What makes a brownie delicious?
1. Good butter. We are not eating salad or diet food, but luxuriously decadent sweets. Every bite should fill the mouth with the taste of delicious butter. Plugra unsalted butter is my favorite. (Kitchen Conservatory sells Plugra at our store in Clayton.)
2. Good chocolate. If you bake brownies with Baker’s or […]

To be an American is to love peanut butter (just as to be a European is to love Nutella). Although peanut butter is very nutritious, we love peanut butter because it is sweet and creamy and tastes more like dessert, especially when paired with jelly.
Peanut butter cookies have been successfully baked for generations, but they […]

Greek cuisine is so much more than feta and filo. And Greek desserts are not just baklava! This almond-butter-fruit cookie is a Greek family favorite from our resident expert on all things Greek, Maria Sakellariou. Maria, who grew up in Greece and a part of her family’s restaurant, now has a personal chef service, Culinary Odyssey. 
Maria’s upcoming […]

When a soup is called a chowder, it is usually thick and chunky. Chowders may contain fish or shellfish or potato or cream or corn or tomatoes. One ingredient, though, is essential for making a chowder: bacon or cured pork. Since different styles of chowders can be made, it is a great soup for showcasing […]

Linzer pastry, which originated in Linz, Austria, is a short, very buttery dough made with ground nuts and filled with fruit jam. Traditionally, linzertortes are made with hazelnuts, but other nuts are also delicious: almonds, pecans, or walnuts. Chocolate is not a traditional ingredient in linzer, but why not gild the lily and add chocolate […]

I made these pecan bars for a party and a friend asked me for the recipe. Later, I asked her how they turned out. “I never made them.”
“Why not, they are so delicious!” I asked.
“The recipe was so strange that I was afraid to try them. It seemed like too much butter.”
Please, don’t be afraid; these mini pecan pies […]

Twenty years ago, one of my catering customers pulled me aside and said, “you must stop using butter, no one wants to eat saturated fat.” I thought about her advice, but my style of cooking is focused on taste and flavor. So I had a bumper sticker made for my car: It’s Better With Butter. […]

Maybe there are people out there who do not give a fig, but Dawn Meyer does. She gives a fig about figs — and everything else. Since joining Kitchen Conservatory in 1999 and working a variety of positions (kitchen assistant, store manager, webmaster, culinary instructor, sales associate), Dawn has cared deeply about quality. Her popular […]

The tomatoes are fabulously delicious this year. We are growing red Jet Star and yellow Golden Girl, and pick of the crop is available for purchase at Kitchen Conservatory (to accompany our garlic and basil!).
A truly vine-ripened tomato falls into your hands when you cup the bottom of the fruit; no tugging necessary to pick it. […]

I vividly remember the first time I tasted rum-raisin ice cream. I was 12, at the ice cream parlor, and everyone else was getting some version of chocolate ice cream. I had to try the one I had never tasted before. And “rum raisin” sounded so sophisticated. I was sure I was an adult just because I […]