Margaret’s Blog - Upfront and Personal

Follow Margaret with her up close and personal stories of her life, events and the adventures she has with her friends and family.

Margaret's Blog - Upfront and Personal

Follow Margaret with her up close and personal stories of her life, events and the adventures she has with her friends and family.

Executive Pastry Chef Riccardo Menicucci: A Taste of Luxury, History and Hospitality at Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel

Thanks to Executive Pastry Chef Riccardo Meniccuci and his team, Beverly Wilshire is a sweet destination, especially during Oscars Week. This year’s amenities included a film projector made of Valrhona Manjari, a luxury chocolate, in addition to a thoughtfully designed and braided croissant representing the team of talented people required to create a film. And…
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Queen of the Coop: Lisa Steele

Did you know that around 10 million in the United States are raising chickens? Lisa Steel, a fifth-generation chicken keeper and founder of Fresh Eggs Daily, has a new cookbook The Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook: Over 100 Fabulous Recipes to Use Eggs in Unexpected Ways. In this podcast, you will learn about the benefits of…

Rohina Day Let's Talk Womxn | Kitchen Chat

Rohini Dey: Let’s Talk Womxn

Let’s celebrate International Women’s Day with Rohini Dey! She is an accomplished businesswoman who has worked with the World Bank, a large consulting firm and even launched the women’s program at James Beard Foundation. She left the corporate world to pursue her passion of opening an Indian and Latin American fusion restaurant in Chicago called…

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Gender Equity and the Food Industry: A Spotlight on Daisy Zeijlon

The data points are staggering. 52% of all restaurant workers are women. 71% of servers are women. 82% of hostesses are women. 54% of all culinary students are women. And only 7% of all restaurants are led by women chefs. Daisy Zeijlon, food and gender scholar discusses the “why” behind these numbers along with the…

MARGARET’S MERRIEST LIST

Happy Holidays! It’s a tradition at Kitchen Chat to share some delicious ideas with you about gifts for the heart of your home. Your kitchen. Here are some great items to consider that are easy to get last minute for a friend, family member or work colleague. These gifts feature guests from Kitchen Chat along…

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Celebrating Serendipity with Co-Founder Stephen Bruce: How Food (James Beard) and Art (Andy Warhol)Influenced the Success of an Iconic Restaurant

“New York was the spell, the impetus of making it work. We were three young men and we came to New York to seek fame and fortune. We turned out to be the toast of the town, at least on the East Side.” Stephen Bruce Serendipity3 is a place of celebrating delicious milestones with family…

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The Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook: 125 Homegrown Recipes from the Hills of New England

“Allow the serendipity of the garden’s harvest to decide your menu.” Michael Ballon, farm to table pioneer and friend of the Bildners The taste of summer is a celebration of fresh produce at our local farmers markets. Elisa Spungen Bildner and Rob Buildner recently wrote The Berkshires Farm Table Cookbook: 125 Homegrown Recipes from the…

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Babette’s Feast, Chef Lasse Sorensen

“TAK for mad” means “Thank. you for the meal” in Danish. My husband is half Danish, and my mother-in-law taught me this lovely phrase. How fitting that for our first date, my husband took me to see the Oscar-winning Danish movie, Babette’s Feast, based on Isak Dinesen’s book. Its an endearing film about Babette, a mysterious…

Katie Chin | Kitchen Chat

Global Family Cookbook with Chef Katie Chin

“Cooking is an expression of love, an act of friendship and a bridge to new cultures.” Chef Katie Chin Celebrity Chef Katie Chin and I share a parallel culinary journey. She is honoring her late mother, Leann Chin, who was a successful restaurateur in Minnesota. I am honoring my late father, Dr. Claude H. Rhea…

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A Father’s Day Celebration with Chef Bradford Thompson

First of all, Happy Father’s Day to all who celebrate as a dad, granddad, or as someone who is a father influence in another person’s life. For this week’s celebration of Father’s Day, I am spotlighting James Beard Award winner, Chef Bradford Thompson. He has a special tradition with his children to engage them in…