Join Sauce Magazine, in partnership with Left Bank Books, for the latest Sauce Celebrity Chef Series event with chef Marcus Samuelsson! Samuelsson is the award-winning chef-owner of Red Rooster Harlem as well as several other restaurants in New York and Stockholm, Sweden. During his impressive career, he has written four cookbooks, received the James Beard Foundation’s coveted Rising Star Chef Award and won Bravo’s Top Chef Masters. Chef Samuelsson will chat with the audience over dinner as he discusses and signs his new memoir, Yes, Chef.

Tickets, available here, are $80 and include a 3-course dinner with wine and beer along with a signed copy of Samuelsson’s memoir, Yes, Chef.

What: Dinner, conversation, reading and book signing with chef Marcus Samuelsson

When: Monday, June 3 – 6 to 10 p.m.

Where: Monarch Private Event Space, 7401 Manchester Road, St. Louis, 314.769.9595

Seating is limited. This event will sell out!

Food enthusiasts, mark your calendars! Cochon and the James Beard Celebrity Chef Tour are both coming to St. Louis this year. This marks the first time that the pork-tacular Cochon will hit the Gateway City, and the second time in two years that St. Louis has landed on the Celebrity Chef Tour circuit.

Founded in 2008, Cochon is a national event series focused around heritage breed hogs. Cochon brings the public in conversation with top chefs, farmers and others in the food community who support a more sustainable food system.

Cochon-St. Louis will be held Sunday, August 25, at the Four Seasons, St. Louis and hosted by Cochon founder Brady Lowe. Participating chefs include: Fabrizio Schenardi (executive chef of the Four Seasons, St. Louis), Kevin Nashan (chef-owner of Sidney Street Cafe), Kevin Willmann (chef-owner of Farmhaus), Gerard Craft (chef-owner of Niche, Brasserie, Taste and Pastaria), and a mystery guest – a celebrated chef from outside of St. Louis – whose identity will be revealed at a later date. A total of 550 tickets will be available for this event. ***Update: Tickets are now available for purchase and cost $125 for general admission and $200 for VIP. Find them here.***

Looking for a more intimate Cochon experience? On Saturday, August 24, the Four Seasons is hosting a special meet and greet dinner at the hotel’s fine dining restaurant Cielo, which will feature dishes prepared by Lowe, Schenardi and the mystery chef. The four-course, all-inclusive meal costs $85 a person. To nab one of the 100 seats available for this event, make a reservation at Cielo.

The Celebrity Chef Tour is an on-the-road version of a dinner at the James Beard House, which is the “perfomance space” in New York City for visiting chefs. Last year, the event took place at Sidney Street Cafe. This year, the Four Seasons will host the event, slated for Thursday, September 19. Although the lineup of the seven or eight participating chefs is still being finalized, the following chefs are confirmed: Fabrizio Schenardi, Kevin Nashan, Kevin Willmann, Lou Rook (chef of Annie Gunn’s), Mark Richardson (executive chef for the Four Seasons, San Francisco and former chef of the now defunct Aujourd’hui in Boston) and Jeffrey Wurtz (executive pastry chef at Le Cirque in New York City). Tickets for the all-inclusive dinner cost $160 a person and will be available for purchase here. Approximately 170 tickets, which go on sale in late April, are available for the event.

An added bonus will be a cocktail reception held Wednesday, September 18, on the terrace of the Four Seasons Hotel. Tickets are $65 a person and include an evening of cocktails, wine and appetizers while you mingle with the participating celebrity chefs. A total of 125 tickets are available for the event. Reserve yours now by calling Cielo.

If you’re anything like us, Deb Perelman is no stranger to your kitchen. We’ve been following the home cook behind the celebrated food blog Smitten Kitchen for years. So when we found out that Perelman was going to be featured in our Sauce Celebrity Chef Series next month, where she’d be demonstrating recipes from her new The Smitten Cookbook and enjoying lunch, we couldn’t hold back our excitement. We quickly set up an interview to chat with Perelman about everything Smitten Kitchen. Read on to see what she had to say about finding inspiration, writing tips for aspiring bloggers and her own celebrity moment.

Apparently, you couldn’t hold back your Smitten Kitchen excitement either, as Perelman’s Sauce Celebrity Chef Series sold out in mere days! Wasn’t able to snag a ticket to the event? You can still catch Perelman as she signs her cookbook at the downtown location of Left Bank Books on March 1 at 7 p.m. And keep an eye out for the blog next month as we cook from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook and give a copy away to one lucky reader in our By the Book column.

I noticed there isn’t a lot of overlap between your blog and your book.
I was very concerned that the book would be a value for people who have read the blog for a long time. If it was all the same or sounded the same – well, people have been getting that for free. So I decided that no more than 15 percent of the blog could be in the book, I wanted to make it overwhelmingly new. And I stuck with that.

Did you choose the most popular items from the blog as part of the 15 percent?
[Laughs]. No, or else they would all be chocolate and peanut butter. I chose recipes that best fit the section that I was working on. Like my favorite way to prepare broccoli and my mom’s apple cake – recipes I just wanted people to have.

Going back to chocolate and peanut butter. The first thing I ever made from your blog was your recipe for chocolate peanut butter cake. I made it for a party, and I must say, the compliments I received on that thing truly made me feel like a capable cook for the very first time.
I think that cake was the first thing that broke my server. Sometimes it takes things like peanut butter cake to realize that you need a better server.

It’s so impressive to find great photography, writing and cooking all in one. Were you interested in one before the other? Or did they build off of each other?
Well, my photography comes third and writing second. I’m always been interested in artsy fartsy things; I love taking pictures; I take them of everything. I love Instagram, and I’ve always enjoyed writing – it was never hard for me – but the cooking is my love.

Where do you get your inspiration for the recipes you create?
Mostly cravings. It starts with being hungry. But it also starts with being out somewhere and having something I like or don’t like and figuring out how I might change it. Or if I find a combo I love, but the preparation is really fussy, I wonder if there is a way to pare it down. Or just from things I’ve always wanted to make – like how could you combine the tastes of hummus and carrots? And then figuring it out.       

Any books that you go to for inspiration?
I know it’s an obvious answer but Mastering the Art of French Cooking [by Julia Child]. Onions seem so boring, but browned onions are amazing. The book takes the simplest ingredients and then lovingly coaxes out the most intense deliciousness out of them.

Along with your great recipes, I think one reason people are so attracted to your blog and book is for your writing. Any tips?
I like a voice that is not too writerly but natural. At first, it’s hard not to sound like other people’s ideas of what you should be – you paint in a way you were taught to paint. Finding your voice is a process; it’s not like one day you achieve it. You gradually become more comfortable putting your mark on it. I don’t have a proper writing background, so I just try to write how I speak – for it to sound like a conversation. I like to picture my mom talking on the phone with a long yellow cord that stretched across the kitchen so that she could talk to a friend while cooking. Recipe writing has always been very succinct, write as little as possible, but rather than three sentences, sometimes mine can be three paragraphs. When you are a nervous cook, it helps to have description. I like to know that the dough is supposed to be sticky or that it will taste too salty but will turn out all right.

I love that you stress the everyday ingredients, so that a home cook doesn’t need to break the bank when buying ingredients, but do you have a favorite luxury ingredient?
I have a bunch. If I’m making a spinach quiche with four other ingredients, that’s a good time to use frozen spinach, but if it’s for a delicate salad and it’s the main ingredient, that would be a good time to splurge and get the best from the market. I think good recipes should transcend good ingredients, but it’s also about figuring out when it’s worth it to splurge. Like I have a workday olive oil for something like cooking an egg, but then I also have a really nice olive oil that I use for finishing. I mostly work with regular unfancy butter, but I love the European stuff with higher butterfat. But why make a layer cake with the most expensive butter? Save that for when you’re really going to taste it.

How much do you have to adjust your cooking now that you have a 3-year-old son?
It changes every week. In the last two weeks, my son has wanted to help me cook which has seemed to make him more excited about eating, but I say that and last night he helped and then he only ate one bite. I have two kinds of cooking now, and they don’t always overlap. Where most of my recipes come from is when I’m wondering what will happen when I make this with this and that – my experimental cooking. With a kid though, we have to put out proper meals. Before my son, it was, ‘Oh honey, I just made this carrot soup, let’s eat it for dinner with a hunk of bread.’ But if I do that now, my son will probably just skip the soup, eat the bread and then I haven’t really fed him properly. I started to have dinner panic around his first birthday. But you figure it out. The tricky thing for me is to stay inspired and to not have to cook the same-old, same-old.

I always think my future children will never be the kids who only eat mac n’ cheese, but I have a feeling I’m going to be completely humbled.
We all are. And nobody’s failing. If that’s what the kid wants to eat, they are going to be fine. I try to find something in the middle. For each meal I try to do a carb, a protein, a cold veg and a cooked veg, and I try to make only one a little scary.

Your blog has been successful for a while, but now with the book, have you had any celebrity moments?
[Laughs] Today, actually. I was at coffee with a friend; we go to this place all the time, and I was sitting by the window and this girl walked by, stopped, and whispered that she knew who I was. I was a little embarrassed. It’s okay though. The people who do come up to me have all been very normal, very nice people – I like it, I really do. Sometimes I forget this will happen, until it does again.

With the success of your cookbook, are you planning on keeping the blog going?
Yes. Forever if I can. As long as it’s fun and enjoyable, and there’s stuff to put up there. My plan is to keep making the site as good as I can. 

— photos courtesy of Deb Perelman

Bravo TV’s Top Chef is on the road again. The popular “cheftestant” showdown hit the road in May for its fifth annual mobile tour, and St. Louis is the final stop on a 15-city circuit that features a live, interactive cook-off between two former Top Chef contestants in front of fans and a panel of judges.

On Saturday, June 30 at Soulard Farmers Market, chefs Edward Lee and Kenny Gilbert will go head-to-head in a culinary battle for area fans. Lee, who appeared on the cable show in Season 9, is the chef-owner of 610 Magnolia in Louisville, Ky., and a 2011 James Beard Foundation Award finalist in the Best Chef: Southeast category. Gilbert, corporate chef of 50 Eggs Restaurant Group in Miami, appeared on the show in Season 7. The free event will also include games, prizes and opportunities to meet both Lee and Gilbert.

Pre-registration tickets are gone, but walks-ins are still welcome. Just show up the day of the event, when remaining seats will be available on a first come, first-serve basis. Demo times are 10:30 a.m., noon and 1:30 p.m. More information about Top Chef: The Tour 2012 is available on Bravo’s website.

— Images courtesy of Bravo

I tend to leave grilling for someone else; the whole “getting the coals hot” during an endless St. Louis summer has always sounded like a sweaty pain. But Memorial Day was approaching, barbecue legend Adam Perry Lang was coming to town for Sauce’s Celebrity Chef Series and learning to grill just seemed appropriate. I decided it was now or never.

To me, barbecuing has always had this manly connotation. Of course, my unwillingness to step up to the grill has only helped perpetuate this stereotype. So I figured if I was learning to grill, I might as well go dramatic. Enter: “The Man Steak.”

Note: Do not call your butcher and ask if he has any “man steaks” in stock because you will get laughed at – big time. Per the butcher at Straub’s suggestion, I brought Perry Lang’s new cookbook, Charred & Scruffed: Bold new techniques for explosive flavor on and off the grill, into Straub’s with me. I somewhat redeemed myself, as three butchers puzzled over Perry Lang’s beautiful photos (of an imposing, round, four-inch-thick, six-pound steak he titled the “man steak”). They conceded my confusion; Perry Lang never actually gives the cut of his steak. The butchers decided that Perry Lang intended this Fred Flintstone-esque slab of meat to be the end of sirloin with the round bone attached. Can’t find it? Don’t worry; any large cut of steak will do. Just make sure it’s thick, so the cooking methods and seasonings compute.

I ended up with a 4.22-pound cut of Top sirloin, and my results were incredible. A large steak will be pricey, but mine fed a dinner of four adults with enough for at least three more people – or a weekend of steak and eggs for my husband and me. I loved the basting brush idea, especially because I just planted an herb garden. I tied rosemary and thyme to a wooden spoon and it worked great! Bonus: My guests were very impressed.

As for the Thyme Zinfandel Salt, well, I waited until the last minute to prepare that section of the recipe, figuring, like the Four Seasons Blend, that the small amount of ingredients would be easy to throw together. Oops. No dehydrator or an extra 12 hours to spare. Instead, I threw the mixture on a pan at 450 degrees. It sort of burned, it sort of looked weird, but it tasted great. Since the salt lasts up to a month, I think it’s worth putting the time into making it properly. But if you cheat, it turns out just fine.

It wouldn’t be fair to say this was my most successful grilling moment. After all, it was my only. But after this steak, I might as well retire. I’ve peaked.

Before we get to the recipe, let us tell you how you can meet Adam Perry Lang himself. Join us this Friday, June 15 at Mike Shannon’s Steaks & Seafood as the barbecue legend discusses and signs his new book for the next installment of the Sauce Celebrity Chef Series. Local barbecue king Mike Emerson (the guy behind Pappy’s Smokehouse) will be preparing a finger-lickin’-good barbecue lunch inspired by Perry Lang’s book using local meats. Tickets include food, beer and a copy of Charred & Scruffed ready to be signed by Mr. Perry Lang. For more information and how you can nab tickets, click here.

Man Steak with Thyme Zinfandel Salt
6 to 8 Servings

1 6-lb. “man steak” or a large, thick steak
¼ cup Four Seasons Blend (recipe follows)
1 Tbsp. fleshly ground black pepper
An herb brush (directions follow)
Basic Baste made with the acid component (recipe follows)
Board Dressing (recipe follows)
Thyme Zinfandel Salt (recipe follows) for finishing or similar finishing salt

• Preheat the grill to medium-low.
• Season the beef all over with the Four Seasons Blend and black pepper, then lightly moisten your hands with water and rub the seasonings into the meat. Allow to stand for 10 minutes to develop a “meat paste.”
• Put the beef on the clean (unoiled) grill grate and cook, without moving it, for 1 minute. Turn, grabbing the bone portion with your tongs, baste with the herb brush, and cook for 1 minute. Turn the steak, baste with the herb brush, and continue to cook, turning the meat every 2 minutes or so (The Hot Potato Method*) and basting each time you flip it, for 17 more minutes. The meat may stick and tear a bit, but this is OK, even desirable – the sticking and tearing is what I call “meat scruffing.” The surface should begin to crust after scruffing. (For newer grills, where less sticking and tearing occurs, or for increased surface area, score with a knife.) Transfer the steak to a large platter and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, clean and oil the grill grate.**
• Put the steak back on the grill and cook, turning and basting it every 4 minutes, until the internal temperature registers 115 degrees on an instant-read thermometer for rare, 25 to 35 minutes.
• Meanwhile, pour the board dressing onto a cutting board (or mix it directly on the board). Finely chop the tip of the herb brush and mix the herbs into the dressing.
• Season the steak on both sides with the thyme salt, transfer to the cutting board and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
• To serve, slice the meat ¼ inch thick, turning each slice in the dressing to coat, and arrange on plates. Pour the board juices over the meat and finish with a sprinkling of the thyme salt.

* According to Perry Lang: If asked to reduce my approach to grilling to just two words, they would be ‘hot potato.’ I treat meat on the grill as if I were handling a hot potato. When it gets really hot on one side (every couple of minutes), I flip it onto the other side. This is contrary to what many chefs do as they seek to create dark grill marks, but I couldn’t care less about grill marks. I have been served plenty of food with nice grill marks that did nothing to disguise a poor cooking job and a lack of flavor and texture.

** I didn’t do this step.

Four Seasons Blend
Makes approximately 1 cup

1 cup sea or kosher salt
2 Tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. cayenne pepper

• Combine the salt, black pepper, garlic salt and cayenne in a small bowl. Transfer to a spice grinder or clean coffee grinder and pulse to the consistency of sand. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

Herb Basting Brush
Rather than using an ordinary basting brush, I prefer to make my own by securing a bunch of herb sprigs (rosemary, sage or thyme, or a combination, or other herbs, depending on what you are cooking) to a dowel, the handle of a wooden spoon or a long-handled carving fork. The herb brush flavors the baste, releases oils into the crust as it builds and eventually becomes a garnish for the Board Dressing. Plus, it looks really cool and makes people think ‘Food!’ when they see you using it.

Basic Baste
Makes approximately 4 cups (if using the acid component)

Fat Baste
1¼ cups extra-virgin olive oil
10 Tbsp. (1¼ sticks) unsalted butter
½ cup rendered fat from the meat being cooked (optional)
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. grated garlic (use a microplane) or garlic mashed to a paste
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
2 Tbsp. grated Spanish onion (use a microplane)
2 tsp. sea or kosher salt
2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. red pepper flakes

Acid Component (optional)
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup white wine vinegar

• Combine all the ingredients for the fat baste in a 2-quart saucepan and bring just to a simmer; remove from the heat. For the best flavor, refrigerate in a tightly sealed container for 1 to 2 days. (Reheat over low heat to melt the butter before using.)
• For recipes that use the optional acid component, whisk it into the fat baste before using, or reserve it to add later; as specified in the individual recipe.

Board Dressing
Combine 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, and sea or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. You can improvise here, adding grated shallots or garlic (use a microplane), finely chopped chiles, chopped scallions, and/or other chopped herbs, such as rosemary, thyme and sage. The secret flavorful last ingredient is the tip of the herb basting brush, chopped very fine and mixed into the dressing. After being in contact with the hot meat while it cooked, the rosemary, sage or thyme will have softened a bit and released some aromatic and flavorful oils. I mix the herbs into the board dressing, then slice the meat, turning each slice in the dressing. Then I pour the resulting board juices over the meat when I serve it. 

Thyme Zinfandel Salt
Makes approximately 1 cup

1 cup sea or kosher salt
1/3 cup zinfandel
1 Tbsp. dried thyme

• Combine the salt and wine in a bowl, stirring until slushy.
• Spread the salt mixture out in a thin, even layer on a parchment-lined dehydrator tray and dry in a dehydrator at 105 degrees for 12 hours. Alternatively, spread the mixture on a parchment-lined baking sheet, put in a convection oven set at the lowest setting, prop the door ajar with the handle of a wooden spoon, and let dry completely, about 12 hours.
• Finely grind in a spice grinder or clean coffee grinder and dry for another 2 hours.
• Transfer the salt mixture back to the grinder, add the dried thyme, and pulse to the consistency of sand.***
• Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month.

What’s your rule of thumb when making steak on the grill? Tell us in the comments section below for a chance to win a signed copy of Charred & Scruffed by Adam Perry Lang. We’ll announce the winner in next week’s By the Book column. And don’t forget to buy your ticket to meet Mr. Perry Lang this Friday!

And now, we’d like to congratulate Courtney, whose comment on last week’s By the Book has won her a copy of Ripe. Courtney, keep an eye out for an email from the Sauce crew.

Adam Perry Lang is Mario Batali’s “go-to-brother for meat and fire.” David Chang attests that “no one knows more about cooking food over fire” than Perry Lang. And now we get the pleasure of hearing from the grill master himself smack dab in the middle of barbecue season.

At his three restaurants in London, New York City and Las Vegas, and in his new book Charred & Scruffed: Bold new techniques for explosive flavor on and off the grill, the classically trained chef explores the meats and “co stars” we love to cook over the coals. From spackles to brines to buttery bastes, his theories and practices make barbecue a complex science. But Perry Lang breaks his process down, giving home cooks the ability to wow their friends with such dishes as smoked pork shoulder with lime coriander salt in their very own backyards.

For Sauce’s next Celebrity Chef Series presented in partnership with Left Bank Books, join us  on Friday, June 15 at Mike Shannon’s “Outfield” patio downtown from noon to 2 p.m. Get tickets here. Perry Lang will discuss his grilling techniques and sign his new book, Charred & Scruffed. Tickets, priced at $45, will include a to-be-signed copy of Charred & Scruffed and a three-course barbecue lunch prepared by Pappy’s Smokehouse’s Mike Emerson and inspired by Perry Lang’s recipes using ingredients from Rain Crow Ranch, Todd Geisert Farms and Straub’s. Varieties of Shock Top beer will be paired with each course. Gelateria del Leone is providing dessert.

Visit eventbrite.com for Adam Perry Lang tickets and more information. Seats are limited.

As the James Beard Foundation Awards were announced from New York’s Lincoln Center this evening, our local food community kept its fingers crossed in hopes that Gerard Craft, chef-owner of the Niche family of restaurants, would finally walk away with one of the culinary community’s highest honors. Unfortunately, Craft, a three-time finalist and four-time semifinalist in the foundation’s Best Chef: Midwest category, did not take home the medal. The title went to Tory Miller of L’Etoile in Madison, Wis.

Other chefs vying for the Best Chef: Midwest title were: Colby Garrelts of Bluestem in Kansas City, Mo., Justin Aprahamian of Sanford in Milwaukee, Wis., and Lenny Russo of Heartland Restaurant & Farm Direct Market in St. Paul., Minn.

— Photo by Greg Rannells

Ted Allen’s new book, In My Kitchen: 100 Recipes and Discoveries for Passionate Cooks, is for cooks “who love to cook.” From crusty baguettes and duck-fat potatoes to homemade pasta and vanilla ice cream, Allen hasn’t given us Rachel Ray-type recipes that have us in and out of the kitchen in a hop, skip and a jump. These recipes are for people who like to hang out in the kitchen.

Luckily, I fall into that latter camp. I love to cook. I am also a newly wed and have a plethora of new gadgets I want to experiment with, including an ice cream maker. I also happen to have a ton of local honey because it was my wedding favor, and now, let’s just say that I have more than I know what to do with. Putting it in some ice cream seemed like a good use – and it was.

This recipe was easy and straight-forward, an ideal way to spend a few hours in the kitchen. (Nothing’s worse than slaving over the stove just to be disappointed by your results.) The only thing missing from the instructions was the time it would take to thicken the custard until it reaches the desired consistency. For me, that was about 7 to 8 minutes.

The final product didn’t scream with honey flavor but rather tasted like a highly floral scoop of vanilla. But on a warm spring day, that was just fine with me.

Vanilla Ice Cream with Honey
Makes 1 generous quart

Of all the ways to flavor frozen cream, there is nothing more elegant or more versatile than vanilla. For a subtle but noticeable twist, Barry sweetens our batches with the light, floral, slightly minty honey from his beehive on our roof in Brooklyn. This recipe can serve as a base for many variations – two of our favorites follow. Or you can try in-season fruits or even subtle spice combinations.

3 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
½ cup honey
2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise and scraped
4 large egg yolks
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract

1. Heat the cream, milk, honey and vanilla beans and seeds in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until hot, being careful not to let the mixture boil and curdle.

2. Lightly whisk the egg yolks in a medium heatproof bowl, then slowly drizzle 1 cup of the hot cream mixture into the yolks while whisking. Pour the yolk mixutre into the saucepan of cream; heat, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens slightly and coats the back of a wooden spoon, again being careful not to let it boil and curdle. (Note: Thickening took about 7 to 8 minutes.)

3. Pour through a fine-mesh strainer to remove the vanilla beans and any bits of cooked egg yolk. Stir in the vanilla extract. Cover the custard with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, about 6 hours. You can speed this process dramatically by partially submerging the bowl of custard in a larger bowl of ice water to form an ice bath and stirring the custard occasionally until cold. The colder the custard is, the faster the machine will be able to freeze it for ice cream.

4. Follow the directions on your ice cream maker to freeze. Once the mixture is frozen, put it into the containers and allow it to “ripen” for at least 2 hours in the freezer.

Reprinted from In My Kitchen by Ted Allen with Barry Rice. Copyright (c) 2012. Photos copyright (c) 2012 by Ben Fink. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc.

Tell us about your favorite ice cream to make at home in the comments section below for a chance to win a copy of In My Kitchen.

And now, we’d like to congratulate Marina, whose comments on last week’s By the Book has won her a copy of Weeknights with Giada. Marina, keep an eye out for an email from the Sauce crew! 

When it comes to Mexican cuisine, there’s no greater authority than Diana Kennedy. Beginning with the 1972 publication of her first cookbook, The Cuisines of Mexico, and spanning through her most recent work, Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy, Kennedy has been instrumental in making authentic Mexican cooking accessible to the English-speaking world.

I was pretty excited to learn that Kennedy, a native of the U.K. who resides in Mexico, was visiting St. Louis this week. Her books are always among the first that I flip through when seeking inspiration for Mexican dishes. Tonight and Saturday afternoon, she will be at Kitchen Conservatory teaching cooking classes, something that she has done for more than 40 years. Sauce was invited – along with Local Harvest Café executive chef Clara Moore and Milagro Modern Mexican executive chef Jason Tilford – to accompany Kennedy as she shopped for the ingredients for the dishes she will prepare in these classes – and to hopefully learn a few tricks in Mexican cookery along the way.

“I’ve got to work. I have to concentrate,” Kennedy warned as we entered El Torito Supermarket on Cherokee Street, confirming what I had heard about her no-nonsense personality. First on the list: dried peppers. Kennedy spent a good 10 minutes looking for the right dried guajillo peppers and then rooted through the entire selection of whole dried arbol chile peppers seeking ones with the stems still on. The stems indicated Mexican origin, she explained. They would be a darker red color and more flavorful than de-stemed peppers.

Moving to the spice aisle, Kennedy pointed to cinnamon sticks, noting that those were the “right” kind – as opposed to the cassia bark found in most pantries. “Jason, I hope you’ve got the right cinnamon,” she said, looking at Tilford. He grabbed a bag off the spice rack. “I do now,” he replied.

Onto the produce section, where the entourage learned as much about Kennedy’s views on sustainability as her ability to pick out the choicest veggies. “We will not use plastic if we do not have to,” said Kennedy, who had brought her own shopping bags and began filling one with fresh tomatoes. “It drives me mad to go to the store and see all the plastic grocery bags. People don’t think about what they are doing to the environment.”

When Kennedy had filled the bag to what she guesstimated to be four pounds, she had Moore weigh the bag. Four pounds. “El ojo de rica,” she said of herself. “It’s a phrase [used] in Mexico that means ‘the rich woman’s eye.’ Because I said four pounds and it’s four pounds.”

After inspecting cebolla rabo (Mexican green onions) and putting a bunch in the cart, Kennedy rooted through garlic, disappointment evident in her voice. “They are probably coming from China,” she noted. “We’ll, it looks like we don’t have much choice.”

She nearly cleared out the meat case as she asked for package after package of fresh chicken giblets, chicken feet and chicken wings needed to prepare her Chicken Soup Tuxtepec, published in Oaxaca al Gusto. “I’m taking all his stuff,” she laughed, quickly turning serious with the employee as she beseeched him to use minimal plastic to wrap the fresh meat. To prepare Pork in Chile-Garlic Sauce, another dish from Oaxaca al Gusto, she was careful to select stewing pork with ample fat.

When Kennedy learned that El Torito could grind corn into masa and, upon request, even make the tortillas, she was impressed. “Oh, I’d like to see it. Just to comment on it, you know.” Upon being handed a bag of freshly made masa and sampling a pinch, she commented, “This market is good.” Good enough, in fact, that she placed an order for five dozen tortillas that she would serve at her classes.

At the checkout, the same employee charged with grinding the masa approached Kennedy with a hot, freshly made corn tortilla. “That’s such a lovely Mexican gesture,” she said between bites. “Mm. It’s got quite a bit of cal (lime powder). Delicious.”

Upon unloading her purchases into the car, I thanked Kennedy for letting me wander the aisles with her, adding that I hoped I hadn’t distracted her from her mission. She smiled and dismissed the thought with a wave of her hand, adding, “It’s a big responsibility giving a class. I want to give them their money’s worth.”

Kennedy has been giving home cooks their money’s worth for decades. And if you are among the lucky ones with a spot at Kennedy’s sold out classes at Kitchen Conservatory this week, rest assured, it will be money well spent.

No ticket? No problem. Head to Salt of the Earth, located at 8150 Big Bend Blvd., this Friday from 6 to 8 p.m., where Kennedy will be signing copies of her most recent book, Oaxaca al Gusto. Admission is free.

The Queen of Chocolate is gracing us with her presence just in time for Mother’s Day. On May 9, celebrated sweets author Alice Medrich will discuss and sign her new book, Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts, for the next installment of the Sauce Celebrity Chef Series.

Medrich has won more cookbook-of-the-year awards than any other author, including two from the James Beard Foundation. For this event, Kakao Chocolate will be making sweet treats inspired by Medrich’s new book, which simplifies dozens of her classic dessert recipes.

Ticket packages cost just $30 and include admission for two, some of those tasty Kakao confections and 1 copy of Alice’s new cookbook, which she will be discussing and signing at the event. Whether you’ve been looking for the perfect Mother’s Day gift or hoping to learn the secrets behind great baking, this is an event any dedicated sweet tooth truly shouldn’t miss.

What: Sauce Celebrity Chef Series with Alice Medrick
When: Wed., May 9 – 7 to 9 p.m.
Where: Left Bank Books, 321 N. 10th St., St. Louis, 314.436.3049, brownpapertickets.com
Cost: Tickets: $30, admission for 2, Kakao Chocolate confections, 1 copy of Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts