ReMARKable Palate Podcast #80

ReMARKable Palate #80: Benvenuto Brunello!

Today I take you along for the ride as I visit the tasting room at the Benvenuto Brunello event that took place in late January here in New York City. More than 50 producers came from the heart of Tuscany to share their latest bottling of Brunello di Montalcino, previewing the 2002 vintage, which is available in stores now, and a limited selection of 2001 riservas. I spoke with several producers, as well as the director of the consortium.

www.consorziobrunellodimontalcino.it
www.castellobanfi.com
www.ruffino.com
www.borgomonastero.com
www.cinellicolombini.it

Music: "Go Fish" by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network. music.podshow.com

Sponsors:
Folgers Gourmet Selections: Visit www.folgers.com/podshow for a free sample of their new flavored gourmet coffees.

Barilla Pasta: Download your FREE Pasta Lovers' Cookbook at www.pastaloverscookbook.com, and Barilla will donate $1 on your behalf to America's Second Harvest, the Nation's Food Bank Network.

www.GoDaddy.com Use these codes for special discounts at checkout:
palate1 for 10% off any order
palate2 for $5 off any order of $30 or more
palate3 to get a .COM domain name for just $6.95 a year

The ReMARKable Palate Podcast is a production of The Gilded Fork. www.gildedfork.com



www.culinarypodcastnetwork.com
food, food podcast, wine, wine+podcast, Brunello, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Chef Mark Featured on TheStreet.com

Steve Marzolf shadowed me on a day of cooking, and this article at www.TheStreet.com is the result:

Home-Cooked Cuisine, by Steve Marzolf

He's putting in hours at the office, but his galley kitchen uptown has become the set of an intricate ballet performed by personal chef Mark Tafoya.

Braised beef bubbles into a plume of Moroccan spices, and steam sizzles from a deglazed pork pan.

Tafoya has been at work for about an hour and a half, and he's entering what he refers to as "prime time," which means all real estate has evaporated from the oven, stovetop, counter and cutting boards.

Once the smoke clears, a $100 trip to Whole Foods has been transformed into a week of fresh food, all available at the touch of a microwave button.

Cooking at a Clip

Tafoya's day starts with an animated trip to the market at 11 a.m. He bills clients half his hourly rate for shopping, and not a penny's wasted as he shoots his cart through open spaces, grabbing granola or a bunch of carrots as he rolls by.

Attacking the store with a list of items tailored to the shelves' layout, he's exacting about the details, from the quality of ingredients to how they're packed in the insulated bag slung over his shoulder.

"Is your flank steak butterflied or pounded?" he asks the meat clerk before having a pork loin cut to his specifications.

"Some of the checkers know me and pack things the way I want. They're like, 'It's the weirdo chef!'" Tafoya quips.

The cooking itself, carefully choreographed to keep burners free and progress moving, takes two or three hours and ends with seven dishes cooling in microwave-safe containers.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

food, food podcast, cooking, personal chef, Chef Mark in the News, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Chef Mark featured at Fast Company

Fast Company magazine has featured the ReMARKable Palate Podcast as one of the "12 podcasts you should be listening to", and included me in one of their distinctive Fast Company slideshows. I'm honored to be counted among BBC's Digital Planet, Uncensored Blues, Robert Scoble's Scobleshow, Harvard Business Review's Ideacast, and Doctor's Without Borders.

12 Podcasts for the Creative Class

Here are 12 must-listen-to podcasts for creative knowledge workers--those entrepreneurial spirits who start and staff the most innovative, fast-growing companies.

The creative class -- the nebulous, but much bally-hooed, demographic made up of knowledge workers, intellectuals, and artists -- constitutes an increasing portion of the American workforce. Social scientist Richard Florida, who gave the group its moniker, sees the rise of the creative class as a powerful force that is shaping the economies of post-industrial cities. Yet, today many members of the creative class can live and work anywhere, thanks to home-office technology and the Internet. Working as freelancers, researchers, or in Internet-related fields, the creative class is spreading beyond communities, like Austin or Seattle, that are typically associated with the demographic. Whether they live in Ellsworth, Maine, or Peoria, Illinois, creative professionals still look for ways to satisfy their artistic and technological interests. In towns without Universities or symphonies, the creative class can now go online to find intellectual and cultural enrichment. Here are twelve podcasts designed for the eclectic tastes of the creative class:



For the chef: ReMARKable Palate

This podcast, part of the Gilded Fork's Culinary Podcast Network, is hosted by personal chef Mark C. Tafoya. Besides sharing recipes, Tafoya interviews chefs, food writers, and gourmets, and takes listeners behind the scenes of popular restaurants.

food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, food, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

ReMARKable Palate Podcast #79

ReMARKable Palate #79

Happy Chinese New Year! I was invited to a special beer and food pairing luncheon to celebrate the Chinese New Year, the year of the Golden Boar, with Harbin Lager at Tao restaurant in New York City. After the meal, I spoke with master brewer George Reisch, who sat down with me and explained in greater detail the process of lagering, the unique Chinese QinDao Duhau hops, and his heritage as a brewer. (You can hear the actual luncheon on Culinary Roundtable #6) We'll finish today with a recipe for Baked Pasta with Zucchini and Mozzarella.

Music: "Go Fish" by Big Money Grip, "Black Coffee" by Stefanie Harger, "Byron's Got the Time" by Family Groove Company, from the Podsafe Music Network. music.podshow.com

Sponsors:
Folgers Gourmet Selections: Visit www.folgers.com/podshow for a free sample of their new flavored gourmet coffees.

Barilla Pasta: Download your FREE Pasta Lovers' Cookbook at www.pastaloverscookbook.com, and Barilla will donate $1 on your behalf to America's Second Harvest, the Nation's Food Bank Network.

www.GoDaddy.com Use these codes for special discounts at checkout:
palate1 for 10% off any order
palate2 for $5 off any order of $30 or more
palate3 to get a .COM domain name for just $6.95 a year

The ReMARKable Palate Podcast is a production of The Gilded Fork. www.gildedfork.com

www.culinarypodcastnetwork.com
food, food podcast, beer, Chinese New Year, Harbin Lager, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Update on Connecticut Foie Gras Battle

Email from Ariane Daguin of D'Artagnan

Dear Chef,
Please protect the right to eat and farm foie gras in Connecticut. State Representative Diana Urban has introduced a bill (Proposed Bill Number 6866) that would ban both the sale and production of foie gras in Connecticut.

We need your help. The State's Joint Committee on Environment will be holding a hearing on the ban this coming Wednesday, February 21. Please take a few minutes to call your State Representative and State Senator
(See contact info below - MT).

Thanks a lot,
Ariane


The hearing will be held tomorrow Wednesday, February 21st, in the Legislative Office Building at 300 Capitol Avenue in Hartford. Directions can be found HERE. We do not know the room number of the hearing, but it should be available at the Legislative Office Building on Wednesday when you arrive.

The hearing begins at 10:15 a.m. and will cover 20 bills being considered by the Environment Committee. We expect that the foie gras issue will generate much more interest than any of the other bills up for consideration. People testify in the order that they sign up to testify that day. As a result, the testimony will skip around from bill to bill depending upon the witness.

food, food podcast, cooking, foie gras, D'Artagnan, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Culinary Roundtable #6

Culinary Roundtable #6

We're back! The foodcasters will be back in full swing with new episodes in the coming weeks, but today it's just me, Chef Mark, with a literal roundtable. I was invited to a special beer and food pairing luncheon to celebrate the Chinese New Year, the year of the Golden Boar, with Harbin Lager at Tao restaurant in New York City. A group of food journalists enjoyed each other’s company, as well as the knowledge and expertise of master brewer George Reisch, who gave us a great lesson in brewing, tasting beers, and pairing them with foods. You get to listen in on the meal today!

Sponsor: Barilla Pasta - Download your FREE Pasta Lovers' Cookbook at www.pastaloverscookbook.com, and Barilla will donate $1 on your behalf to America's Second Harvest, the Nation's Food Bank Network.

Music: "Byron's Got the Time" by Family Groove Company. Find it on the Podsafe Music Network at music.podshow.com


www.culinarypodcastnetwork.com
food, food podcast, beer, beer and food pairing, Harbin Lager, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Roundtable, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

A Letter from Jean-Louis Gérin

This is a letter from our friend Jean-Louis Gérin:

Friends and chers amis,
I am sending you this personal email as I am very concern/disgusted/appalled by yet another attempt by the anti-meat extremist to ban Foie Gras eating and farming. It was all fun and entertaining as long as they preach their non-sense in other states ... unfortunately they are attacking Connecticut. I have included an eloquent email from Nick Maduros. It follows my notes. He and I are begging you to read it.

I will be present and speaking at the hearing on Wednesday and once again I will be expressing my concern about anybody telling this chef what he can or can not cook.

Furthermore as a patriotic American, I am more upset by all the Connecticut children who go to bed starving and I am more upset about all our young military dying in Iraq, than I am of the unproven discomfort of a duck, as Nick's email will clarify and prove.

I never had a duck come to me and complain but I see hungry children when I visit soup kitchens. CNN is definitely giving me graphic images of our youngsters dying while fighting for us ... not for the ducks.

Jean-Louis Gerin -
Animal and children lover - Enemy of stupidity.

Here is the text of Nick Maduros letter;

Protect the right to eat and farm foie gras in Connecticut. State Representative Diana Urban has introduced a bill (Proposed Bill Number 6866) that would ban both the sale and production of foie gras in Connecticut. Don’t politicians have better things to do than dictate what their own constituents can and can’t eat? And shouldn’t our elected leaders be helping our farmers stay in business and on their land?

We need your help. The State’s Joint Committee on the Environment will be holding a hearing on the ban this coming Wednesday, February 21. Please take a few minutes to call your State Representative and State Senator. (To find your representatives, go to http://www.cga.ct.gov/maps/townlist.asp.) Tell them you’re opposed to any ban on foie gras. Also, please contact these key leaders to let them know how you feel.

* Representative James A. Amann

Speaker of the House
(860) 240-8500
1-800-842-1902
Jim.Amann@cga.ct.gov

* State Senator Donald E. Williams, Jr.

President Pro Tempore
(860) 240-8600
1-800-842-1420
Williams@senatedems.ct.gov


* Representative Richard Roy

Co-Chair of the Committee on the Environment
(860) 240-8585
1-800-842-8267
Richard.Roy@cga.ct.gov


* State Senator Bill Finch

Co-Chair of the Committee on the Environment
(860) 240-0447
1-800-842-1420
Finch@senatedems.ct.gov

food, food podcast, foie gras, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

ReMARKable Palate Podcast #78

ReMARKable Palate #78: Chef Bun Lai of Miya Sushi

This week we’re doing a little kitchencasting, making Ginger Glazed Carrots with Macadamia Nuts, but first we’ll chat with Chef Bun Lai, owner of Miya Sushi, an innovative restaurant in New Haven, CT. Chef Lai is taking traditional Japanese food and turning it on it's head with his own twists, using Meditteranean and even Mexican ingredients combined with Eastern techniques and presentations. Finally, we’ll hear from a listener who’s been quite busy in the kitchen, and who is inspired by our Culinary Podcast Network shows.

www.myspace.com/miyassushi

Music: "Go Fish" by Big Money Grip, "Black Coffee" by Stefanie Harger, "Zing Zing" by Roadside Attraction, from the Podsafe Music Network. music.podshow.com

Sponsors:
Folgers Gourmet Selections: Visit www.folgers.com/podshow for a free sample of their new flavored gourmet coffees.

Barilla Pasta: Download your FREE Pasta Lovers' Cookbook at www.pastaloverscookbook.com, and Barilla will donate $1 on your behalf to America's Second Harvest, the Nation's Food Bank Network.

www.GoDaddy.com Use these codes for special discounts at checkout:
palate1 for 10% off any order
palate2 for $5 off any order of $30 or more
palate3 to get a .COM domain name for just $6.95 a year

The ReMARKable Palate Podcast is a production of The Gilded Fork. www.gildedfork.com

www.culinarypodcastnetwork.com
food, food podcast, cooking, sushi, Miya Sushi, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Kudos to LENNDEVOURS

Our good friend and Gilded Fork contributor Lenn Thompson from LENNDEVOURS, a NY wine-focused blog, has been named as a finalist in the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards in two categories--Best Single-Subject Blog and Best Blog Graphics.

This is exciting because it will bring more attention to the New York wine industry, which is finally starting to get it's due recognition in the larger wine world (listen to our recent interview with Gary Madden of Lieb Cellars on ReMARKable Palate #77 for more on the kudos being received by Long Island wineries).

To vote for YOUR favorite wine blogs, visit: The American Wine Blog Awards

There are only a few categories, so it doesn't take long to vote. I'd also encourage each of you to visit Tom Wark's Fermentation blog to see the complete list of finalists with the URLS for their blogs. There are some great bloggers out there writing about wine and not enough people are aware of them!

food, food podcast, cooking, recipe, food, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

Chocolate and Spice and Everything Nice!

Sorry I haven't been posting much here besides the podcasts. I've been a busy bee doing lots of hard time in the kitchen for my clients!

Jennifer ran across this great article by Susan Houston in North Carolina's News and Observer about the hot love affair between chile and chocolate (just in time for Valentine's Day), and guess who they quoted?

Chocolate, you see, wasn't always the sweet confection it is today. According to historians, the Olmec, ancestors of both the Mayans and the Aztecs, discovered cacao about 2,600 years ago and probably drank it as a savory drink, mixed with herbs and spices. Later, the Aztecs added chile water to the drink.

"The pungent spiciness of the capsacim enhanced and intensified the taste of the chocolate," writes Mark Tafoya, chef-owner of ReMARKable Palate Personal Chef Service in New York City, on his Web site, www.gildedfork.com.

In Mexico, the mixture of chile and chocolate developed into mole, a savory red-brown sauce most often served with chicken. Ingredients vary from cook to cook, but chocolate and some form of chiles are a constant.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

food, food podcast, cooking, chile, chocolate, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork

ReMARKable Palate Podcast #77

ReMARKable Palate #77: Choucroute

To ward off the winter cold, I attended the 8th Annual Choucroute "Halles" of Fame dinner at Les Halles Restaurant in NYC with Jennifer. We spoke with owner Phillipe LaJaunie about how this simple dish brings people together, and celebrates the culture and conviviality of Alsace. We also speak with Jean-Claude Baker, son of Josephine Baker and owner of Chez Josephine Restaurant, and his "sister" in entertainment, the legendary Lilliane Montevecchi.

Voice Mail: 646-797-3196
Skype: remarkablepalate
remarkablepalate@gmail.com
remarkablepalate.podshow.com

Sponsors:
www.GoDaddy.com Use these codes for special discounts at checkout:
palate1 for 10% off any order
palate2 for $5 off any order of $30 or more
palate3 to get a .COM domain name for just $6.95 a year

Folgers Gourmet Selections: Visit www.folgers.com/podshow for a free sample of their new flavored gourmet coffees.

Barilla Pasta: Download your FREE Pasta Lovers' Cookbook at www.pastaloverscookbook.com, and Barilla will donate $1 on your behalf to America's Second Harvest, the Nation's Food Bank Network.

Music: "Go Fish" by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network. music.podshow.com

The ReMARKable Palate Podcast is a production of The Gilded Fork. www.gildedfork.com

www.culinarypodcastnetwork.com
food, food podcast, cooking, choucroute, Les Halles, ReMARKable Palate, Culinary Podcast Network, Gilded Fork