Chefs At Home Recipes: Pantry Pasta from Chef Arturo Franco-Camacho

Recipe Features Video Recipe Recipe Video Pasta Chef Talk Homepage

CTbites Team April 18, 2020

In our NEW “Chefs At Home” Cooking Series, we asked local CT chefs to help our readers find cooking inspiration in every day pantry items. Executive Chef Arturo Franco-Camacho of Geronimo Tequila Bar & Southwest Grill (Fairfield and New Haven) and Shell & Bones Oyster Bar and Grill (New Haven) has a wonderful recipe for Pantry Pasta to kick off this series. Enjoy!

Easter Cooking: Wild Alaskan Halibut A La Cataplana Recipe c/o Chef Renato Donzelli of Basso Cafe

Recipe Features Recipe Seafood Chef Talk Holiday healthy

Stephanie Webster April 06, 2017

Cataplana is a Portuguese seafood dish originating in the southern region of Portugal in Algarve, and it is about as traditional a Portuguese dish as you can get. It uses a copper cooking device also called a Cataplana which unique to the Algarve region. If you don’t have this vessel you simply can use a pan with a lid.

This dish we are going to make is a variation using a fresh fish like Halibut, littleneck clams, and Spanish chorizo. Cataplana is perfect for making this dish because it efficiently contains the flavor and heat of the contents in the dish to provide a uniquely flavored and scented dish, simply without any fuss.

One-Tray Chicken Dinner Recipe via Chopped Champion Silvia Baldini

Recipe Recipe healthy Chef Talk

Silvia Baldini March 20, 2017

Mushrooms are one of the few natural sources of vitamin D and they promote immune boosting functions by increasing production of antiviral proteins. Some of my favorite mushrooms are Shiitake. They are simply delicious and they taste particularly divine in this, always fool-proof, oven roasted lemon and parsley chicken one-tray recipe. It takes 35 minute in the oven and minimal prepping. Even my children, those little rascals always poo-pooing mushrooms, after falling from their chairs laughing when they heard the word SHIITAKE, gobbled these ones down!

An Interview w/ Chef Zac Young, PieCaken Creator + more!

Ingredients Recipe Chef Talk Dessert

Emma Jane-Doody Stetson November 01, 2016

Last Thanksgiving, the PieCaken took the world by storm! A sweet tooth’s twist on the “turducken,” the all-in-one dessert includes Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie, and Apple Upside Down Cake layered together with cinnamon buttercream. Kelly Ripa loved it so much that she featured it several times on her show. CNN and The New York Times quickly followed suit. This year, the PieCaken is upping the ante with nationwide shipping! https://www.foodydirect.com/restaurants/the-piecaken-shop/dishes

CTBites had the opportunity to sit down with the mastermind behind the PieCaken, Chef Zac Young. Creative and outgoing, it’s fitting that he came up with such a whimsical idea. Young appeared on Top Chef Just Desserts, was named a “Top Ten Pastry Chef in America,” and currently serves as Pastry Director of Craveable Hospitality Group. Here are excerpts from our conversation.

10 Questions with Fjord Fish Market's Jim Thistle

Ingredients Interview Recipe Chef Talk Fish Seafood Specialty Market

April Guilbault October 18, 2016

Oh so many fish in da sea! And that’s only the beginning....what kind of fish do you want to prepare? Do you know how to prepare it? Oh, yeah, and where should you go to get this fish, short of heading out into open waters yourself? And wait, and here’s the $100,000 question: is the fish you are buying everything it says it is? Good grief. It’s almost easier dating and looking for *those* fish in the sea. Well, fear not, CTBites sat down recently with one of the Big Fish out there, Jim Thistle of Fjord Fish Market, and he helped guide us through seemingly murky waters...

Stuffed Ricotta and Spinach Agnolotti Recipe via Basso Cafe

Recipe Chef Talk Pasta Recipe Comfort Food

CTbites Team January 07, 2016

Let's be real people. When the cold weather rolls in, it's time to dig into some serious comfort food. For us, this generally means braised meat and carbs, preferably pasta. Chef Renato Donzelli of Basso Cafe in Norwalk makes beautiful housemade pasta for his guests, and now you can make it in your own house. Enjoy his recipe for Stuffed Ricotta and Spinach Agnolotti.