Jeff Fischer, owner of Lux Coffeebar in Central Phoenix, tells me a question he asked Chris Bianco a while back. “I asked him why he started his pizzeria,” Fischer says. “He said, ‘I did it because I knew if I liked it, other people would like it, too.'” That thinking…
The Summer Chef Series — Saturday afternoons through the beginning of September at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market — has to be the best way to escape the heat, meet fellow food folks, learn something new in the kitchen, get fed, sip a variety of local wines, and lose ourselves…
This week marked the Arizona launch of Homemade Harvey. It’s an organic, preservative-free, crushed fruit snack pouch made in Orange California. I got to meet one of the three owners at the Paradise Valley Whole Foods who really eyed me as as I (a mom with two small kids) walked…
Why is it that drawings of food make us so happy? Maybe it’s similar to how real books are so much better than the movie adaptations — we get to use our imagination. Imagine our delight when we stumbled upon Mary MacNaughton’s illustrations of famous authors and their go-to snacks…
Who doesn’t love a room with a view, let alone a restaurant with one. Open Table, the online restaurant reservations provider, has identified the top 50 restaurants in America with the most scenic views. Two restaurants from the Valley make the cut — which isn’t bad considering that Open Table…
“I try not to think about it,” says chef Cullen Campbell, owner and chef of Crudo, who was recently forced out of the Steven Paul Salon, where Crudo made its home on the patio and in-house cafe. “The only problem is I have to go back there to get my…
Last year we marked the hundred day countdown to Best of Phoenix by sharing our 100 Favorite Dishes with you. Now we’re back – with the 2011 edition. Have a suggestion for a dish you’d like us to try? Leave it in the comments section or email laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. 41: Raw…
As long as there are rules, there will be renegades. Those who, whether for themselves, humanity, or both, deem that the current playbook needs to change and are willing to give their respected fields a kick in the ass, shocking some, delighting others, and challenging the conventional. Ernest Hemingway, Albert…
You better hurry. Like stop reading this post and get to Cycle’s website right now to snag a seat. This Friday and Saturday, Chef Josh Hebert will be feeding 100 lucky guests his version of Japanese street food at pop-up shop Cycle. You know who Josh Hebert is, right? He’s the…
For those of you missing the garden sections of the recently deceased ReadyMade magazine, take heart, there’s a new publication on the horizon and according to Trend Central, it’s “poised to become the indie authority on the natural world.” Ooo, gardening goodness! Wilder Quarterly, with roughly 180 pages in its…
Pocket filled pasta pillows? Yes, please. Stuffed pastas come in many forms with the flavors and sauces limited only by one’s imagination. An all-time favorite for us: ravioli. We’re not talking about the popularized canned stuff by Chef Boyardee. We want the cloud-like fluffiness that comes when you make ravioli from…
5. Focus on the Details A lot of chefs treat each dish like a presentation, so handle it with care. Really take a look at the food before hitting the shutter button on the camera. Consider the composition. Does the entire plate need to be in the shot? Do you need…
Last year we marked the hundred day countdown to Best of Phoenix by sharing our 100 Favorite Dishes with you. Now we’re back – with the 2011 edition. Have a suggestion for a dish you’d like us to try? Leave it in the comments section or email laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. 42: Beer-Battered…
A tomato soup and grilled cheese cupcake? That sweet creation was one of four made by owner and baker Brady Breese and lead baker Salvador Garcia of the Valley’s own Urban Cookies (the name changed to OllieCake for the show) to win last night’s Cupcake Wars on the Food Network…
This week we met Center Bistro’s Executive Chef, Brett Vibber, who share tales of travels and kitchen values. Today, he gives us his recipe for hummus, a dish that Vibber first tried many years ago at King Tut’s in Tempe. What you’ll need2 C. cooked garbanzo beans3 sprigs rosemary,…
From Birmingham, Alabama, to Laramie, Wyoming, Food Network Magazine recently completed a cross-country road trip to discover the best slices in every state. The Arizona winner? The Salsiccia From The Parlor Pizzeria in Central Phoenix. Here’s what they had to say about it: “This popular spot had a former life…
Ysterday, Chef Brett Vibber of Center Bistro shared his stories of travel in Italy. Today he dishes more about his childhood in Tempe as the son of two local teachers and working his way up from pizza to fine dining. When did you know you wanted to be a chef?I…
Oh dear, it seems I may have let a big secret out of the bag. Wahsun, the tasty, no-frills, quirky Chinese restaurant I reviewed a couple of weeks ago calling it, “one of the Valley’s Chinatown-style secrets,” appears to also be a hidden favorite of a couple of other Chow…
Last year we marked the hundred day countdown to Best of Phoenix by sharing our 100 Favorite Dishes with you. Now we’re back – with the 2011 edition. Have a suggestion for a dish you’d like us to try? Leave it in the comments section or email laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. 43: Hummus…
Yeah, he didn’t stay quiet for long. Chris Curtiss, the former chef at Noca who left his position in June and is now the catering director for One Step Beyond Inc., a community-outreach program in northwest Phoenix for people with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and autism, has found himself a…
Whether you’re a CSA devotee, a farmers’ market weekender or consider ketchup a veg, we’ll bring you fresh inspiration for how to prepare our local produce.This week’s harvest: Basil “It was believed in Greek and Roman times that to have a good basil crop, you’d have to yell loudly and…
Last week, Caffe Boa owner Jay Wisniewski said local celebu-chef Payton Curry, Caffe Boa’s executive chef for a year and a half, was “getting expensive” after business started to decline at the Tempe location — and that there was a “backlash” among diners who, in addition to not liking or…
