People
Queen of Cacao
Carol Freedman is a purist devout in her use of only single-origin chocolate, a magician who brandishes a well-honed knowledge of her subject in formidable fashion, a technician whose artistry needs no flash to prove its stature. A wonk? So much, much more. A visit to her shop in Somerville is the golden ticket to chocolate paradise.
Joe’s Bake Shop
In Tuckerton, a borough popping with possibilities as a food hub for Southern Ocean County, a new bakery seeks to take root. Will it hit a sweet spot?
Sunday Kitchen
The Case of the Annual Bowl Food
Sometimes, if you don’t think too hard, plan too much and worry it all to death, you come to a most satisfying conclusion – be it readable or edible.
Baker to Baker
Luisania Moronta, Pastry Lu
In the latest installment of TPW’s monthly column featuring Martha Rabello talking shop with a fellow practitioner of the pastry and baking arts, she visits with Lu Moronta … who now never fails to mash the bananas when making banana bread at her much-loved Pastry Lu in Metuchen.
Chef Train
Elias Bitar: Norma’s
The newest inductee into TPW’s elite chef-picks-chef club of top Garden State toques “does it all” at his family’s Eastern Mediterranean mecca in Cherry Hill, his selector Danny Childs notes, “from making his own pita, pickles and labneh to donating thousands of meals to refugees to “uniting community” through a very special farm partnership.
Fortnightly 5
Soup’s On-Target
To be expected at this time of year, might you say, that soup is at peak? Maybe, but never take excellence for granted. These varied incarnations are worth marking on your dine card for a purposeful trip.
Sunday Kitchen
Market Meals, from Ramsey
One of the Garden State’s busiest winter farmers’ markets offers Ella inspiration for both quick put-together suppers and easy-cooking dinners.
Life on the Farm
Winter Citrus
Sunny colored fruits warm cold-weather months and while having them shipped in is an understandable option, so is shopping from growers such as Bhumi in Bordentown and Well-Sweep in Warren County. Kate Munning taps both and extends limited sunshine by making marmalade.
Trouble in the River Towns?
Anchor restaurants currently are shuttered in Lambertville, Stockton, Frenchtown and Milford while owners and operators shift gears, pause or look for answers. One thing is certain: There’s strength in identity.
Lucky-Me Leftovers
Napoleon of Grilled Vegetables
If you read TPW’s recent Restaurant Revue column on Zoe’s Emilio’s Kitchen, you ought to remember its platter of grilled vegetables with mole verde. That was one of the dishes our avid food upcycler wanted to try. What Sue didn’t finish provided inspiration for a most transformative Take Two.
Sunday Kitchen
Purple Yams
TPW’s ever-intrepid Ella, intrigued by the idea of learning more about a member of the potato family put into the spotlight through its uses in Filipino sweets, heads into the kitchen to experiment and emerges with something far more than just dessert.
Food Find
Soup Dumplings
At Authentic Shanghai Dumpling in Edison you’ll find a real-deal, properly made, properly served version of a classic.
Breaking the Lock on Liquor
Can the Garden State come out from under the grip of laws nearly a century old that hamstring many of New Jersey’s most talented chefs? The governor thinks so – and so does one of the state’s top toques.
Fortnightly 5
Citrus for the Save: 1-16-23
With zest, verve and an indomitable energy, winter’s sunniest fruits elevate foods sweet and savory and brighten even the grayest of days. They’re the champs that make this quintet the favorites of the first two weeks of 2023.
Sunday Kitchen
Lemon Focaccia
Lemon gives a home-baked bread a lift that rockets it to new-favorite status. Ella shares her experiments as she makes good on a resolution.
The Convenience of Market Cooking
By shopping a pair of new winter farmers’ markets, we find meal ideas and inspirations anew. Refresh your cold-weather menus in a flash.
Food Find
Pineapple Dipped in Chocolate
The symbol for hospitality welcomes a cloak of the cacao bean’s revered progeny at Carol’s Creative Chocolatez in Somerville.
Smart Shop
Winter Farmers’ Markets, Class of ’23
The secret to the best in wintertime eating? It’s no secret: Shop at the Garden State’s winter farmers’ markets. It’s where both the pros and the expert home cooks go for stock-ups and inspiration.
Lucky-Me Leftovers
Ethiopian Breakfast Scramble
After a dinner of doro wat at Ada’s Gojjo in Asbury Park, TPW’s ingenuous food-upcycling wiz takes an idea from the restaurant’s chef-owner and spins it into the breakfast of champions.
Sunday Kitchen
Mandarin-Stuffed Prosciutto Cups
It’s an under-30-minutes endeavor in the kitchen and it produces a bright bite that hits on all taste cylinders. Is the little bit of fuss it commands warranted?
Baker to Baker
Sarah Reggimenti, Macarons on a Mission
In the latest installment of TPW’s monthly column featuring Martha Rabello talking shop with a fellow practitioner of the pastry and baking arts, she visits with Sarah Reggimenti, founder-owner of Macarons on a Mission, whose core team members are teens with special needs.
Chef Train
A Talented Twenty
As 2022 draws to a close today, we take stock of those honored by their peers with induction into TPW’s chef-picks-chef society of top toques.
Fortnightly 5
The Fab 5 of ’22
Cherry-picking the best eats every other week is a gut-wrenching task; too many worthy dishes get left on the cutting room floor. Following that formula to cull from a year’s worth of F5s a Final 5 is beyond painful. (Eliminating the already-named fave restaurant dishes of 2022 helped.) So, take it away … and CONGRATULATIONS in 96-point neon type to the winners!