Dancing Spoon

About Ashley Bartner

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Meet Ashley Bartner
Ashley Bartner is living the foodie dream in Italy. Together with her Chef-husband, Jason, they own and run La Tavola Marche, an organic farm, inn, and cooking school in Central Italy's region of Le Marche. We're very excited that Ashley is now sharing her foodie dream with us, as a contributing writer, here on Dancing Spoon.

I live in Piobbico, Italy (population 2,000 - on a busy day), in the little known region of Le Marche, with my husband Jason, where we are the only “americani” for miles and miles! Jason and I live in a 300-year old stone farmhouse, run an inn, cooking school, and organic farm!

Two years ago we made a life changing decision and left the “daily grind” of New York City for the Italian countryside! After falling in love with Italy on our honeymoon in 2006, and with no kids or mortgage, we took the risk of our lives and opened an agriturismo with a small osteria and a cooking school run by Jason, who was previously an Executive Chef in Manhattan. Our little slice of paradise is an old restored stone farmhouse with five huge guest apartments surrounded by over 500 acres of farmland, rolling hills, and truffle rich woods.

We knew we wanted to run an agriturimo and cooking school as we had stayed at numerous other agriturismo's throughout Italy and enjoyed the atmosphere of vacationing on a working farm. La Tavola Marche is founded on our feelings that food is the most accessible, unique, and enjoyable way to get to know a new destination. Culinary experiences not only enhance traveler’s enjoyment through pleasing their taste buds, but also allow for an immediate immersion into the local culture. Plus, when we travel, that is our most favorite part — eating our way through every city, state, and country!

We love to share the simplicity of  Italian cooking, taking the freshest possible ingredients and preparing them simply. What a great vacation, to stay in a relaxing beautiful setting, learn to prepare this delicious food, and take home more than just memories: the ability to recreate a bit of Italy at home. And Italians do this best — celebrating life at every meal!

I am excited to share with you, Dancing Spoon readers, all the pleasures of the table: growing, cooking, eating and celebrating food! Tutti a tavola - everyone to the table!

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Ashley Bartner is living the foodie dream in Italy. Together with her Chef-husband Jason, they own and run La Tavola Marche an organic farm, inn and cooking school in Central Italy's region of Le Marche. In her  column Delicious Italy, Ashley shares the secrets of the Italian kitchen with local seasonal Italian recipes, organic gardening tips, food festivals and markets, day trips in Le Marche, Tuscany, Umbria and beyond! Celebrating life at every meal, from the farm to the table. What better way to know a culture but through its food! Ashley is a proud member of Slow Food both in The United States and Italy, and only cooks/serves what is in season and locally grown, supporting the local economy. La Tavola Marche

Jason is a professional Chef with years of experience as an Executive Chef in New York City and Italy. Ashley is a host-extraordinaire and writer for Italia! Magazine.
Follow their adventures on their lively blog: La Tavola Marche Blog

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Foodie's Emporium is an Amazon Pro Merchant!

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Anna Tourkakis

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Anna Tourkakis, DTR, MPA/H
Anna's column on Dancng Spoon, Tasty Tips, combines nutrition, cooking tips, and great, healthy recipes. Anna is a Nutrition Counselor, a teacher and an international expert in healthy eating habits. She has been teaching healthy eating and nutrition for over 20 years. Her rapidly expanding program “Eating From Within” provides ideas on meal planning, food choices and physical activity, habits and satiety. She details these ideas in her presentation “Pieces to a Healthy Weight—Solving the Puzzle” which is part of her workplace wellness program.    

Anna teaches nutrition to foodservice professionals at North Shore Community College in Danvers, MA, and gives cooking demonstrations and healthy eating related presentations. She prepares quick, easy, healthy, and delicious meals that are versatile and family friendly. Her passion for healthy nutrition and great food is highlighted in her recipes.

Anna offers personal and corporate nutrition consulting services, including presentations on “Pieces to a Healthy Weight,” “Modifying Recipes,” “Food and Fitness,” and “Women’s Wellness” among others.

Anna is a Diet Technician Registered, member of the American Dietetic Association, and the Massachusetts Dietetic Association. She holds a Master Degree in Public Administration, concentration in Health.

Anna is available for cooking demonstrations and individual and group nutrition counseling.

Anna's new cookbook Delicious Simplicity is now available. It's packed with quick-and-easy recipes, Delicious Simplicity is your go-to cookbook for scrumptious meals. Save time and money while preparing delectable recipes that make nutritious eating in your busy life practical. Buy Delicious Simplicity.

Anna Q. Tourkakis, DTR, MPA
Nutrition Consultant
Questions or comments?

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About Gavan Murphy

Irishman The Healthy

Gavan Murphy aka the Healthy Irishman Chef Gavan Murphy began his culinary adventure in his native Ireland, graduating in 1994 from the Ballymaloe Cookery School in the lush, rolling countryside of East Cork. The school is situated in the middle of its very own 100-acre semi-organic farm. It was there that Gavan became acquainted with organics and developed an appreciation for a healthier approach to cooking.

Following his training he began working in a number of highly acclaimed restaurants throughout the emerald isle.  Eventually he branched out to London, England where he gained more experience in cooking fresh seafood, landing a chef position at the acclaimed Scott’s Restaurant Oyster Terrace and Bar in Mayfair, London.

In 2000, his journey took him across the pond to California where his interest in health and nutrition flourished, naturally merging with his cooking experience. Los Angeles, being the Mecca of health and fitness, became the perfect destination for Gavan to continue his career. In conjunction with working for a number of prestigious L.A. based catering companies, Gavan was hired as a consulting chef on the body-for-life program for EAS, a multi-national sports and nutrition company, as well as personal chef to Cindy Crawford who was following the BFL program.

The Season of Apples

by J. Michael Wheeler

While L.A. has many food trends and fads and flash-in-the-pan food movements, it doesn’t have what one would call food traditions. It certainly doesn’t have seasonal food traditions (excluding the candy season of Halloween) because it doesn’t really have seasons. I was born and raised there, and until I moved to Boston, I didn’t know from strawberry-season, or maple syrup-season, or apple-picking-season. In L.A., it seemed there was always corn or strawberries or apples. And they always tasted the same. Kind of “what’s the big deal?” flavored.

New England, on the other hand, has seasons. Like those short couple of weeks in the spring when you can get fiddlehead ferns. I cook them up like asparagus and they are a real treat. Blackberries and strawberries are here and gone. We have wild raspberry bushes right in our yard: each summer they explode with fruit and there is nothing better than munching on a handful of sun-warmed berries. Except picking a bucketful and making a pie. Off the coast of Maine, for only a few months of the year, are caught the most delicious, small, sweet shrimp. And of course the fall brings Apple Picking Season.

Blue Nuns: A Foodie’s Profile 1

Foodie About a

by J. Michael Wheeler

Blue Nuns and Coors Beer
I began my creative life as a writer. I wrote fiction for five years and during that time I was a very successful bartender; my writing, not so. I had begun tending bar at the end of my second year in college in San Diego. Soon my college studies and restaurants found an inevitable synchronicity: I had just discovered the writers based in the Parisian café life of the 1920’s (think Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast) and I was introduced to the world of food at the restaurants where I worked. And suddenly my path became clear: with Hemingway as my guide I’d write short declarative sentences and eat at well-lit Parisian tables.

Gloria Bakst

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Gloria Bakst has created hundreds of recipes and has taught cooking classes for the last 20 years. Her recipes are fast, easy, delicious, and perfectly geared for today's busy lifestyles.

Her recipes and Gloria's approach to a balanced lifestyle have been published by McGraw Hill in her book, ZonePerfect Cooking Made Easy. Her recipes have appeared in the Weight Watchers' Grilling Cookbook, Weight Watchers Meals in Minutes Cookbooks, The Jewish Vegetarian Year Cookbook, and The Healing the Heart Cookbook.

Gloria’s menus are always healthy and nutritious with an emphasis on flavor, freshness, and sophisticated tastes.

Have questions or comments?  . To learn more about Gloria and her nutritional coaching go to her web site at Balanced Nutritional Lifestyles.

If you like Gloria's recipes, you can purchase her book here.
ZonePerfect Cooking Made Easy, by Gloria Bakst

 

 

David Haley

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Any fool can buy good wine: just open your wallet and dig deep. But how do you find those little gems that won’t break the bank?

As president of Haley Marketing Group, a New England based wine brokerage, David Haley travels to wine regions around the world to discover exceptional wine values. (He calls it work, but that’s debatable.) His background in wine spans sixteen years in the wholesale and wine import business with some of the most prestigious importers in America.

David is our guide in our continuing exploration of wine. He’ll help us find exceptional wine values at an all price levels. And he’ll offer insights into our relationship with wine as part of our culture.

David encourages you to share your wine finds and wine experiences with him. Contact David with questions, comments or suggestions at  .

Andy King

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Andy King is the co-owner, with his wife Jackie, of A&J King Artisan Bakers in Salem,  MA. He is a graduate of Colby College in Waterville, ME, and the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier,  VT. While working in establishments such as Arrows Restaurant (Ogunquit, ME) and the Standard Baking Co. (Portland, ME), Andy was the food writer for the Portland Phoenix, and contributed to Downeast Magazine, The Food Network, and Bon Appetit magazine. A&J King Artisan Bakers opened in June of 2006. The couple currently resides in Topsfield, MA with their daughter, Emaline, and their dog, Griffon.

Fiona Barrett

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Fiona Barrett is a certified Holistic Health Counselor trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City, accredited by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. She creates unique nutrition and life style programs to help you personally discover what nourishes and feeds you to live an energized and passionate life! Fiona was born in England and now lives and practices in the greater Boston area.

For more information go to www.fionabarrett.com or contact Fiona at

Elaine Chu

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Elaine Chu has spent the past 25 years traveling to over 79 countries, eating her way through cities and villages, from the most famous restaurants in Paris to single-table street kitchens on the banks of the Yangtze River. In addition to just outright enjoying food, Elaine connects to real life and people through native cuisine and its associated traditions.