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 ...

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 ...

Arguably, French gastronomy is the most influential of European culinary traditions. The French invented haute cuisine, then turned everything upside-down and re-invented itself with nouvelle cuisine — a simpler, lighter approach with an emphasis on fresh ingredients and presentation. All of this tradition and innovation was supported and promoted by another French invention: the highly influential Michelin Guide and its star-rating system. Even in our everyday language, French words like  cuisine ,  gourmet ,  récipé , and  bon appétit  are universally understood and associated with good food. This fall, join us as we do a deep dive into French cuisine and survey all the deliciousness that France has to offer, region by region. We'll start in Burgundy wine country where we'll learn how to cook with wine. Next, we'll taste the Mediterranean-style Provençal cuisine from the south of France where bouillabaisse and ratatouille were invented. Lastly, we'll head ...

As of right now, there's only one seat left for this Sunday's " Persian Royal Feast " pop-up dinner ( reserve now if you've got Sunday night open). We're taking August off, but starting in September, we will be back on schedule with our monthly Sunday night pop-ups. On September 25, we'll be going to Spain to celebrate the annual Paella Festival in Valencià . Traditionally cooked outdoors over an open fire, paella is a Mediterranean rice dish that's especially popular during holidays and celebrations all over the world. At our Sunday night banquet, we will be cooking up a big batch of seafood paella along with a few other popular Spanish side dishes. Kilya, our mixologist will also be creating a variety of sangria for your tasting pleasure. On October 27, we will be going to Oaxaca, Mexico, to celebrate Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), an ancestral festival with deep roots in ancient civilizations like the Aztecs. A special menu of unusual ...

A couple of months ago, we visited France for the first time. Of course we spent some time in Paris, but we also visited the Alsace region and the city of Lyon -- also known as the gastronomic capital of France. But the highlight of the trip was a week-long riverboat cruise with a French company called  CroisiEurope  where we ate amazing French food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. Hanging out with French people meant that we also indulged in wine for lunch  and  dinner. And since this was a French boat, all the champagne and cognac we could drink was also included. This was indeed foodie heaven! One of my favorite pastimes is to recreate dishes I've enjoyed when traveling and eating out, and this trip was no exception. I've already started experimenting and testing recipes, and by this fall, I will be ready to share the results of my research. So join us as we go on a deep dive into French cuisine at Harvest Market's demo kitchen . and survey all ...

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 artistical...

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...

  I'm happy to announce that Harvest Market has invited me to teach a series of classes in their demo kitchen located in the upstairs mezzanine of Champaign flagship store. Affectionately called "The Nook," their instructional and educational kitchen has a new director and she is planning a full calendar of events in the upcoming months. Sirisha Bhandaru is up first with an Easy Indian Cooking class on June 6, then Sue Tiger is up next with  Canning 101  on June 13. My Thai cooking class follows on June 27.  Thai cuisine is a harmonious blend of flavors, textures, and aromas that always taste fresh. Sweet, sour, salty, and spicy flavors are combined to create unbelievably mouth-watering taste experiences that come alive when properly balanced. Our tasting menu for the evening will consist of three easy-to-make Thai favorites. Do come hungry and thirsty because the tuition includes Thai beer tastings a special welcome cocktail. Here's what's on the menu:...