Chickpea Lessons in a Taxicab

By Andrew Hunter

With my travel schedule, I end up in a lot of taxicabs. I’m always curious about the drivers, where they’re from, and if they’re professionals, craftsmen or artists from a faraway place. Since it’s rude to ask such questions directly, I usually engage in conversation and their stories typically come flowing forth.

Meet Kareem, a Palestinian driver in Phoenix. I jumped into his taxi yesterday wearing my chef jacket; Kareem called me “Chef” with a reverence of someone from a fancy hotel background…turns out he once worked for the Ritz-Carlton. I reciprocated by asking respectful questions of him, which evolved into a discussion on mezze platters. I’m working on a mezze concept and so am especially interested.

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Curiosity, Courage and Confidence

Chefs are an odd lot. We have the stamina to work long hours, the courage to experiment and be improvisational, and the creative fuel to cook delicious food every day. Actually, this means we’re more foolhardy than odd, but we all have lots of tricks and techniques we’ve learned over the years that help us in a pinch.

I thought it would be fun to share a few tricks of the trade with you every few weeks ... it’s like a peek behind the kitchen doors. And remember, regardless of a chef’s character, our curiosity, courage and confidence is what separates the good from great. I tell my boys all my secrets, though I think they’re sick of hearing them, so I hope you enjoy!

Salt: Why you’ll only see kosher and sea salts in a respectable kitchen; never iodized.

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City Boy, Country Boy

By Andrew Hunter

Sometimes I wonder how two boys from the same family could choose such different paths in life. This time, I’m not talking about Ben and Nick, but my brother Tony and me.

I live in a densely populated urban center. My view at night is houses and bright lights. Tony lives in a sparsely populated rural sprawl that can’t be found on GPS. His view at night is trees and moon shadows. Tony’s a pharmacist and I’m a chef, but we both love cooking with family and friends in our chosen locales.

He’s the kind of guy who digs a deep hole every Thanksgiving in frozen earth to cook a giant ham with hot rocks buried in dirt. While I prefer stirring Arborio rice and butternut squash together over a giant propane burner from the Chinese hardware store to make creamy risotto.

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Healthy Indulgence

By Marilyn Hunter

Ben and Nick live for sweets, especially strawberry milkshakes, but there's a fine line between enjoying an occasional treat and overindulging. After years of worrying about too much sugar, we’ve found a healthier alternative with most of the sweetness the boys crave coming from summer strawberries.

Our goal was to find a healthy indulgence…a dessert that didn’t leave us feeling guilty. We tried many different types of homemade smoothies, but they just didn’t compare to soda fountain shakes. This simple shake is so delicious, they don’t even miss the real deal.

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Spago House Dressing

By Andrew Hunter

This is salad season and we like to take full advantage of summer’s garden crops. Fresh summer vegetables are so delicious, they need an equally delicious dressing.

Our favorite is the house dressing at Spago, Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant in Beverly Hills, where the stars dine.

This time of year, when the temperatures are soaring, salads are always a welcome addition to the family table. We love to buy the season’s freshest veggies that we find at the market to make salads like the recipe in our Farmer’s Market Tour post.

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