(Kansas City Magazine 10/1/2011)
Cognac and Kansas City are twinned topics.
KC Magazine invited me to write the October "Libation" column, giving readers an introduction to a spirit and telling them where to get the best of it in Kansas City.
(Tales of the Cocktail 3/22/2016)
A professional-level introduction to amaro, complete with subcategories, recommendations for use in cocktails, and a baker's dozen-plus of recommendations
(Chicago Tribune 9/25/2011)
The straight-from-the-farm road doesn't just lead to the kitchen. Sometimes, it goes to the bar.
(Chicago Sun-Times 9/22/2009)
Wine-tasting can be a scary prospect. What's the best wine for an absolute beginner to start exploring? Belinda Chang, the wine director of The Modern, has an answer.
(Chicago Sun-Times 10/14/2009)
The Modern's wine director, Belinda Chang, introduces readers to the Hugel & Fils, who have been producing wine since 1639.
(Chicago Sun-Times 12/28/2008)
Season in a glass -- winter's seasonal cocktails from around the world
(Chicago Sun-Times 9/16/2009)
Belinda Chang, the wine director of The Modern in New York City, talks about Cabernet Franc, an ideal wine for the transition from summer into autumn.
(My Midwest 11/1/2007)
Kansas City has an outstanding coffee scene -- and remarkably good, locally roasted coffee. Here's the best the city has to offer.
(Chicago Sun-Times 12/28/2008)
Seasonality in a glass: a look at how some of the world's top bartenders are putting season and location into cocktails.
(Chicago Sun-Times 5/5/2009)
At the 2009 James Beard Awards gala, Bridget Albert created a cocktail celebrating Chicago. This was featured in Digging In, the food blog of the Chicago Sun-Times.
The cocktail featured Goose Island Matilda Belgian Style Ale, a local brew, and was garnished -- appropriately -- with hops.
(Chicago Sun-Times food blog 5/4/2009)
A profile of The Modern's Wine Director, together with her recommendations for summer wines.
(Viv Magazine 10/25/2011)
Ketter's bartenders don't just sell cocktails. They peddle history.
(Chicago Sun-Times 8/19/2009)
The Modern's wine director, Belinda Chang, talks about the wines that cool hot summer days: what they are, who produces them, where to buy them and what to do once you have the bottles in your hands.
(Viv Magazine 11/1/2011)
A healthful holiday giveaway from Viv Magazine and the venerable Russian company, Kusmi Tea
(Viv Magazine 12/29/2011)
Ciderist Greg Hall knows his apples and his cider. In the chill of winter, Viv asks him for tips on making cider without spirits but with heat and spice.
(HerLife 11/1/2011)
Prosecco is an affordable, elegant bubbly for the holidays or any other time. Chicago's Tony and Cathy Mantuano offer a new view of a wine that's all too often overlooked.
(Chicago Sun-Times 4/15/2009)
A food-trend story: chefs dishing out breakfast for dinner.
(Plate Magazine 11/1/2013)
Sugar work adds more than visual beauty to desserts.
(Plate Magazine 9/1/2012)
In the hands of committed chefs, gluten-free food is good enough to make people cry. Chefs and restaurateurs from Chicago, New York City, Portland, and Encinitas contribute insights, information, and delectable recipes to this industry feature.
(Plate Magazine 7/1/2012)
When African cuisine migrated from the continent, it developed something that was not traditional: appetizers. For this food-industry feature, chefs working in Arlington, New York, and Cape Town offer tradition, innovation, seasonings, recipes, and more than a a dash of personality.
(Meatpaper 10/1/2008)
A kitchen science piece about the wet and dry aging of beef.
(Chicago Sun-Times 2/17/2010)
In the James Beard House kitchen with Josh Adams of June Restaurant.
(TasteBook 6/13/2015)
"When you're faced with the same produce again and again, there's no need to resort to the same recipes. If anybody knows how to make endless okra or carrots appealing, it's the farmer who grows it."
(Viv Magazine 3/1/2010)
National websites to help people to eat locally. Featured sites: Wholesome Wave, Local Harvest, Market Eating and Eat Well Guide.
(Chicago Sun-Times 3/23/2010)
In New York City's James Beard House kitchen with Andrew Zimmerman of Sepia, Chicago.
(Chefs Collaborative 10/30/2008)
A look at Chicago chef Bruce Sherman and how he presents seasons on the dessert plate.
(Chicago Sun-Times 1/6/2010)
It takes more than heat to warm a meal. Here, chefs from Seattle, New York and (mostly) Chicago share their tips, tricks, traditions, spices and a few recipes -- the best ways to season cold-weather foods.
(My Midwest 3/1/2008)
This tackles the meaty question of whether the strip steak belongs to New York or Kansas City.
(Viv Magazine 11/15/2011)
Chefs, restaurant co-owners, and spouses Colby Garrelts and Megan Schultz Garrelts' cookbook, Bluestem, makes the most of the region and the seasons.
(Chowhound 7/24/2017)
Egg whites are to baking as jokes are to conversations. When they’re handled right, they make everything lighter and happier. When they fail, they fall as flat as a manhole cover, and feel about as heavy.
(Chowhound 7/24/2017)
Brownies are like perfect vacations; they mean different things to different people – and, as with destinations, there are countless variations on the brownie theme.
Brownie adherents have their favorites: fudgy, gooey, dense, cakey, all edge, with nuts, never in the same room as nuts, made with cocoa, made with couverture chocolate, frosted, crisp, chewy. To get what you want, you have to know how to get there. See? Just like vacations.
(Chicago Sun-Times 4/15/2009)
The glories of comfort food.
This article is about simple indulgence: breakfast for dinner. It features some of Chicago's top chefs: Grant Achatz, Bruce Sherman, Laurent Gras, Michael McDonald, and Dan Smith (one of The Hearty Boys).
A sidebar features a trio of recipes, for those nights when the home fires are more enticing than a restaurant's formal warmth.
(Kansas City Magazine 7/1/2010)
A look at Kansas City's award-winning chefs: who they are, what they do, and why they choose to be where they are.
(Plate Magazine 7/1/2011)
Sweet Mediterranean pastries
(Chicago Sun-Times 12/22/2009)
Master mixologist Bridget Albert is as creative in the kitchen as behind the bar.
Albert's friends look forward to the holidays -- and not just for the usual reasons. Every year, Bridget Albert makes rum balls . . . and bourbon balls . . . and Grand Marnier -- Hey, she doesn't keep just one liquor bottle behind the bar. Why would she use only one in making presents for her friends?
(Yes, she shares recipes. They're an excellent set of reasons to click on the link.)
(Chicago Sun-Times food blog 5/4/2009)
Grant Achatz takes home another award, this one for his cookbook.
(Chicago Sun-Times food blog 5/4/2009)
After the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards, Chicago chef Carrie Nahabedian's staff strutted their stuff.
(Chicago Sun-Times food blog 5/14/2009)
Chicago chefs on what they do when a cold tries to take them down.
(Plate Magazine 1/1/2011)
An industry article about Korean appetizers -- traditional, fusion and cutting-edge
(Viv Magazine 11/1/2009)
Coffee-cupping is how professional buyers and roasters taste the stuff -- but cupping can be entertaining at home, for a gathering of friend.
(Viv Magazine 2/19/2010)
At the opening of Balade, a Lebanese restaurant in New York City, the food is fresh and fabulous. It can also be quick and simple, as is shown by this recipe for vegetable soup (adaptable to any season).
(Chicago Sun-Times food blog 5/4/2009)
At the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards, the gala featured female chefs, pastry chefs, bartenders and mixologists.
Jennifer Petrusky's, of Charlie Trotter's, was there proudly representing Chicago -- and women everywhere.
This ran in Digging In, the food blog of the Chicago Sun-Times.
(Chicago Sun-Times food blog 5/4/2009)
In 2008, Grant Achatz took Outstanding Chef at the James Beard Foundation Awards. In 2009, his book -- bearing his restaurant's name, Alinea -- was up for an award. Just back from Japan, Achatz was filled with inspiration and energy.
(Viv Magazine's food blog 5/15/2009)
During the gala, the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards celebrated women in food. Viv Magazine -- an online magazine -- celebrated the celebration.
(Plate Magazine 9/1/2011)
An industry look at New Orleans' best sandwiches, as served in their home town and away.
(Chicago Sun-Times 8/12/2009)
Soups aren't only good for cold weather, and cold soup doesn't always mean gazpacho or vichyssoise. Traditions are far more varied -- and Chicago's chefs more creative -- than that.
(Chicago Sun-Times 11/9/2009)
Some writers are happiest sitting at the linen-draped table, eating fine meals. I'd rather be in the kitchen, getting my hands dirty, learning from the chef and writing about what most people never get to see.
(Viv Magazine 3/1/2010)
With a focus on the local and sustainable, these four websites help Americans to eat better -- and you don't have to live in a big city to use them.
(Plate Magazine 11/1/2010)
An industry article about exceptional British breads: who's making them, how they're made and served, and the history behind the baked goods.
(Chicago Sun-Times 12/15/2010)
When the holiday season rolls around, Chicago's best bartenders don't start shopping; they go in the kitchens and start making gifts by hand.
(Plate Magazine 5/1/2010)
If you think vegetables are good in only savory dishes, then think again. Top chefs put vegetables to sweet use -- on the dessert plate.
(Viv Magazine 3/1/2012)
An insider's look at where to eat, drink,and shop in Hong Kong, Glasgow, Kansas City, Cape Town, and Graz, and which lauded tourist traps to avoid.
(Journey Western 3/1/2009)
all about Chicago's hottest dogs
(My Midwest 5/1/2008)
A round-up of late-night places, from jazz bars to coffee houses, in Kansas City.
(City Scoops 9/1/2008)
Where to find peace in a city that never stops moving.
(My Midwest 7/1/2008)
Written for the inflight magazine of Midwest Airlines, this look at the designers of Kansas City, their creativity and their community proved particularly prophetic. A few years after publication, one of the featured designers was a BRAVO star, while another was opening a boutique in Berlin.
(City Scoops 5/1/2008)
A quick overview of the ultimate underground art scene: art in New York City's subway system.
(Kansas City Magazine 5/1/2011)
Kansas City art walks
(South Africa/Time Out New York 9/10/2019)
(Inside Food & Beverage 8/5/2011)
An industry-eye view of where to eat and drink in Kansas City.
(AM New York 10/24/2008)
A Halloween travel piece about ghost tours in New York City -- and, for those who want to go ghost-hunting on their own, where to look for Manhattan spirits of an undrinkable kind.
(Tales of the Cocktail 3/8/2016)
A profile of Adam Seger, a Chicago bartender turned multi-business entrepreneur
(HERLIFE 10/1/2012)
Self-effacing, funny, and knowledgeable, winemaker Matt Dees talks about winemaking, wine appreciation, and what it was like to make Jonata (Screaming Eagle's younger sibling) the success it is today.
(Chicago Sun-Times 3/24/2010)
This intern is veteran of some of Chicago's finest restaurants, including Alinea, Moto, Charlie Trotter's, Graham Elliot, Schwa and Perennial -- and he's only 16 years old.
(Viv Magaine 9/6/2012)
U.S. veteran and paralympic volleyball captain Kari Miller brings strength, ambition, and strategic intelligence to the London Olympics.
(My Midwest 9/1/2008)
This is a profile of R. Crosby Kemper, the scion of a banking family, who took a career shift from banks to libraries.
(Chicago Sun-Times 4/25/2010)
Maria Boicesco became homeless at the age of 11, in WWII Romania. By 16, she was a chef. Now, her grandson is a chef in Chicago -- and Maria, at 85, is still feeding the farmhands and going strong.
This story combines food, history and a profile. Recipes are included.
(7/19/2010)
Inspired by the sight of a stranger drinking kombucha, Eric Childs started a small business -- but it didn't stay small for very long. This is the tale of a young entrepreneur whose business is every bit as lively as his brew.
(New York Post 11/23/2009)
At the age of 81, Marilyn Liota is still working for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York -- 54 years and going strong. She's seen changes in the VNSNY, in the city and in the world -- and she remains certain that she made the right career choice, all those years ago.
(The New York Post 1/28/2008)
Paul Schweitzer, owner of New York City's Gramercy Typewriter, is the last manual-typewriter repairman -- anywhere.
(Chicago Sun-Times 11/5/2008)
Catching up with Grant Achatz, James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef and cookbook author.
(Hotels Magazine/Plate Magazine 10/1/2011)
The Lanesborough's Karl Kessab is the world's first tea sommelier. He talks about tea, service, and a changing industry.
(The New York Post 1/28/2008)
In great demand by individuals, collectors, and the designers working in stores and for Broadway shows, Gilbert Center is the only umbrella-repairman of our time.
