Love Your Veggies Mom? Chef Art Smith Wants to Know! 13

Art Smith is a twice named James Beard Award winner, Executive Chef, co-owner of Table Fifty-Two restaurant based in Chicago, Ill. - an establishment dedicated to serving and highlighting seasonal organic, farm raised produce. His latest restaurant endeavor , opened in October 2008, hails from Washington D.C, Art and Soul, which lends a southern twist from his roots:

Art and Soul offers guests a chic setting in which to meet and connect, while enjoying “food for the soul” – food made with love and special attention. With celebrated two-time James Beard-Award winning Chef Art Smith as chef/owner and Culinary Institute of America-trained local Ryan Morgan as executive chef, this 221-seat dining destination serves up fresh and modern regional cuisine with southern accents.

Named for its nationally renowned chef and the genuine welcoming feeling guests experience when they walk through the doors, the cuisine will be presented with southern-style hospitality. - Art & Soul website

Chef Smith truly encompasses what most people
envision as a successful chef, with hosts of celebrity
clients, including Oprah, who he served as personal
chef 10 years, and still heads her special events;
Smith also served as a former special events chef
for Martha Stewart Living. Television appear-
ances on popular shows like Iron Chef America,
The Today Show and Oprah.

Among his literary accomplishments - Chef
Smith is contributing editor to O, The Oprah
Magazine, And author of three award-winning
cookbooks: Back to the Table; Kitchen Life Real
Food For Real Families ; and Back to the Family .

Art Smith is a true philanthropist, spreading the
wealth of not only funds to disadvantaged children,
but knowledge about food and helping them find
the joy within their selves and those around them.
His labor of love Common Threads started in
2003 and continues to touch children in Chicago.
In the spirit of his philanthropy, Chef Smith has partnered
with the makers of Hidden Valley® Salad Dressings to find
moms who are true vegetable advocates through the Love
Your Veggies™ Search for Veggie Champions Contest. For 10 lucky moms whose essays are selected, Chef Smith will lead a two-day all expense paid retreat ,aimed at learning and sharing tips and tools on planting, harvesting, cooking and eating vegetables with children. These moms will also receive $5,000 to start or maintain a community vegetable garden in their hometown. Follow this link for complete prize winnings : whole prize package.


What an awesome way to spend 2 days - a retreat with a celebrity chef who wants to share his passion for organic produce and encouraging children to enjoy them too! This is a great opportunity for your community - $5,000 in seed money to create a sustainable source of food for your neighbors, what a great way to offset the rising food costs and strengthen the bond you share with both people & the garden.




When you visit http://www.loveyourveggies.com, not only can you enter the contest for a chance to win by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time January 15, 2009, but you can also check out kid tested recipes from Chef Smith, and activities to do with children.

Review : Morimoto - The New Art of Japanese Cooking 4

For me this is an orgasmic book of unmeasured proportions. I have loved Iron Chef. I have loved Japanese cooking and finally the two have merged and come full circle. On viewing the book it's self - wow. A nice presentation. A heavy slightly over sized cookbook. 

Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking.

Morimoto

The editing of this book is very well done. Nice graceful modern designs. Page after page of glossy step by step images and techniques, and notations on traditional Asian ingredients and how that translates to using and accessing them (or a finding suitable substitutions) in the US . If I ever wanted to publish a cookbook, it would be in this style.

This book showcases why Chef Morimoto^w is at the axis of a foodie empire, in this creative and intuitive take on Japanese cuisine. When I read this cookbook, I felt like the foodie version of Being John Malkovich , as this book allows you to peer inside the thoughts and actions of this culinary genius.

In relation to skill level, I would recommend this book to people who have at least an intermediate knowledge of culinary techniques. The beginning home cook might not know how to utilize or apply the techniques Chef Morimoto has outlined in this book.

It would be wise to do some further research on Japanese Culinary techniques also, as this book can only highlight certain facets of the cuisine itself and not act as a reference manual or course book on Japanese Cuisine as a whole.

If you have ever had an inkling of adoration for Asian style cuisine, or are awestruck at the complexities of the full spectrum of Professional Japanese Culinary , as I am, you would enjoy this book.

Highlights of this book include:

• An in depth look at how the Japanese chef works his knife magic to create beautiful Sashimi ^w and Sushi ^w works of art out of various ingredients - parts of fish, Octopus , and Various Vegetables .
• Recipes that are full of depth and charisma.
• Master recipes of various sauces and marinades.
• Text about the origins and importance of ingredients utilized in Japanese cuisine.
• Beautiful photography displaying the frame by frame procedures for each culinary technique, and the eloquent plate presentation for each recipe.
• A glossary of Japanese terms , as well as a source guide for obtaining specialty ingredients.

Overall this book is a wonderful culinary journey that enables the reader to cultivate a better understanding of chef Morimoto, Japanese cuisine and the culinary revelations that Morimoto has contributed to todays culinary field. I loved this book!