This is the famous natchez eola hotel...we own the whole joint for the night...every room is different, a true gem!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Mississippi Trip
This is the famous natchez eola hotel...we own the whole joint for the night...every room is different, a true gem!
This is the famous natchez eola hotel...we own the whole joint for the night...every room is different, a true gem!
This is the famous natchez eola hotel...we own the whole joint for the night...every room is different, a true gem!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Mississippi Prawns
Really cool that we are 'growing our own' and becoming less dependent upon foreign seafood....cant wait to eat some!
Wow, these prawns are awesome! Very clean flavor, much more like lobster than shrimp...
Viking Factory Tour
Just finished a great tour of the Viking Factory in Greenwood, Miss. What a great company!They make cooktops, ranges, stoves, etc...The people are super-friendly and very dedicated...less than 1% employee turnover! Wow!
Fred Carl is the president, didn't meet him, but hope to connect with their marketing department to discuss Meet Me in the Kitchen collaboration...
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Crown in Downtown Indianola, Mississippi
I just had lunch at The Crown.
The owner, evelyn, walked us through an amazing meal in her quaint little store. The salad had an amazing sweet/sour dressing with diced cantelope, romaine, crispy fresh bacon bits.
The place to find great authentic Southern Quisine in Indianola.
Their shop is called Taste of Gourmet.
April Culinary Journey
We are at heartland catfish in mississippi right now - they process 300,000 lbs a day here...from alive to frozen filets in an hr...
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Alan Wong's in Honolulu Rocks!
Wow, I am just returning from one of the best meals I have had...possibly in the top ten best ever for me! Alan Wong's (or this site) on South King Street in Honolulu, Hawaii was incredible! I can easily see why Gourmet Magazine rated it #8 in the country's best 50 places to eat last year. Here's a few quick pics until I get elaborate on the exceptional food and service...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Nalo Farms and Hawaii Regional Cuisine - This is Fresh!
While in Hawaii visiting my sister and her family, I always check in with my dear Hawaiian friend (and fellow International Caterers Association member and catering colleague), Michael Rabe. He owns Creations in Catering in Honolulu and uses the Dole Cannery's ballrooms as his venue and commissary base for the island of Oahu. What a great guy...and always a wonderful host, providing much aloha spirit and congeniality - along with plenty of inside contacts. He knows everyone, including the best chefs of the island.
Before I arrived in Hawaii, I had asked Mike if he could take me to see the farm where all the island's top chefs get their lettuces, herbs, greens, etc...As the story goes, in 1991 a dozen of these celebrated and talented chef's gathered together to form Hawaii Regional Cuisine, in an effort to support local growing and put Hawaii on the map in terms of cuisine. I can attest to the fact, as thousands of other culinarians can, it's been a huge success!
I had heard about this farm and because we are in the process of going Green as a catering company, my curiosity about local growing has really been piqued. As many of you know, my mom also grows organically for me from her 140-acre farm in Graysville, PA - in Greene County. Anyway, a few days ago, Mike took me to visit Dean Okimoto, owner of Nalo Farms in Waimanalo on the eastern (windward) side of Oahu. Back in 1991 Dean's good friend Roy Yamaguchi told him "if you grow lettuce for me, I will buy it and serve it in my restaurants"... The rest is history - Dean's Nalo Farms greens appear across many of the top restaurant's menus.
Owner Dean Okimoto & author Jason Capps
Outside the Nalo Farm gates
The fields in full cover of lettuces, herbs and greens...Dean was gracious enough to show us around his farm and we walked the fields tasting just about everything - including Peppercress (a soft green herb - similiar to parsely in appearance), which presented a very interesting flavor. It had a subtle flatleaf parsley beginning, but finished with a hearty splash of heat, then quickly disappated on the palate). Some of the other items Dean pointed out were his Corn Sprouts, Snap Pea Sprouts, Japanese Spinach (much more robust and buttery than American types) and a host of other Asian herbs like Tat Soi and Mezuna, even Swiss Chard and much more...
Corn Sprouts...grown by using store bought popcorn, germinated, covered and grown for 8-9 days in complete darkness. A single shoot tastes like a whole bite of corn on the cob!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
North Shore dining at it's best (local style)...
Often in life the simple things have the biggest impact on us. Each year we travel to Hawaii and find ourselves scrambling to get right to this little local eatery.
This is one of my all-time favorites, pad thai with shrimp - spicy please!
Time to blog once again...
So, it's been an awful long time since my last entry, and I am not proud of my procrastination - Trust me! Life gets so hectic, but it's no excuse, I just need to get back into this...It's kinda like working out at the gym - hard to get back into, but when you do it feels really good!
Right now I am in Hawaii chilling on vacation with my family, visiting my sister and her family who live here on Oahu. What a beautiful place. This is our fourth winter trip here and it always provides us with relaxation and excitement - something we all can use to escape from the daily grind (and cold weather in Pittsburgh right now)...
Here's some photos from today at the beach. Me surfing (totally a novice), my girls (Lily and Lauren) and a beautiful sunset...Check back soon for more food related content, I promise!
Friday, May 30, 2008
My Start and Where I am Today - Part Two
Fast forward almost 20 years and in 1999 Greco’s Gourmet to Go was born. I used to make sandwiches, pastas and salads for customers too busy to cook for themselves. I thoroughly enjoyed this one-on-one interaction, but catering was undeniably my true calling. Many wonder where the Greco’s name comes from, a valid question indeed. While the Capps family in New Jersey (my father’s side) certainly gave me the DNA for the industry, my Gramma Greco was a daily source of inspiration for me growing up. Gram was your quintessential Italian, cooking and baking daily. She lived right next door so I would come home from school, drop my books and head across the yard to see what was on the stove. Her words of wisdom and patience inspired me. Since the Greco family settled in Washington and the Capps’ are still out east, the Greco’s name made sense for multiple reasons. Besides, Capps’ Catering just didn’t have that special ring to it!
Jump ahead another decade to present day and who would have ever thought…Greco’s will celebrate it’s 10th anniversary on May 13, 2009. What a long, strange, rewarding and exciting trip it’s been! Thanks to my predecessors, I have been blessed with inherited traits of integrity and fortitude, which have helped the business grow into what it is now – Greco’s Gourmet Catering and Bella Sera by Greco’s, the special venue we now call home. The real thanks go out to all of you, my loyal clients, who call upon me to work magic with food in your homes on a regular basis.
Jump ahead another decade to present day and who would have ever thought…Greco’s will celebrate it’s 10th anniversary on May 13, 2009. What a long, strange, rewarding and exciting trip it’s been! Thanks to my predecessors, I have been blessed with inherited traits of integrity and fortitude, which have helped the business grow into what it is now – Greco’s Gourmet Catering and Bella Sera by Greco’s, the special venue we now call home. The real thanks go out to all of you, my loyal clients, who call upon me to work magic with food in your homes on a regular basis.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
My Start And Where I Am Today - Part 1
My Start and Where I am Today.
I am definitely wrapped up in my career as a chef and an entrepreneur, no doubt about it. My days now are mostly spent working on catering sales and running the business, not from within the kitchen, but from behind a desk or in the field. Ask anyone who knows me – chances are I will be talking, reading or writing about a food-related topic of some sort. It’s what I do, it’s what I love and it’s what I stand for…A very simple platform really.
The question is often asked, at what point in my life did I determine I wanted to be a chef? Since I can’t remember much before the age of four, my typical answer is “around the ripe age of five”…I vividly remember my first cookbook and a specific recipe I made over and over. At nine, during a sleepover at my buddy Andy’s house, I successfully executed a perfect chocolate soufflé and remember asking his mom to “please walk lightly through the kitchen” so it didn’t fall. Oddly, I can’t recall how it tasted, but I distinctly remember the feeling of satisfaction as I proudly (and gently) set it upon the table before them. More exceptional was the overwhelming sense of accomplishment and pride I received that day, particularly from their compliments, as they eagerly devoured it. That single moment in my young, impressionable mind may have been the motivation I needed to catapult a novice hobby into a chosen lifelong career.
I grew up in Washington, PA, home of Pony League baseball, and was a pretty damn good ballplayer in my younger years. Every summer after the season my parents would put me on a plane to visit my grandparents and extended family in New Jersey for three weeks or so. Just think how times have changed…On my first trip I was six years old, traveling from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia on a 747 by myself, chaperoned by the flight attendants, but solo nonetheless. Wandering through the hectic kitchen of their steakhouse was exciting and mentally stimulating to me. The aroma of fresh baked pies, the huge bubbling pots of stock…just thinking about it now, takes me right back there. The tall cooks clad in white barking orders to one another, waitresses darting everywhere and dodging one another eloquently, dishes and silverware clanging…it was exciting and fascinating to me. Collectively, the entire kitchen staff seemed like one large motion, a finely oiled machine, churning and producing and seemingly never slowing. I would come into the kitchen every day and check the soup, ask about it and ladle myself a cup. Chef Donald or Old Charles would describe the type of soup and how it was made and I would listen intently trying to absorb it all.
I recall peeling, slicing and dicing 500 pounds of onions one day in preparation for a large catering event. I was probably 11 or 12 at the time and it was my first real kitchen challenge. It was a beautiful summer day and the beach at Ocean City was only 45 minutes away, but I was committed to the task at hand. My uncle, a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America (class of 1962), asked me if I knew how to correctly peel and cut an onion. I assured him I did, but failed miserably, nearly taking off my left thumb. He patiently showed me the proper procedure, dropped the knife on the cutting board, turned on the fans and radio, and left me to this insurmountable challenge. The first few pounds made me cry (literally), but I put my head down and got to work. I progressively got faster and faster by trying slight variations and techniques, perfecting the process eventually. The last 250 pounds went quick! Again, that sense of accomplishment washed over me as I stood before huge bins of cut onions as my uncle patted me on the back for a job well done.
...part two coming soon!
I am definitely wrapped up in my career as a chef and an entrepreneur, no doubt about it. My days now are mostly spent working on catering sales and running the business, not from within the kitchen, but from behind a desk or in the field. Ask anyone who knows me – chances are I will be talking, reading or writing about a food-related topic of some sort. It’s what I do, it’s what I love and it’s what I stand for…A very simple platform really.
The question is often asked, at what point in my life did I determine I wanted to be a chef? Since I can’t remember much before the age of four, my typical answer is “around the ripe age of five”…I vividly remember my first cookbook and a specific recipe I made over and over. At nine, during a sleepover at my buddy Andy’s house, I successfully executed a perfect chocolate soufflé and remember asking his mom to “please walk lightly through the kitchen” so it didn’t fall. Oddly, I can’t recall how it tasted, but I distinctly remember the feeling of satisfaction as I proudly (and gently) set it upon the table before them. More exceptional was the overwhelming sense of accomplishment and pride I received that day, particularly from their compliments, as they eagerly devoured it. That single moment in my young, impressionable mind may have been the motivation I needed to catapult a novice hobby into a chosen lifelong career.
I grew up in Washington, PA, home of Pony League baseball, and was a pretty damn good ballplayer in my younger years. Every summer after the season my parents would put me on a plane to visit my grandparents and extended family in New Jersey for three weeks or so. Just think how times have changed…On my first trip I was six years old, traveling from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia on a 747 by myself, chaperoned by the flight attendants, but solo nonetheless. Wandering through the hectic kitchen of their steakhouse was exciting and mentally stimulating to me. The aroma of fresh baked pies, the huge bubbling pots of stock…just thinking about it now, takes me right back there. The tall cooks clad in white barking orders to one another, waitresses darting everywhere and dodging one another eloquently, dishes and silverware clanging…it was exciting and fascinating to me. Collectively, the entire kitchen staff seemed like one large motion, a finely oiled machine, churning and producing and seemingly never slowing. I would come into the kitchen every day and check the soup, ask about it and ladle myself a cup. Chef Donald or Old Charles would describe the type of soup and how it was made and I would listen intently trying to absorb it all.
I recall peeling, slicing and dicing 500 pounds of onions one day in preparation for a large catering event. I was probably 11 or 12 at the time and it was my first real kitchen challenge. It was a beautiful summer day and the beach at Ocean City was only 45 minutes away, but I was committed to the task at hand. My uncle, a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America (class of 1962), asked me if I knew how to correctly peel and cut an onion. I assured him I did, but failed miserably, nearly taking off my left thumb. He patiently showed me the proper procedure, dropped the knife on the cutting board, turned on the fans and radio, and left me to this insurmountable challenge. The first few pounds made me cry (literally), but I put my head down and got to work. I progressively got faster and faster by trying slight variations and techniques, perfecting the process eventually. The last 250 pounds went quick! Again, that sense of accomplishment washed over me as I stood before huge bins of cut onions as my uncle patted me on the back for a job well done.
...part two coming soon!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Next Wednesday - Grillin' & Swillin' III
Grillin' & Swillin' IIIMicro Beers and Macro Grills
DATE: Wednesday May 14, 2008
TIME: 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm
LOCATION: Bella Sera by Greco's
414 Morganza Road, Canonsburg, PA
Get ready to fire up your grill and master a multitude of techniques and interesting recipes! This outdoor cooking class will absolutely enhance your patio performance. Learn how to add pizazz to your favorite meats, vegetables and seafood without heating up your kitchen.
Special Guests!
All the way from Atlanta, Ga., 2008 ICA Chef of the Year Eric B. LeVine will present recipes and grilling techniques with chef/owner Jason Capps.
Beer experts from The Sharp Edge will pair samples of microbrews and craft beers with each course, presenting cold pale ales, sweet lagers and hearty stouts. Celebrate their Peter's Township Brasserie opening May 12th!
Grillin' & Swillin' III is the final class in the 2008 Spring Series cooking classes. Grills will be stationed in our backyard overlooking our private pond. Kenny Blake from Big Day Entertainment will provide live jazz music as you sample great food and drinks!
$60 per person
Remaining space is limited. To register call 724.745.5575 ext. 111
or download a registration form now.
Greco's Gourmet Catering & Bella Sera by Greco's
414 Morganza Road, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania 15317
cooking@grecosgourmet.com
"Every Wednesday when I walk in I feel relaxed and ready for some fun, good food and making new friends." April 16th Guest
Remaining space is limited. To register call 724.745.5575 ext. 111
or download a registration form now.
Greco's Gourmet Catering & Bella Sera by Greco's
414 Morganza Road, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania 15317
cooking@grecosgourmet.com
"Every Wednesday when I walk in I feel relaxed and ready for some fun, good food and making new friends." April 16th Guest
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Flavors of Italy Cooking Class - March 26
Our first class was a huge success! Frank Lombardi of Framboise Catering, catering for the IOC at the Olympic Games in China, flew from New York to Pittsburgh to demonstrate classic and unique Italian recipes. More than 50 guests were greeted with live jazz music by Kenny Blake as they entered the lobby for a cocktail reception.
The menu included basic crepes filled with asparagus and ricotta cheese, super creamy polenta served with sun-dried tomato crusted chicken and crème zabaglione. The most popular dish was spinach gnocchi over vodka sauce paired with 2005 Cecchi Chianti Classico.
To spice up the night, we surprised guests with a pop quiz. Guests with the most correct answers won All Clad Cookware and a gift certificate to Molto Bella Ceramica.
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