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 […]

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 […]

Everyone loves to eat simple sugar cookies, especially when they are small and crisp and delicate, and then dozens disappear before you know it. First we baked these cookies plain, then we used sugar in our favorite colors — purple and green — and made stunning cookies. These cookies would be a good backdrop for […]

We plant and some years the yield is a cup. This year, the yield is truly a bumper crop. After 15 years of growing garlic, this year’s garlic crop is the best ever. I’ve canned jar-after-jar of currant jelly. And we are overrun by potatoes. We are eating potatoes every single day; luckily, there are […]

Are there any puns in chocolate-pistachio shortbread? If anyone can come up with a play on words, it’s Ruth Sparrow, the Kitchen Conservatory director of puns and clever titles. Ruth schedules the cooking classes and writes our quarterly newsletter while dreaming up titles like “Honey, I Blue Up the Kitchen”, “Just Dough It”, and “Peach […]

When is a macaroon not a macaroon? When it’s a macaron! Americans associate the egg-white-based macaroons with coconut, but the French bake deliciously tender-crisp cookies with ground almonds. French macarons are totally delicious. Stop by Kitchen Conservatory this week and taste a true macaroon. This delicious treat deserves to be made with the highest-quality ingredients. Valrhona bittersweet chocolate […]

Since 2005, Barb Nack has efficiently managed the cooking school at Kitchen Conservatory as we have grown from 450 classes to 700 cooking classes each year. Barb has also specialized in teaching girls’ night out classes (especially on chocolaty desserts), dynamic participation classes for couples (especially with shellfish menus), and the introductory Basics of Cooking and Prep […]

Our field of garlic (1,200 heads) is about two weeks away from harvest. The stalks look thick and healthy. We are so impatient for this year’s crop that we dug one plant just to see how it looks…what a voluptuous beauty! Our freshly dug homegrown garlic will be available at Kitchen Conservatory for purchase on July […]