THE LATEST FROM FRAN BERGER
Food & Recipes
Aperitivo: Savor Italy's Tradition of Leisurely Socializing
Enjoy the relaxed pace and informality of a timeless continental style. One of the reasons I became a restaurateur is that I love to entertain. And, one of my favorite ways to entertain guests follows the Italian Aperitivo style: informal and wholly...
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Recipe for the Perfect Poached Egg
The mystery of poaching eggs is lifted. I love poached eggs. My mom and dad used to have them with toast just about every Sunday morning. It’s a fond food memory for me. I think more people would eat them...
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Two Drink Recipes, for a Nice Summer Afternoon Spritz
Bringing you 2 fabulous spritz drinks to help you keep cool during California’s dog days of summer-early fall. It’s not the end of summer in California until we endure those final “dog days” through early fall. It’ll be boiling here...
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Summer Drink Recipe: Grapefruit Aperol Spritz
Brings you this fabulous spritz drink to help you keep cool during California’s dog days of summer-early fall. It’s not the end of summer in California until we endure those final “dog days” through early fall. It’ll be boiling here...
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A Quick and Easy Weeknight Dinner Recipe for Tomato Feta Galette
Nothing fancy and so very easy; you can even serve this recipe at room temperature! A long time ago I learned that the tomato is a fruit and not a vegetable. So, for years now I have been enjoying the...
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5 Minute Recipe for Parmesan Crisps – for salad or snacking
A quick recipe for Parmesan Crisps that will also introduce you to the Silpat non-stick baking mat. Here’s a recipe that you can literally use for anything – add to a salad, as a topping for a dish, or just...
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How to deseed and chop a jalapeño
If you love cooking, then technique matters: the right way to prepare jalapeños for your recipe. One of the things I’ve learned about home cooking: you don’t have to actually be a chef to cook excellent meals. But, I have...
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Pantry Power: 7 Items for Instant Meal Magic
You’ll be ready for just about anything if you keep these items in stock at home at all times. I keep my pantry well-stocked at all times. I owe that habit to years in the restaurant business. One of...
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4th of July Party? How about a tasty recipe for marinated olives and feta?
Sophisticated but incredibly easy: smash some olives, crush a bit of garlic, shred some bread, and you’re good to go! Want to bring something different to your 4th of July party that DOESN’T need refrigeration or special care? A while...
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Indulge in Frozen Wine-Marinated Grapes: The Ideal Adult Snack
If you love frozen grapes, you’re going to absolutely swoon when you try this idea. One of my favorite summer treats is frozen grapes. I love them, don’t you? They’re so easy to do – clean them, dry them,...
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Food Tip – Keep your herbs fresh for up to a week!
A quick and easy way to save your refrigerated herbs – they’ll keep for a week! We depend on the excellent flavor of our herbs to enhance our cooking. I have many friends who wait until the day before they...
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Food Tip – The best croutons for your summer salads!
Add a kick to your salads with home-made croutons – and it’s so easy. I love crunchy carbs, don’t you? The specific carb that’s on my mind right now are croutons. Okay – so not exactly health food. I think...
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Home Entertaining Tip – How to speed-chill a bottle of white wine
Guests on the way? Forgot to chill the wine? Here’s an old restaurant trick that will get you chilled wine in 15 minutes FLAT. A restaurant – an excellent restaurant – will never have a shortage of good wine chilled...
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Kitchen Safety Tip – avoid food borne bacteria and clean that sponge!
Kitchen sponges can be as dirty as your toilet! So clean or replace them regularly. I like smart people, but intelligent kids make me smile. Even when the smile is a tad uncomfortable. My friend and I were sitting in...
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Kitchen hack: Save your leafy herbs, chop them the right way
How to chop leafy herbs AND keep all that wonderful flavor for your recipe. Open a recipe and you’ll find a call for a leafy herb – chopped. To be honest, unless you’re just using the herb as garnish (or...
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How to pick olive oil – read the labels!
Want a great olive oil? Here are 6 tips for reading labels and looking for signs. I went to dinner at one of my favorite Italian restaurants in Beverly Hills with a group of friends. My history buff friend was...
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How to dice an onion – the easy way.
This trick will make dicing onions quick and so very simple. Onions get all the grief. They stink up our kitchens and they sting our eyes and make us cry. Yet, onions are in so many recipes, all kinds of...
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Unlock Flavor: 3 Pro Tips to Zest Citrus Like a Chef
My Three Tips to get the best of your ‘zest’. A friend of mine and I were looking over a drink recipe. When we got to the part about adding “zest” to the drink, she wondered, “what kind of zesting...
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We love our Guacamole FRESH
Use this method to keep your guacamole fresh looking – even after you prepare it the night before! You have guests coming at noon tomorrow, and you want to make a guacamole dip. But NOBODY wants to eat brown guacamole,...
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We love our Avocados GREEN
An easy to remember trick to keep your cut avocados from turning that unappetizing brown. If you have been following me for a while, you know that I collect little stories about this and that. I think that’s one of...
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