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Articles by Will Blunt
International cuisine in RI: Taste the world at these restaurants
Subat Dilmurat, a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Northeast, is the owner of Jahunger Restaurant in Providence, serving Uyghur cuisine. Kris Craig/The Providence Journal A dish takes shape at Nanu Burmese Fusion in Warwick. David DelPoio/The Providence Journal, File Natalia Paiva-Neves adds a "little garlic" to her cooking at the Portuguese restaurant Aguardente in Providence's Fox Point.
Announcing Sherry Vinegar Recipe Contest Winners
StarChefs partnered with Foods from Spain and Sherry Vinegar from Spain to give one lucky chef an all-expenses paid trip to Jerez, Spain. Congratulations to Chef Cassie Piuma of Sarma on her winning dish: Brussels Sprout Bravas with Crispy Brussels Sprouts, Bravas Sauce, Migas, and Garlic Aïoli. As Piuma describes, “Brussels sprout bravas is a riff on the iconic Spanish tapas: patatas bravas. I had a version of this dish while visiting San Sebastián.
How to Use This Powerful Interactive Technique
Have you ever burned hours trying to crack the code of a Sudoku puzzle or unhook the unhookable metal loops? That’s the power of games for catching and holding someone’s attention. When it comes to marketing, online interactive games have become a popular technique for brands of all shapes and sizes. Some examples are website Easter egg hunts, scratch and win giveaways, quizzes, instant win reels, guessing games, and marketing puzzles. This brings me to today’s topic – puzzle marketing.
Ahrefs vs SEMrush: Which SEO Tool Is Better? [2023 Update]
As far as SEO tools go, there are two pack leaders: Ahrefs and SEMrush. They’re both powerful tools that provide resources to find the perfect keywords, optimize your content, and improve your rankings. Using one of these tools can put an end to the guessing game of choosing keywords and hoping they perform well. There are several impressive digital marketing features provided by these platforms – some of which they have in common, but others are exclusive to one or the other.
Prevent ADA and Web Accessibility Lawsuits with accessiBe’s ADA Compliance Checker
No matter what website you have, you can’t afford to ignore website accessibility. Ensuring ADA compliance is crucial to avoid costly lawsuits. Luckily, accessiBe offers an AI-powered ADA compliance checker that can help make your website accessible to everyone. Not only does it impact your ability to sell to persons with disabilities (PWDs), but you could even face serious lawsuits related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The Second Act of Afifa Nayeb
After 20 years working in real estate and retail, Afifa Nayeb told her daughter, Sabrina, that she was going to enroll in Le Cordon Bleu. When Sabrina asked why, Afifa frankly told her that it had always been her dream. One degree in French culinary arts, and three fast casual concepts later, Afifa opened Âme, an upscale French-Indian restaurant in the Bishop Arts District of Dallas.
Maggie Huff's Cantaloupe Concerto
The humble cantaloupe—a fruit that is hidden in plain sight. It’s always available, always affordable, but rarely the center of attention. It’s sweet, sometimes boringly sweet, but with a squeeze of acid, a drizzle of fat, a sprinkle of herbs, and maybe even a little spice, cantaloupe can exude main character energy. Exhibit A: The cantaloupe sorbet at Homewood (full recipe here).
Averie Swanson is the Flavor Brewer
Although Brewer Averie Swanson’s speciality is mixed-culture fermentation—a subset of beer dependent upon multiple species of yeasts and bacteria, some of which are wild and often unpredictable—her formula for success is fairly straightforward. Essentially, she thinks like a chef. Her technique feels like it borrows pages from the chef playbook The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg.
Cultivating the Metroplex | StarChefs.com
Andrea Shackelford was the chef of a neighborhood Italian restaurant when she and the owner decided to open a new place—a place where she’d cook using produce they’d grow themselves. The one catch: Shackelford had to learn how to pull it off. Having just a backyard vegetable garden on her farming résumé, she enrolled in a 12-week master gardener program. In 2015, she and Restaurateur Rick Wells sowed a half-acre farm in Lucas to supply her new restaurant, Harvest Seasonal Kitchen in McKinney.
A 6-Step Writing Process to Blog More and Stress Less
Blogging is sucking the life out of you. Every time you hit publish, it all just starts again. Again… and again. Like a never ending loop, you sit down to write and it feels like groundhog day. Your brain is fried, you’re out of ideas and your audience is impatiently waiting for more content. But it doesn’t have to feel like this. There is a better way to do things, a smarter way to blog – without the stress and all that draining stuff. I’ve been there and know how you feel.
13 Spring-Obsessed Chicago Chefs Write Love Letters to Spring
Forced to make due with root vegetables and shipped-in produce for much of the year, Chicago chefs love spring. During the short, intermittent season, they shake down their farmers for all they’re worth and preserve everything to hoard into winter. They R&D with the shipped stuff so they don’t miss a minute of serving plump stalks of asparagus and just-plucked-from-the-forest morels.
Tiffany Derry's Gumbo is Just Like Mom's
A South Texas native who spent time growing up on her family’s Louisiana farm, Chef Tiffany Derry had gumbo at least twice a month. “Some people say they only have gumbo a couple times a year or when it’s cold out, but we had it all the time,” says the nationally acclaimed chef. “My grandmother had 11 children in Baton Rouge and I have 50 first cousins—gumbo feeds a large number of people.
Dear Dallas-Fort Worth: Chef Matt McCallister's Letter to the Metroplex
Dear Dallas-Fort Worth: Chef Matt McCallister's Letter to the Metroplex By Matt McCallister | Will Blunt By Matt McCallister Will Blunt Chef Matt McCallister of Homewood What to say? Though my love for food and cooking has been with me since I was a child, I feel it really grew its roots here. Our city has come a long way. While I still feel we have much more room to grow, it has been impressive and satisfying to be along for the ride in the time that I have been here.
Valeria Taylor's Chocolate Croissant Has Mole in Every Layer
Valeria Taylor's Chocolate Croissant Has Mole in Every Layer By Misha Garza López | Will Blunt By Misha Garza López Will Blunt Mole Croissant: Laminated Pastry, Dark Chocolate, Black and Red Mole, Serrano, Chipotle, Chile de Arbol Pastry Chef Valeria Taylor (or Maria del Socorro Valeria Rebeca Ballado Velazquez, as she’s known in Mexico) made her first croissant two years after she opened Loba Coffee + Pastry.
Chef Hak Lonh Channels Cambodian Comfort Food
When he was a kid, Chef Hak Lonh’s parents would warm up Goya’s canned sardines in tomato sauce and eat it with a baguette. Lonh pays homage to that humble, wholesome meal at his Cambodian restaurant, Gamboge, by utilizing fresh grape tomatoes instead (full recipe here). Cooked down with onion, garlic, sea salt, black pepper, oyster sauce, sugar, fish sauce, and paprika, the tomatoes are stewed with canned sardines and finished off with some lemon.
A Piece of the Pie
Chef Erick Williams is a man of few words when it comes to his menu at Virtue Restaurant. For instance, no explanation is necessary for the fried chicken gizzards, blackened catfish, and even his grandmother’s beloved cornbread, recipes that have quickly become savory staples at this contemporary, Southern-focused Chicago restaurant.
Chef Cameron Slaugh's B.E.C. is Transcontinental
Let’s not kid ourselves—Los Angeles has a lot of things that New York City does not. But one thing L.A. is missing for sure are coffee carts on every block. When Chef Cameron Slaugh was living in Manhattan, he’d always pick up a bodega-style bacon, egg, and cheese before a long shift at Park Avenue or Eleven Madison Park. But his morning ritual was broken once he moved to L.A.. Now as the executive chef of The Attic, he’s incorporated his B.E.C. fix into the menu (full recipe here).
Heray Spice Brings Top-Quality Saffron to the United States
The question had been nagging Mohammad Salehi: Why was the saffron at his neighborhood grocery store so cheap? It wasn’t as if the shop’s $4 per gram price tag was wallet-friendly. But Salehi, the son of farmers from the saffron-rich Afghanistan, knew that the cost to produce a gram of the spice was more like $7—100 grams requires 25,000 crocus flowers with the stamens and styles removed by hand to create threads.
Interchangeable Parts | StarChefs.com
Challenged by ongoing labor shortages after a global pandemic and lockdowns, chefs and restaurateurs are tasked with doing more with less. This led to slimmed-down menus and an expanded definition of “cross-utilization.” The use of culinary interchangeable parts takes things one step further, focusing on a house-made item that can be applied to multiple dishes—just like Industrial Revolution manufacturers realized they could speed production by using type parts for a wide array of products.
Majordōmo Aged a Banana Boulevardier for 11 Months
During the last year, while tables and bars stood empty, ovens remained cold, and wells were left dry, Majordōmo Head Bartender Austin Hennelly had magic brewing in the walk-in. What started as a great cocktail became an even greater one when the hiatus left room for experimentation. A banana chocolate mousse with miso butterscotch on the restaurant’s dessert menu inspired his Boulevardier.
Growing Together: An Interview with Fry the Coop Owner Joe Fontana
A hospitality industry lifer, Joe Fontana likes to take care of people. He was the kind of bartender who had a favorite drink ready as soon as the guest sat down. Now that he’s running five locations of his hot chicken concept, Fry the Coop, Fontana wistfully spends more time on the computer than with customers. But through technological efficiencies and clever growth strategies, he also gets to take care of staff. What’s your approach to staffing?
Galit's Pastrami Playbook | StarChefs.com
In spring of 2020, recipe development wasn’t a question of what to make. It was more, “What ingredients do we have available?” At Galit, Chef-owner Zachary Engel and Chef de Cuisine Thomas Carlin asked their meat purveyors that exact question, and what Slagel Family Farm had was a bounty of brisket. So for their Middle Eastern menu with Jewish influences, the chefs naturally purchased the beef with the intention of curing it into pastrami (full recipe here).
Umbrella Hospitality Group's Nick Meyer Batched 9,000 Cocktails in a Barrel
Over the past year, cocktail bars have become particularly adept at the pivot. Bar professionals once focused on highly specialized cocktails and ingredients served with specific dilution, temperature, and presentation. Those same drinks now require stability and shelf life, not to mention packaging, labeling, marketing, and means of delivery. Umbrella Hospitality Group managed to stay ahead of this game by starting takeaway services as soon as lockdowns began.
Best 15-Inch Subwoofer - Powerful Subs for Visceral Sound
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A Look Inside the Scallop Shell at Kyōten
Chefs almost always flex the scallop’s muscle, but as Chef Otto Phan proves, there’s even more to this shellfish than the rich, tender meat that we’ve come to know. At Kyōten, he aims to utilize as much of the fresh Maine Bay scallop as possible, innards and all. “Some of the innards are too strong,” Phan says. “But these small scallops are quite pleasant, a bit like escargot.” Here, he demonstrates how he shucks, divides, and prepares his scallops for this hot and cold dish (full recipe here). 1.
One Year Later: 6 Los Angeles Chefs Share Their Inventive Career Pivots Since COVID-19
To produce this magazine, our first trip to L.A. took place in February 2020, a time of excitement and growth for the restaurant industry in the City of Angels. We completed roughly half of our research before everything changed. But through all the loss and hardship, some restaurant professionals took the opportunity to reignite their careers in different ways.
At BOKA, Cucumber is Summer's Unsung Hero
Charred cucumbers are a fixture on the table any time Chef Jonathan Dockter fires up his home grill. When BOKA brought in cucumbers from Butternut Sustainable Farm in southern Michigan, his favorite off-the-clock side dish found its way onto the menu. Dockter utilizes the vegetable in multiple ways in this bright, creamy dish. “The original thought behind this dish was to use cucumbers in a way that highlights the cooked and raw flavors,” he says. Here, we break it down.
3 Underappreciated Great Lakes Fish
As soon as the ice melts in early spring, the Lake Michigan commercial fishers are out. Mostly using trap nets, their day boats chug out onto water that Amber Mae Petersen, secretary and treasurer of the Michigan Fish Producers Association, says is cleaner than it’s been in 20 years, mainly due to cleanup efforts. Once the boats return to the docks for the day, the commercial fishers either fillet the catch for the markets or dress the fish and ship to a processor.
The State of Pastry
As restaurant staffs decreased during the pandemic, the role of the pastry chef has arguably changed more than any other in the kitchen. We asked a few of them to share what it’s been like. Jennifer Shen, Jon & Vinny’s My story is like many others of my time. I started my culinary journey at the height of the Food Network era and at the tail end of the culinary school bubble when the career-changers outnumbered the tattooed hipsters. I am neither. I’m quiet, committed to my craft and my people.
The Cat-Su Club: A Hot Dog That Is, Definitively, A Sandwich
Few things are as synonymous with Chicago’s food scene as the hot dog. Upon opening pop-up Cat-Su Sando, Chefs Will Schlaeger and Shawn Clendening accidentally channeled the energy of Chi-Town’s food gods into one of their Japanese-inspired sandwiches. Like finger sandwiches at a tea party for giants, sandos are full of pristine layers, savory or sweet, that are spread edge-to-edge with care.
FOOD CULTURE: Locavore Lingo Backlash
FOOD CULTURE: Locavore Lingo Backlash 2011 Restaurant Trends Report: Food Culture by Caroline Hatchett with Antoinette Bruno and Will Blunt December 2011 2011 Restaurant Trends Report Savory Trends Pastry Trends Liquid Culture Trends 5. FOOD CULTURE: Locavore Lingo Backlash The local food movement has come a long way, baby. Consumers have bought in: 70 percent of adults say they’re more likely to eat at a restaurant that serves local food, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Family Style: A Look at Two Generations of Restaurant Success
We heard emotional stories from chefs and restaurateurs who owe everything to parents who’ve also worked in the industry. Many of these stories came from second-generation Americans who now share their family's food. Photographed here all together, seven hospitality professionals reflect on what they've learned from their parents. Tal Zaiet, Mazal Tal hand-built everything in the restaurant with his father, Davis. His mother, Hanni, helps him cook Israeli food inspired by family recipes.
The Neighborhood Spot | StarChefs.com
When I first moved to Los Angeles, a coworker wanted to introduce me to one of her favorite restaurants for lunch. Less than five miles away from our office, the restaurant was Angeli Caffe, a little Italian place owned and operated by Evan Kleiman since the 1980s. I had probably driven or walked by at least 50 times at that point, but I hadn’t stopped yet. Just a place you keep in the back of your head for next time.
How to Make Sure Your Writing Meets Top SEO Standards
Pretty much everything you do online has to do with content – whether you’re creating landing page copy, a blog post, or a technical product description. And while SEO copywriting used to be a specific skill you’d seek from employees, freelancers, and yourself, it’s now something you can ‘outsource’ to software. At least, that’s the promise among solutions that design software for facilitating the content creation process.
Puzzle Marketing: The Powerful Interactive Technique Your Competitors Aren’t Using
Have you ever burned hours trying to crack the code of a Sudoku puzzle or unhook the unhookable metal loops? That’s the power of games for catching and holding someone’s attention. When it comes to marketing, online interactive games have become a popular technique for brands of all shapes and sizes. Some examples are website Easter egg hunts, scratch and win giveaways, quizzes, instant win reels, guessing games, and marketing puzzles. This brings me to today’s topic – puzzle marketing.
The Prix Fixe Playlist
A well-curated playlist strikes the right balance and mood of the dining room–but that’s for the customer experience. After meeting so many musicians-turned-hospitality-workers in L.A., we asked them, “What makes you vibe out?” Rocking out to just the right song in pre-service is as important as fully stocked mise; you have to finely tune your station the same way you would tune a guitar. It sets the tone for the night. Is that a mic test over at garde manger, or is someone sharpening knives?
E&P DMPLNGS Experimented to Create a Miso Ice Cream
While recipe-developing for their pop-up, E&P DMPLNGS, Evan Burgess and Pedro Mederos were inspired by Jeremy Umansky’s and Rising Stars alum Rich Shih’s Koji Alchemy, so they transformed their kitchen into a makeshift science lab. Mederos and Burgess made black sesame miso by fermenting a ball of koji, sesame, and salty water in a crock for three to four months.
2 Miami Chefs Revamping the Sour Orange
Out of all the citruses in the Sunshine State, the sour orange might be the most overlooked. With their wrinkled skin and mouth-puckering bitterness, sour oranges are known for very few applications. In Miami, they are most often associated with mojo criollo, a Cuban marinade for grilled chicken or pork. It’s traditional for a reason, but with all its complexities and abundance of growth in Florida, the ugly little fruit is capable of so much more.
How to Build a Porridge Bowl Like Minh Phan
Six and a half years ago, the late Jonathan Gold spread the word about Porridge + Puffs, Chef Minh Phan’s dreamy, casual restaurant in Historic Filipinotown. “I spent [the next] six and a half years explaining to people what porridge is and that it’s the best food,” Phan says. “[Now that] a good portion of L.A. understands what it is, there is a demand for it.” Since the pandemic, she has collaborated with other chefs to build their own versions.
4 Miami Bartenders Putting Refreshing Twists on The Classics
Miami is definitely known for its drinking culture. Even now, when customers must remain seated unless masked, Miami bars have remained busy. But although top-notch craft cocktail bars now dot the city, most guests prefer drinks that lean towards boozy and refreshing. This can frustrate the average bartender, who might want guests to step out of their comfort zones, learn about new spirits, or order anything but another strawberry margarita.
6 Vital Ways Email Marketing Has Changed in 2021
Posted at 07:18h in Email Marketing by Will Blunt By 2023, it’s estimated that over half of the world’s population will use email. That’s why as social networks come and go with the trends of society, email marketing holds strong. In fact, email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter, according to McKinsey research. With email marketing, you are building an asset that won’t get taken away with the change of an algorithm.
The Name On The Door
Marcus Samuelsson was not on board with the oxtail. Executive Chef (and Miami StarChefs Rising Star) Tristen Epps was trying to nail down a menu for Samuelsson’s newest restaurant, Red Rooster Overtown, and Epps was confident in his wagyu oxtail, a shareable experience that runs for $105. Samuelsson argued that the dish might be too unfamiliar or expensive to the diner. But he’d never tasted it, so Epps put the whole-roasted oxtail on the menu anyway and hoped for the best.
Maria Pottage's Old Fashioned is Scraped Together with a Jamón Ibérico
Maria Pottage's Old Fashioned is Scraped Together with a Jamón Ibérico By Lizzie Takimoto | Will Blunt By Lizzie Takimoto Will Blunt Maria Pottage's Pan con Tomate Old Fashioned At Basque-inspired restaurant Leku, the Jamón Ibérico is a pillar of the menu (and rightfully so). The salty, sweet, nutty, cured ham synonymous with the Iberian Peninsula takes many forms throughout the menu, including in unexpected territory: the cocktail list.
5 Chefs on Working Under Famous Chef-Owners
Marcus Samuelsson was not on board with the oxtail. Executive Chef (and Miami StarChefs Rising Star) Tristen Epps was trying to nail down a menu for Samuelsson’s newest restaurant, Red Rooster Overtown, and Epps was confident in his wagyu oxtail, a shareable experience that runs for $105. Samuelsson argued that the dish might be too unfamiliar or expensive to the diner. But he’d never tasted it, so Epps put the whole-roasted oxtail on the menu anyway and hoped for the best.
The Restaurant Industry is Doubling Down on Miami
The Miami restaurant world is used to waves. We’ve seen our Mango Gang wave, our Nueva Latina wave, our farm-to-table wave, and wave after wave of out-of-town, big-name chefs with their tourist-friendly steakhouses and big-box concepts. But this latest wave seems different. Call it a rogue wave. A new generation of chefs—some locally born and bred, others who worked at top spots around the country before finding their ways here—are doubling down on Miami.
The Overtown of Tomorrow: How Restaurants Are Revitalizing the Historic Neighborhood
The Miami neighborhood of Overtown has always been intriguing; it can be vexingly dark and the brightest star at the same time. The streets echo the jazz greats of an era gone, when Overtown served as the epicenter of commerce and prosperity of Black Americans in Miami. But in the 1960s, a mess of concrete and asphalt crashed down in the form of Interstate 95, jutting through Overtown and cutting it off from the progress that completely surrounds it.
The 6 Best Tools for Website Traffic Analysis
Taking a sneak peek at your competitors’ site traffic is the best way you can discover relevant benchmarks for assessing your own digital marketing performance. For instance, reporting to your boss (or client) that your traffic grew by 10% sounds great. But if you’re dealing with business-savvy people (and I hope you are), they’ll immediately ask – what was the market’s overall growth rate this year? And what were our competitors’ growth rates? And they’d be right to ask for this info.
Kindred Bartender Charlotte Mirzoeff Fat Washes her Celery Margarita with 'Nduja
Kindred Bartender Charlotte Mirzoeff Fat Washes her Celery Margarita with 'Nduja By Kendyl Kearly | Will Blunt By Kendyl Kearly Will Blunt Daisy Verde: ‘Nduja-washed Mezcal, Celery Juice, Giffard Pineapple, Saline, Celery Leaves, Dehydrated Orange When a corzetti dish at Kindred left the kitchen with 19 quarts of ‘nduja, Head Bartender Charlotte Mirzoeff had a savory, smoky idea.
3 Essential Guava & Cheese Combos in Miami
By Amelia Schwartz Will Blunt and Jaclyn Warren King Guava: Salt Bagel, Cream Cheese, Guava Marmalade, Fried Egg, Thick-cut Bacon, Potato Stix No flavor combination arguably screams Miami more than guava and cheese. Most commonly found inside flaky Cuban pastelitos, sticky-sweet guayaba marmalade is complemented by the slight tang of cream cheese. With his King Guava bagel sandwich, Rising Star Baker Matteson Koche is one of many Miamians who have played with the guava and cheese combination.
Da Toscano's William Tuggle Used Up Scraps for a Celery Root Millefeuille
Da Toscano Chef de Cuisine William Tuggle fiddled with a lobster recipe for days, but it just wasn’t coming together. The lobster component, which Tuggle thought would be the easiest, seemed forced. Feeling defeated, he looked down at his empty lobster shells and remembered the goldmine sitting in his freezer: three months’ worth of seafood shells and scraps that he had hoarded during quarantine.
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