Follow that Appliance- Full Steam Ahead! A Week of Kitchen Warming Events, a View from 35, 000 Feet

Once again, my week was a game of “appliance hunting”, seeking out spectacular kitchens and cooking where ever I landed. Speaking of landing, I am somewhere over the Sierras, (snow covered and majestic) right now heading to the most exciting cooking event of the year, the Sears Chef Challenge FINALS taking place this Thursday at the Kenmore Live Studios in Chicago! Chef Mark Maassen of Chicago and Chef Alex Dino of New York are battling it out live and on live stream, 8 pm central time. Chef Billy Parisi and I will be co-hosting the conclusion of this national competition, with so much at stake. The winner takes a full $20, 000 for their chosen charity, the title of SCC Grand Champion and a complete kitchen makeover, top to bottom! I am thrilled and so very excited to be there to support the Sears team and my beloved chef friends. Who will it be? www.searschefchallenge.com

Last Thursday I took the gorgeous ride down to Portola Valley to accompany David Karigaca, Miele appliance territory manager and cooking expert at an unbelievable private home and kitchen, outfitted by Standards of Excellence. I cooked great food, Butterflied Roasted Chicken and Root Vegetables and Pumpkin Cookies in the Miele Master Chef Oven, while David demonstrated the rotisserie chicken feature. At the same time, he filled the Miele Steam Oven with trays of food, broccolini and carrots, a quinoa pilaf with apricots and even a quick steamed scrambled egg demo! The technology was remarkable and the food, well, just look at it!  Our hosts and their guests were practically chanting “Miele, Miele, Miele” at the evenings’ end. I am not kidding.


My annual Macy’s Halloween hands on class was a kick, here is a photo of “Oozing S’mores” made from home made marshmallows, my new favorite thing to make, I posted the recipe last week. NOTE: It is best to use a strong mixer, such as a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer to make this. The mixture gets very thick and stiff as you mix, do not overheat your mixer. If it gets too thick, it is hard to handle.


They also melt a lot faster when you make smores! Here is our rocking crew at Macy’s, featuring Chef Luis Realpozo, Chocolatier for Fresh Starts Cooking School. That is a table full of hand molded chocolates and truffles in our midst!

Saturday night I helped coordinate another private dinner party. Wow! It is a secret, but just guess who did their kitchen! Standards of Excellence of course!

Monday, first ever video shoot for our Green 960 radio cooking segments at Standards of Excellence San Rafael, with again, Miele.

It was so hard, wow, but we did it! Listen in this Saturday from 9-noon on Green 960am for the latest segment, “Know Your Butcher” featuring a brilliant recipe “Lamb Loin Carpaccio” by JT Foster, Executive Chef of the Fairmont Hotel. I will post that recipe here in time for the segment.

And besides cooking, I met a personal hero of mine, writer and humorist David Sedaris on Saturday. In my copy of his latest book, he inscribed, “Rachelle, why must you enchant me so?” He must have read my mind. Right back at you, David…sigh.