The Accidental Lobster-treats-for-the-staff Night

Sometimes it is all about the thrill of the chase as this story will illustrate. There is a very wonderful seafood market in Chicago known as the Fishguy. Even though I had never been to this shop,  I receive some very interesting emails from the quirky owner, Bill Dugan. This particular email about lobster intrigued me.  Here, Steven Tobiason makes friends with the lobsters.                                                                                                                   

Spice House owner, Patty Erd, helps introduce the new cookbook for Les Dames d'Escoffier.

Last night I had the great honor of sitting on a panel of women who contributed to a newly released cookbook titled  Cooking with Les Dames d’Escoffier - At Home with the Women Who Shape the Way We Eat and Drink. This was our Chicago launch of the book, which includes recipes from members of our international organization including Julia Child, Alice Waters, Dorie Greenspan, Marcella Hazan, Anne Willan, Lidia Bastianich, M.F.K. Fisher, Gale Gand, to name a few. I have a bit of spice advice in the book and consider it a great honor to be included among these great ladies.

Alton Brown spends a day filming at The Spice House

Each year I look forward with great anticipation to the annual episode on Alton Brown's popular food network show, Good Eats, titled "It's a Wonderful Cake."  Will it air again this year, or has AB discovered a new and improved method of making fruit cake? I go to the Food Network website holding my breath.  No wait, there it is in his Good Eats Fruitcake air times!.  Three December showings. Why do I get so excited? I appear on this show and like Jimmy Stewart, I air every year - for about three minutes - yet I feel this is my 2 seconds of fame! So would  you believe Alton spent about 12 hours filming in our Evanston shop to get this three minutes? If you watch Good Eats, I think you already have an idea of what a thorough guy Alton is.