Wine, Food, Mario, Leonardo

Once again, Mario Batali will generously offer his otherworldly cooking skills to the Leelanau Conservancy’s annual Summer Picnic auction. It’s your opportunity to be coddled and fed by the great clogged chef himself in a private Leelanau County dinner for you and eleven friends. What’s it worth? Based on numbers from the last couple years, the winning bidder will [...]

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Leonardo Curti

Leonardo Curti is the executive chef and co-founder of Trattoria Grappolo, the highly acclaimed Santa Ynez, CA restaurant, Curti is also the author of a superb cookbook based on recipes from his restaurant and authentic cooking from his native Italy.
The cookbook is titled Trattoria Grappolo: Simple Recipes for Traditional Italian Cuisine.
Leonardo is one of many [...]

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Matthew Kenney

The author of Everyday Raw, recently released by Gibbs Smith and several other cookbooks including Matthew Kenney’s Mediterranean Cooking, Kenney has appeared on the Today Show, Food Network and several other talk shows.
Over the years, he has been the chef and partner in numerous NYC restaurants and once was nominated [...]

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Of Michigan Food and Drink

We arrive at the close of 2007 with conflicted though generally positive feelings about the state of Michigan’s dining scene, her best chefs and the restaurants they run. To be sure, woe is still the word in Metro Detroit. Money’s tight and top tier restaurants always struggle in weak economies. Mike Sweeney, a wine wholesaler for Estate Wine & [...]

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Best Cookbooks of ‘07

Four cookbooks published in the year 2007 have been honored with a slot on the coveted top shelf of my collection of four hundred or so cookbooks. More importantly, I have rewarded them with my ultimate show of affection: smudges, food smears, and wine stains as I am wont to do when cooking happily. Admission: [...]

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2007 Epicurean Classic

The 4th annual Epicurean Classic featured 75 food, wine, beer, spirits, cigar and cheese tasting seminars, cooking demonstrations as well as guest chef dinners, receptions and cookbook signings.
You can click to view a set of photos from the 2007 Traverse Epicurean Classic (slideshow) and head over to our web site to read articles about the [...]

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The 2006 Epicurean Classic

You can click on the photo to the right to view a set of photos from the 2006 Traverse Epicurean Classic (slideshow) and click over to our web site to read articles about the event including Traverse City: A food and wine mecca by Sandra Silfven.

Bradley Ogden, Chef, Co-Founder and Co-Proprietor, Lark Creek Restaurant Group
Marcus [...]

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