Author: Carafoli

As a child growing up on Cape Cod, “organic” and “local” were one and the same. We bought free-range chickens and fresh farm eggs from Joe Rigazio’s farm on the other side of the bridge. Bill Atwood Jr., owner and chef of the Red Pheasant Inn in Dennis, chooses organic lettuces for his restaurant at […]

Because my interest is food, travel is a culinary adventure for me. I’ve been to Italy several times and the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that I can only make a very general plan of what I want to do and eat, because once I get there I see and taste everything in a new […]

Now more than ever, home cooks are filling their kitchens with the latest in equipment and gadgets. Perhaps some people are under the illusion that the ”latest” will make them a better cook – or is it just a status-symbol thing? Who knows, but I was inspired to write this article after paging through several […]

Guess who’s coming to dinner A menu of lobster, crostini and clam fritters sets the course for smooth sailing when (yikes!) an old love meets a new one. My guests at this dinner will be my ex-wife, who left several years ago, and my current partner of thirteen years. This will be their first meeting. […]

My introduction to grilling started when I was a very young child. My grandfather would place a large steak in a grill basket, take my hand and lead me down the narrow cellar stairs to the coal furnace that heated our home. Vegetables are grilled over direct and indirect heat in this photograph from “Food […]

Feeding Aphrodite and Adonis You don’t have to be feeding Greek gods to make this romantic dinner for two A few generations ago, Valentine’s Day was heralded by the exchange of hand-written sentiments on lavender-or musk-scented paper, decorated with cupids, arrows, hearts, flowers and doves. In recent years, as the assembly line Valentine card has […]

Have you ever wondered how restaurant owners entertain? I decided to find out, so I asked Gilbert and Kolleen Pepin, owners of the wonderful 902 Main Restaurant in South Yarmouth, to come to my house and create the kind of dinner they themselves would host. John Murelle, far left, reacts as chef Gilbert Pepin and […]

My culinary journey began with a 9 a.m. flight to England. The long but comfortable trip (accompanied by an edible meal, but alas, one not worthy of mention in this story) gave me time to review and refine my presentation of the paper I had prepared for the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery. This […]

Sure, there’s pasta. But there’s also fresh-dug shellfish, asparagus, good wine and leisurely conversation as friends share a traditional meal. A month ago at this time, I was eating my way across Northern Italy. When I think about my trip, I get nostalgic for the food, the flavors and the experiences. For me, Italy is […]

Through the years I have collected many cookbooks and books about food. No, not many – it’s more like a small truckload. My office is overflowing with books. The other day I looked around at my collection, pondering its variety and scope. As an exercise I started to categorize them, picking the ones I like […]