What is TaStE WiTh ThE EyEs?

Welcome!

Come, have at seat at the table. Can I get  you a glass of wine? A crisp Grüner Veltliner, a luscious Pinot Gris, or perhaps a jammy Pinot Noir?

Taste With The Eyes is my other home, the one without walls. It’s here that I’d like to introduce you to my precious family and my cherished friends. It’s where we’ll have a blast cooking with my nephews Stone, 8, and Jett, 6. Join us as we celebrate the holidays, Passover and Thanksgiving being my favorites. Smell the roses, take a tour of my garden. Attend our themed dinner parties, like the Tribute to Jackie O dinner complete with pillbox hats or our over-the-top Top Chef Dinner with Stephanie Izard.

Travel with me and dine at the world’s finest restaurants from Chicago to Las Vegas, New York to Paris, and the local hole-in-the-walls too. Oh, and don’t miss our underground-style restaurant, The Sunken City Supper Club. It’s a fresh, local and secret place to seasonally mingle with friends and neighbors – to enjoy the camaraderie, great food, wine, and the awesome intimate jazz standards performed by local musicians. We hold one event per season, and the menu always reflects seasonal ingredients.

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Grilled Peaches, Blueberries, Balsamic Molasses Syrup, Black Pepper

grilled peaches & oregon blueberries
balsamic molasses syrup/ black pepper/ vanilla ice cream

Luscious peaches, smoky and warm, right off the grill are paired with plump Oregon blueberries and a small scoop of premium vanilla ice cream. The sweet and tangy balsamic molasses syrup together with the unexpected black pepper spice results in captivating summertime dessert.

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Do you remember the first food blog you ever read?

Julia Child Floribunda Rose

the color of different shades of butter

photo taken in my garden today 8/15/2010 at 5:23 PM


Do you remember the first food blog you ever read?

I do. It was Champaign Taste. I was about to host a Julia Child themed dinner party and decided to get inspiration from the internet. It was then I discovered Lisa’s Champaign Taste and her first annual Julia Child Birthday Celebration in 2006. I was especially excited to read her post as I had attended the University of Illinois and had lived in Lisa’s hometown – Champaign, Illinois for four years.

Dear Lisa:  Best wishes for continued success on your delightful long-running blog! Thank you for the initial inspiration and for holding your very special annual tributes to Julia Child for the last five years. It continues to be my absolute favorite event, big or small.

Julia Child writing about 1949:
“On August 15, I turned thirty-seven years old. Paul bought me the Larousse Gastronomique, a wonder-book of 1,087 pages of sheer cookery and foodery…By now I knew French food was “it” for me. I couldn’t get over how absolutely delicious it was.”

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Eggplant & Spiced Lamb Napoleon


Grilled Eggplant Layered with Spiced Lamb
Roasted Tomato, Feta, Mint

The seasons fly by, don’t they? We just held our Lusty Month of May Springtime Jazz Feast, and here we are already testing dishes for our Sunken City Supper Club SUMMER Event, “Mediterranean on the Pacific.”

It will be held at our friends’ home high on the hill in Rancho Palos Verdes overlooking the Pacific Ocean. For this theme we will be imagining that the ocean is the Mediterranean Sea. We’ll be cooking with seasonal summer ingredients and Mediterranean flavors. This dish made the cut…

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Lamb Rack Chops, Agave Mint Sauce

Lamb Rack Chops over Toasted Baguette topped with a Slice of Brie
Rice Wine Vinegar Blue Agave Mint Sauce and Walnuts

Recently in Las Vegas, we had an awesome tapas & sherry dinner at Julian Serrano which I wrote about here. One of the dishes was called  “beef and cheese” prime tenderloin/ brie cheese/ honey/ walnuts (it’s pictured above).

Julian, I stole your concept for my lamb dish!

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