This past week was quite a fun run. Monday brought us to the Worcester County Food Bank for a fundraising, Chef Table event with 11 area restaurants honoring the career of Barbara Houle, editor of the food pages at the Worcester Telegram & Gazzette for nearly 40 years. Barbara has been diligent is supporting the numerous Chef’s cooks, food producers, farmers, Food Bank and so much more through her inspired weekly columns in the T & G. She has recently stepped back a bit and will still write her Table Hopping column on Thursdays. Piccolo’s, Romaine’s, Something Sweet by Michelle, Sweet, The Castle, Coral Seafood, BaBa Sushi, Sonoma, Pepper’s Catering, Block 5 & the Niche group and the Educated Grape all went over the top with their offerings in tribute to Barbara. Ask me about Audrey Kurlan-Marcy’s creative Houly award. It was terrific.

First thing on Tuesday, fellow Pepper’s Culinarians John Wadkins and Keith Desy loaded up the van for Mass Vet’s and the first day of our month long cooking class. We started with some food trivia and cookbook giveaway to break the ice a bit and then got right in to Sanitation, Nutrition and Knife Skills. Dexter-Russell Cutlery from Southbridge graciously donated 2 dozen knives and we had the Vet’s do prep for the following day’s Omelet, Frittata 7 Strata class as well as make batch of Salsa Fresca, Guacamole and fresh lime & sea salt chips to finish the day. Great fun. Wednesday brought us back for fresh banana bread demo along with the egg dishes and by popular demand; we’ll start the upcoming week with a Hollandaise Sauce demo. It’s all been quite a bit of work but the rewards and thanks from all whom we were in front of this week was quite special and is working as a great team building with my fellow Pepper’s.

More to come as this week’s class will have the guys learning how to braise meats and Tuesdays tastes will include having the guys braise red cabbage with apples to go with the braised sauerbraten of beef.

I’m home today working diligently on my upcoming month of offering a cooking program for Mass Veterans at their shelter on Grove Street in Worcester, MA. http://www.massveterans.org/ Pepper’s has been assisting the Vet’s for over 10 years now in many capacities as we have a high regard for the team who do so much for the Vet’s and of course, for the Vet’s themselves. After speaking with a few of the leaders at the shelter, it dawned on me that these Vet’s who have served our country and have fallen on difficult times could use some assistance with learning how to be more self sufficient.

This is where all of you readers come in.

We feel that the Vet’s would greatly benefit from having copies of the fine publication, Cook’s Illustrated around to reinforce good cooking and so much more. I personally feel that this inspired magazine is the best for foodies who love to eat and cook.

If you have some back issues that you could part with, please drop them off at the shelter, attention Trevor Little the Chef at the shelter or at Pepper’s Catering in Northborough. Both addresses are easily found on a web search.

Wish us luck with our program and we’ll keep you posted on our progress.

Thank you.

Susan and I have just returned from 3 days of eating and culture in NYC and we are all jazzed up again. Nothing like the stimulation of the city and especially the food scene. We did sit next to Andrew Zimmerman of “Weird Food” fame on the Travel Channel, and more on that later.http://www.andrewzimmern.com/blog/andrew Our very first item on our itinerary was a food tasting and cultural tour on Chinatown offered by www.foodsofny.com and this experience far exceeded our expectations. Rasheem our english speaking guide had unsurpassed passion for Chinatown, spoke fluent Mandarin, had been to China 3 times and was unbelievable. A dream guide. We hit the authentic Peking Duck House, a temple of the classic dish, Chinese bakeries ( Fay Da akery, dim sum houses, tea emporiums (Ten Ren ) but the true highlight was our first stop, Dim Sum Go Go at 5 East Broadway. This is where a few days later on a return visit, we sat next to Andrew Zimmerman who was dining with a family of friends. We had a brief chat and he had reccomended we try the Duck Dim Sum. We smiled and fessed up that we had just finished 2 orders and had moved on to the Vegetarian Platter with a trilogy on wonderful condiments. Later we decided to shoot over to Chinatown Ice Cream Factory on a reccomendation for wasabi ice cream and again we run into Andrew. He suggested we try the Tangerine Lime. While they didn’t offer the wasabi as their menu changes due to the fact that they have nearly 150 flavors that they rotate in and out. Susan enjoyed the ginger and I had a mango lime. both were delicious. I didn’t know that the Chinese invented ice cream but can attest to the very satisfying experience at this wonderful spot at 65 Bayard St. Other NYC eating tips from this trip are Chelsea Market for a dozen or so restaurants, bakeries, and assorted food shops.Planet Donut @ 379 Grand Street for the best donut in the country. Zetinz Market for eye candy as well as enticing gourmet shop experience, located at 24 West 40th Street. You can’r beat Katz Delicatessen on Canal Street for the best corned beef & reubin experience.

We also took in two plays that were both terrific. We highly reccomend Bily Elliott and Impressionism with Joan Allen and Jeremey Irons along with Marth Mason. Strong acting performance and great use of visual technology. Get to the big apple soon and especially if you could view the apple blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Check out the museum next door and both are easily accessed via the subway for a 4.00 round trip.

Spring always bring a number of tasting opportunities for area residents and supporters of non-profit organizations and venues. Last evening our Culinary Team blew away the diners with an over the top menu of crispy braised pork served over preserved lemon sweet potato puree, seared citrus diver scallops infused with vanilla bean and served with a lemon beuree blanc and our Pastry Chef got into the action with some creative spoon dessert concoctions. We served 160 diners in the first 90 minutes with lines out the door and made my wife and I along with our event planner team quite proud.

Next week on April will bring us to the Corridor 9 Business Expo and Chef will rock with Asian braised short ribs with jasmine rice and then the event that we are most excited about id monday April 6, at the Worcester County Food Bank and a special fundraising event to honor Barbara Houle the food editor of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette for over 30 years. No one has done more for area Chef, Restauranteurs, Food Producers and Farmers than Barbara and Central Mass would not nearly have progressed as far as it has culinary wise if not for Barbara’s support. We know that the 11 participating restaurants, bakeries and caterers will really step up with their creativity for this one and for the price of 25.00, this will be one memorable evening of small plate dining. Oh, and did I mention the martini luge along with local brew, live music and a tribut to Barbara. Stop by and say hello to the Chef’s and especialy Pepper’s Fine Foods Catering.