Food & Drink

Interview with Ross Gill La Puerta Azul’s new chef
by Rona Boyer
Our beautiful Mexican-style restaurant got a new chef this month. In the next few weeks, he will introduce his own menu, but meanwhile I went around to meet him, taste some of his new dishes and ask him a few questions…   You grew up in a small town in Sonoma County, in the heart of California’s wine country. How did that influence your cooking?   Everything was always local. I...
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In Love with Food films
by Rona Boyer
To celebrate Hudson Valley Restaurant Week, the Moviehouse in Millerton is holding a Food Film Festival from November 5 through November 18. As a lover of both films and food, I can only applaud this wonderful initiative. Clearly Carol and Robert Sadlon have done their research and made quite an effort to gather ten films on the theme, each worth seeing and seeing again. I can hardly believe that there are...
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Recipe: Pork Tenderloins Cooked with Apples and Potatoes
by Rona Boyer
A tasty meal for four. For six people add another tenderloin, a pound of potatoes, half an onion, half an apple, ¼ cup of lemon juice, ½ cup of apple juice, and  4 ounces of chicken stock and  follow the same directions. For any more, you would need two Dutch ovens.
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Eugénie’s Chocolate Cakes (Made with Salted Butter)
by Rona Boyer

I have had family from France visiting with us for the past few weeks, and I occasionally relinquish my kitchen to them—always with good results, but this time my niece, Eugénie  produced an outstanding new dessert that will henceforth be among my staples. The use of salted butter in making individual chocolate cakes and then the sprinkling of Fleur de Sel de Guerande over them just before tasting is a stroke of culinary genius. You may use an old cupcake pan or one of the new multiple individual portion cake pans. The batter does do not rise to a full cupcake, but remains flat as shown in the picture.

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Hard Cider Revisited
by Rona Boyer
Everywhere you looked in the past couple of weeks, someone was promoting some apple cider in some interesting way—perfectly orchestrated by Glynwood, the sustainable-farming advocate that designated October 12–23 as Cider Week to help promote “hard cider.” Glynwood created exchanges of information between U.S. apple growers and distillers with their counterparts in Europe (mostly Normandy) to learn of best...
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2012 Harvest Party at Millbrook Winery
by Rona Boyer
They came by car, by train and by the busload from Manhattan and from as far away as Vermont, New Hampshire, Florida and even San Francisco to honor this year’s harvest.  The winery was also celebrating its excellent showing in the Hudson Valley Wine Festival. In addition to being named “Winery of the Year” their wines were decorated with Best in Show and Best Overall Wine and Best White Wine for...
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Interview with Chef Jehangir Mehta
by Rona Boyer
You have two different restaurants in New York City, both highly rated. Can you explain the differences between the two?  Oxygen is the difference. Graffiti is a small, casual restaurant on East 10th Street, the tables are fairly close together, it is always crowded, noisy, and there is usually a line outside waiting for a table. On the other hand, Mehtaphor, which is downtown on...
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