September Musings
It’s the Thinking Cook’s month, prime time of a Garden State year to let the confluence of summer and fall harvests inspire. In other words, take advantage of having it all at once and put noggin to bounty.
Andrea Trattoria Italiana
Sincerity is a tangible at the latest incarnation of a rustic, yet dressy restaurant from chef Andrea Covino. Here, it’s in the food, the setting, the service and in all the ways heart and soul are expressed.
Salad Upgrade
’Tis the season to re-think the tosses that have served you well these last several months. It’s time for something more challenging and complex – something not accomplished by adding cheeses, seeds, fruits and nuts.
Life on the Farm
The Priceless Miracle
Stewards of bees and their hives, harvesters of the precious crop of honey that is bequeathed by Mother Nature, the Garden State’s true beekeepers are committed to the processes that speak to terroir and uncompromised purity. Lauren Vitagliano, founder of Pine Barrens Post, explains why she is proud to be one of them.
Sunday Kitchen
Ol’ Bean
Has a new bean at the market caught your eye? Give into temptation! Tasting it is likely to turn a mere flirtation into a long-term love.
Homemade Tomato Sauce
The greatest gifts do come from the heart, but the best of the greatest gifts come as well from harvests at our Garden State farms and the backyard gardens of friends.
Chef Train
Fredy Umanzor, Chef Fredy’s Table
The newest inductee to TPW’s chef-picks-chef society of top toques has spent 40 years in Morris County pro kitchens. Today, as chef-mentor and devoted community member, he’s the proud co-owner of his own restaurant in the competitive county seat.
Fortnightly 5
Mostly Meaty
Beef, pork, a mix, even a hot dog: Dominating this round’s favorite foods are meats, in all their hearty, sauced, spiced and marinated glories.
Sunday Kitchen
Lose the Labor
Time’s always precious, but never more so than on holidays – especially one seen as the unofficial curtain call to summer. That’s why we’ve got extra-quick eats on today’s docket.
Right in His Own Back Yard
For Jake Hunt, it’s not just about making pizza and ice cream at the highest levels, it’s about making both on the land where he grew up: Windy Brow Farms in Fredon.
Food Find
Hot Off the Farm: Chilies
Tyler Olsson takes the chilies he grows on a small farm and makes a little bit of magic in eminently simple-to-use form.
Sunday Kitchen
Watermelon Pals
A little accenting magic can turn a wedge of rosy melon into a treat of a different stripe.
All’s Shared in Love and Food
Peruvian classics are never better than when prepared in a home kitchen by a cook who not only honors traditions but creates them for the family and friends who gather at his table.
Tomato High-Q
It’s that cherished time of year when, all at once and quite gloriously, our Jersey farm- and garden-grown tomatoes are everywhere. But only one person in the Garden State can be the best at growing tomatoes, and that person is Lena Halberstadt.
Fortnightly 5
Scrutiny of the Bounty
A good dozen eats made it to the shoe-in roster for this round of F5, the list of this-one’s-a-sure-bet for the top five. The hits in food just kept on coming. That means these winners are a level beyond extraordinary.
Sunday Kitchen
The Eggplant Bowl
Why not let this high-season vegetable be the star of an entrée bowl? Rice, beans, salad greens, grains of all sorts, pastas and noodles – if they can do it, so can a nightshade that comes in so many varieties.
Tomatoes Terrific
It's high season for the crop that our Garden State is known for and brings our state deserved respect. So, we asked a cadre of culinary pros to tell us: How do you use our Jersey tomatoes, prepare them and/or eat them that best expresses their incomparable taste? Today, it’s answer time.
Sunday Kitchen
Ajvar: Red Pepper’s Muse
In today’s very special Sunday Kitchen column, all-pro baker-chef Zora Levkovski illuminates the powers of the spread that gives red peppers a true star turn.
Food Find
S’mores Cake
Pretty much everything at The Artist Baker in Morristown is a Food Find because everything Andrea Lekberg and her crew bring into edible being is over-the-rainbow magnificent. But this? This reimagined classic? It redefines more than a campfire dessert.
Nourishing Strides
Drew Lovering's Wild Serenity Walks isn't a mere oxymoronical name play: It's a very knowledgeable, well-educated approach to learning more about Mother Nature's bounty through the guiding eyes of an all-pro forager.
Fortnightly 5
Balancing Act
The craft of bringing just the right touch of complement, contrast or even a bit of moxie to the mild-mannered is the tie that binds the favorites of the two weeks just past.
Sunday Kitchen
‘Troubled Corn’
Get happy by using just-picked corn and basils from opposite ends of our Garden State in a pasta dish that shouts hallelujah for the season we’re in. Ed Sherry offers a plan for easy summer cooking.
Ice Cream Supreme
Callie’s Creamery in Neptune City is one mega-smooth operator in a crowded field, delivering dozens of flavors in super-premium form. Long-timer White Dotte in Southampton is where folks have convened over ice cream for 72 years.
Chef Train
Danilo Ayala, End of Elm
The newest inductee to TPW’s chef-picks-chef society of top toques brings the flavors of his native El Salvador to his menu at this hotspot in Morristown as well as the hard-working energy he learned at the side of his pro-cook mother.
Food Find
Potato-Pea Samosas
Casa de Konkan’s savory street food partners pastry and a classic vegetable mix, making it a worthy handheld lead-in to butter chicken.
Sunday Kitchen
Corn-U-Copia
It’s an hors d’, a starter, a main course, a topper or condiment, a salad and a side dish. And it can be a no-cook, no-brainer staple of summer that features your choice of accenting elements.
Bellies Up!
The matter of Fried Clam Bellies Superiority is being discussed, but not settled here today. No, hope persists. And, meanwhile, there is a local champ.
Grains Field Day
The hub that River Valley Community Grains created is in full force at an educational celebration for stakeholders in a movement that took hold not that long ago and sprouted benefits beyond wildest dreams.
Fortnightly 5
Mid-Summer’s Other Top Eats
Not to shortchange tomatoes, now officially in happy onslaught mode, but there are other very wonderful foods to consider at this moment in time – including these fabulous five.
Sunday Kitchen
Dog Days Salsa
Tomatillos are just starting to be harvested in the Garden State and ready for use in a keeper of a sauce that brightens vegetables, meats, poultry, fishes, grains, beans … and every kind of chip you use for dunking.
Food Find
Cemitas at Senor Pepper’s
An extroverted chipotle adobo sauce is the voice of a chicken sandwich at this colorful eatery near the train station in Red Bank. Let the voice of its chef-owner steer you to its exact-right accent.