Food-critic Teresa Politano shares Celebrity chef stories at Wharton New Jersey event

On Monday, January 24th, Teresa Politano spoke at the monthly Wharton New Jersey Women's meeting. She is an adjunct professor of journalism at Rutgers University, an award-winning journalist, former news executive, and a restaurant critic for Inside Jersey magazine and The Star-Ledger.

Over a light catered dinner around a conference table at the Hilton in Edison, Teresa talked about her inspiration for authoring her book, "Celebrity Chefs of New Jersey". While sitting at a waterfront restaurant overlooking the Manhattan skyline, Teresa had an epiphany: She was enjoying an exquisite dinner,sitting exactly where she should: across the river from Manhattan. She thought to herself that many great chefs such as 4 times James Beard awardee, Craig Shelton have their roots in New Jersey but are often overshadowed in terms of recognition by celebrity chefs from New York. Had New Jersey been further away, it would have held its own. Being a restaurant critic with intimate knowledge of the greatest culinary masters within the state, Teresa decided to feature the great chefs of New Jersey through her book.

Then, she read from her book, the inspiring story about Donna Tuscana line of Tuscan chocolates and its visionary and master chocolatier, Diane Pinder, who has hand crafted artisan chocolates using a combination of unique and exotic flavors such as sea salt and olive oil with Belgian chocolate. In the book, Teresa has managed to capture not only the cooking styles of chefs but also their backgrounds that have influenced and carved their respective personas. For instance, in case of Diane, her training as a critical care nurse positioned her to work well in her partnership with the legendary Craig Shelton to craft unique confectioneries. Teresa brought in 12 varieties of Diane's Tuscan chocolates, each one unique in its flavor.

Since I run a meetup group of fellow foodies called New Jersey Foodies, I was particularly interested in Teresa's thoughts on a few restaurants that had been on my list to visit and taste-test. They featured on Teresa's list of star players as well including Elements in Princeton, 90 acres in Peapack and Dennis Foy in Lawrenceville, NJ. I am looking forward to trying all these places in the near future as well as the other restaurants by celebrity chefs of New Jersey.

It was good to meet Wharton alumni living in New Jersey. Both my alumni as well as Teresa sampled condiments from my yet to be launched line, HerbNZest and gave positive reviews.

NJ 101.5 Radio host Dennis Malloy wears his Chef hat at Mrs G T.V. & Appliances game day cookout

When Hilary of Hilary Morris Public Relations, LLC  posted that Dennis Malloy, radio host from NJ 101.5 FM was doing a game day cooking show on January 22nd, 1-4pm at Mrs G TV & Appliances in Lawrenceville, NJ, I immediately registered for the event. I was even more excited to learn that I was picked to be VIP Foodie which meant that I would be one of 15 bloggers who got to witness Dennis' cooking from the front row and taste his cooking.

This event was interesting to me for several reasons: First, Dennis is a self-made chef and therefore easy to relate to. Second, he is an entertainer and storyteller. Third, this event showcased 3 family-owned and operated businesses that have differentiated themselves from mainstream businesses through quality, community outreach and customer service: Miele with over 110 years of innovation and history, Pennington Quality Market with over 50 years in business and Mrs Gs with over 75 years in business. As businesswoman myself and owner of a start-up food business, this particularly struck a chord with me. The event was sponsored by Miele and Pennington Quality Market and hosted by Mrs G T.V. & Appliances at their showroom on Route 1 in Lawrenceville, NJ.

With Food Network's John Sowienski as his sous chef, Dennis cooked many game day delights like stromboli, potato volcano, cheese steak roll-ups, and quesadillas (some of his recipes have been covered in this Examiner article). Throughout the demonstration, Dennis interacted with the crowd, sharing tips, anecdotes relating to his Italian and Sicilian heritage, food and travel, highlighting his radio personality. One of his questions for the crowd was "who is your favorite star chef?". The crowd and Dennis' consensus was "Bobby Flay". Given that Dennis frequents Philadelphia, I remarked that Bobby Flay had opened "Bobby's Burger Palace" in Philadelphia which Dennis agreed to check out.

Some tips shared by Dennis (and John) were:

1) Use regular olive oil for cooking not extra virgin olive oil

2) Use sea salt rather than table salt : sea salt retains all the sea mineral and freshly ground sea salt tastes better and is more potent than regular salt
3) Use pesto over chicken cutlet: Dennis grows his own basil for the fresh taste and flavor. He uses the commonly found Genovese basil variety usually.
4) Use parchment paper to store pizza dough or to cover and pound your chicken cutlet. You could use wax paper as well but not in the oven. Parchment paper is cheap and clean-up is easy.


For his cooking, Dennis used Miele appliances:
1) For baking: Miele's master chef line of convection oven with touch pad,  LCD display, context sensitive control panel and chef settings. Miele representatives demonstrated that if you identify the type of food you are cooking and the oven will automatically select the proper operating mode for perfect results every time.
2) For cooking: Miele induction stove top with touch pad controls, safety lock, and memory features. This technology uses a non-contact method of heating using magnetic fields to transfer energy directly to cookware so that the induction element stays cool, while the target object heats up rapidly for extremely efficient cooking so that the stove top can be used as extra counter space as soon as a cookware is removed.

Mike Rothwell of PQM and Debbie Schaeffer of Mrs G take a moment to talk about their family-owned businesses' support for the community

Mike Rothwell, VP and General Manager from Pennington Quality Market and Debbie Schaeffer, President & CEO of Mrs G TV & Appliances shared their philosophy and history as family-owned and operated businesses. Debbie talked about how Mrs G succeeded through generations by not only applying savvy business practices such as being part of a national co-op with $14 billion in purchasing power to offer low prices ton customers and offering exceptional customer service but also partnering with local businesses such as PQM to support their local community and each other. This event was another testament to the community outreach by 3 businesses: Miele, Mrs G, and PQM to bring foodies and Dennis' fans together to share laughter and fun over some good game day food! Audience was treated to food from PQM and some lucky audience members went home with raffle prizes: broadway tickets to Phantom of the Opera and a Miele vaccum.

It was good to see 2 members from my local foodie meetup group, New Jersey Foodies front and center in the VIP Foodie section (Robin Birkel and Bonnie Schultz). I look forward to many more such events that bring together local community members and businesses; and what better way to congregate than over food!

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus topped with HerbNZest Tomato Spread and garlic Bread

Yum...Yum is all I can say for this quick n easy recipe.

Ingredients: for hummus
1 small can of chick peas (cooked)
2 tablespoons of tahini
1 red Pepper
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup water
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tsp dry chives
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Ingredients: for garlic bread
2 slices of whole wheat bread
1 clove of garlic
8-10 italian capers
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
black pepper and salt: use shaker to sprinkle on top

Method: for hummus
Baste the red pepper in olive oil and roast in the oven at 450F for 15 minutes until skin starts peeling off. Peel off the skin in cold water. In a food processor, add chick peas, tahini, garlic, water, roasted pepper and blend.Slowly add the olive oil, paprika, salt, and lemon juice and blend again. Serve in a bowl, top with more oil, and chives. Add a dollop of HerbNZest tomato spread on top to finish off.

Method: for garlic bread
Rub the garlic clove over the bread (for more garlic flavor, you can chop up the garlic and add it on top of the bread. Drizzle with live oil, sprinkle salt and pepper, add capers and toast in oven for 1-2 minutes until light brown. Serve over the hummus.

Enjoy!