Features

DOVER, NH – Fiddlehead Farms in Dover is hosting their First Annual Family Food Festival Saturday May 10th from Noon to 6pm. Over 20 vendors will be sampling their wares under the awning at Fiddleheads on Central Avenue. Oakie the Oakhurst Acorn will make an appearance, as will the Cocheco Humane Society There will be balloons and giveaways for kids.

"Our goal with this event is to say thanks to our customers for supporting us. The best way we know -- great food! ,” says Thomas Dick, General Manager at Fiddlehead Farms. “We hope folks stop by to enjoy some of the great samples that our vendors have to offer and register to win some great prizes too.”

Prizes will be given away on the hour with a Grand Prize of a $250 gift card to Fiddleheads

Ciao!: Chef and owner Gerry Burt, left, and restaurant assistant Marian Marangelli at Villa Fresca in Rye.Gerry Burt stands at the cutting board in the kitchen of his new restaurant in Rye in his bright-orange Chef Mario Batali-inspired Crocs. He's got chicken thighs in the oven and a big filet on the board, all while he's baking ginger cookies.

While right now the dining room still lacks silver and glassware, on Friday, the Johnson and Wales Culinary School grad was scheduled to open the doors to his new Italian restaurant, Villa Fresca Ristorante.

"I was 25 years in the hotel restaurant business, most recently from the Inn at Exeter," the Exeter resident said. "I was a food rep, too, but this has been in my mind for six or seven years to open a place like this."

The high cost of fuel and food is having an effect on Seacoast restaurants, which must pay higher prices for ingredients and paper products, but also weigh the impact on the consumer and diner.

Celia Phillips, programs and communications manager for the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association, says restaurants are facing a market dilemma.

"We are seeing restaurants having to make tough choices: passing on costs to their customers, but also needing to be sensitive to their loyal diners. And with food costs at the highest they have been in 20 years and fuel costs skyrocketing, restaurants need to cut back or get creative with menus. A previous 'featured' menu item may now become a special on a Saturday night."

They're keeping the full menu under wraps to keep the surprise alive, but Chef s Gary Caron and "Popper" Medlin are dreaming up a terrific dinner designed with you beer geeks in mind. There will be sausages, braised meats and marvelous cheeses and the beers include Rogue Imperial Pilsner, Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale 2007, Allagash Tripel, Moat Mountain Maibok, Unibroue Maudite, and Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale for dessert with a cherry brown bread pain perdu and malted chocolate ice cream. Nice!

PORTSMOUTH — The rumors were brewing for months in restaurant gossip circles, but finally the word is out. Ray Guerin and Peter Dizoglio of Portsmouth’s historic Oar House announced yesterday the purchase of The Dunaway Restaurant at Strawbery Banke.

Guerin and Dizoglio purchased The Dunaway from Portsmouth entrepreneur Jay McSharry, who opened the restaurant in the fall of 2005 to critical acclaim. With mentions in Food & Wine Magazine, and honored as "Best of New England" by New England Travel & Life Magazine and "Editor’s Choice" by Yankee Magazine, the restaurant has helped further the culinary acclaim of the Portsmouth restaurant scene with its contemporary American cuisine rooted in respect for local farms and sustainability.

Greek appetizers and Champagne will whet the appetite for giving at the fundraiser for the Philoptochos Society of St. Nicholas Church in Portsmouth. Enjoy a tour of Greek cuisine and participate in a raffle with over 50 great prizes on May 9 at the Jarvis Center at St. Nicholas Church. Prizes will be drawn that night while you sip champagne and enjoy the food. Tickets are $10 for entrance and raffle tickets are $20.

First, a disclaimer: I am in no way a brewmaster with years of experience, or a resource who knows where to pluck the freshest hops from some secret location in the depths of Germany.

Like most people, I thought relative gravity referred to the force that draws you to your overweight cousin, and a “wort” was something that you got when you made out with a frog.
For too long, I was also under the misconception that the cheap, popular beer sold by the casefull was the best thing going, and as a college student I would gladly spend my hard-earned bucks on it every weekend.

Oh, how wrong I was.

PORTSMOUTH — The owner of a local restaurant hopes to re-open for the season on Friday, April 25.

Harpoon Willy’s had opened last Friday but was closed again because it had failed to address concerns in a letter from the city health officer at the close of last season. The letter detailed some problems that had to be corrected before owner William McGrath would be allowed to open this year.

McGrath said he has already scheduled electrical and plumbing inspections for Friday morning. If they go as he hopes, he will call the city health inspector Kristen Shaw and health officer Kim McNamara, who, he said, will come for final inspections.

Vote for Durham opera singer's terrific video, get her to Hollywood and you might win a fab trip to NYC!

Chef of the Year Gala-- The doors opened at 4:00 p.m. and the wine flowed until 5:00 when 15 local chefs and restaurateurs started serving their specialty dishes. Hampton Beach's Purple Urchin came with tuna, two ways while Noble High students brought fresh tortellini in either Alfredo or marinara sauce. Add to that the peach crumble from Kittery's Chef's Cove Cafe and it's only the beginning of the grazing at the Piscataqua Chapter of the American Culinary Federation's  23rd Annual Chef’s Gala ‘Chef of the Year’ Awards Reception, held last night at The Town Lyne Grill in Exeter. Proceeds from a raffle and $25 tickets benefit local student scholarships.

2008 MAINE LOBSTER CHEF OF THE YEAR COMPETITION CALLS FOR ENTRIES

Competition at Blaine House to offer premium prizes and publicity for winners--

Back by popular demand, the “Maine Lobster Chef of the Year” contest is calling for Maine lobster recipe entries from all of the state’s chefs, sous chefs, foodservice owners and operators, and culinary educators. This year’s competition is open to culinary students living or working in Maine, as well.

Chocolate, marshmallows, a swirl of butterscotch sauce, nuts and colorful jimmies--mix them all together and you've got a new ice cream sundae from Cold Stone Creamery in Newington all inspired by "Recipe" a poem in the new children's poetry book "Cars on Mars and 49 Poems for Kids on Earth  by Exeter author JD Landis.  Watch the ice cream mixologists make  up a batch of this limited run concoction on a chilled marble slab and for only $4.99 you can live out a little bit of literature, sweet scoop style. Cherries and whipped cream too! 

For more info on book signings, go to www.revolutionbooksellers.com

Cabin Fever Maple Brined Pork Chop

Chef Garth Lyndes, Portsmouth's Sheraton Harborside

Ingredients:

2 c. water

1 c. Grade A maple syrup

1/4 c. kosher salt

3 T. Molasses

3 c. Cabin Fever Maple Liqueur

1 c. ice cubes

6- 1 1/2 inch think pork chops, center cut

2 t. minced shallot

Mix water, 2 1/2 cups Cabin Fever Liqueur, salt, molasses and 1/2 cup maple syup in a bowl. Stir in ice cubes. Place chops in 9 x 12 pan and pour brine mixture over them. Cover and refrigerate 4 hours.

Tapas, hors d'oeuvres, meze, antipasti, bites, canapes and mini apps are all new on our local menus. Get as many as 30 antipasti choices from marinated white beans to house made proscuitto at Pesce Blue, the chef's Meze plate of three different exotic dishes at Black Trumpet Bistro or choose from small, medium and large plates. Have a few  canapes at The Dunaway  including   housemade pasta tossed with black truffle, all just enough to whet the appetite but not overstuff. When you order a few or more they can be a whole meal. 

Cliff's Notes for Restaurant Menus

Ever wonder what all those fancy words on your menu mean? Why can't they just say "sauce" instead of "gastrique" or "essence"? Well, it's because they are indeed all a little bit different. 

We all know what a sauce is, and that crudités are raw vegetables. But what about all those other words that crop up on menus? Emulsion, infusion (things that end in -ion?) Reduction, conserve (things in the economic downturn?) Essence, demi-glace (Ohhhhh! Got it! For $25,000--Things that we see on menus but have no idea what they mean!

Exciting news! Construction has begun on the Stonewall Kitchen Cooking
School set to open at the company’s Headquarters in York, Maine in May
2008. Owners Jonathan King and Jim Stott are pleased to announce the
creation of this multi-facetted space to their current building on
Stonewall Lane that opened in 2000. For the past 17 years the two men
have built this award-winning company into a business whose brand is
synonymous with a casual, sophisticated lifestyle for the contemporary
cook. As an extension of the brand, this Cooking School is a dream come
true for Jim and Jonathan. They will offer classes to cooks of all
skill levels, encouraging everyone to learn in a relaxed, “stress free”
atmosphere. The 40-seat, theater-style room will face a

Made with 100% Vermont Maple Syrup in Chester, NH, Cabin Fever is indeed, "New England's Spirit" and it does pack a wallop. While it's called a Maple Spirit Liqueur and that's it's official designation, it's robust enough to be used just like a whiskey in cocktails and in cooking. With it's hints of butterscotch and caramel, it's great for desserts, glazes and that big flambe. Find it in the NH Liquor store for under $20.