March 2010 What's Cookin' Newsletter

February 2010 What's Cookin' Newsletter

January 2010 What's Cookin' Newsletter 

December 2009 What's Cookin' Newsletter

November 2009 What's Cookin' Newsletter

October 2009 What's Cookin' Newsletter

Keith Lemerise, Publisher

Jean Kerr, Editor

Contributors:
JoAnn Actis-Grande
Jack Bingham, Photography 
Rebecca Cox 
Rachel Forrest
Kathy Gunst
Crystal Ward-Kent
Denise Landis
Natalie MacLean
Paula Sullivan


Publisher's Letter from Keith J Lemerise

The word is out: Taste is the place!

We’ve got so many new things cookin’ this time around with more bang for your buck!

As an advertiser in Taste, we want to bring more people through your doors with even more exposure for your business. Advertise now and you’ll receive twice the exposure: a full color ad in the magazine, an online listing, and an ad and link on our new website, www.tasteoftheseacoast.com, which is receiving an average of 250,000 hits per month and growing. In addition to the 25,000 copy distribution of the summer issue, your listing/link on our website will receive tremendous exposure from the huge amount of traffic that’s driven there daily and from our What’s Cookin’ email newsletter we send out every month to over 7,000 subscribers. Plus, the summer issue will now have more bonus distribution to even more newsstands, hotels, B & B’s, spas, and culinary events throughout the Seacoast and northern New England, targeting traveling tourists that are looking for a great place to dine out—your place.

The Grand Summer issue will now feature over 24 new features about food, wine and everything culinary with our ever expanding star-studded lineup of acclaimed writers, photographers and chefs. We’ve also partnered with over 20 food and wine events to promote the magazine and website; and new appearances are lined up on air again with NECN TV Diner, My TV and local radio. We’ve already established over 50 reciprocal links with local and regional media, businesses, organizations and events in the past three months and the numbers continue to grow. Our promotional giveaways have attracted thousands of readers to the magazine and visitors to the website.

Taste Magazine and our website is rapidly establishing itself as THE place to go to when you want more information about dining out, food and wine, what’s happening, what’s hot and what’s going on. As the demand for more grows, Taste will be there to inform, educate and report on what the public wants, when they want it, and what they are looking for... you!

Bon Appetit!

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Editor's Note from Jean Kerr

I have the good fortune to travel to Europe at least once a year on business, and I always try to get in a side trip for fun. On my most recent trip, I made my way home from Frankfurt, Germany via the Costa del Sol, the Andalusian coast of Spain on the Mediterranean. (I know. It's not exactly on the way.)
It won't surprise you to learn that when I travel, I love to eat and cook and drink the local wines. I felt especially lucky to be able to visit Spain this time around, as my mouth had been watering ever since I first read Kathy Gunst's article that appears in this issue. Kathy thinks that Spain may be the new France when it comes to food. I think she's onto something.
I sampled lots of traditional Spanish dishes-gazpacho, olives,
marcona almonds, grilled anchovies, chorizo, manchego cheeses, (both aged and fresh), and squid every which way--great simple local food. But I also savored a chef's tasting menu at a restaurant in Almeria that featured a seared tuna loin with a celery gelato, perfectly poached eggs served over potatoes with slices of black truffle, and entrecote of ternera blanca (a particularly prized
white veal) served with piquillo peppers. It was all a great culinary adventure.
But as Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, there's no place like home. Not only do I have the good fortune to live in a beautiful part of the world--to my mind, it's a place that can hold its own with any food destination in the world. Like great chefs everywhere, I see our chefs making the best use of local ingredients-taking New England traditions and bringing their own brand of artistry or cultural interpretation to local resources.
Case in point. In this issue I caught up with Durham, New Hampshire resident Mary Ann Esposito, host of Public Television's Ciao Italia, the longest continuously running food show on television. She has also has just released her seventh cookbook, Ciao Italia Pronto!
We also welcome new contributor Natalie Maclean, who, among many other accolades was named World's Best Drink Writer at the 2003 World Food Media Awards. In this issue, Natalie guides us through the sparkling alternatives to champagne, one of which is Spanish cava. (I can attest to cava's appeal, having earned the unofficial title of the "Cava Queen" while in Spain.)
Denise Landis brings us more Notes from the Test Kitchen where she experiments with walnuts, another seasonal favorite, and test drives a couple of sleek designer nutcrackers. Paula Sullivan guides us to some of the best steakhouses in Northern New England and demystifies the latest menu terms. Rebecca Cox checks out New England's boutique vodka distillers and Crystal Ward Kent scours the region for the best kept secrets, signature dishes, and gets up close and personal with some of our top chefs.
And, please, let's be mindful of those who don't have enough to eat, both locally and globally. We urge you to support your local food charities and the restaurants that support them through organizations like Share Our Strength. Check our website for upcoming events. One of the easiest things you can do each day
is go to http://www.thehungersite.org and click on the "Help Feed the Hungry" button.  It's free and it helps. While you're at it, drop me a line at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and share your comments, questions and food news.
Until next time...

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JoAnn Actis-Grande, Wine Editor

JJoAnn Actis-Grande writes wine and travel columns for Taste of the Seacoast Magazine and website, Celebration Magazine and The Fifty Best.com.  She also instructs wine tastings aboard the “Stephen Tabor” - a schooner in the Penobscot Bay, Maine, and is currently conducting video interviews with legendary winemakers. She is a lover of food and wine and has traveled to great wine regions from Napa to Cyprus. JoAnn has lived on the New England Seacoast for over 10 years where she is principal of JAG Pr/Marketing, promoting hospitality and arts businesses, and features voice over’s for advertising.  Now she spends her time between Portsmouth and Piedmont, Italy.   This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  





Jack Bingham, Contributor, Photography

Jack Bingham has been creating images with a camera for more than 30 years. He has been working from a studio in Barrington, New Hampshire since 1980, and has captured workers, products and places throughout the country and around the globe for reproduction in print. "Taste presents a fun challenge," he says. "In this issue we visited lots of restaurants bringing away stunning photography, and satisfied palates." Jack also prepares all the images for printing assuring the color of the food is as appetizing in print as it was to sample.

Rebecca Cox, Contributor

Rebecca Cox is a freelance writer living in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Her work has most recently appeared in The Wire and RE:UP, a music magazine based out of San Diego, California and Brooklyn, New York. In addition to writing for print publications, she writes website copy and marketing collateral for numerous small businesses. Cox is the co-founder and booking agent for Sotto Voce, an alternative performance venue in Portsmouth, and is also a published poet.

 Rachel Forrest, Contributor 

Rachel Forrest is a freelance food writer and former restaurateur. Her food and wine column, Wine Me, Dine Me appears Wednesdays in The Portsmouth Herald and her restaurant review column, Dining Out appears Thursdays in that paper's Spotlight Arts and Entertainment guide. She is also a regular food columnist and feature contributor for New Hampshire Magazine.

Hear her radio show, Wine Me Dine Me, with co-host Susan Tuveson Fridays at 6 P.M. on WSCA-FM 106.1. She lives in Exeter with her daughter. She can be reached by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   


Kathy Gunst, Contributor

Kathy Gunst, a Cordon Bleu trained chef, is the author of nine cookbooks and former culinary editor of Food and Wine magazine. For the past six years, she has been the resident chef for the award winning Here and Now program on WBUR in Boston and was nominated this year by the James Beard Foundation for best webcast. She is a contributing editor to Parenting Magazine and has written for dozens of national magazines including Bon Appetit, Better Homes and Gardens, Self, House Beautiful, and Cooking Light. Her most recent book is Stonewall Kitchen Harvest, which was a finalist for the International Association of Culinary Professionals award for Best American Cookbook 2005. Her newest book, Stonewall Kitchen's Favorites was published by Clarkson Potter in September. She lives in South Berwick, Maine.

Crystal Ward Kent, Contributor

Crystal Ward Kent's work has appeared in Yankee Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul and Guideposts Books, among other publications. She owns Kent Creative, an award-winning agency in Portsmouth that provides writing, design and marketing services, and is the author of Mainely Kids: A Guide to Family Fun in Southern Maine. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   

Denise Landis, Contributor

A former archeologist with a degree in anthropology, Denise Landis began her career in the food world when an editor hired her to test some recipes from a cookbook manuscript. The temporary, part-time job quickly bloomed into a full-time career. She has been testing and editing recipes for cookbooks, magazines, and newspapers for over sixteen years. For the past fourteen years she has been the primary recipe tester for The New York Times Dining In/Dining Out section. She also tests recipes for the New York Times Magazine and T-Living. She has tested recipes for numerous award-winning cookbooks, operates her own test kitchen in Exeter, New Hampshire, and has written for the New York Times, including the Test Kitchen, Food Chain, and other columns. She has taught cooking classes and workshops for adults and children. She is the author of a recent New York Times cookbook, Dinner for Eight: 40 Great Dinner Party Menus for Friends and Family, published by St. Martin's Press in November 2005.


Natalie Maclean, Contributor

Natalie MacLean is wine writer, speaker and judge. Her accolades are far too numerous to all be listed here but they include World's Best Drink Writer presented at the 2003 World Food Media Awards and four James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards including the MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. She has received an unprecedented five Bert Green Awards for food journalism from the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Her articles have appeared in more than sixty newspapers and magazines including Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Wine Enthusiast and Wine International. She is author of the recently published Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass.

Paula Sullivan, Contributor

Paula Sullivan is a freelance writer and chef. Her work appears regularly in Kitchen & Cook (a publication of The Culinary Institute of America), and has appeared in The Wire, and The Portsmouth Herald. She is a graduate Johnson and Wales College Culinary Arts program. She trained at Jasper's in Boston was sous chef at Lindbergh's Crossing and has worked in many other local establishments, including Cafe Brioche and One Fish Two Fish. She lives in Kittery, Maine.

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