Expresso Bourbon Chocolate Cake:

Expresso Bourbon Chocolate Cake; Apprenticing to become a cook/chef takes years of theory and practice. Baking is one area that I only studied when time allowed back in college. I was tutored by Conestoga’s Peter Basin an Olympic medal winning pastry chef. He taught me on how to prepare all the required items that being a resort/hotel chef would need to know. I soon learned it was very demanding and tedious work to pipe fillings into thousands of bite size sweets for a buffet or decoration extraordinaire show pieces. Making layered cakes, flavoured mousses,...

Wild Leek Pesto Penne

Ramp up your Pasta or Salads. Foraging Season is coming on this spring and finding some new places to search is my goal. This culinary wild leek is making good dishes taste so much better. It’s what most culinary foodies and the top chefs are twittering about. I will check out some sources as I travel to the Ontario river watershed. I just talked to a friend grower who is going through the stages of a long wet winter. Start up is ongoing and have been hit with frost here is turning up a limited supply. I will check out some more known sources as I travel to the...

Roquefort Cheese Stuffed Sirloin

Al Waxman’s Roquefort Cheese Stuffed Sirloin.  Here is me and Al Waxman with my best co worker Ian Cox who never ever let me down. We became good foody friends and I was invited to their Toronto residence for some social time with Al and his wife Sara. This a side view of one of the mobile kitchen rigs that I would drive as my personal mobile commissary kitchen which was more of a serving kitchen and my office. Hooked up to a Ford 9000 this trailer was a great piece of equipment. Here is one his favourite recipes and a good story. I used to enjoy watching the Canadian...

Welsh Lamb Chop Popsicles.

Welsh Lamb Berbere Lolli-Pops There will never be another Ewe! Welsh Lamb is what other lambs chops want to taste like. Armando’s Finest Quality Meats is where I go when you want the best! I let Armando choose these beauties and once back in my kitchen took each chop and massaged in some spice Berbere. Berbere is a spice mixture whose constituent elements usually include chili peppers, garlic, ginger, basil, korarima, rue, ajwain or radhuni, nigella, and fenugreek. It is a key ingredient in the cuisines of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Berbere sometimes encompasses herbs...

Gypsy Head Cheese. Toba! Ser Głowy! Syr ...

Toba! Ser Głowy! Syr Holovy. If your heritage is Romanian, Polish or Ukraine. Head Cheese always gets a bad rap when it comes up in a conversation. The truth is, if properly prepared, is actually very tasty and good for you. I was weaned on the stuff. Grandmother Purcha would have a stock pot on the stove doing a slow simmer filled with parts of the pig, and diced onions celery and carrots. Cuts from the side ribs, jowls, neck bones and shoulder blades had perfect morsels of meat attached. The bone cartridges added the gelatinous flavours. The pig tail and pork hock meat...