** Nothing beats your local farmers market for the freshest ingredients! ** Well it’s off to the Sandy Springs Farmers Market. I promised my wife  I would cook something different for dinner this weekend  and yes, I always do the cooking. She didn’t want to go out for dinner so I thought the next best thing was for me to pick up some great food from the market. Thanks to Jeffrey Langfelder and his partner for bringing us the Sandy Springs Farmers Market and thanks to all the great vendors that come out each Saturday. It is really amazing how these two have managed to bring the...

What was once old is new again! This recipe was developed by Shaun Touchton who was the pastry chef at Mckendricks Steak House for many years. This raspberry napoleon is a very light dessert made of layers of baked puff pastry, white chocolate mousse and fresh raspberries. The flavor and the lightness of the pastry and rich white chocolate mousse along with sweetness of the fresh fruit makes for a magical and wonderful dessert. Working at Pano’s and Paul’s as the sous chef and pastry chef I learned to work with puff pastry. I understood that there were layers of butter and dough and when...

Working for Harold Ruttenburg, owner and operator of the Copper Grill in Birmingham was an experience like no other. Harold was eccentric, intense, difficult, focused and the hardest boss I have ever worked for. He was focused on the success of his restaurant and I learned a lot from him over the years. As his chef I had to develop one of the most difficult recipes I have ever come across, Belgium fries. Harold had and idea, he was a visionary and he had to get across to me his “vision” and it was my job to bring this recipe to life. I will be honest with you; I really had no idea what I was...

When we opened Mckendricks 15 years ago we started out with a menu that was very basic. No real pizzazz  and as the months rolled by I would sit and trade menu ideas with Claudia Mckendrick. We tested menu ideas constantly, added new items to the menu and worked hard to quickly develop a brand. One item that has become a signature menu item is the Baked Oysters. Claudia came up with the idea and I developed the recipe into a fantastic dish that has been on our menu since the beginning. The Blue point oysters we use are a good steak house oyster from Long Island and are a medium size oyster with just...

 Early in the spring I would stop by the Sandy Springs Farmers Market in hopes of finding some large, red, juicy, local tomatoes. Because of last year’s bad weather in the south good tomatoes were very hard to come by. Heavy rains, freezing weather along with an early spring snow in south Florida prevented us from getting some great tomatoes. Yeah, sure local venders had tomatoes but they were not the tomatoes I am used to.   The tomatoes were never ripe and I refused to buy and sell them at the restaurant. We went weeks without them and I probabaly pissed off some servers and  customers but I...

     I love the crispness and sweet flavor of bok choy. On Saturdays I like to go to one of the local farmers markets to see what is available. This week I tried the Buford Highway Farmers Market. When I drove into to the parking lot I noticed there was little parking available and was able to squeeze my little car into a small spot.  The market was very busy, everyone out enjoying themselves. I started in the  produce department looking for a vegetable for dinner. The market has some very unusual vegetables and fruits. I think the next time I go to the market I will bring my digital camera and...

I am going to post this recipe because I think it is perfect for the fourth. As you take the sizzling charred New York strip off the grill, top it with the sun dried tomato  butter and watch it melt over the steak. I tend to use lots of charocal  with dampened wood chips in order to get the grill as a hot as it can and impart the flavor of a great fire . I really  don’t like using gas grills because they don’t get as hot and as charcoal and the don’t impart any flavor. Use a  light amount of good olive oil on the steak and then season with a good amount of kosher  salt...

Two new photos that I really don’t like, but these dishes are fantastic if cooked correctly and  the pictures are taken properly. The pictures are terribly off. I got so caught up in all the functions in the “M” mode ( manual mode) that I actually have no idea what I am doing. This will get better. Since purchasing my camera, the Canon Rebel EOS XSI,  I have taken one class and really thought I new what I was doing and as you can see I need work. So what to do! I guess more classes are in order. I don’t need a photographer and a food stylist. I want to learn to take great...

In the summer months when fresh day-boat Alaskan halibut becomes available, my taste buds begin to salivate. Halibut is most likely one of my favorite seafood of all time. As a young child fresh halibut reminds me of how  my grandmother loved to treat her Grandchildren to dinner. I think taking us to dinner was more of a treat for her than for us. Being from a large family we did not have many opportunities for our parents to take us to a restaurant for dinner. We  did enjoy many wonderful meals from my mothers kitchen but my parents could not afford to take all nine children to dinner....

My friend and former co-worker, Lynn Patti always reminds me of how delicious and memorable these truffles are. When we worked together in Jacksonville, Florida at the University club, I had to hide the truffles from her in order to keep her sneaky little hands out of them. I swear she would put the truffles on banquet menus just for her own pleasure. I have decided to share this simple chocolate truffle recipe in hopes many of you will indulge in this delightful confection.       Use a good chocolate such as a European chocolate, Valrhona, Lindt or Callebaut. These chocolates are available  at...

I have tried many pizza dough recipes in the past and have had no luck finding a simple and good recipe until now. I started my quest with Wolfgang Puck’s pizza dough. I made his dough over and over again but found the dough to be more like a cracker. The following  recipe has a little more body to it. I tried letting the dough rise before and  after placing the toppings on  to give it little thicker and lighter crust. I also tried baking at different temperatures and found that the highest temperature produces the best pizza. A pizza stone is a must have and really produces a pizza with a...