Great food and…read more great service This is a review of a Holiday party for the New England Scientific Manufactures Association that was held at the Culinary Center at Gordon's. I'm not much for fancy type parties but I have to admit this was an impressive display of culinary talents. Chiefs Paul Turano and Anne Moynihan kept my unsophisticated palette entertained by such delicious, delicate and delightful creations like Mionetto Prosecco, wild mushroom and goat cheese tart, braised escarole and pumpkin bread pudding. At the end warm apple crostata and butter pecan ice cream filled up any remaining space in my cavernous gizzard. Some truly incredible food. In between courses different wines were passed and and discussed. Since I know virtually nothing about wine it was a fascinating and mesmerizing experience. I never applied such adjectives as zingy, fruity, silky, toasty, or round to booze before. The food was prepared on a table right in front of the audience and servers and chefs were personable, funny, entertaining and just as nice as can be. I learned that there is more to food and booze than just seeing how fast you can shove in down your throat. It hard to imagine a place to hold an event better than Gordon's Culinary Center. Oh yeah, they also sell a lot of cool booze in the store on the other side.

I had to make a special page for the Culinary Center @ Gordon's because of all of the amazing…read moreevents they throw, that are totally different from the simple booze shopping expereince. Sommelier Smackdown, once a Yelp event and now a monthly happening is just about the coolest event out there! Think of it like a "dinner and theater date" only, your theater is standing in front of you joking away as they cook your meal and battle to pick the best wine! $65 bucks gets you a four course meal, cooked right in front of you by Chefs Louie and Ian of Sel De la Ter and pours of 8 different wines, picked by well known Sommelier's around town! The Sommelier's battle to pair the best wine with each course as you are entertained by cooking jokes and quips like "Chuck Noris can smell what the rock is cooking, because the rock is his person chef" that fly through the air right next to wine knowledge and cooking tips! I must admit, I love it so much, I have been going to the last 3 months straight and plan of being a pretty permanent fixture! If you are really into wine, and wine makers, make sure to check out the calendar of other events and lots of well known wine makers come through Gordon's for tastings. Hope to see you at the next SMACK DOWN!

My friend ordered these . These chocolates are of high caliber, and just plain delicious. The…read moreonly problem is I wanted more than I was offered , lol . The person selling these doesn't have a shop . However my friend said you can call the number on the site . Or she has a website on her Yelp page , this is awesome . I can't wait to order some of my own , for my family and I .

This was a very pleasant surprise!…read more For my birthday last year, a chocolate-making class was promised as a gift. Given constant traveling and life overall, we did not get to partake in a class of this type until Labor Day weekend in Boston. My companion set this up all by himself with the lovely Beth. Beth was very communicative, even giving us directions to her place, as well as to many of the attractions that the city of Boston has to offer. It was just us two, along with Beth and her husband Steve. They were so nice, making us feel very welcome in their home (because shockingly this is at their house!). Beth is a master at her craft. She's been making chocolate for years and it really shows. Her chocolate was so pretty and yummy. As for the actual chocolate-making class, we began with tasting chocolates from all around the world to then attempting to make our own. Have to say the chocolate was delicious and rich. Definitely not the type of thing you can eat all in one go unless you are a true chocolate lover. That said, this was quite fun and we took many goodies back home to Florida. Definitely something I would want to do again, and more so, Beth and Steve are such kind folk that you want to invite them out to lunch or something along those lines. Felt as if we were with friends.

When my husband and I first decided to find a personal chef we thought "maybe this will help, we…read morecan't keep eating out, it's killing us." Neither of us really knew what a personal chef service looked like. We love cooking but we didn't/don't have time during the week to cook. We hoped we'd get more vegetables into our diet at a minimum. That not eating out would mean less of the white devils (sugar, salt). I reached out to The Skinny Beet in a frenetic and desperate state last December. Since they've entered our lives the sun is shining, the clouds have parted and Mondays are happy (re: they are miracle workers). We have been a weekly client with The Skinny Beet for almost 3 months now. At the end of 1 month we reached out to them and shared a list of each positive benefit directly or indirectly related to hiring them as personal chefs. I would like to share this list with you (reader of my review): 1. My husband and I spend more time together. 2. We portion control better. 3. We work out more (have time to work out). 4. We feel better: less groggy, less irritable, more energy. 5. The food they make tastes flavorful, wholesome and satisfying. We get to eat our favorite cuisines with less of the sugar/salt and more grain/vegetable variety than what we know how to cook. 6. We waste less. 7. The brain space we wasted thinking about what to eat, what to cook, when to go pick things up, crap-I-forgot-an-ingredient --- Poof! Gone. Which, working full time while part time grad school, any and all brain space I can allocate to my work is priceless for me. From Week One: Flexibility with schedule and menu planning was made easy for us - We come home and our kitchen tools and pans lovingly (and somewhat expensively) acquired over time are clean - There are delicious dishes made with quality ingredients ready for devouring in the fridge. We are so grateful for the difference The Skinny Beet has made in our quality of life. Seriously, I wasn't kidding: Miracle Workers.

I hired Richard and Katie to come to my apt to give me an private cooking lesson. I didn't really…read moreknow what to expect, and when they asked me what I wanted to learn I told them I wanted to learn "some of the basics". Well in just a couple hours we were able to cover SO much ground. From making a delicious salsa and homemade chips, to a steak and a chicken, even farro with caramelized onions. Not only did I learn tons of REALLY helpful skills that I've already been implementing, but I had delicious food that lasted me for a handful of meals THAT I HELPED MAKE! They brought all their own ingredients and left my kitchen completely spotless (possibly cleaner than how they found it) I am so thankful to these two and I look forward to our next lessons.

You know how there can be a huge disconnect between what you ThinK you know, and what you really…read moreknow? Pick-up lines, working out, fashion (white sneakers do NOT go well with black jeans), marriage, cars, smartphones, laundry........ quite a sobering and humbling experience when you realize you're not a Sheen Goddess. For me, apparently, cooking is yet another one of my non-talents. A group of us attended Savory Green U last night to delve head-first into the secrets of non-phone-order fine dining. How to clean mushrooms, how to properly saute onions (DEFinately was doing that one wrong for 20 years..), how to zest a lemon, and use ramekins in setting up the 'mis en place'......... Admit it, I sound sexy now, no? Taught by Tracy Stamos (who may or may not be related to John Stamos), we learned about the long term and meaningful benefits of organic food, non-processed ingredients, and most importantly, efficient process in prepping and cooking. What makes SGU a bit different from other culinary classes is that Tracy takes a meaningful 'green' approach to teaching and cooking. Applying her Harvard degree in Environmental Sustainability, on top of her two education degrees, and combining it with food science and art from the Cambridge Culinary Institute, Tracy has created a niche in.... ............ "Sustainable Yum Yum". Teaching out of a brand new, commercial-grade kitchen in her home, SGU comes complete with a huge kitchen packed with Star Wars grade shiny pots, pans, weapons, and trinkets. After cooking is complete, students transfer to the extremely comfortable and classy dining room to feast on the completed food art under gorgeous chandelier lighting. Need a breather? You can sprawl out on one of the uber comfy couches in the attached living room, and bask in your newly acquired Jedi food tricks to woo your future romance. There is no intimidation factor here for first-timers, as Tracy's attentiveness immediately puts to ease any anxieties you may have. Highly recommend it! PS - she caters too!

I hardly ever get to connect with anyone any more. I think the closest I've gotten to meaningful…read morehuman interaction lately outside my home was when I flipped a guy the bird this morning when he cut me off on route one. Everyone has their face pushed up into their smart phones, iPods, lap tops and even when they're not, it seems they would rather look at their own scuffed shoes then say hi to someone. Tony invited me to cook with Tracy Stamos and friends at Savory Green. I love to cook. I cook all the time. I figured an opportunity to get out, learn a new recipe or two and see friends would be fun. There were 9 of us plus Tracy and her assistant. We were given the nights menu and tasks were divided up among us. We were given the task of creating the pork loin dish. It was an Herbed Coated Pork Tenderloin with ingredients like fresh parsley, mint, sage and dates. Yes she had an herb garden growing right on the table. Tracy's forte is sustainable cooking. Oh, and this is a state of the art kitchen. It was freaking awesome. I loved having knives that Freddy Krueger would be jealous of and two ovens as well as tons of cooking stuff...... There's something great about getting your hands right into food and making it yourself. The smells, tasting it as you begin to pull it together, cutting, marinating, mixing, basting, ... It's primal. It's also fun. BUT the thing I was getting at which made this so amazing, was the communal feeling of being with a group, working together to create something, having real interesting conversation and enjoying the fruits of our labors together. Quality time. That's what this was. Too often we go out to bars and drink ourselves stupid. We scream to be heard above the roar of crappy music and go home feeling like we might as well have skipped the whole night. This was the opposite of that. I got to enjoy delicious food. I got to enjoy good people. We ate in a beautiful living room with wine and the food WE cooked and continued our conversation and YES I was the life of the party but that isn't the point. The point is we all connected. I left full with a doggy bag wanting to hug people again. I didn't....but that's why I need to go back. We need to put down our phones and look around. We all need to experience things sometimes. Smell the sage, goat cheese and mint that's out there. Taste new things and experience things out of our comfort zones sometimes as well as hear what people have to say as we really listen to them. I loved this night. I would go back again and share this experience with others. And I will. Special Thanks to Tony and Tracy.

I love sushi. I love cruises. So when I saw a Gilt offer for a sushi-making harbor cruise, I…read morethought, "Wow. Dreams really do come true." Unfortunately this dream ended up being mediocre at best. Gilt advertised the event with photos of delicious-looking, hand-crafted rolls in a classy, nautical setting. In reality, we were all on the warm, crowded bottom-most deck of a booze cruise. After the demonstration by Sea To You (which was a bit difficult to understand because of the chef's microphone and accent), we were handed boxes containing overly-sticky rice, seaweed, a stick of imitation crabmeat, and shredded carrots and told to go for it. But wait! Don't get too crazy! We're not allowed to eat the sushi we make. What?! I could already imagine the conversation I was going to have with my coworkers the next day when they asked me about the cruise (which I, of course, was gushing excitedly about during work). "So how did your sushi turn out?" "Well I don't know how it tasted... but it looked pretty good." I obviously wasn't going to let that happen, so my friends and I snuck in bites despite the company's warnings. It didn't taste great.. the rice was way too sticky, and there just wasn't much else to it. But we had to do it. And I'm still here to tell the tale. The company obviously realized that they couldn't have us make sushi without eating some (and for $35, I sure hope some food is included!), so they brought prepared boxes of salmon, tuna, and avocado rolls. These rolls were extremely simple and did not taste very fresh. There was too much rice, and it was also hard and refrigerator-cold (I don't know why this company has so many rice troubles). We were still pretty hungry afterward (which is also part of the reason we ate the ones we made). Afterward, we went up to the top deck of the Provincetown II and has a fantastic time drinking and dancing. The sushi portion just didn't make much sense with the setting and could have happened anywhere. In the future, I'll just go on the cruise sans sushi. And if I ever sign up for another sushi class, I'll make sure to inquire if we actually get to eat what we make. Who would've thought this is a question someone would need to ask?

Sea to You is located on a quiet corner off of the busy Route 9. 2 hour free parking is a pleasant…read moretreat - no feeding of meters are always a plus! When you enter, you are greeted by a glass case of fresh raw fish in front of you and freezers of ingredients such as BBQ smoked eel $9 for a pack ($7 per pack for 2 or more) and Tamago (sweet egg) $14/$12. If you like, you can also get a bottle of eel sauce for $4.99. Walk in and by the cash register just beyond the serve yourself bar with sea weed salad, various sizes of fish eggs, and what not there is a menu binder. Turns out some items can only be ordered in advance online and en mass ($20 minimum?) like the bento boxes. The roll menu is pretty small, so I ended up ordering the sole two cooked rolls they had - Dragon Roll $12.95 which is basically California roll topped with a slice of eel apiece, and shrimp tempura roll $8.95 made with pre-fried battered shrimp. Service here was friendly, but a little tough to understand. I saw my rolls being made before my eyes, but oddly enough, upon consuming them, they reminded me of supermarket sushi with less moist rice. (I'm under the impression that supermarkets over vinegar the rice to keep it from drying out during the holding period.) They were okay, but not especially good.

The absolute best! Chef David is incredible, his professionalism, his talent and the meals...oh…read morethe meals. We've hired him for many occasions and he never disappoints and always blows our guests away. We've done 4-6 course meals, he works with us on any aversions or preferences, brings his own server ware and somehow my kitchen is always cleaner than when he arrived. Just top notch! Can't recommend enough for a high-class incredible private chef meal.

We had an amazing experience with David Verdo catering . We cannot wait to book another event with…read morehim this spring.