Memorial Day weekend means it’s time to get fired up for the smoky flavor of food cooked outdoors. A gourmet meal prepared in your backyard or on your deck is still an affordable luxury.

The cover of “Barbecue Nation: 350 Hot-Off-the-Grill, Tried-And-True Recipes From America’s Backyard,” by Fred Thompson, Taunton Press, $24.95, caught my attention with the steak shaped like the Unites States.

While 75 percent of American households own a grill and more than 58 percent grill year-round, what people like to cook depends on where they live. North Carolinians love their pork, Texans are beefeaters, and folks from Kansas City make a mean BBQ sauce. To see the rest of the column and recipe, please click here.

To see my food and travel column archives, please click here.

Quite the crab cakes. To say they’re popular at Lo Monaco’s in Branford would be an understatement

Found: Laura Cofrancesco of Hamden wrote, “Can you possibly find the recipe for the crab cakes at Lo Monaco’s (990 West Main St., Branford, www.lomonacos.com) for me? I’ve enjoyed them for years and have always wondered how they make them.

“What I love most about them is the way that they are made with lump crab meat and not fried or even baked with a heavy coating. Instead, they are sauteed with green onions and roasted peppers. I am so curious to find out what holds them together. They are really delicious — you should try them!”  To see the rest of the column and the recipe, please click here

To see my food and travel column archives, please click here

With the onset of spring, so began the food events that kept me very busy. At the Chef to Chef: Picnic Battle for the Planet, I emceed as Jason Sobocinski from Caseus Fromagerie Bistro and Bun Lai of Miya’s Sushi engaged in a friendly competition where they both crafted delicious and sustainable picnic fare.

Their dishes had to include beets, goat cheese and a baguette. After the 15-minute competition, Chef Bun Lai was crowned the winner at the Nature Conservancy’s event celebrating Earth Day on April 21.

Then it was on to the fifth annual Iron Chef Elm City competition on April 22 where Chef Ben Gaffney of Atticus Bookstore-Cafe was crowned the champ. To see the rest of the column and Chef Gaffney’s dessert recipe using the “secret” ingredient, please click here 

To see my food and travel column archives, please click here.

Cinco de Mayo and my birthday share the same date on the calendar. The fifth of May starts the summer season for me, rather than Memorial Day, and I like to welcome my favorite season with flair.

Many think it is the celebration of Mexico’s independence, which it is not. It marks the day in 1862 when the Mexican Army surprisingly defeated the French in the Battle of Puebla. What I find interesting is that Cinco de Mayo is celebrated more in the United States than Mexico, although it is a big celebration in Puebla.

Mexican pinatas, flags, music and ethnic fare make for a festive occasion. To help me plan this day of celebration, I looked through “Just Tacos: 100 Delicious Recipes for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner” by Shelley Wiseman, Taunton Press, 2011, $19.95, a colorful cookbook from my collection that delivers a fun way to “do” Mexican. To see the rest of this column and recipes, please click here.

To see my food and travel column archives, please click here.

Found: Lorraine Velardi of Hamden wrote, “Several years ago, my husband and I frequently enjoyed the best bread pudding at a little French cafe in Boca Raton, Fla. It was so good that we, or our neighbors, would buy a whole pudding and take it home to split three ways — a great treat!

“Until recently, I have not found anything to equal that old delight. Now, at DeMil’s (www.demilsonwhitney.com, 4133 Whitney Ave. in Hamden), they make as good a bread pudding as I have ever found in this area. If you can get this recipe, I would love to have it.

“The restaurant is fairly new, and the pudding is excellent, not to mention the serving is huge. Thanks for helping!” To see the rest of this column and the recipe, please click here.  

To see my food and travel column archives, please click here.

         One of the goumet kitchens on the tour

(photo by David Ottenstein/ styling by Maria Freda)

Food enthusiasts, armchair kitchen designers and the just plain curious, will want to get ready for this one.

Spring is in the air, and many of us start thinking about sprucing up our kitchens. I have been working with the Gateway Community College Foundation, and we have cooked up a great event on April 29, if I do say so myself.

First, from 12:30-5 p.m., deluxe motor coaches will take you to four gourmet kitchens, including an outdoor kitchen oasis in Greater New Haven. These spaces have knock-your-socks-off design elements and quality craftsmanship, to spark your imagination. However, taking your socks off while on the tour will be discouraged. You’ll get an inside peek at places where gastronomic dreams come true. To see the rest of this column, please click here.

To see my food and travel column archives, please click here.

The million $ winner                     Martha and Stephen

Confetti was flying as Christina Verrelli celebrated being named the $1 million grand prize winner of the 45th Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest last week.

The Devon, Pa., woman’s recipe for Pumpkin Ravioli With Salted Caramel Whipped Cream was selected from tens of thousands of entries. The announcement came during a special live broadcast of Hallmark Channel’s “The Martha Stewart Show,” at the Peabody Orlando Hotel in Florida, and I was there to capture all of the excitement. I watched Christina prepare her recipe during the competition, along with the other 99 finalists, not knowing that she would be the one to bring home the dough.

Verrelli, lives outside of Philadelphia, and is surrounded by history — from the Liberty Bell to Valley Forge. On site at the bake-off, I watched, when she wrote her own page in history as she was named the $1 million grand-prize winner at the 45th Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest for her original recipe. To see the rest of this column and videos, please click here

To see my food and travel column archives, please click here

The million $ recipe

Gateway Community College, where I am on the faculty, and Visit New Haven, will turn up the heat once again for the fifth annual Iron Chef Elm City competition at 11:45 a.m. April 22 at Delia, the Viking Center of New England, in Wallingford.

The event’s format is based on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef” and features culinary experts as judges. I am delighted to produce the event at Delia, where attendees will be able to walk around the kitchen and be in the middle of the action. I hope you can attend. What a great way to showcase New Haven’s talented chefs. Gateway hospitality and culinary students will be on hand assisting the chefs.

This year, we have chef David Brooks, owner of Judies European Bakery; chef Ben Gaffney of Atticus Bookstore-Cafe; and Jeremy Martindale, executive chef at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale, going toque to toque. To see the rest of the column, please click here  To see my food and travel column archives, please click here.

I love food events, and the souvenirs I usually bring home are the recipes found on these adventures. Sharing them with you brings me great joy.

I will be attending one of the grandest, the 45th annual Pillsbury Bake-Off in Orlando, Fla., where 100 finalists will dice, shred and chop away knowing that $1 million is on the line.

Cooks from across the country will prepare original recipes in 100 GE-applianced mini-kitchens at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando on Monday. Competing Connecticut residents are Antoinette Leal of Ridgefield, who will prepare White Chocolate and Apple Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding; Sarah Meuser of New Milford preparing Salted Caramel Macaroons; and Valerie Schucht of Glastonbury preparing Vanilla-Malt-Toffee Triangles With Sea Salt.

To see the rest of the column, recipes and video, please click here.

To see my food and travel column archives, please click here

NEW YORK CITY — Kutsher’s Tribeca, 186 Franklin St., www.kutsherstribeca.com, brings the Catskill culture and its famous Jewish-American cuisine to the heart of the city.

Since people no longer flock to the Catskills as they did in years past, Zach Kutsher, grandson of Helen and Milton Kutsher, has smartly reinvented the famous Kutsher brand with his new restaurant, recapturing the spirit and hospitality of the Catskill era.

  The famous Kutsher’s Country in the 50’s        Zach Kutsher

I remember Zach as a child, running around the office where I worked alongside his grandmother, Helen. Who knew back then, that he would become an attorney turned restaurateur and recreate the nostalgic cuisine of his family’s famed Kutsher’s Country Club with a modern twist?

Some 30-plus years have passed since I worked at the resort in Monticello, N.Y., and I was excited to find out about Zach’s restaurant. Along with Chef Mark Spangenthal, Kutsher has taken traditional Jewish-American fare and made it contemporary. Likewise, the contemporary design of the restaurant hints of the resort’s famous dining room. To see the rest of the coiumn, recipe and video, please click here.

To see my food and travel column archives, please click here.

matzo ball soup             gefilte fish made with wild halibut