My first attempt at making Focaccia di Recco was a colossal disaster. And it wasn’t because I used sugar instead of salt, or set the oven to broil instead of bake (yes, I’ve done both).  No, this disaster was 100% because of a pan. More specifically, my favorite pizza pan with the little holes on the bottom.

After mixing all of the ingredients together and rolling out the dough, I popped my masterpiece into the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes. Halfway through, I opened the door to spin the pan when a waft of thick smoke sailed from the oven and straight to the smoke alarm. After quickly slamming the oven door and crazily fanning the alarm with a dish towel, I decided to take my chances and just wait out the remaining 15 minutes. Unfortunately, my focaccia was not having it. The smoke was now seeping out of my CLOSED oven door.  

Opening the door again, I was blasted with a full-on bellow of smoke so thick that I couldn’t even see across the room. And right on cue, my trusty smoke alarm began blaring it’s familiar song. Turns out I had nicked the bottom of the dough and created a cheese “escape-hatch” through (you guessed it) those little holes in my pan. I was left with an empty shell of a crust and 8 oz. of cheese on the bottom of my oven. I shut off the oven and ordered take-out.

As they say, if you don’t succeed, try try again.

Recipe Card

In any profession there is continuing education. Sometimes it is required, other times it is inspired. Inspiration to learn something…just because. I often have these moments of inspiration in the kitchen. Sometimes I immerse myself in a unique cuisine or an underutilized ingredient. But I recently had a very unexpected inspiration to educate myself. There were a couple interactions that inspired me…

My husband came home from work a few weeks ago and told me about a colleague who has been replacing his meals with a nutritionally packed drink instead of food. Soylent. Have you heard of this stuff? I will let you do your own research and make your own judgements. His colleague’s take was that consuming this cylinder bottle of “liquid food” increased his productivity in the office. What? He voluntarily consumes this stuff?

Another friend shared with me his morning breakfast. A fruit and vegetable packed smoothie – which sounded delicious – until he threw in the 24g protein packed scoop of snickerdoodle flavored whey protein. Stop there!

And finally, a girlfriend who is constantly on the run with five kids. She is a self-described “clean” eater. A go to protein for her might be boneless, skinless chicken breast cooked with olive oil cooking spray and no salt. Bad idea for so many reasons. When I saw her last she gave me a cute little “protein ball.” Protein balls are her thing. Just pop a bunch of nutritionally balanced ingredients in a food processor, pulse away, roll into balls, and you have an on-the-go nutritional snack. Quick, easy and no baking. Generally speaking I like the idea of these “protein balls”. Finally, we are using “real” food – not engineered liquid food or snickerdoodle flavored powder. But, how can we make them taste better, have better texture? Hence, my inspiration for continuing education!

  I spent a Saturday afternoon educating myself. My challenge was to develop a nutritional high protein convenience snack made with “real” food that tasted good. I needed variation in texture and depth in flavor. I tried sweet, I tried savory. I tried TVP – that’s where I drew the line. TVP, textured vegetable protein. This is the main ingredient in dishes like vegan “chicken nuggets” and vegan “beef tacos.”  It provides the protein and texture without the meat. Uh, really? Not sure this qualifies as “real” food.

After many trials and an entire pantry of ingredients utilized, I finally landed on a snack I was pleased with. High protein, lactose-free, and no refined sugar mini muffin bites. Nice texture and good flavor. I sampled them to a few of my best critics. Thumbs up all around. Most importantly, my girlfriend with five kids loved them. Then she asked if she could leave out the egg and throw all the ingredients in a food processor to make them into “protein balls.” Nooooooo! Enough with the protein balls!

My self-written course on high protein convenience snacks began and ended on that Saturday afternoon. I will make the mini muffins again, they were good. But until I get around to it, my go-to high protein snack will be a simple and nostalgic one: a fresh cut apple with a couple tablespoons of peanut butter.

I’m freshly back and still unpacking from two glorious weeks in Florence and Tuscany.  What an amazing destination for someone that loves wine and food!

My first full day in Florence was an immersion into the food culture of that city.  I had the privilege of sharing the day with Sharon Oddson Gargani, author of “Once Upon a Tuscan Table”, in the kitchen at her restaurant Trattoria Garga.

We began the day with a tour of Florence’s Mercato Centrale, a feast for the senses, filled with scents, a riot of color and every imaginable cheese, meat and vegetable possible.  We purchased the ingredients for our class and then returned to the restaurant where I worked alongside Sharon, one on one, to prepare a delicious lunch which we shared with my partner Michael and our friend Lynn, washed down with bottles of white and red Italian wine.

Working with the ingredients from the mercato brought a whole new meaning of “farm to table”, since we were so close to the farms and purveyors that sell their local products there.

The culinary traditions in Tuscany run deep.  We tasted the traditional Florentine dish peposo in several restaurants.  The rich history of this dish goes back to the construction of the Duomo.  Workers at the kilns in Imprunetta were producing the terra cotta tiles that cover the beautiful dome.  Hunger was satiated with a hearty stew made from inexpensive cuts of beef that had been heavily peppered for preservation, thus the name peposo, derived from “pepe” or pepper. More pepper was added to help keep the stew even longer.  The stew was cooked in massive clay pots in the same furnaces that produced the tiles. The labors ate the stew with plenty of bread and washed it all down with watered-down red wine.

In Florence and Tuscany today, peposo is served in virtually every restaurant. Rather than inexpensive beef, it is now prepared with much more luxurious cuts like beef short ribs or veal cheek, aromatic vegetables and plenty of good Chianti wine, served with a large bowl of Tuscan white beans and olive oil.

With the first chill of fall in the morning air, twelve or so other food adventurers and I boarded a small tour bus yesterday morning – courtesy of Marche – for the drive to Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery in Champaign.

Owners Wes Jarrell and Leslie Cooperband have created a dairy and creamery oasis in Central Illinois, the first ever goat cheese producing farm in the state, while practicing core principals of sustainability and environmental stewardship.

We toured their busy, working farm, got up-close-and-personal with the goats, and were served a lovely lunch under the trees with foods that were grown, harvested and created within yards of where we sat. Pretty freaking cool.

A stop in their farm market at the end of the day means that I have some of their fabulous, brie-style goat cheese in my refrigerator right now, just waiting to be tempered and enjoyed in some, delicious, creative way that truly pays homage to Prairie Fruits Farm and their mission. For the past two years, I’ve taught many classes at Marcel’s that feature Marche cheese in every course. The next class, celebrating autumn flavors is running October 10 (shameless plug, a few seats are still available!) Honoring small farmers and producers who respect our planet, and bringing attention to their efforts is a one of the most important things a chef can do. All you need to do to try some of Prairie Farm’s product is pop into Marche!

 I plan to pay my respects to that small wheel of “Little Bloom on the Prairie” goat cheese in my refrigerator with white wine poached pears for a delicious salad!rd

Register TODAY for Chef Lynn’s July 18^th Cooking for College Students: Plant Based Eating hands on cooking class.

I just returned from a week with extended family at my parent’s house in Michigan. With 90-degree heat, we minimized our use of the oven during meal prep for the 25 of us.  Most of our cooking was done on the grill except for the enchiladas I had pre-made and frozen ahead of time.  We were all happy that enchiladas cook in just 20 minutes!  But the heat in the kitchen generated from the enchiladas was well worth it. These vegetarian enchiladas- made with shredded sweet potato and lentils- were enjoyed by all.  It is a recipe I was refining for the Cooking for College Students class that I am teaching on July 18 at 6:30pm.  Marcel’s College Cooking class is a perfect opportunity for young adults to learn together in the kitchen; it is always a lot of fun!  Marcel’s hosts a college cooking class twice a year and this is the first vegetarian one we have offered.  It has an amazing menu: Black Bean Avocado Mango Salad, Mexican Creamed Corn, Enchilada Casserole with Sweet Potato, and Coconut Rice Pudding. Please don’t miss it! 

Just like the cooking strategy my family and I had in Michigan, summer is always the ideal time to economize oven use. This Baked Honey Chicken is a recipe for success: cook once, eat twice.  Essentially, use the oven once to produce two delicious meals.  The chicken marinates for 1-4 hours before it’s baked for just 30 minutes.  Half of this cooked chicken is then saved in the refrigerator for the next night’s dinner, Key West Chicken Salad Wraps. The remaining half of the Baked Honey Chicken is served for that night’s yummy Honey Chicken Rice Bowls with Steamed Broccoli.    

What happens when you want to host the party, but the thought of pulling together a meal for eight, twelve or (gulp) sixteen people takes the wind right out of your sails? You pull out the best trick in the book – potluck.  

I haven’t always been so smart. For years, my wife Rondi and I would invite people over for dinner and brush off their “what can we bring?” with an immediate “Nothing! Just bring yourselves” response. Those four little words invariably led to four (or more) days of planning, prepping and preparing.  

No more.

This past Easter, my two nieces and I were deciding who was going to host the get-together when one of them suggested a potluck.  Hmmm … interesting idea.  “I’m in,” my niece Marcie said, “but my house is torn up for the kitchen remodel.”  “I’m in,” my niece Mindy said, “but we’re just getting back from Florida the day before.”  “I can do it here,” I announced, “but it’s still going to be a pot luck!” 

Best decision I ever made.

The guest list eventually rose to 20 people, and as each guest was added to my growing list I simply asked them to bring their specialty.  Marcie brought two fabulous flatbreads as our appetizer.  Mindy was quick to claim the smoked ham.  My sister Sarah brought her famous “Party Potatoes” (yes, that’s a real thing), Kay brought the lamb cake, and Nikki rounded out the party with Mimosa and Bloody Mary fixings.

Since this party was all about bringing your specialty, I decided to spend my Saturday afternoon making Mom’s homemade sauerkraut and bacon pierogies – a Bordoshuk family favorite. They came out beautifully and would never have been possible without my new favorite word … potluck.  

Cooking Mad Lib:

“I found a recipe online for (insert dish of choice) Coq au Vin. I followed the recipe exactly, and it (fill in the blank with a negative outcome) tasted like a rubber shoe after I spent hours in the kitchen with the highest expectations for a fantastic meal at home. What did I do wrong?”

To be honest, probably nothing. Just because you found it on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true. And it doesn’t mean the recipe was tested either. Although a dish sounds amazing, sometimes executing it through a well written (or posted) recipe is a bit more challenging.

 As a chef instructor writing and testing recipes is one of the more tedious yet rewarding parts of my job. I don’t recall ever writing a recipe perfectly the first time. There is almost always a re-write, or two…or five. And, depending on the mood I am in or the recipe I am testing, sometimes the test is done on a controlled group of one (me!) or a large cackle of friends.

I have learned over time that there is a right way and wrong way to seek feedback while testing recipes.

1. Don’t overserve the testers before serving the food – I had a group of girlfriends over to test cocktails and appetizers – after the fourth cocktail they “L-O-V-E-D” everything. Seriously?

2. Don’t expect your starving teenager to give thoughtful feedback – After he downed a plate of mussels in sofrito and polished off a grilled octopus salad he said was “ok” and asked if there was any leftover pizza.

3. Be clear that you are seeking their feedback (not their co-workers) – I gave a friend a plate of whoopie pies. I ran in to her a few days later and she said she didn’t want the “calories” in the house so she put them in the lunchroom at work.

And although the recipe successes have outnumbered the failures…failures have existed. “I like the flavor, but the texture kind of makes me want to vomit.” That response is probably my favorite – that was definitely a “back to the drawing board” moment. Shout out to the “honesty”…but man that was a shot to the ego!

Anyone who cooks can relate – there is unbelievable pleasure in making someone happy through food. I am always appreciative of those that are willing to try and retry my food to make me better at what I do. Because, at the end of the day, a good, well tested, solidly written recipe makes my kitchen (and yours) a better place to be. 

P.S. Here are some of my favorite more reliable, almost always tested, online recipe resources: marcelsculinaryexperience.com; seriouseats.com; cooksillustrated.com; and thekitchn.com.