Last fall, I attended an event during the First Person Arts Festival featuring Joan Nathan. She is a fabulous storyteller and brought the audience on her journey through France in an exploration of Jewish French cuisine. I learned that Jewish men introduced the eggplant to France by bringing seeds from India. Of course, you can't talk about food without eating! So, there were plates of Zahav's famous hummus and sandwiches from Hershel's East Side Deli. Yum! 

I'm a huge fan of cookbooks and food anthropology so the idea of listening to someone's stories about food while eating food...

Sanctuary T Restaurant was opened in 2007 as a place “centered around the rituals and sensuousness of tea.” Recently it was named one of the top 50 healthiest and tastiest places to dine in New York City by Clean Plates NYC. Now Sanctuary T Shop is an online opportunity to improve and begin your tea experience from home.

Owner, Dawn Cameron and her staff showcase their love for experimenting with tea blends and innovating the ways in which we can use tea. The site offers all types of tea inspired gifts and food. With each type of...

Confession: I love chocolate. Especially really good, dark, fair-trade, organic chocolate. The kind that feels like silk in your mouth as it slowly melts.

Last night, I found a new chocolate bar at Milk and Honey Market from West Chester chocolatier Eclat Chocolate. Named Happy Cat Organic Chocolate Bar, it is a limited-edition collaboration with Delaware County Happy Cat Farm Grown. Fresh, organic herbs married into organic chocolate equals bliss.

I tried the lavender flavor, which was subtle in taste not too floral with a decadent finish. Other flavors include Rosemary, Basil and Lemon Verbena.

Trust me...

Design student Jeremy Innes-Hopkins has created a packaging kit for a new brand called Scratch. The brand provides one box per meal that holds all of the raw ingredients. Everything is washed, chopped and measured out locally by hand. The meal feeds one and cooks in about 20 minutes, using as little as one pan. 

The current meal offerings are vegetable red thai curry, a Moroccan chicken tagine, a Crayfish, tomato and feta pasta and Chicken and chorizo Jambalaya. The packaged meals are currently being sold in select stores in London.

Earlier this summer I blogged about Novella Carpenter coming to speak at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Of course I went. She was smart and witty! I immediately bought Farm City: The Education of An Urban Farmer and added it to my summer reading list. After some late nights, long afternoons and morning commutes on the train, I finished all thirty-six chapters.

Carpenter charms and educates in Farm City. She humorously narrates her personal experience as a farmer in the raw Oakland neighborhood of Ghost Town.

At first her journey begins with a handful of egg-laying chickens,...

Tomorrow Bravo will kick off its seventh season of “Top Chef,” this time it will take place in the country’s capital – Washington D.C. This season captures the diverse flavors of the city, promising to be "most creative and inventive" season yet. Padma Lakshmi – cookbook author and actress – will return to host alongside Tom Colicchio, recent winner of the James Beard Award, and Gail Simmons of Food & Wine Magazine.

Although none of the chef'testants live or work in Philly, Lynne Gigliotti is a Philly native currently residing in Hyde Park, NY. Lynne is an Assistant Professor at the...

On Tuesday, June 8 Novella Carpenter – a writer and urban farmer – will speak at the Free Library of Philadelphia about her recently released book, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. The book chronicles Carpenter’s experience as she raises vegetables, chickens, rabbits, ducks, goats, turkeys, pigs and bees as a transplant to one of Oakland’s most perilous neighborhoods, nicknamed “GhostTown.”

Carpenter stands her ground as an emerging food writer, recording the rewards of farming in gritty urban America. At the Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, Carpenter studied under writer and food expert Michael Pollan. She continues...

Next week is Milan Design Week. While (sadly) we will not be attending, we wanted to highlight a collaborative project between Apartamento Magazine and DesignMarketo: FoodMarketo. This half pop up shop and half cooking workshop combines the contemporary designs of over 30 international designers with daily workshops to share recipes and ingredients. FoodMarketo marries two of our passions: food and design. Perhaps something similar should pop up in Philly...

Read more details here.

image from pshutterbug on flickr

Several Philadelphia restaurants were honored with appearing on the James Beard Award's prestigious list of semifinalists. The city's strong showing includes multiple nominees by Bibou (two), Tria (two), Vetri (three), and Koo Zee Doo (four!). Finalists will be announced March 22nd, and the winners, on May 3rd.

See the full list of nominees here.