Secrets of my top 8 favorite kitchens
I know. It’s my fault. I’m such a foodie. I take the blame. When I invite my friends over to eat, dine, and celebrate, you know the party always ends up in the kitchen!
After traveling the world, eating my way through its food and its kitchens in 2018, I’m being a little devilish and decided to share my favorite insider culinary secrets and inspirations. All the more to lure you into your own precious kitchen and to get you excited to host more delicious parties for friends.
Now whatever is wrong with that?
Your Invite to My Favorite Global Kitchens
(aka Chef Secrets + Party themes!)
Ramona, my cooking companion
Loved the chicken tagine with preserved lemons and olives
First Stop: The Marrakesh Express
New to my list of favorite kitchens and cuisine is Marrakesh. What a trip!
Secret 1: One Pot Party Pleaser: If you are a lover of spicy one-pot dishes like me and you dream of a mystical, magical dinner evening with a group of close friends, try this recipe, Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Olives. It’s warm, easy to make and a party-hit.
Secret 2: The Best Apres-Meal Soother: The absolute best drink to go with Moroccan meals is mint tea, a specialty in Marrakesh. It’s my secret to soothing a dancing belly at the end of the meal.
Salivate more on my Marrakesh food adventures here.
Postre: Dessert!
Chaya is a superfood, but a cocktail is still a cocktail, which I realized into my second!
Mmmmm! Hola Mérida, Mexico
While you may not be able to recreate Mexico’s ancient tradition of cooking meat in large pits in the ground covered in banana leaves and entice your friends to come for dinner, Mexico gifts foodies like us so many pleasures. My next trip to the kitchens of Mérida, Mexico with a posse of my gal pals from Les Dames d’Escoffier did just that.
Secret 3: Balance Your Life with a Mix of Tequila and Superfoods! In Mexico, I fell in love with a new tequila and a new superfood. These are two ingredients I think every chef and food lover should have on hand. The secrets are shared here in my blog.
Pamela Morgan, Michael Trokel
photo by R.Cole for Rob Rich/SocietyAllure.com ©2018
Black Diamante Margarita from Dobel
photo by R.Cole for Rob Rich/SocietyAllure.com ©2018
With the Mérida flavors still fresh in my aura, I threw a fabulous Mexican Fiesta in the Hamptons to salsa dance in the start of fall! You know you’ll want to have these yummy black salt rimmed Tequila cocktails at your next party. Peep at the recipes in the post and let the salsa swinging in the kitchen now begin.
Euro Tripping. Croatia to Vienna to St. Tropez
This summer In July, Michael and I escaped the heat of the city for a classic Euro tour adventure. We started in Croatia where we enjoyed dish upon dish of fresh caught seafood, breathtaking sights, and even football frenzy—we were there during the World Cup! What an experience of a lifetime!
From Croatia, we went to Vienna to celebrate the art, food and culture before we hopped over to our long-time favorite spot, St-Tropez. Of course we boozed it up and danced the night away.
Secret 4: Feeling Euro-festive…but don’t want to face the dishes in the morning? Hire us! Let us create your next dinner party or…better yet, have a cooking lesson party for you and friends. Fill out a form here and let’s design your own 5th Avenue culinary soiree!
Spectacular parties are very newsworthy! In fact, a fall fling party that we created for a client made it into Influencer Magazine! New York Lifestyles Magazine even put me in their spotlight, The Entrepreneur’s Corner.
Let’s plan your hot parties together this year!
What’s New and Fabulous in Charleston
As the temperatures began to drop, I made a quick dash to Charleston in October. My new favorite restaurant there is…Trattoria Lucca
While I spent a splashy Christmas in Miami and New Year’s in Aspen, I am loving the mulled cider wine recipe and I will use it all winter for my parties. Here it is again:
Secret 5: Spice up Your Night with a Mulled Wine
Your Invite to Chez Chef
For years I’ve enjoyed friendships, parties and potluck dinners with legendary chefs…and in 2019 I’m swinging open the kitchen doors.
Chez Chef is where I invite you to the “Party in the Kitchen.” Come with me to parties in the kitchens of my favorite chefs, who all share the best secrets from inside the kitchen. Chez Chef will also travel to your house for cooking classes or you could gather up your friends and join me in my own kitchen!
We jumpstarted Chez Chef this year and burst open our kitchen doors…
Secret 6: Pasta To Make You Dance: Did you see that Barney’s famed Chef Mark Strausman swung by for some home style Pasta Vongole with me? Exclusives! He shared three recipes with us and now for you, there are 2 videos, plus a Facebook Live, here.)
Secret 7: Great Chefs (and amazing family recipes) Are Everywhere! Just in time for Thanksgiving , Marta Sanders Cooper, (my assistant’s mother and one of the best cabaret singers in all of NYC!) taught me the secrets to making THE BEST PECAN PIE! You must try it! Maybe you’ll want to try it somewhere other than a windy terrace (which creates fun hairdos as you can see). By the way, did you see that The Independent shared my tips for the Ultimate Hamptons Thanksgiving here?
Secret 8: And perhaps you are cleansing for the New Year? You’ll want to see my Facebook Live video with celebrity nutritionist, Dr. Daryl Gioffre who helped get me back on track after all my traveling, feasting and cooking in these kitchens around the world!
Here’s hoping you all have a happy and healthy new year!
