Every so often, a recipe appears out of nowhere — the culinary equivalent of someone tapping you on the shoulder saying, “You really need to try this.” Not from a centuries-old cookbook or a grandmother in a tiled Istanbul kitchen (though wouldn’t that be lovely),…

The meatball may be the most democratic food on earth. Every culture has one. Every grandmother has a version. Every immigrant story seems to involve rolling something—meat, fish, grains, vegetables, sometimes just bread and hope—into a small, round shape and simmering it until the kitchen…

Eggplant Parmigiano. Eggplant Parmigiano is a dish that behaves like a side but eats like a main—vegetarian, generous, deeply satisfying, and completely uninterested in being “lightened” into submission. This is Italian cooking at its most honest: fried slices layered with tomato, basil, and just enough…

Over the holidays, I jumped at the opportunity to make French Onion Soup. Locked in the house on a streak of days when, if it wasn’t snowing, it was cold, and rain-soaked, I had plenty of time to make this French classic the way it…

Oceania Allura: A Ship That Evolves, Learns, Delights I recently flew to Florida for a 3-day spin on the world’s newest luxury cruise ship, Oceania Allura. I wrote all about it for www.CruiseNews.com, where I am a Senior Contributor. (By the way, if you want…

Every kitchen has its own rhythm, but in the dining hall, there’s another kind of choreography: servers, guests, menus, and small decisions that happen quickly. Somewhere in that mix, a simple QR code generator has become a tool that blends into the background yet solves…

Modern steakhouses have moved beyond tradition to create memorable dining experiences. Today, people seek more than just a perfectly cooked steak. The expectations for ambiance, service, menu diversity, and sourcing ethics have grown. These elements together shape what sets a remarkable steakhouse apart from the…

If you are going to make Christmas cookies, why not make the best ones anyone ever tasted?  Since Andrew is one of the greatest Cookie Bakers of all time, it wasn’t easy to come up with this list.  So we went to the numbers and…

Some dishes come back into rotation every winter… Quiet classics that warm you from the inside out. Ribollita is one of those dishes. This hearty Tuscan vegetable stew delivers everything a cold-weather dinner should: deeply satisfying, wildly flavorful, and, dare I say, so healthy it…

  This is my absolute favorite Thanksgiving recipe…Turkey Tetrazini! Rich and creamy, filled with Turkey, mushrooms, and Pennsylvania egg noodles, this is the ultimate recipe for leftover Turkey. It is such a favorite that I have been known to cook a turkey or turkey breast…

With a little planning, we can make all 5 of our best Thanksgiving recipes ever! I can’t think of a year when we don’t look forward to Thanksgiving. It’s just days away from the big day but there’s always room for a last-minute addition.  Something…

As a steak connoisseur, few things ruin a dining experience more than cutting into a piece of steak, only to discover it’s not to your liking. It might not be cooked enough, or it could be overcooked, and it may even be chewy or lacking…

The last day of Riviera Travel’s MS Jane Austen Normandy cruise deposited me in Paris for a great steak with secret sauce I can never get enough of.  A sweet, civilized encore after cider country, Monet’s gardens, and the D-Day beaches. Oddly enough, for a…

It’s only fitting that La Couronne — literally “The Crown” — wears its title proudly. Founded in 1345, it’s not only the oldest restaurant in France but a living museum of everything deliciously French.  See it here by clicking on this link.  IMG_7133 I arrived…