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The single most important tip when hiring a chef or caterer

How to find out how your hired chef might act in good times and bad

You want a party where you can relax and enjoy your mom’s 90th birthday.  You make sure every detail of that night is memorable and intentional.  You hire a chef for the meal.  But there’s a big storm outside and traffic is overwhelming.  You tell the chef that your guests are going to be an […]

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Five New Modernist Cuisine Items

aka Molecular Gastronomy, Culinary Physics or Multi-Sensory Cooking

Modernist cuisine has become more popular each year among serious foodies.  Intrigued myself, I’ve been researching modernist cuisine this year.  Modernist cuisine is a specialty of food science that examines the physical and chemical changes of ingredients that occur in cooking.  Some chefs also call it multi-sensory cooking, molecular gastronomy or culinary physics. Here’s my latest […]

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3 Secrets to Confident Restaurant Ordering

What does the restaurant staff know that you don’t know?

Starting at age 18, in Portugal, I learned how to fill restaurant tables to rotate a 1,000 people a day.  From there I was a headwaiter on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and then was asked to be the captain’s waiter on Crystal Cruises – an elite cruise line.  There, I learned the high-end service […]

Restaurant Secrets
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How to clean a microwave oven naturally

Kitchen cleaning shortcut without toxic chemicals

I’ll admit it.  There are times our microwave looks nasty.  I’m not a fan of chemicals to clean things – especially in the kitchen.  I mean really, I’m trying to  intentionally buy cleaner food, not add more chemicals to them.  Growing up in Portugal with little money and a lot of kids, my mother knew […]

how to clean your microwave with a lemon
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Imagine this innovative seafood menu

Straight outta of the sea

Since my dad was a fisherman, we ate a lot of fish like sardines, mackerel, calamari or octopus – even for breakfast.  You might think I’d be tired of seafood but nope.  I love seafood!  Whenever I go to a seafood restaurant, I can’t decide between shrimp or scallops.  So here’s an innovative seafood menu […]

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How to choose the best lobster?

2 most important tips for choosing a good lobster

When I originally opened my business, I wanted the biggest kitchen I could afford.  And big it was.  So big that I needed roller skates to go from the fridge to the cutting board to the stoves.  I was exhausted at the end of the day.  There weren’t Fitbit’s back then, but I bet I […]

Choose the Best Lobster