Jerry Pellegrino

Having been in Spain last Spring, Al came back with all sorts of ideas about serving tapas to his friends when they came over.  One might think tapas are warm weather concepts to, but it ain't necessarily so. There are cold winters in Spain, but that doesn't mean the tapas hibernate. 

Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Schola Cooking School and I invited a long-time friend of the show, Liz Nuttle to come on and tell us how the creative application of oils and vinegars can make a huge difference.

Say oil and most people think olive oil, especially the authentic extra virgin kind.  But most oils come not from fruit (which the olive is) but from nuts and seeds.  Some of the most popular include our favorite, roasted sesame seed oil, almond oil, hazelnut oil, sunflower oil, grape seed oil, macadamia nut oil, peanut oil, pumpkin seed oil, soybean oil, flaxseed oil, and walnut oil.

I sometimes wonder if the concept of long, slow cooking didn't develop in the bleak mid-winter.  There's something about filling your home, hour after hour, with the aromas of something tasty bubbling away in a kettle. One such dish that I try to make at least once a winter is goulash, that soul satisfying stew of slowly cooked beef and onions...and of course a bowl full of spices. And Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Schola Cooking School can vouch for this, it should come as no surprise that goulash comes in about a million different versions, as is typical of most simple, irresistible dishes.

During these cold, dark weeks I like to pass the time cozying up with some of my old cookbooks.  One book I return to time and again is called "Scheherazade's Feast" by Habeeb Salloum.  The book finds inspiration in the cuisine of the medieval Arab world, including the region of Morocco. The recipes are adapted for the modern kitchen, and as Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Schola Cooking School can attest, Moroccan cooking is outright fabulous. And to boot, it pairs up extremely well with locally produced Maryland meats, seafood and vegetables.

A few weeks ago we offered our listeners a long list of handy holiday gifts for home cooks.  One of our suggestions was the new sous vide systems that use a submersible wand to handle the temperature control side of things.  So guess what?  I ended up getting one for Christmas, and I've already used it a couple times.  With Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Schola Cooking School at my side with advice, I am confident that I will master this technique.

How are those New Year's Resolutions going? I wonder how many of our promises involve food? Lose weight, cut down on this and that, eat fewer snacks. Maintaining a healthy diet is a fantastic way to contribute to your health, and Chef Jerry Pellegrino has noticed, once a new approach to eating sets into your lifestyle, it becomes a habit and pretty easy to stick to.

This year we are going to concentrate on minimizing fats. One great technique is to cook "en papillote", i.e. cooking in parchment paper. Kitchen grade parchment paper is pretty easy to find in quality grocery stores.

The first few weeks of the New Year are a perfect time for dining with friends. To make your dinners a little more festive you can dress up your desserts by whipping up a few creative tarts and pies. Chef Jerry Pellegrino has some great ideas.    

You've got a week to get ready, so let's cracking on a first class New Year's Eve party menu. This is when you want to get in touch with your "Inner Pellegrino" and let it all hang out. And Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Schola Cooking School has put together some ideas for folks to try.

We've been talking a lot about holiday traditions this month, and one of the most ancient is a little treat called Plum Pudding. Making a proper Plum Pudding involves a few techniques that most Americans aren't familiar with. But we've got you covered. 

Kids all over love this time of year, with the presents, the holidays, the cookies, it's all dreamland.  One of the perennial props for this time of year is a project that you can take on with your kids.  In Chef Jerry Pellegrino's opinion, nothing says winter holidays like a Gingerbread House.

The next few weeks will be a season of traditional celebration with lots of big hearty dinners.  So let's say you're going to be serving a big old roast beef; what is one of the best accompaniments?  Anyone from Great Britain will answer enthusiastically, Yorkshire Pudding! But as Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Schola Cooking School has observed, this is one of those dishes that draws a puzzled shrug from most Americans.

If you have a foodie, a gourmet chef, or a good old fashioned home cook on your shopping list, gift ideas are not hard to come up with. And as Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Schola Cooking School can attest, the Internet has made shopping for the kitchen very easy and very inspiring. Here's a few things we'd like to see under the tree.

Thursday is Thanksgiving, my favorite feast of the year. And although many of you will be turning to turkey as the featured dish, I would like to remind you of the many ways the Chesapeake Bay oyster can play an important role at the table.   Chef Jerry Pellegrino invited  Nick Schauman of Baltimore's hot new eatery The Local Oyster to be with us an share a few ideas about oysters.

The Local Oyster is in the Mt. Vernon Marketplace at 520 Park Avenue in Baltimore. Here are some wonderful holiday recipes.

Last week we talked about the 'King of the Chesapeake Bay,' the mighty rockfish. But lest we think it all begins and ends with the good ole' striped bass, let's remember there are quite a few other fish in the sea.  And Chef Jerry Pellegrino, one of Baltimore's most creative chefs, has made it a point to work with these forgotten fish. Here are some of his ideas.

In Al's mind there is no doubt about it: the king of the Chesapeake Bay is the rockfish. Considered by many to be one of the best fish in all the world, the rockfish, or striped bass, belongs in Maryland dining rooms for occasions big or small. With Thanksgiving coming up, Al and Jerry thought it would appropriate to suggest rockfish as an alternative to turkey.

Click on the image for the audio. 

The Maryland pantry supports so many culinary traditions. While Al was in Spain this past spring, he had more than one plate of their famous national dish, paella. And it so happens that one of our creative local chefs has adapted paella to work with Maryland seafood. Chef David Ludwig, from Anne Arundel Community College, teaches cooking in their Hospitality and Culinary Arts Department and shares his recipe for a Chesapeake Bay paella. 

Like any region with a distinguished seafood heritage, our Chesapeake Bay has attracted national, even international attention. Chefs around the country have taken notice of our traditions and have found inspiration on the shores of the bay.

Here in Baltimore, an accomplished New York City chef has come to town to open a pair of restaurants. Rye Street Tavern and Rec Pier Chop House are under his supervision.

In order to incorporate local flavor into his menus, Chef Carmellini spent time on the Easter Shore absorbing ideas for his kitchen. He came away impressed with how versatile the blue crab can be, and how superb the Chesapeake Bay rockfish is. He intends to rotate new ideas into his menus on a regular basis to present Maryland seafood at its best. Here is one of Chef Carmellini's best crab recipes.

They do fast food a little differently in England;  I learned that my first trip over.  Scattered around every English town of any size are little food trucks selling fish and chips.  And even though we can't quite match the original, we can give fish and chips the old college try. And Chef JP, fish and chips are a tasty treat...and perfect for watching football.

Fish and chips certainly is not a hard dish to make, and given our great choices of firm white fish here in Maryland, we can easily whip up a convincing batch. Did someone say rockfish?

Soup - a liquid dish, typically made by boiling meat, fish, or vegetables, etc., in stock or water  

That cool snap in the air is so welcome after a particularly hot summer.  And it may be my imagination but I think that cool air carries the aroma of cooking food in a way that puts a smile on my face.  This is the time for soup making, ideally a day-long process that puts a keen edge on your appetite. Here are some of Jerry and Chef Amy von Lange's ideas for simple soups.

We're in the middle of our harvest season, when farmers all over Maryland are bringing in the food they've worked so hard to produce.  In Italy this season is celebrated with the Feast of San Martino, who quite logically is the patron saint of grape pickers, winemakers and sommeliers. So to fill us in on this festival, we've invited a friend whose knowledge and understanding of this Feast is first rate, Chef Sergio Vitale of Aldo's Restaurant in  Little Italy. Chef Sergio gave us a few ideas for celebrating San Martino. Here they are.

I wonder if anyone else out there has had the frustrating experience of bringing home pizza that just didn't hit the spot.  I hate to admit it, but buying pizza has become a hit or miss prospect. So Chef Jerry Pellegrino has a proposal for us: learn to make your own pizza according to your own specifications.

-Al Spoler

Most of us have been grilling for several months now, and although we've loved our burgers, steaks and ribs, we might be looking for something new, something a little exotic to toss on the grill.  So Chef Jerry Pellegrino and I look to Latin American and the Caribbean for a lot of inspiration, because the folks down there really know how to grill.

The more time I spend in the kitchen the more I become enamored with trying different seasonings.  All that talk about spicing up one's life can be taken literally.  A deft command of the spice rack can give you unbelievable culinary powers.  But as Chef Jerry Pellegrino tells us, there are some handy shortcuts spice lovers can take advantage of.

Click on the image for the recommendations. 

There's an enormous variety of veggies out there in our Maryland markets and grocery stores.  And as students at La Schola cooking school can tell you, one of life's treats is to go shopping with Chef Jerry Pellegrino and fill your basket with whatever captures your fancy at the farmers market.

One thing you can do is whip up a vegetable-heavy summer casserole. 

Click on the image for recipes. 

As the grilling season reaches its climax with Labor Day next week, we thought it might be fun to take an in-depth look atone of our favorite cook-out foods. We think the humble hamburger is just about a perfect... and perfectly satisfying food.  Jerry has thought a lot about the perfect hamburger.  Here are his thoughts.

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