It's July, which means basil harvest season is already here. If we were in Genoa, Italy, it would be time to take our bountiful basil harvest and make a big batch of fresh pesto sauce right now. Genoa is a major trading port on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in northwestern Italy. Located next to Tuscany, Genoa is also where pesto was invented. Harkening back to ancient Roman times, garlic, cheese, and herbs have been pounded into a paste that eventually evolved into the modern version of pesto — a raw sauce that demands the freshest of ingredients. At tonight's Taste of Genoa  cooking class, we'll learn how to make fresh pesto using just-harvested local basil, fresh garlic, and Italian extra virgin olive oil. We'll use our raw pesto sauce in every dish on tonight's special Mediterranean menu which includes the world-famous Pizza Pesto Genovese. Register here: www.goharvestmarket.com/event/cooking-with-paul-young-taste-of-genoa . All my Harvest Market

Last week, Heather Roberts  invited me back to do another cooking demo on her locally produced lifestyle show called  ciLiving  on WCIA. I chose to showcase a new French recipe I developed based on a dish we ate on our recent trip to France (also see my France travel blog ).  On this trip, we booked a 6-day riverboat cruise with a French company called CroisiEurope and they had a great chef onboard. We ate the best gourmet French food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for a week. And we wine for lunch and dinner. And all the champagne and cognac we could drink. It was foodie heaven! Our onboard chef was a big fan of nouvelle cuisine,  which has been all the rage in France since the 1970s. Popularized by Chef Paul Bocuse of Lyon, this cuisine is more of a philosophy than a style of cooking. Using high quality ingredients, simple cooking methods, and beautiful presentations, every dish we ate on the cruise was artistically plated, creatively garnished, and ta

The eighth season of the "Flavor Principles of Ethnic Cooking" classes is in full swing, and Greek cuisine is next. On July 11, we will be cooking up a 4-course meze dinner of all vegetarian dishes. If you love garlic, then this wonderful Mediterranean cuisine is for you. What makes Greek food so tasty is the heavenly combination of olive oil, fresh lemon juice, fresh garlic, and lots of herbs. Our master recipe this evening is an extremely versatile Greek vinaigrette dressing which we will use in all of our dishes. By the end of the class, you will be able to make almost anything taste Greek. Here's our menu for the evening: Ladolemono (Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette) (Master Recipe) Horiatiki (Greek Village Salad) Melitzanosalata (Eggplant Dip) Spanikopita (Spinach Pie) Dolmades (Stuffed Grape Leaves) Wine, beer, and Ouzo sampling  All my cooking classes are for adults and the tuition includes a multi-course dinner complete with wine, beer, and/or

Our monthly Sunday night pop-up dinners continue in July at a new venue -- the Harvest Market upstairs demo kitchen. Affectionately named "The Nook," this ultramodern space has a giant kitchen counter island that is perfect for both cooking and eating. With this pop-up event, we are inaugurating a new series called "Chef's Table" where 10 special guests are invited to a front-row seat right at the kitchen counter, where you can watch your dinner being prepared in front of your eyes. Each dish will be presented by the chef with notes on ingredients, preparation, and flavor profiles, as well as background information about its cultural history. Cooking techniques and modern shortcuts will also be discussed, and all your questions will be answered. Persian cuisine is steeped in thousand-year-old traditions from an ancient empire that connected India and China with the West along the silk road. Famous for its creative use of spices like saffron, cardamom, and dr