Most chefs probably get their fill of whining, crying and screaming from their customers, but the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project is trying to recruit a few local chefs to work with an even harder-to-please audience: children. The Growing Minds seminar on Thursday, Oct. 4, is designed to train chefs to create an engaging cooking curriculum […]

An update on my recent foray into the world of recipe contests, which I described two issues ago: Reporters apparently don’t have an advantage at the Mountain State Fair cooking contests. John Lee of WLOS showed up at the Malt-o-Meal contest with a mess of jalapeño poppers and promptly joined me in losing to an […]

Flavor: Continental with cream sauce Ambiance: (Possibly) too cool for you You can’t get a glass of iced tea at Vigné. There’s no sweet tea, unsweet tea, raspberry-infused herbal tea, or any of the other nonalcoholic staples that so many Asheville diners typically guzzle with their meals. But the thirsty can order a $250 bottle […]

The Black Mountain Library and Rainbow Recycling are joining up to ask the question that looms over so many Friday evenings: “What will we eat?” The jointly sponsored series on sustainability begins Friday, Sept. 21, with a 7 p.m. screening of The Future of Food at the library, which is at 105 North Dougherty St. […]

Norita Solt is in a hurry. If she had her druthers, she’d paste her wheels to the passing lane and dash back to her Bettendorf, Iowa, kitchen in less time than it takes Dr. Laura to dispense with a show’s worth of scallywag husbands and anxious wives. Do not try this at home: The author’s […]

Inspired by Barbara Kingsolver’s best-seller, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Poppies Market in Brevard will host a “Locavore Dinner” to celebrate products from local farmers, bakers and cheese-makers on Friday, Sept. 7, starting at 6:30 p.m. The book is an account of Kingsolver’s family’s decision to eat locally for one year, and how they came to learn […]

Midwesterners may remember the terrific animated exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry illustrating the concept of supply and demand with doughnuts, ending with the plaintive cry of “Too many doughnuts!” Asheville’s The Sisters McMullen recently came to the same conclusion, suspending their doughnut-making operation last week after seven years. “With the trend leaning […]

I probably shouldn’t have ordered the wings. I was so ridiculously eager to patronize Cinebarre, the brilliant new eat-in movie theater at Biltmore Square Mall, that I went there long before any critic would typically pay a visit. And, of course, all the good reasons for exercising such restraint came rushing back to me when […]

An overactive refrigerator couldn’t cool A-B Tech‘s chances at last month’s American Culinary Federation national student team championship in Orlando, where the school’s team took first place. “It was really intense,” team captain Jason Huang, who reports that the competition got off to a nervous start when team members realized a cooler was starting to […]

Poppies Gourmet Farmers’ Market in Brevard recently began stocking a locally produced beef that area agriculture advocates are touting as one of the few commercially available North Carolina meats without growth hormones or antibiotics. According to Peter Marks of the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, most N.C.-born beef cattle are sent north for a farewell diet […]

Flavor: It’s all about the red sauce Ambiance: Laid-back (surprise!) The first time I dined at Nona Mia, I was stunned by the number of people lining up to claim their takeout pies. I figured these folks had pulled into the Patton Avenue strip mall—which also houses a counter-service Chinese joint and a Blockbuster video […]

Victor Giancola, owner of La Caterina Trattoria in Asheville, has ventured southward with his newest restaurant. He partnered with chef Joseph Lewis to open Potenza in Hendersonville earlier this summer. Giancola told the Times-News that since the town provided most of La Caterina’s best customers, he jumped at the opportunity to move into the 111 […]

Flavor: Steakhouse classics prepared by someone with a sweet tooth Ambiance: Casual dress code and service paired with ultra luxe setting Sycamores on the Creek, the newest addition to the roster of restaurants at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino & Hotel complex, excels in willpower-busting. The menu features titanic portions of old-guard restaurant classics, including six cuts […]

Tortillas, tortillas everywhere, and not a one freshly made. Or so it long seemed in Asheville, a city abundant with Mexican eateries, but sadly lacking a single tortilla emporium. A West Asheville business owner recently tackled the problem by transforming his taco shop into a genuine tortilleria, complete with a shiny new tortilla machine that […]

Flavor: Spatzen, schnitzel and strudel Ambiance: As relentlessly Germanic as the Epcot pavilion I am not an especially good menu planner. While I admire those prescient cooks who can size up the meat counter on a Monday and somehow know they’ll want pad Thai on Wednesday, my stomach doesn’t usually settle on a craving till […]

West Asheville residents have been getting their cool-treats fix this summer from Lucia’s Gelato, a tented gelateria operated by Elizabeth and Matt Mullen. The couple started selling gelatos and sorbets two years ago, after their attempts to seduce Ultimate Ice Cream and Sweet Heaven to set up shop on the west end of town were […]

Most home cooks have a go-to dish that they’ve prepared so many times—often to the vocal dismay of whomever they’re feeding—that the recipe, long ago lifted from an instant-rice box or an in-flight magazine, is seared into their brains like grime on a frying pan. Even the most ambitious amateurs often resort to putting meatloaf—or […]

As anyone who’s made the mistake of sluggishly finishing off a cone knows, slow ice-cream eating is usually a sticky mess. But slow ice-cream making is one of the great joys of summer, and Slow Food Asheville is spearheading a communal appreciation of it. The convivium is hosting an ice-cream social at Southern Waterways this […]