Chef's Blog, Chef's Notes Plus

A Classic Holiday Beef Tenderloin Roast

For a show stopping holiday dinner, a beef roast is a classic choice. A standing rib roast (or prime rib) feeds a big crowd, but for a smaller, more intimate dinner, a perfectly roasted beef tenderloin is our favorite splurge. Simple to prepare and difficult to ruin, our favorite tenderloin […]

Chef's Blog, Chef's Notes Plus

Carving a Holiday Ham

Ham is an American holiday staple, and whether you buy it raw, cured, or spiral-sliced, you are in for a delicious treat. On the larger size of most roasts, a whole ham can be hard to handle! In these two galleries, we’ll walk you through carving a holiday ham, either […]

Chef's Blog, Chef's Notes Plus

Cooking Methods and Suitable Vegetables

Popular belief suggests that it is better to eat vegetables raw or undercooked, as heating supposedly strips the produce of its nutritional benefits. In rare cases, or if the vegetable is poorly prepared, this might be true. Properly executed, cooking actually improves palatability and digestibility as well as nutritional accessibility. […]

Main Dishes

Porchetta

Makes 6 to 8 servings Traditional porchetta can be made several different ways. This simplified preparation calls for a boneless pork loin cut into quarters, surrounded by Italian sausage with sautéed onions and fennel added, and wrapped in a butterflied pork belly. The whole thing is then tied and slowly […]

Chef's Blog, Chef's Notes Plus

The Magic of Roasted Broccoli

Sometimes the simplest techniques reveal the biggest transformations. Take broccoli: raw, it’s crunchy and fresh; steamed, it’s tender and mild. But when you roast broccoli, the vegetable becomes something altogether different—deeply flavored, slightly crisp, and very crave-worthy. Roasting works its magic by drawing out the natural sugars in broccoli and […]

Chef's Notes Plus

Tying a Roast

Tying a roast with secure knots that have the right tension is one of the simplest and most frequently required types of meat fabrication and preparation. It ensures that the roast will cook evenly and that it will retain its shape after roasting. Though a perfectly tied roast is a […]