My first job was as a dishwasher in a local diner. It was hard work, but a lot of fun; the owners encouraged me to finish my cleaning quickly so I could learn to prep and cook. That early exposure shaped the way I think about simple, well-prepared food — especially diner classics. Despite their simplicity, exceptional home fries are surprising hard to find. Truly great home fries should be hot, crisp, and deeply flavorful, not deep fried or those soft, pre-made versions that too often appear on the plate. Once you’ve experienced the real thing — potatoes cooked with care and attention — you never settle for anything less.

This recipe is simple and has flavor, visual appeal and craveability. After making this a few times, try different types of breads and cheeses. Try adding slices of prosciutto or smoked ham or grilled vegetables. I like to serve bitesize squares of grilled cheese as croutons to dunk into cream of tomato or cream of mushroom soup... amazing!

Years ago I shared a food stand with close friends at a large fairground. Our families worked the booth on the weekends and it was a lot of fun. I often came in early to prepare five or six soups... Spicy Vegetarian Black Bean, Chicken & Macaroni, Beef Barley, Tomato etc... We served salads and sandwiches as well; the most popular sandwich was sliced roast beef on a toasted roll with gravy, onion rings, and provolone, we frequently ended up with extra rolls at the end of a shift. Naturally… croutons. At the time, I typically served croutons only with certain soups—styles that truly benefited from that added texture and richness. But the rest of the team had a different idea. They started offering croutons on every soup, no matter the style, and the customers absolutely loved it. It became one of those small, unexpected touches that kept people coming back .

I liked to begin each class day of Skills Development class at the CIA with a quote. One of my favorites went something like this, 'You can walk to the corn fields but you must run back to the kitchen'. Basically it speaks to the sugars in sweet quickly converting to starch when it's harvested. We Chefs know a thing or two about food chemistry...

I agreed to be the Chef Advisor for the Gourmet Society at the CIA, an amazing honor to work with some of the best and brightest students. We planned to demonstrate preparing pesto with a mortar and pestle and also with a food processor-then evaluate them both side by side. We all suspected that the food processor would aerate the pesto, possibly the heat generated would be a problem- One student brought in a molcajete, the traditional mortar from Mexico, made from volcanic rock used for grinding spices, making salsas, moles, etc... I'm not sure this was the preferred mortar and pestle to use, these days I often use a marble mortar and pestle and make small batches. The 'mortar and pestle' pesto was much more delicious than the food processor version at the CIA that day.

I was born to sauté... I remember thinking this and smiling when I finally made my way up in the kitchen brigade to the Saucier spot. I loved the pulse of the kitchen, working the saute station with a dozen sauté pans on the flat top, delicious stocks and mother sauces held hot in the steam table and carefully prepared mise en place so I could make delicious meals for the customers... one order or two at the time. Everything was cooked with love and respect.

I remember my days working as chef/manager for food service cafeterias. People loved muffins for breakfast! We used dry muffin mixes or large tubs of various, premade muffin batters; scooped the batter into muffin tins and made dozens of mini, regular and large sizes daily. I love topping the muffins with garnishes like oats, chocolate chips, streusel, nuts etc... Morning Glory was my favorite, I bet I baked thousands of muffins in my five years at Gardner Merchant! I think my 'go to' muffin is a delicious, corn muffin grilled with butter on a plancha-New Jersey diner style!

I remember learning to make an emulsion sauce for called Rouille at Le Cirque. It's one of my favorites! Rouille is a delicious, classic French garlic mayonnaise served with bouillabaisse, a famous, French fish soup. I was taught to use EVOO, saffron, garlic etc... and cooked potato in the recipe. Other famous emulsion sauces include aioli, vinaigrettes, dressings, etc...

My culantro plant has gotten full & bushy in the warm, sunny greenhouse. I couldn't wait to make a batch of culantro sofrito for beans, rice, eggs and just spooning onto everything to give winter a little 'summer' spice! Sofrito is a very flavorful blend of garlic, onions, peppers, tomato, culantro, cilantro, oregano and a little vinegar chopped or pureed and seasoned to taste. I think every chef has their own recipe for sofrito. It's simply heated in oil and added to a variety of dishes to add amazing flavor.