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Public Television Chef Lidia Bastianich is

· a pioneering chef

· owner and co-owner of four restaurants

· award-winning author

· winemaker

· wife, mother, grandmother

But she’s also down-to-earth, warm, serene, and brimming with enthusiasm for her native Italy and simple Italian food. I visited her at her flagship restaurant in New York City.

Just looking at her last wonderful book, Lidia’s Italy, is inspirational and makes you hungry. And Lidia has a new PBS television series and book coming out in the fall. It’s amazing that she has time to breathe.

Check out Lidia’s luscious recipe for Tomato and Bread Soup in the recipe section. It’s great for the cold weather.

Enjoy!

Nina

Also see:
Lidia’s Italy

Greetings, Spices of Lifers.

Public Television Chef Ming Tsai wears many hats:

* He is the owner/chef of Blue Ginger, an awarding-winning East-West restaurant in Wellesley, MA
* The star of a popular TV show, Simply Ming, now in its sixth season
* Author of three books
* Product designer for his own line of East-West food products at Target Stores
* Active member of the Nutrition Round Table at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Ming created a healthy, easy, and delicious version of Shrimp Fried Rice.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Go to SpicesofLife.com for the recipe and www.ming.com for more information on the multi-talented Ming Tsai.

Enjoy!!!

Nina

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It’s no secret that dark chocolate is not only delicious, but it’s also good for you. Scientific studies indicate that dark chocolate can lower blood pressure and is teeming with anti-oxidants. Plus, life (particularly these days) is stressful. What better time to indulge yourself??

So we visited Chocolee, a charming, little chocolate store in the South End of Boston. Lee Napoli is passionate about chocolate truffles and she makes 12 different types each week. She is always inventing new flavors.Our favorite was a dark chocolate pumpkin truffle in celebration of autumn. On Saturdays and Sundays Lee makes homemade French éclairs and chocolate-stuffed beignets. Visit ChocoleeChocolates.com

For a sumptuous recipe, try Debby’s Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Mocha Truffles.

Enjoy your dark chocolate, but remember… Moderation in all things!

Nina

My lovely and esteemed friend, Claudia Roden, is a legendary expert on Middle Eastern cooking. Her family hails from Egypt, but Claudia studied in Paris. She regularly travels the world for research on her numerous books, including her award-winning masterpiece “The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand and Vilna to the Present Day”. Claudia and I have both been privileged to work with the brilliant Knopf editor, Judith Jones.

New Yorker correspondent Jane Kramer profiled Claudia and her fascinating background in the 2007 Food issue. She will be a featured speaker at The New Yorker Festival on October 5th.

Enjoy this delicious and easy Middle Eastern salad.

Nina

Click here for Fattoush recipe

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Eat superb steamed dumplings or exquisite French pastries? That is the decision you must make when you visit Yauatcha, Alan Yau’s amazing dim sum tea room in London. Many may know Alan as the genius behind Wagamama noodle bar (which he sold ages ago), or Hakkasan,  the sexiest Chinese restaurant ever, Besaba Eathai, his wonderful Thai restaurants, OR Cha Cha Moon, Alan’s newest restaurant in Soho, London (good, cheap, Asian mommy food).

Now Alan is branching out in the U.S!  A branch of Hakkasan will open in  Miami’s Fountainbleu Hotel in  November. Let’s hope one is in the works for NY or closer to my home.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DIM SUM RESTAURANT??

Nina

Click Here For Dim Sum Glossary

Watch the video to see where I get my favorite dumplings in Boston.

To view the transcription of this video, please click here.

Before Jennifer Lee wrote her intriguing book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles everyone thought fortune cookies were invented by an Italian in San Francisco.

Well, that’s not true, but you’ll have to read the book to learn the true origin.

Jennifer is funny and smart, and like me obsessed with finding great Chinese food.

Nina

PS — Click here to check out Jennifer’s book!
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The Impressive Chef Morimoto

Being an author and having been on a book tour, I understand how difficult, stressful, and energy-consuming it can be and Chef Morimoto’s schedule was grueling.

No Ordinary Knives

But can you imagine how difficult it would be if the airlines lost your knives? And as you’ll see in Part II of Morimoto: Samurai or Chef, these are no ordinary knives.

Morimoto also gives some invaluable cutting tips.

Enjoy,

Nina

Recipe: Daikon Fettucine With Tomato-Basil Sauce

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The Iron Chef

I have been working with chefs since I was sixteen, but few are as formidable as Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.

To read about his background in the introduction of his beautiful new book, Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking (Dorling Kindersley) is fascinating.  

He grew up in Hiroshima and had a difficult childhood, but he had two dreams, to become

1. A professional baseball player
2. A sushi chef.

Aren’t we all glad that he chose the culinary path?

A Star Chef

Although Morimoto is now a star chef with restaurants in New York, Philadelphia, Mumbai, and Tokyo, and he is famous all over the world as the Japanese Iron Chef, he confessed that his dream had been to write his own cookbook.

He labored for two years and the results are impressive.

The recipes, although challenging look delicious and the photos, by talented photographer Quentin Bacon, are exquisite.

We salute Chef Morimoto.

Watch Part II next week to see his weapons and friends, I mean his knives, and see more of his unique talents.

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