Filtering by Tag: Cookbooks,Bread Shop

Ridgefield Bagels and Bakes: NEW Destination for Sourdough Bagels in Ridgefield

Restaurant Breakfast Breakfast Sandwich Bagels Bakery Bread Shop Opening Ridgefield Homepage

Hannah Goodman

I love bagels. I love anything that has to do with bagels, whether it’s simply a toasted plain bagel with some butter or cream cheese (often I choose both – sue me), or a B.E.C. on a sesame bagel, or it’s an everything bagel stacked with the works, like scallion cream cheese, smoked salmon, onions, and capers, I am all in! If you are from the tri-state area, you know the importance of a solid bagel shop, as we take this stuff very seriously, because what the heck would we do without a hearty breakfast sandwich in the morning? As luck would have it, Ridgefield needed a new bagel shop to take the place of what had previously been Steve’s Bagels, and in November of 2023, the same location on Main Street became Ridgefield Bagels and Bakes. 

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CTbites Holiday Gift Guide For Food Lovers (2024 Edition)

Features Gift Guide Holiday Shopping Shopping Guide Cookbooks Homepage

April Guilbault

And here we are again, on the threshold of the holiday season! The weather might be a little warmer than usual (but then again, it snowed this morning. Anyone else keeping up with all of this?) but the holiday spirit is in full swing! With that comes the quest for the perfect gifts for all those lovelies on your list. We have scoured and explored and found some delicious and interesting gift ideas for you…fresh delivered milk anyone? We have divided this curated list into four sections: Gifts, Cookbooks, Subscriptions, and a few “Beyond Connecticut” items not to be missed.

Happy Shopping and Happy Holidays to you, our fellow foodies!

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New Cookbook from Nominee for Best Caterer 2024, Alison Milwe Grace of AMG Catering

Features Cookbooks Caterer Recipe Education

Stephanie Webster

We have long loved Alison Milwe Grace of AMG Catering. Not only does AMG elevate the catering industry in Connecticut, but she also supports the community in so many other ways. We are excited to announce the release of her first cookbook, SAVOR, Recipes to Celebrate, just in time for the holidays.

“I have always loved how cooking brings people together and I wrote this book to share my love for food and encourage others to savor time with family and friends. Savor, A Reason to Celebrate is a collection of some of favorite and simplest recipes. I want everyone to see that we don’t need a major holiday or a complicated recipe to gather with friends and family and celebrate,” says Milwe Grace.

Savor is a carefully curated collection of Milwe Grace's favorite recipes, themed classes, and menus for enthusiastic home cooks to create festive gatherings for friends and family. Whether you are celebrating Cinco de Mayo, need inspiration for a backyard barbecue, or want to impress your guests on New Year's Eve, Savor will be the cookbook you reach for again and again.

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Wave Hill Breads To Open New Retail Space In Norwalk

Features Opening Norwalk Bakery Bread Shop

RJ Scofield

Wave Hill Breads, an artisan micro-bakery located on High Street in Norwalk, plans to open a new 3,000-square-foot retail space on Westport Avenue.

Co-Owner Angela Topi confirmed to Patch plans to open a the new retail space, which will also include kitchen space and two back rooms for educational workshops and team building events, at 239 Westport Avenue.

Though an official opening date has not been set yet, Topi teased the new Wave Hill space will soon be ready to open.
"We feel that there is a need for fresh, local, high-quality artisan food on the best bread around," Topi said to Patch. "Also, our wonderful and loyal customers kept asking us to open up a retail space."

Wave Hill currently sells breads, pastries and other items from its High Street bakery, which Topi said will still be the main production facility for their wholesale accounts and farmer's markets while the new Westport Avenue facility will mainly be used for retail.

Read the full article on The Patch.

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Alina’s Cakes: New Bakery Opens In Westport with Gluten Free Treats!

Restaurant Opening Bakery Westport Custom Cakes Cakes Bread Shop Homepage

Dan Woog

This just in from Dan Woog’s 06880.

In her native Romania, Alina Dancho often waited 2 hours in line, for half a loaf of bread. Now customers stand in line for her croissants, cookies, cakes, cupcakes and pastries.

And bread.

Alina’s Cakes & Cookies opened recently in the shopping plaza next to Fortuna’s, Greens Farms Spirit Shop, Gofer Ice Cream and Westport Cigar & Vape. It’s a tasty addition to those treats. It’s also the healthiest option.

95% of her bread is sourdough — an excellent, all-natural source of antioxidants and prebiotics.

Nearly all of her offerings are gluten-free. Her sugar and flour is non-GMO. She uses organic milk, and cage-free organic eggs. Some even come from the chickens she keeps.

“It’s not how much you eat. It’s what you eat,” Alina says, comparing the prevalence of food allergies in the US to Europe. She is adamant about the importance of avoiding pre-processed products like fillings and frostings.

“I want people to eat healthy breakfast foods and desserts, without allergic reactions and diabetes.”

Read the complete article here.

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Guide To Connecticut Bread Bakers & Bakeries

Features Restaurant Bakery Bread Shop Bread Breakfast Homepage Highlight

Hannah Goodman

Bread. It’s the culinary foundation for so many cultures, each with its own unique varieties and history. Bread plays a pivotal role, whether it’s mopping up a beautiful sauce after a meal, or given to a child slathered in butter, after school. Bread baking is an art, a science, and a labor of love, especially for those bakers nurturing their sourdough starters, passed down for generations or created many years ago. “Often, our choices of bread are all about feelings. Flavour too, yes, of course. But the emotional resonance of bread is like little else.” -The Borough Market Guide to Baking

The explosion of Bread Bakers in Connecticut is a gift. So please, let us “break bread” together and enjoy this list of exceptional local bread bakeries. 

If we missed a local bread baker you know and love, please contact us.

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30+ Spots for Great Bagels in Connecticut

Features Restaurant Bagels Breakfast Sandwich Breakfast Comfort Food carb Bread Shop Homepage

April Guilbault

Nicely sized and expertly formed, with a nice bit of pillowy fluff to its appearance. A firm golden crust that your teeth have to work a bit to pierce, which then leads you to the satisfying crunch and the doughy, chewiness inside. Choose a flavor, from the sweet to the savory to the quirky seasonal, finish with a generous schmeeeeeear (also in the above flavors) and enjoy one of the simple pleasures in life: a good bagel. 

Here are 30+ spots to score yourself some bagel-y goodness in Connecticut.

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CT Chef & TV Personality, Silvia Baldini, To Release Cookbook Sept 18th (For A Great Cause)

Features Author Cookbooks Book Fundraiser

CTbites Team

Chef and TV personality Silvia Baldini is publishing an upcoming book in September titled: Les Dames d’Escoffier New York Cookbook: Stirring the Pot, The History Press, an imprint of Arcadia on 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.

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maman, NYC’s Beloved French Bakery & Café Opening in Greenwich June 18th

Restaurant Opening Greenwich Bakery Celebrity Chef Dessert Baked Goods Cookies Bread Shop Tea And Coffee

CTbites Team

maman, NYC’s beloved French Bakery & Café, is expanding to Connecticut with its first location in Greenwich (98 Greenwich Ave). Opening June 18th, the Provençal-inspired café, created by co-founders Elisa Marshall and Benjamin Sormonte, will bring its fan-favorite salads, sandwiches, made-famous-by-Oprah Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookies to the Greenwich community. 

In true maman fashion, the decor will feature florals, signature toile print, and vintage and antique furniture, all drawing inspiration from the South of France. Brokered by Brand Urban, Greenwich’s full-service real estate advisory and brokerage company, maman Greenwich is the perfect spot to savor a morning coffee or pastry or grab brunch or lunch with friends. With 2,300 sqft of space, maman Greenwich is also the perfect spot to host events with your closest friends and family. 

Maman Greenwich will be open Monday - Friday from 7:30am - 6pm and Saturday-Sunday from 8am - 6pm. On opening day, Maman will have a cookbook signing with Elisa from 10am-12pm, and a Father’s Day Special, serving a complimentary S’mores A La Minute Cookie for dads with any purchase! 

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Guide to New Haven Bakeries: Italian, Mexican, Puerto Rican & Asian Must-Try Bake Shops

Features Restaurant New Haven Bakery Baked Goods Dessert Cakes Cookies Pastries Bread Bread Shop

Carly Terzigni

New Haven is a foodie hotspot in Connecticut, with no shortage of top-notch restaurants featuring cuisines from all around the globe. That level of quality, sheer abundance of choices, and beautiful blends of cultures extend to the city’s bakeries and cafes, which offer some of the best sweets and baked goods you can imagine. Whether you are looking for a quick dessert or a catered order for your next big event, you definitely do not need to look beyond New Haven’s city limits to find what you are looking for.

The next time you find yourself in New Haven, be sure to carve out some time during your visit to check out one (or several) of these great bakeries listed below. Pro tip: don’t stop at just one dessert; stock up on these tasty sweets like we did and enjoy them all week long.

NOTE: If you have a favorite New Haven Mexican, Italian, Puerto Rican, Brazilian, or Middle Eastern bakery and it’s not on this list, please contact us and we will add it to the list.

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CTbites Sits Down with Culinary Legend, Lidia Bastianich

Features Interview Celebrity Chef Charity Cookbooks Lidia Bastianich Homepage

Andrew Dominick

Lidia Bastianich is an iconic culinary television show host, a multi-time published author, and an acclaimed restauranteur. In Connecticut, we’re all familiar with her partnership in the now closed Tarry Lodge restaurants in Westport, New Haven, and its Port Chester flagship whose next door was Tarry Market, an Italian specialty shop. And let’s be real, all of us locals have dropped a paycheck’s equivalent at Bastianich’s Eataly locations in NYC, and if you’re further out, you’ve likely done so in Vegas, L.A., Chicago, or at Boston’s Eataly.

Bastianich, though, has Connecticut connections beyond her restaurants as an avid supporter of Person to Person, a Darien based nonprofit that provides food, free clothing, emergency financial assistance, scholarships, and gratis summer day camps to those who need it.

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Uncle Matt's Bakery & Café: Breakfast, Lunch, Artisan Bread & Pastries in Sandy Hook

Restaurant Bakery American French Café Breakfast Breakfast Sandwich Lunch Bread Shop Baker BEC Openings

Stephanie Webster

If you live in Connecticut, you may recognize Matthew Kirshner. He is the pastry chef, bread baker, and owner of the popular Sandy Hook newcomer, Uncle Matt’s Bakery and Café, but he has spent time baking in our fair state for over 20 years. Kirshner has graced the kitchens of The Roger Sherman Inn, Wave Hill Breads, Bantam Bread Company, and even the Russian Tea Room in NYC. (Side note: Wave Hill and Bantam were just awarded “Best Bread in CT” by Food & Wine). But in June of 2021, after years of being covered in flour in other people’s kitchens, Matt decided it was time to get dirty in his own. Thus, one of Sandy Hook’s most beloved spots, Uncle Matt’s Bakery, was born, serving breakfast, lunch, as well as a wide array of outrageously good pastries, and artisan bread.

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Meet Pierluigi Mazzella of Fatto a Mano Bakery: Panettone & Artisan Bread

Features Local Artisan Bakery Bread Bread Shop Baked Goods Dessert Breakfast Homepage

Brian Lance

Mazzella strove for this constant improvement throughout his baking journey, always moving up, always seeking to work in places where he could learn more high-level skills. He worked around Italy as a pizzaiolo, then as a panettone apprentice for the 2019 world champion of panettone, and most recently as the lead bread baker for Atticus Bakery in New Haven.

Now, at his bakery, Fatto a Mano, which translates from Italian as “made by hand,” Mazzella applies his father’s work ethic to his baking. He makes Italian-inspired artisan bread and pastry, including sourdoughs loaves and biscotti. Then there's the panettone.

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Atticus Cafe & Market Opens 2nd Location in New Haven: It's All About The Grains

Restaurant Features Bakery Bread Shop Local Artisan Breakfast Lunch New Haven Bread Openings Baker Homepage

Erik Ofgang

Bite into a sourdough loaf from Atticus and you’ll taste the difference immediately.

It's heartier and nuttier with an addictive chew and bolder character than most other breads, even from other artisan sourdough bakeries. The bakery’s pastries also have a wonderful and unique flavor.

The bakery’s not-so-secret ingredient is simple: whole grains.

The new market is Atticus’ second location. It joins the Atticus Bookstore Cafe in downtown New Haven, which has been a bookstore since 1976 and a cafe since 1981. The location has been dabbling in artisan bread and pastries since 2016.

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New Cookbook from CT's Own Dorie Greenspan: BAKING WITH DORIE: SWEET, SALTY & SIMPLE

Features Cooking Cookbooks Baker Baking

CTbites Team

Known for her multiple James Beard Award and IACP Award-winning cookbooks, CT’s own Dorie Greenspan is back with 150 all new signature recipes in BAKING WITH DORIE (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; October 19, 2021; $35.00;). This new collection, her fourteenth cookbook, arrives exactly thirty years after her food writing debut, much to the delight of her legion of fans.

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Small State Provisions IS OPEN: Let Them Eat Bread!

Restaurant West Hartford Local Artisan Bread Openings Baker Bakery Bread Shop

Kristin L. Wolfe

Are you ready to carb out on THE MOST tremendous bites of bready goodness your lips have savored? Small State Provisions in West Hartford’s GastroPark has finally opened.

Owner, and head baker Kevin Masse has been incredibly patient this last year waiting to open his storefront bakery. Despite it being a difficult time for any industry, Masse’s fan base has multiplied; and, to see him finally open the doors to his beautiful brick and mortar was a pretty emotional moment. As he opened the doors for the first time on Saturday, July 3, he grabbed his camera to capture the smiles and cheers in the line as it wrapped around the door in the parking lot of the GastroPark, now THE place to “Gather and Graze” in WeHa. Small State Provisions’ goodies were sold out in 45 minutes!

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Cook with Jacques Pépin & Friends Vol 2 On Sale March 9th!

Features Cooking Virtual Cooking Classes Recipe Recipe Video Cookbooks Homepage

CTbites Team

The latest Video Recipe Book from the Jacques Pépin Foundation features over 40 culinary luminaries and will be available March 9th. After a successful Vol. 1 release, The Jacques Pépin Foundation, (JPF) an organization that enriches lives and strengthens communities through culinary education, proudly debuts Cook with Jacques Pépin & Friends: Vol 2. This Video Recipe Book features over 40 lauded chefs across the country including Marcus Samuelsson, Ingrid Hoffmann, Michael Voltaggio, Rick Bayless, Michael Symon, Carla Hall, Diego Galicia, Traci Des Jardins, and, of course, Jacques Pépin.

Each dish and drink featured in Cook with Jacques Pépin & Friends includes a personal, instructional video as well a printable recipe. The Video Recipe Book is available to all JPF Members, and in addition to Vol. 2., members can access Vol. 1. Combined, nearly 100 recipes and more than 12 hours of video instruction live on the Membership site. Every JPF Membership directly supports community-based culinary training programs nationwide that provide pathways to individual empowerment, better health and employment. Membership starts at $40 per year.

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CTbites 2020 Gift Guide: Great Gifts For Your Favorite CT Food Lover

Features Ingredients Gift Guide Best of CT Specialty Market Shopping Specialty Products Local Artisan Cookbooks Cooking Classes Holiday Homepage

April Guilbault

How to find the perfect gift for this crazy ass year-well ain’t that the question of the day! As many of us are staying a little further away from stores and not partaking in the usual activities we have in past years, we got creative and found the creative for your gift-giving! Artisans, chefs, and vendors are all rising to the occasion with fabulous out-of-the-box thinking and we discovered a treasure trove of unusual, beautiful, tasty items and experiences that will infuse a blast of goodness into this particularly memorable holiday season. Give, get, live, love, and celebrate the moments of sparkle. To quote the infamous Clark Griswold, “we’re all in this together”.

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Millwright's Sous Chef, Jamie V. Bordonaro, Publishes "Pursuit of Passion" Cookbook

Features Cooking Cookbooks Education Author CT Authors Chef Talk

Stephanie Webster

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.

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"Room at the Table; Recipes from the Heart" E-Cookbook By Silvia Baldini

Features Cookbooks Education Cooking

Stephanie Webster

Chef Silvia Baldini of Strawberry & Sage has released a wonderful new E-cookbook, “Room at the Table; Recipes from the Heart.” The cookbook is a collection of family recipes donated by ‘New Canaan Democrats’ members, friends, community leaders, and legislators. It’s a cookbook about the joy and benefits of sharing delicious meals with others. It is also about building a bigger table that welcomes and includes our friends and neighbors, embraces our diversities, and celebrates our expansive attitudes and values of compassion and care for everyone.

Contributors to the project include: Senator Kamala Harris—vice-presidential candidate, Chef Marcus Samuelsson— award-winning chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, philanthropist and food activist, judge on Chopped, Gloria Steinem— Activist, author, Feminist…and oh so many more.

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