Bill Hughes is one man who has seen many levels of the San Francisco Bay Area food world: as a retailer of both kitchenware and food lines, as a wholesale food manufacturer, cooking teacher, food events planner, corporate chef, cookbook consultant, and recipe developer. Bill's broad experience has contributed to a wide food knowledge base, a breath of experience few of us have. His approach to food is practical with taste at the core.

"Be Prepared" is a good slogan for cooks, too! A bit of planning and forethought will save much consternation in the kitchen. Review the recipe to be sure that its ingredients are in your kitchen pantry or refrigerator. If the recipe has some chopping, slicing, dicing, measuring, weighing, or other "prep" work, do it first before you actually start cooking. Then, as you assemble the recipe in the skillet or pot and begin to cook, the process will flow much smoother and you will have decreased the chance of leaving out a critical component.

Always TASTE! The final result of your food will be judged by how good it tastes. Family and guests are much more forgiving if the food tastes really good but the presentation is a little haphazard (not sloppy!), rather than if its looks like art, but does not taste good. Taste all along the cooking process. Make small corrections to seasoning as you develop the recipe from its instructions. Always, always taste the final product before it goes to the table or on the plate.

Featured recipes:

"Santa Maria Style BBQ Beans"

"Black Bean Soup"

"Crazin Cole Slaw"

"Dutch Lamb Stew"

"Lamb Stew with Vegetables"

"Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Lemon and Olives"

"Not Your Average Walnuts"

"Roasted Baby Back Ribs"

"Roasted Cherry Tomatoes"

"Roasted Tomatillo-Chipotle Salsa"

"Shrimp Salpicon with Chipotles"

"Split Pea Soup with Ham"

"Sweet Potato Gratin with Smoked Chiles"

"Tangy Peanut Sauce"

"White Lamb Stew"

More to come...