has actually been more important in my life than just waking me up. For several years, while working for Obsidian Group, I oversaw the construction and opening of multiple Coffee Culture® cafes. These coffee cafes were modeled on a European tradition of coffee houses that date back hundreds of years. Even after leaving Obsidian Group, coffee was still in my future. I spent a year in China working with a friend, Will Du, who owned a coffee machine m...

  Indispensable Kitchen Tool Having the right tools in a kitchen is important, not just for speed, but also for the quality of the food being prepared. One tool that I believe is a must-have in any kitchen is an immersion blender, sometimes called a stick or hand blender. Patented in Switzerland in 1950, immersion blenders remained in Europe until finally making their way over to North America in the 1980s. Now, they're something that many home cooks have on hand, and for good reason. An immersion blender is one of the handiest, most convenient tools you can have in your kitchen.   Do I need an immersion blender  if I already have a countertop blender? The short answer is Yes.   The main difference is that a countertop blender features a jar on top of a motorized base that sits on your countertop while blending. An immersion blender is a handheld blender and does not have a jar. You can insert the blades into nearly any container, therefore, your ble...

  My Philosophy of Cooking I  am going to provide you with a couple of my simplest and favourite soup recipes, however, first I thought I would tell you a little about myself and my approach to cooking. I have been cooking professionally for over 40 years . I apprenticed in fine dining where I learned the classic French Brigade system of kitchen management. I learned about mirepoix and their variations, roux, clarified butter, pure starch slurries and liaisons. I developed skill in creating from scratch; stocks, brown sauces and their derivatives, white sauces, tomato sauces, veloutés, beurre Blanc, hollandaise sauce, and its variations. I learned about butchery and spent a couple of years as a pastry chef before finally spending a year as a Sous chef.   After leaving fine dining I moved on to work in chain restaurants, and roadhouses. This was a major change from fine dining. Here it was mostly cooking of already prepared foods and plating of items. Virtually nothin...