Laurie Smith

Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

Oh, baby, it's hot out there! And the rising temperature surge signifies the start of outdoor barbecues, grilling season and burgers. "Our partners in food love, urbanalmanac.com, made this recipe using Marczyk-made fresh mozzarella, which is just amazing stuff," says Barb, adding that "until real fresh tomatoes come in locally, this is a great way to get a rich tomato taste."

See also:
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Stracotto
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Coq au vin
- What's cooking? Pete Marczyk goes New Mex in the city with green chile

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Frank Bonanno

Frank Bonanno still spends most of his time in the kitchen, cooking, hanging out with his chefs and, when the moods strikes, engaging them in battle -- in this case, a burger battle. Yesterday, Bonanno, who owns Mizuna, Bones, Luca d'Italia, Osteria Marco, Lou's Food Bar, Bonanno Brothers Pizzeria, Wednesday's Pie, Russell's Smokehouse, Green Russell and Vesper Lounge, corralled several of the chefs from Vesper, Mizuna, Luca and Bones into the Vesper kitchen -- and challenged them to eat a Juicy Lucy burger, a two-patty bomb encased with melted cheese that allegedly originated at Matt's Bar in Minneapolis.

See also:
- Exclusive first look: Frank Bonanno's Vesper Lounge opens tonight
- Denver's ten best burgers
- Hey, glutton: Can you tackle Denver's beastiest food challenges?

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Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

Pete and Barb don't always cook dinner at their house -- sometimes they enjoy the luxury of having someone else cook for them, which was the case earlier this week. "Pete and I had dinner at Peter and Kristen Park's house -- they're good friends of ours from Milwaukee -- and in addition to her amazing fried chicken and French fries, Kristen also made an orzo salad that was terrific," says Barb. "As summer starts to unfurl, orzo salads are a must-have at most barbecues," she adds, "and this one takes it up a notch with a little sharpness from the feta, a little sweet from the currants and the pesto, which just makes it all come together."

See also:
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Stracotto
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Coq au vin
- What's cooking? Pete Marczyk goes New Mex in the city with green chile

More »

Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

If you've wandered around the produce section of the markets lately, then you already know it's prime season for Vidalia onions, those sweet, mild, yellow crops that have a relatively short shelf life but give food a long blast of mellow flavor. The official Georgia state vegetable, which can only be grown in a twenty-county production area in and around Vidalia, Georgia, in order to legally wear the Vidalia label, has its share of copycats, but none that rival the original. And, in fact, under Georgia's 1986 Vidalia Onion Act, abuse of the Vidalia name can amount to a fine of up to $20,000. "That's pride of place," says Barb. "I like this recipe because it sounds a little trashy, with its Ritz crust and all, but, hey, let's face it: Sometimes trashy food is delicious," she admits.

See also:
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Stracotto
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Coq au vin
- What's cooking? Pete Marczyk goes New Mex in the city with green chile

More »

Whitney Ariss

Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

There's a huge difference between instant grits and the real thing, and for the real thing, there are no better grits than Anson Mill products. Marcyk's is the only retailer in Denver that pimps Anson Mill products, because, says Barb, the company only sells wholesale. "We have to bag and labels all their products, which is a bit of a pain in the fanny but their products really are amazing," she adds. Whitney Ariss, who works at Marczyk's and "is a jack of all trades," notes Barb, came up with this recipe, which utilizes blue corn grits and shrimp, although if you prefer a vegetarian dish, you can eliminate the shrimp completely and skip those steps in the recipe. "Everything comes together in one incredibly colorful, comforting, warm bowl, and I can't think of anything that tastes more perfect on a blustery spring evening," says Ariss.

See also:
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Stracotto
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Coq au vin
- What's cooking? Pete Marczyk goes New Mex in the city with green chile

More »

Flickr

Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

It's a good day to stay home...and bake a cake, and this recipe for lemon pound cake, an adaption from a recipe on southernliving.com, will make your kitchen smell like spring, despite another dump of white powder. "As I walked through the kitchen today, someone was squeezing lemons to make our lemon pound cake, and even though it's snowing, spring will return this weekend, and this lovely lemon layer cake with lemon curd and a lemon cream cheese frosting embodies everything I love about the season" says Barb, who recommends pairing the cake with a glass of cold milk.

See also:

- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Stracotto
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Coq au vin
- What's cooking? Pete Marczyk goes New Mex in the city with green chile

More »

The Taste of Vail, a multi-day food and wine festival that uncorks each year in Vail Village and on Vail Mountain, is still -- even after 23 years -- one of the state's most fantastic culinary spring flings. Herewith, a few observations and photos from the weekend revelry.

See also:
- Slide show: Taste of Vail 2013
- Wine tastings, a mountaintop picnic and a lamb cook-off at the Taste of Vail
- Eat, drink and soak up the scenery at the Taste of Vail

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Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

While the weather promises to warm up, there are plenty of lurking drifts of snow to remind us that it's still winter, and winter weather begs for hearty suppers -- in this case, stracotto, an Italian pot roast. "Although Italians don't use short ribs as we know them, they work beautifully for this treatment," says Barb, noting that the ribs "need to be cooked long and slow for everything to meld together in a delicious way." For variety, she adds, "you can pull the meat off the bone and add it to a pasta sauce, or stuff it into peppers and roast it in the oven." Barb recommends pairing the dish, brightened with gremolata, with a bottle of Sangiovese, particularly the Primaterra Sangiovese, which is currently available at Marczyk's Fine Wines for $9.99. "It's a light and bright pour at a great price," she says.

See also:
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Stifado
- Denver Yelp reviews: Pete Marczyk reads Marczyk Fine Foods' strangest on video

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A few weeks ago, when I interviewed Patxi Axpiroz, the chef-owner of Patxi's Pizza, our conversation moved from pizza to balls -- meatballs, of course, which are popping up on menus at several local restaurants, including Cafe Bar, Gaetanos, Slotted Spoon and Spuntino. Some of those meatballs are funky and modern (look to the Slotted Spoon for proof), but the meatballs at Patxi's are nostalgically classic. "Our meatballs are rich, flavorful, satisfying and, well, amazing," says Azpiroz, who was willing to share his recipe. "Treat your sausage and beef with tender care in order to create delicate balls, and be careful not to overwork the mixture, otherwise they'll become tough when they're cooked," he advises.

See also:
- Patxi Azpiroz, chef of Patxi's Pizza, on eating fried worms and pesto pizza proposals
- Round two with Patxi Azpiroz, exec chef of Patxi's Pizza
- First look: Patxi's Pizza will start flipping pies in Cherry Creek on Monday

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Joy, the baker

Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

Despite the fact that Valentine's Day is behind is -- and you've no doubt stomached enough chocolate to last until Christmas -- Barb insists that chocolate is a year-round habit. "Just because Valentine's Day has come and gone, you'd think we'd be done with it for a while, but for me the opposite is true," she admits, adding that she "just wants more -- and mostly in the form of a cake." Pete, she notes, "doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, so it falls on me to eat most of a chocolate cake, and I do a pretty good job with it." And this recipe for chocolate bundt cake, she promises, is the perfect finale to any dinner, especially if you pair it with a cold glass of milk.

See also:
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Stifado
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Coconut-curried chicken soup
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Preserved plum and goat cheese pissaladière

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