Cookbooks, including a couple local issues, dominate Jeff Houck's weekly look at the culinary world. ...more

March 12, 2009

The Culinary Sherpas offer a recipe for their version of the classic Italian dish, Chicken Cacciatore. ...more

February 11, 2009

The nation's best chefs compete at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival to represent the country in the world's most prestigious cooking contest. ...more

September 23, 2008

NOTES FROM A BEER FEST The Craft Beer Expo on Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg was so crowded, it was difficult to avoid waves of claustrophobia. Good thing we had beer to keep our nerves at bay. ...more

July 23, 2008

We first met Francesco Lafranconi at the 2007 Tampa Bay Food & Wine Festival. There he was, in white linen pants and a pink pinstriped tailored shirt, sleeves rolled up, relegated to an oak barrel just a stone's throw from the painted naked lady. He was mixing a heavenly concoction of Dom Perignon, rose nectar and fresh blueberries. Sweat poured from his European brow, thanks to the Florida humidity. ...more

July 15, 2008

GEARING UP FOR BOCUSE For all the ground American chefs have made up in the past two decades in an effort to establish cuisine worthy of mention alongside their European counterparts, they still have never won the Bocuse d'Or worldwide cooking competition. In fact, U.S. teams have never placed better than sixth in what has been described as a culinary Olympics. ...more

July 9, 2008

Cleveland author Michael Ruhlman has written with some of the world's best chefs. He wrote 'The French Laundry Cookbook' with Thomas Keller and 'A Return to Cooking' with Eric Ripert. He went to culinary school as part of writing a definitive trilogy of books about the making of chefs and about how culinary celebrity is affecting food culture. His latest book, 'The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen' (Scribner, $24), is intended to be a manual for anyone who wants to learn the culinary basics. ...more

October 24, 2007