To help promote the upcoming Paella Festival in Valencia pop-up dinner, I decided to demo how to make Gazpacho on WCIA's lifestyle show called  ciLiving . Gazpacho is a healthy chilled summer vegetable soup that requires no cooking. Most people use tomato juice as a base for Gazpacho, but if you start with V8 instead, you're already halfway there. Of course, I add more fresh veggies for both texture and nutrition.  Since Gazpacho is a tomato-based soup, it didn’t exist until the discovery of the new world where tomatoes came from. The Spanish and Portuguese brought tomatoes back to Europe in the 1400s and they were the first people to make Gazpacho. Today it is popular all around the Mediterranean and there are many different variations. You can taste this dish on September 1 when I will be making  this exact recipe  at my next pop-up dinner at Harvest Market. Gazpacho will be the first course served, but the featured main course will be my version of ...

If you missed last month's Persian pop-up dinner at Harvest Market, don't fret. There's another pop-up coming on September 1 that you might enjoy when we visit Spain to celebrate the annual Paella Festival in Valencià . But if it's Persian food that you desire, you're in luck! I'll be making the same lamb shank dish again along with the world-famous "Jeweled Rice" recipe at my Persian Classics cooking class on the on September 19. Since this a cooking class, I'll be providing recipes and demonstrating how to make these two dishes plus a luscious Persian eggplant stew. Persia (as Iran was called until the 1930s) is located at the crossroads of the East and the West. Perhaps the most ancient of Middle Eastern cuisines, the Persians like to combine herbs and spices like saffron with nuts and dried fruit to make elaborate stews and rice dishes. Join us as we cook up classic "silk road" inspired dishes that are both sophisticated and sim...

Located just east of Paris, the  Bourgogne  region is known for its rich and full-flavored dishes, creamy cheeses, Dijon mustard, and of course its world-class vineyards. Join us as we do a deep dive into French cuisine and survey all the deliciousness that France has to offer, region by region. At our first stop on Wednesday, September 11, we'll cook up a multi-course French dinner featuring all French classics made famous in Burgundy wine country. Of course, each course will also be paired with imported French wines from the region. Here's what's on the menu: Escargots à la Bourguignonne (snails in butter) Coq au Vin (chicken braised with red wine) Selection of cheeses Crème Brûlée (baked custard) This  Classic Burgundy Wine Country Cuisine  class is the first in a series of three "deep dive" French cooking classes in Harvest Market's modern demonstration kitchen. A couple of months ago, we ate our way through France and I'm now a huge ...