Scott Berry, kitchen manager at the Maine Street Grill, was cooking some pasta. He turned away for a moment, and when he turned back, the spoon he had placed on the edge of the stove was in the middle of the floor.

Hmmm. He hadn’t heard it fall. Figuring he must have knocked it over, he washed the spoon well and placed it farther back on the stove, where there was no way it could be knocked off.

Once more, he turned away for a moment, and when he turned back the spoon was in the middle of the floor again.

Kelly Patrick Farrin gets a prestigious award, a check for $1,000 and some well-earned name recognition.

In my career I have, believe it or not, interviewed at least two people who didn’t know how to turn on their ovens. Small wonder, a generation or two after our grandmothers dressed their own chickens, that people don’t have basic skills in the kitchen anymore. Enter Darina Allen. Allen, known as the Julia Child […]

Imagine picking up a can of fish chowder at your local grocery store and tracing the fish that’s in it back to where it was caught – and not only to where it was caught, but how it was caught.

Now multiply that by a few thousand products, and you have some idea of the monumental task facing George Parmenter, corporate responsibility manager for Hannaford.

Chris Geer gets a lot of questions about his life as a sous chef at Cinque Terre, an Italian restaurant on Wharf Street in Portland. “People talk to me every day about what my job entails,” Geer said. “It’s hard work. There’s a lot (going on) behind the scenes, not just cooking.” Portlanders can learn […]

Chris Cavendish clipped a bright, stunning red pepper from a group of about 30 plants he tended this year at Fishbowl Farm. He took a big bite right where he stood, and the Jimmy Nardello sweet Italian frying pepper, named after a 19th-century seed saver, rewarded him with a satisfying crunch and burst of flavor.

“They have a fruitiness and almost a tanginess at the finish of the pepper that other sweet peppers don’t have,” Cavendish said.