From book: Eating on the Wild Side
By Jo Robinson
Tomatoes: Here is what you need to know.
“Raw tomatoes are good for you but cooked tomatoes are akin to medicine. “
Cooking develops the lycopene. Just 30 minutes of cooking doubles lycopene.
I know you want to know how to choose the right tomatoes as it is the season, & I will get to that. Meanwhile, some really good news:
Reviews on Google+:
williambronx
“Grace is an excellent and innovative cook and everything she prepares is simply delicious. Her presentation is also wonderful: nothing is ever heavy-handed. She uses plants and flowers to enhance the visuals of her presentations. The result is always festive and inviting. Grace has catered several events that I attended and if I didn’t know she was the caterer, I would easily recognize her cooking and presentation. They are both winners.”
Barbara C
“Grace catered our outdoor summer wedding. The food was delicious and beautifully presented. Grace made the planning process easy and fun. I would love to use Lighten Up Caterers again!”
Amanda Beckwith
“I love the food, I love the service. Will do business again.”
Joyce Calvitti
“Much to the delight of my guests and myself, I had Grace of Lighten Up Caterering prepare the food for my annual outdoor event two years in a row. What a wonderful day her food and presence created. Her marinated portabella mushrooms and rice salad, which was made with some unique and delicious ingredients, were such a hit the first time there was a special request by several guest for an encore! Her food suggestions before hand worked perfectly into the mood and style I wanted to convey. She had no problem accommodating different palates and was sensitive to meeting the needs of those attending. Her casual yet elegant presentation was the cherry on top. I’ll soon be deciding on a date for this year and Grace will be the first call I make!”
Francesca Zambello
“I’ve been using Grace and Lighten Up Catering for years. They are dependable, and their food is wonderful. I highly recommend them for any kind of event!”
More client comments . . .
“Thank you for delivering such a wonderful culinary experience. All the guests raved about the wonderful tastes and presentation. You are truly a talent whom I would love to learn from if ever given the opportunity.” Elizabeth Ngonzi, authentic African wedding for 225 guests.
“Thank you for the wonderful effort you made for our wedding. Every part was excellent and exceeded our expectations.”
“Thank you so much for your hard work and obvious talent for creating a wonderful reception. So many guests remarked how delicious the food was [most saying it was the best they’d ever had at a wedding reception]. The flowers, the cake were gorgeous. I could go on and on……”
“You are wonderful at what you do and our wedding clearly reflected that. The food looked and tasted great. I can not tell you how many compliments we received. Thank you so much for all your hard work.”
Deliciously Unexpected Beginnings …The eggplant dip and seviche are the results of experiments by the owners of Remember Basil [now Lighten Up Caterers], an esteemed Brooklyn-based catering firm … Each of these dishes will make a lasting impression, whether it is a forerunner to a grand meal or the main culinary event of an evening’s
Remember Basil [now Lighten Up Caterers] Steps Into The Season With Bloomingdales’s Flamenco Fling New York – With Gaudi-inspired arches, roving minstrels and a out 800 guests along the B-way, Bloomingdale’s was transformed into a festive Spanish villa Wednesday night to mark the opening of it’s annual fall import event. This year’s is called “Spain:
“…Clearsen went from preparing platters for thousands of guests there to cooking gourmet meals for more intimate dinners given, she said, by the Mellon family in their New York and Cape Cod homes, and for Jacqueline Onassis. ‘Jackie liked to eat anything that had no fat at all,’ she recalled. ‘She took me on because
“…She’ll walk into trading rooms unannounced – ‘at lunchtime, when they’re in a receptive mood’ – slip back the lid of her basket and start distributing samples. ‘I look like Little Red Riding hood,’ she says, ‘but I want to get my food into people’s mouths anyway I can. Once they taste my product, I