Mama’s Boy. Peaches. Gates. Probably a few others I’ve omitted. And currently, Tequila Mockingbird in New Canaan. Yeah. There’s a chance you’ve sat at one of Justine Bassani’s bars somewhere in Fairfield County. An acclaimed bartender that’s won competitions and has had her fair share of limelight in magazine articles, Justine is pretty open about her own struggles with alcohol—she’s been sober for a while now—and although she’s still in the bartending game, she’s been pretty busy outside of the industry.
Chef and TV personality Silvia Baldini is publishing an upcoming book in September titled: LesDames d’Escoffier New York Cookbook: Stirring the Pot, The History Press, an imprint of Arcadiaon September 18th, 2023.
Compiling recipes, advise and stories from 61 of the most influential and accomplished women in the food and wine world, Baldini share their remarkable stories and their personal recipes for everything from simple weekday meals to spectacular party dishes.
Proceeds from sales benefit Les Dames d’Escoffier New York’s Scholarship Fund.
Get ready for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cook with CHEF ROYALTY with our friends at Wholesome Wave!
Jacques Pépin is the author of more than 30 cookbooks, host of 13 PBS television series, winner of numerous James Beard Awards, painter, and culinary educator. On March 23rd, 2023, he will also be a Sous Chef, with YOU.
Here at CTBites we LOVE eating good food - and we are here to tell you about an incredible opportunity to COOK great food with Celebrity Chefs. Our friends at Wholesome Wave have cooked up a very cool event to support their mission - they’ve lined up Celebrity Chefs Rocco Dispirito, Elizabeth Falkner, Michel Nischan, Sean Sherman, JJ Johnson, and Sherry Yard to prepare a 6-course meal and are offering our readers a chance to cook alongside them as Sous Chefs! Sound too good to be true? Nope!
All you have to do is donate $100 to Wholesome Wave and you’ll be entered to win the opportunity to be a Sous Chef to the stars!
Chef Jamie Bordonaro’s “day” job is Sous Chef at Millwrights Restaurant in Simsbury Connecticut, but over the past six years, Bordonaro has been working on a project of his own, in all of that “free” time one has as a chef. Jamie recently finished the publication of a cookbook titled, “Pursuit of Passion,” and as you can imagine, he is more than a little excited to finally be able to share the fruits of his labor with the public.
The cookbook is a personal narrative and compilation of Bordonaro’s cooking techniques, flavor profiles, and skills that he acquired throughout his culinary career. But it is so much more than that, and is grounded in purpose that relates to one’s own inner drive and the importance of creating opportunity within yourself to follow your passion.
The last two weeks have been a whirlwind for the author/chef and New Canaan resident whose new book is a gorgeous example of what great food and community can do; it can honor and inspire. She has done just that in an homage which highlights 45 immigrant women from across the country, including six living here in Connecticut, and their special connection to their native culture.Heirloom Kitchen shares 100 recipes beginning from Gass’ native Italy, several in Europe, Africa, Asia, Central & South America and the Middle East.
Vinnie Penn has been a Connecticut media staple for decades, but he's never been someone who you'd necessarily think about when it comes to the Connecticut food scene. Well, that's changing now. Vinnie's got a brand new book out called Route One Food Run where he travels up and down Route One to try the best places you can grab some grub. Ken Tuccio talks to Vinnie about how the book came to be, his love for the world of food and what he's learned during this process. Listen here.
Classically trained pastry chef, baking expert, cookbook author, and baking instructor Abby Dodge is a Fairfield, CT native on a mission to “bake the world a better place one recipe at a time.” She is a long-time contributing editor to Fine Cooking magazine, founding its test kitchen. In addition to her contributions in print, Abby is also leads a baking boot camp called “Cakes and Pies” you can enroll in on Craftsy.com, and an avid blogger where she hosts the online community #baketogether..
I had the pleasure of interviewing Abby on the occasion of the release of her tenth and latest cookbook called The Everyday Baker. You won’t want to miss her advice for home cooks on baking during the holiday season (advice I am promising myself to heed this year!), which is transcends baking and is really applicable to all things in life.
If you have questions for Abby, she has graciously agreed to answer your baking questions left in the comments section below.
Mimi Sheraton, award-winning author and former restaurant critic for The New York Times, will be at the Westport Public Library on Saturday, February 28 to discuss her new book, 1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List.
Sheraton's appearance will be a conversation with Matt Storch, chef and owner of Match Restaurant.
About Mimi Sheraton
Mimi Sheraton is a journalist, restaurant critic, lecturer, IACP and James Beard Award–winning cookbook author, and the woman about whom famed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten declared, “Her knowledge knows no bounds, her glossary of flavors is ultimate. Her opinion is like gold.” The former restaurant critic of the New York Times,
Photo c/o MarkBittman.comMark Bomford, Director of the Yale Sustainable Food Project will lead a conversation with author and New York Times columnist Mark Bittman on October 8, 2014 from 6 to 7 pm. The talk will take place at Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona, 1 Prospect Street in New Haven. This event is hosted by the Yale Sustainable Food Program.
There are some ingredients in this world that, when you add them to anything, they pretty much make it spectacular. Bacon, for example. It would probably make a sneaker taste good. “Air” is another ingredient. Air-a bizarre ingredient on an episode of Chopped? No. Air, as in fresh air. Eating outside. Have you noticed that when you eat a lobster roll outside on a deck overlooking the ocean, it makes you happy? Or eat a grilled burger at a picnic table on a warm summer evening? Or sip a frothy cappuccino at a sidewalk cafe? What is the common ingredient here? Fresh air. Good food combined with a hefty dose of the outdoors.
And lucky for you, we’ve put together a long list of our favorite eateries (40+) that have lovely outdoor dining spaces.
If we missed an outdoor venue you frequent, please share your find below.
As food writers, photographers, and chefs, we have the pleasure of eating a lot of really great food. Fairfield County has experienced something of a restaurant explosion over the past year, as new chefs move in and move on, and menus expand. We've endeavored to expand our coverage beyond those borders, seeking to cover more of the state and sharing those experiences that are worth seeking out. Instead of coming up with a top ten list ourselves, we asked the CTbites extended family to share some of their most memorable meals and dining experiences this past year.
"My Signature Dish" is a new CTbites column featuring a rotating cast of chefs, and the dishes that define their cooking style, or simply make them happy to fire up the stove.
Jodi Bernhard hardly hesitated when choosing her signature dish at Fortina, Christian Petroni’s "casually hip" Italian restaurant in Armonk. Her eyes gleaming, she said, "It's our Pork Braciole." Braciole, hip?
If you grew up Italian, you probably hold memories of Braciole near and dear. This classic rolled, stuffed meat roast, usually serves as centerpiece for those sprawling homemade Italian dinners that lazily linger across Sunday afternoons into evening. Braciole invokes home. And family. Instant Nostalgia.
Ok, so how does a chef modernize a memory? Autograph a treasured family photo?
“That is the gist of our approach at Fortina,” Jodi explained. “ We try to not stray too far from ‘mom's’ version, but still make it a restaurant dish with our stamp on it. We are true to simplicity and flavor.”
The notion of putting “Mom’s dish” on Fortina’s playful, hip menu was Christian’s, one of the restaurant’s owners. (Patroni and and Jodi once cooked together at Barcelona in nearby Greenwich.) Though she and Christian work as collaborators, the task of “restaurantizing” this homey meal was largely up to Bernhard.
Cooking with wood fire has a preternatural, almost primal appeal. You could argue that as cavemen, it was our first foray into comfort food. The intense heat and smoke has the power to transform otherwise unassuming ingredients. The six-month old Fortina in Armonk, begins with this deceptively simple ethos–Italian food, cooked simply, in wood fired ovens–and elevates it with a thoughtful culinary execution and a familiar, if familial, disarming vibe.
“There is a complexity to the simplicity,” said Rob Krauss, one of Fortina’s three partners along with John Nealon and Christian Petroni, nailing what makes the restaurant’s cuisine tick. I’m fairly certain Krauss is also referring to the restaurant’s team, an extended family of sorts that works equally hard at the food as they do cultivating the culture at Fortina
More than the sum of its wood-fired parts, Fortina relies on the culinary prowess and Italian heritage of partner and Executive Chef Christian Petroni, formerly of Barcelona Greenwich, as both muse and ringleader. “My background is Italian, I grew up spending summers in Ponza. One of my favorite restaurants is Peasant. As a young cook, Frank de Carlo was an inspiration as a chef. I was intrigued by cooking in wood ovens. There is something about it that is so gratifying. It’s a beautiful thing.” Along with chef de cuisine Jodi Bernhard, formerly of Barcelona, the kitchen has the creative chops responsible for its daily printed menu.
Fairfield county residents will be soon crossing the border (passports not required)-- into Upper Westchester County's suburb of Armonk, after this week's opening of Fortina. Chef Christian Petroni, recently Executive Chef of Greenwich's Barcelona Restaurant, is joined by John Nealon, ex-GM of the same provenance and Nealon's childhood friend, Rob Krauss as business partners. Both Nealon and Krauss originally hail from Westport. Petroni, a local himself, is also co-owner of Cooked & Co., in Scarsdale.
Recalling the many memorable meals he had eaten during his time spent in Italy, Petroni's vision was to bring Italy's simple authentic flavors, cooking methods and presentation to the dishes he serves at Fortina. This vision is executed with the help of 2 wood burning ovens imported straight from Naples, Italy which serve as a focal point in the main dining room. In fact with the exception of just a few menu items, everything is cooked in these fiery hearths...even a pasta dish or two! (And you should hear Petroni when he speaks of his ovens...like a proud new Papa )
Tamar Adler, a former editor at Harper’s Magazine and former cook at Chez Panisse and Prune will visit The Aldrich on Sunday, September 9 at 3 pm. Tickets are $10 each or free for members.
Adler has written a series of essays which, as Alice Waters states in the foreword to Adler’s book, An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace are “...teaching people not just how to cook but how to love to cook.”
Katie Workman, author of the new hit cookbook The Mom 100 Cookbook is coming to the Westport Public Library on Thursday, May 10 at 10:00 a.m.
Katie Workman is the founding editor in chief of Cookstr.com and a mother of two. In The Mom 100 Cookbook she delivers solutions to the 20 most common cooking dilemmas that every modern mom faces, providing recipes and tips for parents who are so baffled by their kids’ food preferences that mealtime has become a minefield.
Katie Workman will talk about her new cookbook The Mom 100 Cookbook, answer questions from the audience, and give a book signing.
Ok mothers...here's what people are saying about this new compendium:
“One of the best cookbook authors of her generation.” — BOBBY FLAY
“These are the 100 recipes everyone needs!” — INA GARTEN
This weekend the town of Old Lyme will host the Midsummer Festival, a two-day celebration featuring concerts, exhibitions, and a heavy dose of Connecticut food, farms and food writers this Friday, July 30 and Saturday July 31 in the town’s historic district.
In addition to concerts, exhibitions and workshops for kids, the Midsummer Festival boasts a great-line up for gourmands, which is where we gladly come in, beginning with an en plein air market featuring Connecticut grown produce and products. On Friday evening, Dinners at the Farm will be serving picnic dinners out of their “Chuckwagon” for $25 a person and will be back at it on Saturday serving breakfast and lunch in an outdoor cafe on Saturday for Festival-goers.