<![CDATA[ - Foodie and Cooking Blog]]>Sun, 12 Apr 2026 19:59:31 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Restaurant Coupons Suck!]]>Mon, 20 Oct 2014 00:41:13 GMThttp://www.localsaute.org/foodie-and-cooking-blog/restaurant-coupons-suck

Restaurant owners need to advertise, and when they do, they want to be able to track the success of an ad. One thing you restaurant owners hear all the time is, "Run a coupon in your ad so you can track it."

We're here to tell you to never run another coupon ever again... EVER.

Here's the short list:

Coupons make YOU look cheap
Coupons make customers think your food isn't worth full-price.
Coupons make your customers feel cheap.
Coupons bring people in for the price, not for the food.
Coupons rarely create regular customers

Coupons suck all the way around. Everyone looks cheap, everyone feels cheap, and no one notices the quality of the food.

Reasons Why You Should Never Advertise Your Restaurant With Coupons

The most important thing to remember when running a restaurant is that you opened your restaurant because you know you're able to provide great food for your customers. Keep that in your head the next time some sales schlep tries to sell you on the idea of running a coupon to track your ad.

If you run a coupon for your food, you're telling potential customers that your food is actually worth that much. The penny-pinching, coupon clippers will only come to you with a coupon, while the customers who would normally pay full price will tend to stay away if they think your food isn't good enough to sell at full price.

"I want them to come in and try the food, even if I have to get them in at half price to start. Once they taste it, they'll be back. Then they'll pay full price!"

NO THEY WON'T. You're not dealing cocaine - you're selling food. Food that you're pouring your heart, soul and life's savings into. Your food is worth full price (and if it isn't, you should re-think your pricing).

Coupons don't attract customers who will become regulars. Coupons attract customers who are called "Situational buyers." Situational buyers only buy when the situation is right, which is to say, they only come in when they have a coupon. You want what's called "Relational buyers."

Relational buyers are customers who come in because they have a relationship with you, your staff and your food. Relational buyers are Norm and Cliff from "Cheers." They come in all the time and pay full-price money (plus better tips) because they love you and your restaurant. They'll never use a coupon because they would see it as an insult to you and your restaurant.

Remember: You Want Foodies, Not Cheapskates

For you coupon-clippers out there, we mean no offense. There's a time and place for coupons, but restaurants should never enter that arena. Save it for haircuts, fast food and grocery stores - not local restaurants.

When advertising to Foodies, remember that they don't care about coupons. They want to know where the best food is. They want to try new places. They want to tell their friends they found the best, new restaurant in town. They want to go back home and blog about how great your restaurant is. And we can pretty much guarantee that none of these Foodies will show up because of a coupon. Foodies will show up to your restaurant because you have something they want to try.

Maybe you're a new pizza place in town with a certain specialty. Maybe you're the first authentic Brazilian restaurant in town. Maybe you're an independent cafe with great coffee beans - something different than Starbucks for a change. Maybe you have the best, freshest seafood in town. Maybe you just hired a celebrity chef to take over.

Whatever your reason for being in business is, Foodies want to know about it. Coupon clippers couldn't care less about cuisine -they're focused strictly on price. They want food because they have to eat, not because they want to eat. Focus on the Foodies in your market and scrap the coupons altogether.

How to Track Your Restaurant Ads Without Coupons

This is going to sound way too simple, but here it is: track the increases in sales and subtract the cost of the ad.

First of all, you need to run an ad for at least 6 months. We'd even recommend a full year to make sure it has time to work. Over the course of your ad's lifetime, track the average increases in sales each month. Then, simply subtract the amount you're spending on the ad. It's very simple; it's very crude, but it's the best way to track an ad. If you start tracking coupons, you're only tracking the coupon clippers and you'll be ignoring the regulars. If you track only the coupon clippers, you're eventually going to start chasing them down with more and more coupons.. all the while, you'll be completely neglecting your regulars - the ones who really make your restaurant a success.

Again, avoid sending out coupons at all costs. In the long-term, they're never worth it.

]]><![CDATA[TV Advertising for Local Restaurants May Be More Affordable Than You Think]]>Sun, 19 Oct 2014 23:59:52 GMThttp://www.localsaute.org/foodie-and-cooking-blog/tv-advertising-for-local-restaurants-may-be-more-affordable-than-you-think

If your print ads, direct mail and phone book ads aren't working, and if you're not quite ready for internet marketing and social media yet, restaurant owners can still turn to local TV advertising for a successful advertising campaign.

You make think that only the big restaurant chains can afford TV, but it's the exact opposite. They can't afford to compete with restaurants advertising on TV at the local level. If you stick with cable TV ads - which can perform really well - you can undercut the national chains to a point where they can't compete with you.

Believe it or not, people still watch TV! Local TV commercials on cable TV may be your best bang-for-the-buck in traditional advertising media.

How to Advertise Your Restaurant on Local TV

Advertising your restaurant in your local market is a tough racket, but the best bang-for-the-buck is probably in local, cable TV advertising. Even better, the big, national chains can't afford to advertise on local, cable TV - they have to buy big regional or national ad campaigns to reach all of their locations. You, on the other hand, only have a local market to worry about. That means that you can advertise for way less money to people right in your own back yard, all while they're watching cable TV.

Contact your local cable provider (i.e.: Comcast, Time Warner, etc.) and ask for their sales department. When the sales rep shows up, be prepared to play a little bit of hardball.

You Know Your Restaurant's Customers, so You Probably Know What they Watch on TV

If you're a sports bar, your customers watch a lot of sports. Fortunately, cable TV is starting to dominate the sports world (ESPN, Fox Sports 1, local professional team TV contracts, etc.). Purchase ads during live games, and purchase ads during the highlight shows. Do NOT purchase the overnight TV spots between Midnight and 6:00 AM no matter how cheap they are. Insist on prime time and live sports broadcasts and maybe throw in some pre-8:00 AM shows for those real sports junkies who are checking the highlights from the night before prior to going to work.

If you're a high-end restaurant, the sports theme may still be a decent fit since almost every household watches some kind of sporting event. Aside from sports, check into cable news channels (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc.). Also, check into the rates during the evening newscasts between 6:00 PM - Midnight. Morning news shows form 6:00 AM-8:00 AM may also be a good fit, especially if your customers are the types to pay attention to the stock markets and financial news.

If you're a family restaurant, you can do a combination of sports, news and even hit a few kids shows. Remember - if you're advertising during kids' programming, you're also hitting a lot of parents while they watch TV with their kids. We don't recommend going overboard on this, but supplementing your TV campaign with a few kids spots in prime time can help.

If you're a night club, you may be able to get some pretty inexpensive cable TV ads. You'll be able to advertise on later shows that get less viewership but more-dedicated audiences. Tabloid-ish shows and reality TV shows about housewives are decent for this demographic. On the other hand, you'll also want to be on the trendy, episodic shows of the day. American Horror Story, Sons of Anarchy, The Bridge, The Strain, The Walking Dead (yes, we still recommend you advertise your restaurant during a zombie show) - show like this where you know tons of people in your target audience are watching.

Restaurant TV Ads: "Rotators" are the Devil

In short, rotating ads - ads that run during a vague, unspecific time - are the devil. The cable TV ad sales reps will always try to sell you these by telling you they cost less. Don't fall for it. Running a rotator ad is like being blindfolded and swinging at a pinata when you don't even know where the tree is, let alone the pinata. Make sure you advertise your restaurant on TV when you know your target audience will be watching.

Advertise during specific programming that you know your demographic is watching every week, even if it is a show about zombies!

As an example, if you know you want to reach people during The Walking Dead, you need to advertise exactly when that show is on. The sales rep will tell you about a "rotator" that costs $10-20 less per spot, but it airs between 8:00 PM to Midnight on AMC, but there's no guarantee that your TV commercial will air during the Walking Dead. The Walking Dead is on from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM and that's it. If your commercial airs before 9:00 but after 10:00, you didn't air during the show you know you want to be on. Even if the ad was $20 less, you would have been better served to have paid an extra $20 to make sure you got seen at the best time.

Think of it this way: would you rather spend $80 to gamble to win a prize, or would you just rather spend $100 to buy exactly what you want?

Don't fall for the "save money with rotators" sales ploy. Buy what you want, pay the extra money and make sure you get seen by the audience you want to reach.

What Should I Pay for Cable TV Ads for my Restaurant?

You'll have to pay a minimum per month and that minimum will depend on the overall size of the cable market in your area. Typically, for a market with 50,000 cable subscribers, you'll need to spend at least $1,500 per month, and you'll probably want to try to double that if your monthly revenue can support it.

Also, be prepared to dedicate yourself to your TV campaign for a minimum of 6 months, and a better rule of thumb is one full year.

TV ads typically take 3 months just to get off the ground to where enough people have seen your ad. It takes them 3 months to remember you exist before they remember to try out your restaurant. Once you hit 6 months, your TV campaign will be in full-swing. By the time a year hits, you need to look back at the year's revenue increases, when they spiked during your TV campaign, and how steady they've been since that spike. If the added revenue exceeds your TV ad spend

Example: if your restaurant is bringing in $4,000 more per month while your TV campaign is costing you $3,000 per month, you're making an extra $1,000 thanks to your TV campaign.

The Best Thing About Your Cable TV Campaign

Broadcast TV campaigns cost a fortune because you're paying to reach multiple cities all in one shot. Cable campaigns, on the other hand, allow you to advertise to specific cities - just the cities themselves, one at a time. If you have a restaurant in Oxnard, CA, we'll say, you can advertise solely to cable viewers in Oxnard. If you have a restaurant in Santa Barbara, you can limit your TV campaign to just Santa Barbara.

Also note that people don't typically go more than a couple of miles form their home for a restaurant. They're hungry when they're hungry, and they're not going to drive for an hour to get food. Advertise strictly to your local market and don't deviate from it. Once your ad is seen and remembered on TV, you will gain trust in your local market and they'll have your restaurant's name at the tip of their tongue when they're looking to go out to eat.

Read more of our restaurant marketing blogs here, and if Cable TV is out of your budget, you can read our guide to making print ads work for local restaurants, too.

]]><![CDATA[Restaurant Marketing: Are Print Ads Worth the Money?]]>Sat, 18 Oct 2014 19:13:56 GMThttp://www.localsaute.org/foodie-and-cooking-blog/restaurant-marketing-are-print-ads-worth-the-money

By Justin Moreau

If I don't have a great location, I need to advertise locally. Are local print ads worth the money?

A great location, while expensive, may actually save you time and money on advertising your restaurant over time. The extra money you spend on a lease with a great location may replace the money you would otherwise have to spend on marketing campaigns. That also doesn't take into account the time you put into marketing (instead of running) your restaurant, nor does it account for the time spent dealing with ad sales reps. Nor does it account for the inevitable fact that some of those ad campaigns - while they cost you money - won't work at all and will bring you zero additional dollars in revenue. So how can you leverage local print ads to advertise your local restaurant?

Dealing with a bad location for your restaurant isn't an insurmountable task, but it will require significant marketing efforts.

How to Use Print Ads to Market My Restaurant

The first and most-obvious issue when marketing your restaurant - however you choose to market it - is to make sure your food is great. Your food has to be good enough to make it worth a little more effort for your customers to come to you instead of taking the easy route to the more conveniently located restaurants. But making great food should be the easy part, otherwise you wouldn't be in this business in the first place. So, how do you market your restaurant using print ads and is it ever worth the money?

Are Local Print Ads Worth the Money for My Restaurant?

To be brutally honest, local print ads for restaurants are not usually worth the money, although there are some exceptions. Print ad sales reps will sell you on "circulation" (the total number of magazines, newspapers, publications they print), then they'll bloat that number by backing it with an even more-bloated number called "reach." They'll tell you that their circulation is X, but their "reach" is about 2.5 times that with the justification that, for every magazine or newspaper that gets picked up, 2-3 people in the household, office, etc. actually read it. This is a load of crap... sorry to you ad sales reps out there. For every magazine in a waiting room that gets seen by 10 people, there are probably 100 or more copies that get tossed straight into the recycle bin in someone's home. Nevertheless, you can advertise your restaurant in local print ads without getting burned. You just have to know what to look for in terms of cost.

When Local Print Ads Are Worth the Money

If a local publication has a decent circulation (and if it doesn't look like it was printed in someone's living room on an inkjet printer), make sure they have a section in their publication that is dedicated to local dining. If the circulation of the publication is decent enough, local readers will know that magazine has a dining section to help them find new ideas on what local restaurants to try out. Local newspapers often have a weekly insert dedicated to local restaurants, clubs, concerts, movies, etc., so that's where you want to advertise more than anywhere else when it comes to marketing your restaurant in print. Also make sure that the majority of the readers of that publication live somewhat nearby your restaurant. If their readers aren't within 2-3 miles of you restaurant, you may want to stay away.

What to Spend on a Print Ad for my Restaurant

Ask the ad sales rep what the "CPM" is of their ads. "CPM" means Cost Per Thousand (the Roman numeral for 1,000 is "M"). CPM is the amount of money you spend on your ad per thousand people who read the magazine.

If the sales rep doesn't know the CPM, that doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't advertise in that magazine. It may just mean that he's the latest sales guy in the revolving door of turnover that is the sales industry. If he can't tell you, do yourself (and the sales guy) a favor and calculate it out right there in front of him. Here's how:

How to Calculate the CPM of a Print Ad

CPM = Cost of the Ad x 1,000
Circulation

Take the cost of the print ad and multiply it by 1,000. Then, take that number and divide it by the total circulation of the magazine or newspaper. This will give you the CPM.

Example: a magazine has a circulation of 10,000; they're charging $600 for a half-page ad:

$600 x 1,000 = 600,000
600,000 divided by 10,000 (circulation) = 60
CPM = $60
You will pay $60 for every 1,000 printed copies of that magazine.

What should I be willing to pay for a print ad in terms of CPM?

Typically, we recommend you keep the CPM at or near $50, but certainly under $100. Of course, there's no harm in an ad that has a CPM of well under $50, either, but that is often a sign that the publisher doesn't know how to price their ads properly, or they can't accurately trace their readership levels (readership is different than circulation: not all magazines get read - some get tossed directly into the recycle bin without ever being looked at).

Again, we don't necessarily recommend advertising your local restaurant in print, but if you do, make sure you keep track of any increase in business while the print ads are running.

If you still can't pull the trigger on print ads, we don't blame you at all. You can also check out our other Restaurant Marketing Blogs on Local TV Advertising for Restaurants, Why Coupons Suck, and Online Advertising for Restaurants.

]]><![CDATA["Bro" Hot Dog Critic Owned By Sriracha Sauce]]>Wed, 15 Oct 2014 04:02:46 GMThttp://www.localsaute.org/foodie-and-cooking-blog/bro-hot-dog-critic-owned-by-sriracha-sauce

You know that, here at Local Saute, we're Foodies for sure, but we're not the pretentious type of foodie who turns a snobby nose at a good ol' fashioned, barbecued hot dog. Nevertheless, we do have our limits, and putting ketchup on a hot dog is walking that fine line. Does ketchup taste revolting? No. Is it kind of a reminiscent-to-your-childhood guilty pleasure? Not necessarily. With french fries, perhaps... and maybe on a hot dog for some of you, but I just can't do it.

I guess that makes me a bit pretentious to not allow ketchup (no matter how "fancy" it may claim to be on the label) on my hot dog, but dammit, at least I'll eat a grilled hot dog, unlike some of you out there.

Anyway, so here's what I did - and I promise I'll bring this full-circle to ketchup: I pulled the hot dog of of the grill, jammed it in a traditional, white-bread hot dog bun that was lightly toasted on the grill, then I striped the right side of the hot dog with some Dijon mustard. On the left side, I striped the hot dog with Sriracha sauce. In fact, I doubled the stripe of Sriracha. Damn right, I did.

Of course, the first person to see me with a presumed red stripe of ketchup on my hot dog practically burned me at the stake for such sacrilege. My first response was, "Hey, screw you, pal. You're the one drinking a macro-brew, you heathen." But then, all I had to say to put the jackal in his place was, "Relax, bro. It's not ketchup."

"Ooooooooh," I thought as I watched his eyebrows perk upward toward his hairline. He was obviously perplexed, yet prematurely impressed "Now you're intrigued, are you?" I thought. I had him right where I wanted him.

"What is it, then?" the bro asked, lowering his can of bro-brew to the side of his board shorts.

Just to rub it in a bit, I threw caution to the wind and I turned the "gotcha" table on him a bit and said, "What? You can't smell it?"

He came closer, nose-first, and I quickly pulled my delicacy of processed meats away. I said, proudly, "It's Sriracha sauce."

"Ooooohhhh..." he said, as though I were Criss Angel, suddenly levitating my Sriracha-and-Dijon-laced hot dog before his very eyes

"Yeah, man. Grilled dog on a toasted bun with Dijon mustard and Sriracha sauce. Epic, bro. Have you even tried Sriracha on a hot dog, bro?"

And the rest is hot dog with Dijon and Sriracha history. I win, and every single, solitary bite of it was absolutely delicious... you know... for a hot dog.

]]><![CDATA[3 easy lemon drink recipes: 1 to relax, 1 to refresh, and 1 to get drunk!]]>Sat, 01 Jun 2013 18:20:11 GMThttp://www.localsaute.org/foodie-and-cooking-blog/3-easy-lemon-drink-recipes-1-to-relax-1-to-refresh-and-1-to-get-drunk

Super Simple Lemon Drink Recipes

Fresh lemon recipes - especially lemon drink recipes - are all over the place, and you already know to squeeze a lemon wedge in a glass of water, in your iced tea, or even in your Hefeweizen. We're here to share 3 super-simple lemon drink recipes:

1 to help you relax; 1 to help you refresh, and 1 to help get you drunk...
or drunker.

Super Simple Lemon Drink Recipe #1:
to Help You Relax

INGREDIENTS:
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp of Agave sweetener (sugar will do, too)
1 cup boiling water

There. You can imagine the rest. Just put the agave sweetener (or sugar) and the juice of one lemon in the bottom of the coffee mug and pour hot water over it. Done.
Note: this is a great drink to help soothe a sore throat. Not that we're doctors or anything (this is where the legal nerds tell us, "Make sure you put a disclaimer in there to tell everyone you're not a doctor." Duh.

Anyway, this is a great lemon drink recipe to help you relax at night if you're tired of decaf tea or hot chocolate. Best of all, it's super easy to modify. If you end up with a monster-sized lemon, use more sweetener. If you like it sour, use less sweetener. Good stuff.

Super Simple Lemon Drink Recipe #2:
to Help You Refresh

INGREDIENTS:
Juice of one lemon
12 oz. seltzer water

Again, you can imagine the rest. Squeeze the lemon juice in the bottom of a pint glass, then just pour seltzer water in over it with ice. Done. There is absolutely nothing more refreshing than this drink. If you're lucky enough to have a lemon tree in your yard, lemon juice and seltzer water will get you through the whole tree full of lemons until Fall hits. Once Fall hits, revert back to recipe #1.

Super Simple Lemon Drink Recipe #3:
to get you DRUNK

INGREDIENTS:
2 shots of vodka
Juice of one lemon
1 tb agave sweetener or lemon syrup (that's our bonus recipe below... ssshhhh! don't tell anyone!)
Tumbler with ice

You got it: super-simple lemon drink recipes strike again with the predictable procedure! Take the tumbler, squeeze the lemon juice in it, then add in the agave sweetener or lemon syrup. Fill the tumbler with ice, then pour in 2 shots of vodka. That's right, man - make it a double right out of the gates! Fresh lemon juice never made you feel so good! I suppose this could be an alternative recipe to a vodka gimlet, but this lemon vodka drink is so fresh, chances are you'll never go back to the gimlet unless you have to.

Super Simple Lemon Bonus Recipe:
Lemon Syrup

INGREDIENTS:A bunch of lemons
1 cup of agave sweetener (or sugar)
1/2-Cup of water

That's right: simple syrup with lemon juice. The reason we said "a bunch of lemons" is because we want you to make a huge batch of this stuff and save it in the fridge, or even in the freezer. Keep it on hand all year round.

Make ice cubes out of it and put it in the drinks mentioned above to give you a good balance of sweet and sour lemon flavors.

Keep it as a syrup and replace the need to mix sweetener and lemon juice later - just pour the lemon simple syrup in the cup, and pour the boiling water over it for the lemon tea, or pour the seltzer water over it in a pint glass if you want a sweeter summer refreshment than just the lemon juice and seltzer water mix. It's also a great alternative to buying lemon-lime sodas for the kids. Not that sugar and agave are great for them, but natural sugars and sweeteners are a better alternative than high fructose corn syrup.

There you have it! Take our super-simple lemon drink recipes and keep yourself busy all year round, whether you want to relax, refresh, or just get drunk. Heck, you can do all three at once if you ask us.

]]><![CDATA[What to Feed Your Foodie Pet: Cats and Dogs Don't Eat Corn]]>Mon, 03 Dec 2012 01:09:15 GMThttp://www.localsaute.org/foodie-and-cooking-blog/what-to-feed-your-foodie-pet-cats-and-dogs-dont-eat-corn

Foodies should feed their pets right, too.

I had a cat growing up, a super-friendly Siamese cat named "Mai Tai." She ate all kinds of weird things, from tomatoes to spiders to cantaloupe. She even preferred to drink water straight out of the tap at full blast. There would be a fresh bowl of water on the floor and she'd walk right past it. Then she'd jump up on the counter in the bathroom and howl at you until you stopped what you were doing and came in there to turn the faucet on for her. Then she'd lap the water straight out of the tap. What a great cat.

While some cats have weird eating habits, most are creatures of habit who stick to their food dish at feeding time. More importantly, cats are carnivores. Sure, they'll chew on grass and, yes, even eat the occasional chunk of cantaloupe... but by and large, cats eat meat. Now, to see how your cat is doing on the food front, I want you to go to your cat's bag of food and read the first ingredient on the list, then come back and continue reading.

What was the first ingredient? I hope it was some kind of meat, because cats don't eat corn.

I was listening to a Veterinarian who was being interviewed on TV about what to look for in pet foods: what makes pet foods healthy or non-healthy. He said, in essence, that the basic rule is this: "If the first ingredient listed on your pet's food is a meat, like chicken, lamb, beef or fish, it's probably okay for your pet. If it's some kind of corn product, don't give it to them."

Naturally, the next question was, "Why?"

As stated before, cats (and dogs) prefer meat. Furthermore, cornmeal is made from a plant that has a high sugar content and is also used to make sweeteners (i.e.: corn syrup). Sweet things taste good - even to our pets - but the sugar content is too high for them to process efficiently, therefore corn-laden pet food is more likely to lead to obesity. This, in turn, leads to lethargic behavior, which spirals out of control into more obesity, more lethargic behavior, possibly related disease(s), etc. Not to mention a cat's body isn't built to use a constant influx of starches and sugars. It's built to use meats.

A basic test to prove this theory would be this: get some cornmeal and put it in a bowl. Next, get some meat and put it in a bowl next to the cornmeal. Next, get your cat and set him/her down in front of the two bowls and see which one he chooses.

Good kitty. Eat the meat.

]]><![CDATA[When to Use Dried Herbs Over Fresh Herbs]]>Mon, 03 Dec 2012 01:00:19 GMThttp://www.localsaute.org/foodie-and-cooking-blog/when-to-use-dried-herbs-over-fresh-herbs

Dried herbs have their place when cooking.

Generally, fresh anything is better than non-fresh anything, but there must be some use for dried herbs, otherwise there wouldn't be a mile-long rack of them at the grocery store. What gives? As we all know, fresh herbs deliver a taste that is unparallelled by their dried counterparts, but there are times when fresh herbs just won't do the trick, at least not as well as you'd like. For instance, when making pasta sauces, soups or other dishes that can take a while to cook, your fresh, green herbs turn black pretty quickly.

While you may get the desired flavor out of fresh herbs, your presentation will suffer. No one wants to eat black, limp oregano, basil, rosemary or other herbs.

Also, since fresh herbs are soft already, they break down more quickly, allowing them to, in essence, run out of flavor earlier making their time of usefulness to that particular dish run shorter than the dish itself. This is why you'll see chefs add fresh parsley, oregano and/or basil to a pasta dish almost immediately before serving, while they use the dried versions in sauces, soups, etc. from the very beginning. Dried herbs are tougher and take longer to break down, which is what makes them more applicable to long-cooking dishes.

If you're steeping stock or simmering sauce, dried herbs are the better choice. They'll have plenty of time for the heat in the liquid of the dish to break them down and the color loss will be insignificant. You may, however, want to have some of the fresh varieties ready and chopped for the final presentation.

One more note: when herbs are dried, their oils are trapped inside the herb. Since almost all the flavor of the herb is in its oils, shake the dried herb into the palm of your hand first, then pinch and CRUSH it with your fingers before sprinkling it into your dish. This will allow more of the oils to escape since you will break apart that outer, dried crust of the herb.

]]><![CDATA[Cook Seafood Simply (At Least the First Time)]]>Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:37:39 GMThttp://www.localsaute.org/foodie-and-cooking-blog/cook-seafood-simply-at-least-the-first-time

A common mistake with cooking seafood is that, since some people are afraid of that "fishy" taste, they season the hell out of it to try to mask it. On top of that, they often feel the need to deep-fry it. I'm as big a fan as anyone when it comes to great seasonings, and ESPECIALLY deep-frying fish (or anything else, for that matter), but I just think more of us should get to know the flavors of our seafood before we decide to falsely flavor it with seasonings.

Here are your ingredients for your next seafood dish: fish fillet of your choice, salt and pepper... AND NOTHING ELSE. Trust me.

Once you've cooked seafood with just salt and pepper, you'll learn the true flavor of the fish and then you'll be able to pair it with other seasonings, side dishes, sauces, wines, etc. For instance, when I first ran across Basa Fillet (also called Swai Fillet), I decided to give it a shot. It's a white fish. I've cooked halibut, snapper, cod, catfish, tilapia... how different could it be?

Before I seasoned it like any of the other white fishes, I wanted to experience the actual flavor of the fish itself to make sure it was to my liking (similarly, since I don't particularly care for the flavor of catfish, I season the hell out of it AND deep fry it when I have to cook it!).

In my first adventure with basa, I covered the baking sheet with olive oil, then seasoned both sides of the basa fillets with kosher salt and fresh-cracked pepper and baked it. When I tasted it, I was amazed, especially for a fish that was around $5 per pound. This fish was light and flaky, and it tasted like it spent much of it's life actually swimming in butter instead of water. I exclaimed that basa is the new poor-man's lobster, and I don't even need drawn butter on the side. I still cook basa fillet with nothing but salt and pepper and that's it. I've tried different seasonings, but everything else seems to distract from the buttery flavor of the fish itself.

So no matter what fish you buy - cook it simply first with just salt and pepper to get to know it, then figure out what might dress it up, if it even needs any dressing up.

]]><![CDATA[Poor Man's, Easy Gourmet Pasta Sauce]]>Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:21:13 GMThttp://www.localsaute.org/foodie-and-cooking-blog/poor-mans-easy-gourmet-pasta-sauce

Making pasta sauce from scratch is fine and dandy, but it is time consuming. It can take all day - literally - to get the down-home, straight-outta-Italy flavor you want. But buying a jar of marinara or pasta sauce at the grocery store just seems so... so... non-Foodie. A lot of us just can't bring ourselves to do it. That is, unless, we buy the pricey stuff, but then we always think to ourselves, "Man, ten bucks for pasta sauce? I could have made it myself for way less." But then we're taken back full-circle to the beginning of our dilemma of not having the time to do it the way we want..

Here's a way to compromise in every direction. We're talking low cost, high flavor, no extra time, and probably even better tasting than some of the run-of-the-mill Italian restaurants in your area:

Just buy the cheapo store pasta sauce and add a cup of red wine to it.

Just dump the cheapo jar of pasta sauce or marinara into a sauce pan and stir a cup of red wine into it. Bring it to a boil then let it simmer out all of the alcohol and reduce to the desired thickness. Give it a taste and add salt, garlic, oregano, basil or whatever you think is missing from it, and send it to the top of your pile of pasta and dig in.

Will it be as good as the all-day method of making the perfect sauce? No (unless you're prone to screwing that up). Will it taste as good as the $10 bottle of expensive, high-end pasta sauce? Yes. We think so. We haven't missed yet. In fact, most of the time, we're more impressed with the doctored-up cheap stuff than we are with the priced-for-pretentiousness pasta sauces that are all too common in the grocery stores.

Of course, we recommend reading the ingredients on the jar you buy to see if there are any really unhealthy ingredients in there (i.e.: high fructose corn syrup, monosodium glutamate, etc.) and avoiding the really, really bad stuff like the plague to Foodies that it is, but don't be ashamed to get the cheapest, decently-made pasta sauce you can find at the market and doctor it up with some drinkable red wine.

NOTE: if you're making a meat sauce, cook the meat first and use the same pan for the sauce. That'll add in a lot of extra flavor, too.

]]><![CDATA[Cooking with Cast Iron]]>Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:06:57 GMThttp://www.localsaute.org/foodie-and-cooking-blog/cooking-with-cast-iron1

Cooking with cast iron adds awesome flavor.

Non-stick this, teflon that... whatever. Cast iron is the way to go for almost everything I cook. There are very few things that I don't cook with my trusty, perfectly-seasoned, black-as-night cast iron frying pan. Steak, fried chicken, seafood, quiche, bananas foster - you name it, I've cooked it in that bad boy and I'll never need a new pan.

I remember when I put "cast iron frying pan" on our wedding registry. My wife (then fiancee) thought I was nuts, as did everyone else who saw the list. But my sister was there for me. She saw the light (being somewhat of a Foodie herself). She remembered me talking about cast iron some time before that, so she knew I was serious when she saw it on the list, and voila! My new wife and I were on our way to culinary bliss.

While I'm not blessed with a cast iron skillet that was handed down from generation to generation in our family, I am blessed nonetheless. When I bust that old clanker out in front of guests, they ask me what I'm gonna do with it. My typical answer is, "There ain't nothin'' you can't cook in one of these! Now STAND BACK!" For the sake of blogging, I'll specify:

Steak: There are few things better than searing a steak on both sides in a cast iron pan, then throwing it straight into the oven to finish. The browning of the steak is almost always perfect which locks in all the juices. Then it's up to the oven to not screw things up. (See also pork chops)

Fried Chicken: Really, if you use anything other than cast iron for fried chicken, you're going straight to hell. Seriously. I don't make the rules, I just live by 'em.

Bacon: Now, I'll be the first to admit that bacon is good from any cooking vessel, but for some reason, the seasonings on the cast iron pan just make it that much better. Maybe it's the seasonings combined with the perfect heat distribution of cast iron and the little elements of added crust throughout each piece of thick bacon. Whatever it is, if it makes bacon better, it has to be the perfect cooking vessel.

Gravy: A lot of people make gravy in a saucepan - one that's usually not made of cast iron. Now, I'm talking about a cast iron frying pan here, and, yes, I still make gravy in it. Making the roux in a cast iron frying pan first - especially out of that bacon grease you just got from all that super-perfect bacon - makes gravy better than anything else in the kitchen.

If you don't have a cast iron frying pan, go get one. If you can, get one at a yard sale or an estate sale - one that's already black as can be. You can still season your own new pan like I had to, but I'm tellin' ya, you've got 4 or 5 meals at least before you start getting that culinary bliss that you can only get from good, used, seasoned, and ultra-blackened cast iron.

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