Blog

There’s not enough space to list all the reasons we were honored to have chef and restaurateur, Rick Bayless on The Connected Table LIVE! October 19th. But we’ve given it a try: ...

The word “authentic cooking” bubbled to the surface at Les Dames d’Escoffier New York’s symposium, “The Next Big Bite: Media’s Influence on What We Eat, Drink & Crave,” which took place October 17 at Institute of Culinary Education. The distinguished panel moderated by CBS Sunday Morning correspondent, Martha Teichner, includedChef/Restaurateur and Co-Host of ABC’s “The Chew,” Carla Hall, Bloomberg ...

A sunset stroll on a warm September evening in lower Manhattan while watching party boats cruise the Hudson River had us reminiscing about the New York restaurants we’d loved and lost. The occasion that prompted this was a dinner at Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) with Chef David Waltuck who was recently named Director of Culinary ...

I grew up Southern and Jewish in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  I like to tell people Southern Jews grow up with Bubbas and Bubbies in their families. Brisket was served with biscuits. JELLO molds were our serving of fruit.  What we didn’t have were truly authentic Jewish delis. Well, we had Shapiro’s, but it was a Jewish deli with ...

Cornfields, hogs, Better Homes & Gardens Magazine, “Bridges Over Madison County,” John Wayne and a political “straw poll.” That’s what we knew about the state of Iowa besides its gigantic State Fair which we hope to attend one day, even just for the pie eating. It’s the #1 hog producer and the nation’s third most productive agricultural state ...

Rihanna, flying fish, Bajan hot sauce, amazing beaches, sugar plantations and Mount Gay Rum. This is what we knew about Barbados when we went for one of my New Year’s birthdays. One side of this island is serene surf; the other is wild with shards of coral reef whipping around your legs when you try to swim. We opted ...

Chef David Waltuck and his wife Karen ran Chanterelle restaurant for 30 years, first in Soho and then in Tribeca. Each menu was a work of art as was each dish. Seasonal, locally sourced cooking was David’s style long before “farm to table” became embedded in our culinary lingo. Gael Greene referred to David in ...

If you described your love life like a glass of wine, what would you say? Soft and velvety with a lingering finish? Earthy and masculine? Round and luscious with deep notes of cherry and chocolate?  It’s a question we enjoy asking people at dinner parties to up the conversation game. Another one is, “Describe yourself ...

  “Love, Loss and What I Drank”- The Exes in My Glasses This came to mind after reading Lisa Mattson’s delightful book, “The Exes in My Glass: How I Refined My Taste in Men & Alcohol.” This book is a fun read that documents Lisa’s progression as a young adult hell bent on leaving rural Kansas ...

Julia Child‘s birthday is August 15th. On the August 10th edition of The Connected Table LIVE! we share memories of Julia with her grand-nephew, Alex Prud’homme, who collaborated with Julia on her memoir, “My Life in France. ” When Julia passed away at the age of 92, he continued to work on the book with editor, Judith Jones. ...

President Obama Called Him the “Master of the Crust” Melanie says she grew up in The Crust Belt. It’s the section of the South she fondly refers as “the land of fries and pies where everything is better with batter and butter.” That’s why we’re excited to have Bill Yosses on the show August 10th. ...

Many people associate Bordeaux wines with classic Grand Crus, collectible fine wine that you lay down in a cellar and enjoy with a sumptuous meal. On our first trip to Bordeaux, we were fortunate enough to have private visits to some great houses: Château Le Pin and Vieux Château Certain in Pomerol, Château Pontet-Canet in Pauillac and Château ...

She’s called “The Queen of Creole Cuisine.” And we are honored to have a seating with this amazing lady who is truly Louisiana culinary royalty this week in New Orleans when we head to Tales of the Cocktail. That’s right! We’re visiting with the venerable Ms. Leah Chase, owner of New Orleans landmark Dooky Chase Restaurant on our July ...

For 25 years “on the rocks” meant climbing the ‘Gunks in New York’s Hudson Valley and managing rock climbing gyms in New York City for native New Yorker Ralph Erenzo. These days it has a new meaning  for him as Co-Founder of Tuthilltown Distillery, located on a former gristmill in the verdant Gardiner countryside just a ...

We have many reasons to love New Orleans, from the amazing food and architecture to the southern hospitality and good friends and family. It’s our home away from home, and we always find reasons to return as often as we can and look forward to attending the annual Tales of the Cocktail conference each summer ...

  Nieto Senetiner is one of Argentina’s great wine producers.  The history of Nieto Senetiner Winery dates back to 1888, when Italian immigrants founded it and grew the first vineyards in Vistalba, Luján de Cuyo, province of Mendoza. Over the first decades of the last century, the winery was run by several families who succeeded in passing ...

We love celebrating America’s Independence Day and hope you enjoyed as well. We wondered what the Founding Fathers drank to toast the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We’ve seen a number of references to Madeira.  Founding Father and First President George Washington owned a large distillery.Patrick Henry owned a tavern. Thomas Jefferson collected fine ...

“The way I see it,” says Melba Wilson, “Soul food is the foundation of American comfort food.” She’d know. For Melba, a Harlem native, or as she likes to say “I am Harlem born, bred, and buttered,” owns one of  most influential soul food restaurants in New York City’s most exciting dining neighborhood, aptly named ...

There’s just something about the name “Persia” that seduces us. We are drawn to the flavors and aromas. Mint, cumin, cinnamon, oranges, pomegranates, dates and honey are ingredients we like add to many of our everyday dishes. Aside from Melanie’s coming of age tour to Israel as a teenager, we’ve only traveled to the Middle ...

It seemed like the perfect plan: Help out Barossa Valley grape growers unable to sell their fruit in a changing market by making wine from their grapes, sell it off in bulk to those who need wine to sell and go play golf for the rest of the year. Well, something like that, anyways… A ...

    She’s called “The First Lady of Tequila” and is the first female “Maestra Tequila” certified by the Academia Mexicana de Catadores de Tequila. And she makes a pretty amazing tequila called Casa Dragones. After years building the Cuervo brand globally, Bertha Gonzáles Nieves stepped out in 2009 to create her own style of tequila ...

There’s probably nobody in the world today with a better handle on the pulse of the whisky industry than Dave Pickerell.   A veteran of the industry, Dave has spent a career moving the craft of making whisky forward through his knowledge and expertise in distilling. First at Makers Mark, where as Master Distiller for ...

A lot of people yearn to get into the wine business, where aside from the pretty hard work (winemaking is not romantic, only drinking wine is), a life of good food, good wine, travel, and mostly beautiful surroundings carry the day, pretty much every day. It’s rare, however, to find someone who leaves it. Carta ...

    South Africa has a winemaking industry that dates back to the 1600s, and the Malan family, whose Simonsig Wine Estate in that country’s renowned Stellenbosch region in the Cape Winelands is one of the most recognized names in the world of wine, helped create it. Grape growers in South Africa since Jacques Malan ...

  Think about this fact: every minute, 18 bottles of Sandeman wine are sold. That’s just under 26,000 bottles per day, or somewhere north of 9 million bottles per year. One of the truly iconic names in the world of wine, the Sandeman family started trading in Port and Sherry in 1790 and is considered one ...

Restaurants come (and go) at a pretty fast clip in New York City, one of the world’s great dining capitals. Some do so without much fanfare, some do so with lots of it. Betony, which opened in 2013 in midtown Manhattan, is one of the latter. The brainchild of Chef Bryce Shuman and partner Eamon ...

With a six generation legacy of  growing grapes and making wine, the Undurraga family has been at the forefront of fine wine production in Chile since the 1880s. Undoubtedly one of that country’s most famous wine making families, they have a number of firsts in their lengthy list of accomplishments, not the least of which ...

With almost two dozen restaurants scattered throughout the U.S., Bermuda, and across Scandinavia, a handful of cookbooks, and a growing list of media and philanthropic interests, Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s reach in the culinary world crosses multi-cultural boundaries Born in Ethiopia, adopted and raised in Sweden, from an early age Marcus was taught to appreciate and respect food ...

If you’ve had the good fortune to go out to The Hamptons on Long Island’s East End recently, you’ve most likely had one of Roman Roth’s wines. As winemaker at the celebrated Wölffer Estate Vineyard whose deliciously pale and dry Rosé is a Hamptons restaurant and Summer party staple, Roman has been a leader in the Long Island ...

Though the profession of wine making has had a fairly large contingent of women at the helm for decades, the spirits making game has long been male dominated, and it’s only recently that women have started turn their eye towards running a still. And, while we may be able to only count female distillers on ...