July 4th Weekend with The Hamptons in Style
It’s going to be a hot, sweaty July 4th in NYC. Why would you ever choose that when you could be fabulous in The Hamptons.
Pop Bottles At Topping Rose House’s Champagne Pool Party
Related:
Veuve Clicquot’s annual Fourth of July fête is back!
On Monday, slip on your chic-est swimsuit and saunter on over to Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton.
Starting and 1PM, chef Jean-Georges will be on the grill, DJ Jason will be on the decks, and the bubbly will be flowing! Each ticket includes five glasses of rosé or champagne, so arrive thirsty.
Catch Live Music At The Surf Lodge
Not that we need to tell you to hit the Surf Lodge if you’re in Montauk this weekend, but, as a heads up, Cannons, Bob Moses, and Amémé will be taking to the stage for sunset sets Friday through Sunday. You won’t want to miss ’em!
Spend The Weekend With Solé East
Solé East is host with the most all weekend long, with a fun lineup of events including Montauk Brew Co.’s 10 Year Anniversary Party, daily pool parties, DJ sets, and a boozy brunch and bash to see the Montauk fireworks on Monday.
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Jérôme Peschard Leads Vietnam Art Renaissance, Launches Art Exhibition at the Sofitel Saigon Plaza in Ho Chi Minh City
Jérôme Peschard Launches Art Exhibition at the Sofitel Saigon Plaza in Ho Chi Minh City
For the past 60 years, Sofitel Hotels & Resorts has epitomised the essence of French art de vivre across the globe. As 2024 heralds its Diamond Jubilee, commemorated with a series of exclusive events at Sofitel properties worldwide, Sofitel Saigon Plaza, the paragon of French hospitality in Ho Chi Minh City, proudly inaugurated an extraordinary celebration of art.
On the evening of June 21st, the Sofitel Saigon Plaza was the scene of a glittering event, marking the launch of a collaboration with the internationally renowned French Pop Artist, Jérôme Peschard.
The hotel’s lobby served as an elegant backdrop for an array of Peschard’s stunning oil paintings on recycled corrugated metal, showcasing his inspiration from French Indochina.
The event attracted an illustrious group of attendees, including Mrs. Sarah Hooper, Consul General of Australia to Vietnam; Mr. Daniël Stork, Consul General of the Netherlands to Vietnam; Mrs. Milena Padula, spouse of Italian Consul General Enrico Padula; and Mrs. Lê Hạnh, CEO of TVHub Vietnam. Distinguished guests also included Michelin Starred Chef/Owner Peter Cong Franklin of Ănăn Saigon, totalling one hundred and thirty of Ho Chi Minh’s leading tastemakers.
Guests enjoyed a selection of exquisite canapés, fine wines, and champagne while admiring Peschard’s captivating works. Adding to the allure, music by DJ Edge Pamute filled the space, and trendsetters Tracie May and Nykky Domodelled custom-embroidered Áo Dài, the national costume of Vietnam, designed by Peschard and couturière Giao Basson. A pop-up retail store showcasing Peschard’s merchandise collection also opened to the public, featuring a curated selection of home decor, limited edition numbered and artist-signed lacquer replicas of paintings, and an array of gift items. Both the boutique and the art exhibit will grace the Sofitel Saigon Plaza throughout the summer, concluding in early September.
This premier event highlighted the vibrant intersection of art, culture, and gastronomy, celebrating a unique fusion that will enchant visitors throughout the season, encapsulating Sofitel Hotel and Resort’s world of prestige and luxury.
“I’m deeply grateful to Sofitel Saigon Plaza for granting me such a fantastic platform to showcase my art. Although I am French, my heart is Vietnamese, and I’m thrilled to share my homage to Vietnam with their guests and visitors during the 60th Anniversary celebration of Sofitel Hotels and Resorts.” – Jérôme Peschard
“Marking 60 years of exceptional hospitality, we take pride in being a part of a legacy that consistently sets the standard for excellence in Asia, providing a unique experience for all modern travellers to explore Ho Chi Minh City through a French-inspired perspective.” – Mario Mendis, GM, Sofitel Saigon Plaza
ABOUT SOFITEL SAIGON PLAZA:
Sofitel Saigon Plaza harmonises the sophistication of French art de vivre with the vibrancy of local Vietnamese culture, delivering a luxury hospitality experience enriched by genuine heartfelt service. Conveniently located in a tranquil enclave on Le Duan Boulevard, Sofitel Saigon Plaza places you in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City’s business, cultural, and shopping district. The hotel boasts 286 rooms and suites adorned with refined décor and deluxe amenities, a fitness centre featuring advanced exercise equipment, and an outdoor swimming pool with breathtaking city views. Sofitel Saigon Plaza also features five dining establishments serving local and French cuisine, seven polished meeting rooms, and an opulent ballroom equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, making it the ideal destination for business, leisure, meetings, and gatherings.
ABOUT JÉRÔME PESCHARD:
Dubbed the “Gauguin of Vietnam,” Jérôme Peschard is a self-taught artist whose work reflects a life richly lived and creatively charged. His art bridges the past with the present, blending East and West, while drawing profound inspiration from his adopted home of Vietnam. Characterised by the use of oil on rusted corrugated iron sheets salvaged from local construction sites, his pieces reflect the very essence of Saigon – its history, development, people, culture, and vibrant spirit. Peschard’s unique fusion of Western pop art with Asian influences, inspired by comic book legend Jack Kirby and modern art icons like Basquiat and Warhol, continues to evolve as he explores new themes in his storytelling. In the dynamic energy of Vietnam, Peschard not only found his place in the world, but also his distinctive artistic identity.
Join Us MidTown NYC for An Incredible Prosecco Experience: Taste and Discover with Wine Expert Alan Tardi Wed June 26th at New York Wine Studio
Join Us for An Incredible Prosecco Experience: Taste and Discover with Wine Expert Alan Tardi Wed June 26th at New York Wine Studio
Prosecco has gone from a little known mountain fizz to a vinous superhero, overtaking Champagne (and every other sparkling wine out there) and enjoyed by wine drinkers throughout the world, as the base of a cocktail or an everyday quaff.
But despite its huge popularity, most people don’t know much about it.
And there is much more to Prosecco than many people are aware.
”My objective is to
clarify the critical differences
between the original ancient Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco and
the DOC Prosecco that was enacted in 2010.”
Alan Tardi
New York Wine Studio
Prosecco is produced only in Italy, in the Northern regions of Veneto and Friuli, and there are three official Prosecco appellations.
Prosecco DOC
One of them, Prosecco DOC, was created in 2010. It occupies a huge, mostly flat area encompassing almost two entire regions and accounts for most of the 700+ million bottles of Prosecco produced each year.
Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG
Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG is a tiny area in the foothills of the Dolomites consisting of 15 small municipalities in the province of Treviso. This is the ancient winegrowing area where Prosecco was born and made a miraculous comeback in the aftermath of World War II.
Besides its pedigree, there are numerous factors of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene enclave that distinguish it from any other winegrowing area in the world: complex and diverse topography, variety of soils, native grape varieties, distinct sub-areas, ancient history, and varied typology—bubbly, fizzy, and still; secondary fermentation in tank or in bottle, leaving sediment in the bottle (known as Ancestral Method) or removing it (Traditional Method).
In this class—which takes place right in the middle of National Prosecco DOC week—we will discuss the origin and evolution of Prosecco in the Conegliano Valdobbiadene area. We will also examine the two additional Prosecco appellations created in 2010.
But most of the time will be devoted to exploring and tasting Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco through a lineup of 8 exceptional terroir-driven wines, in a variety of styles, that demonstrate the unique characteristics, complexity, and diversity of the original Prosecco.
Participants will also learn how to say “CONEGLIANO VALDOBBIADENE” like an Italian!
Alan Tardi has arranged a fantastic lineup of unusual and exceptional wines (half of them are coming directly from Italy) which demonstrate the various factors that characterize the complexity and uniqueness of Conegliano Valdobbiadene: Different production methods (“Tranquillo” i.e. still, Martinotti, Classico/Traditional, Ancestral); frizzante, spumante; single vineyards, Rive, native grape varieties; diverse, soils, terroirs and topographies.
List of Wines
- Prosecco Tranquillo DOCG “Il Canto Antico” — BORTOLOMIOL*
- Colli Trevigiani IGT Verdiso Frizzante Sui Lieviti — GREGOLETTO
- Progetto 5 Varietà Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG Brut — MARCHIORI*
- Conegliano Prosecco Superiore DOCG Rive di Ogliano Extra-Brut — BIANCAVIGNA
- Superiore di Cartizze Brut DOCG — RUGGERI*
- Superiore di Cartizze DOCG “Private” Rifermentato in Bottiglia 2014 — BISOL
- Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG Rive di Carpesica “S.C. 1931” Metodo Classico — BELLENDA*
- Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG Asciutto, Rive di Colbertarldo, Vigneto Giardino — ADAMI
- Torchiato di Fregona Colli di Conegliano DOCG “Ciàcoe” 2016 — CA’ DI RAJO*
*Shipped directly from the winery in Italy
Find more information and buy tickets at New York Wine Studio or at the link below.
https://www.newyorkwinestudio.com/original-prosecco
Cocktail magic, competition, celebration: Vietnam Cocktail Festival 2024 at iconic Sheraton Saigon Grand Opera Hotel
Cocktail magic, competition, celebration: Vietnam Cocktail Festival 2024 at iconic Sheraton Saigon Grand Opera Hotel.
MC Petey Majik hosted the 2-day Vietnam Cocktail Festival 2024 June 14-15 celebrating with flavor, masterclasses, magic, competition. Tracie May captured it all.
Photos courtesy of Nick Middleton @glam.foodbev
A spectacular 2-day summer celebration, welcomed over 1000 cocktail enthusiasts and connoisseurs alike to the iconic Sheraton Saigon Grand Opera Hotel.
The vibrant cocktail carnival featured a dazzling array of over 130 cocktails from 36 premium global spirits, liqueurs and mixer brands.
A gathering of Vietnam’s top mixologists, innovative concoctions were expertly mixed by a combination of the country’s most respected bartenders and up-and-coming talents.
Cocktail Carnival part of Vietnam Cocktail Festival 2024
At the heart of the festival was a showcase of Vietnam’s craftsmanship and creativity, where seasoned mixologists flexed their skills to craft tantalizing libations.
From classic cocktails with a Vietnamese twist to avant-garde creations pushing the boundaries of flavor, each drink was a testament to the artistry and innovation within Vietnam’s ever-growing cocktail scene.
For guests inspired to continue the cocktail adventure at home, Mercantile Vietnam provided the option for attendees to purchase a bottle of their favorite brand from the event and have it shipped directly to their door.
Entertainment Extravaganza
The event’s charismatic MC Petey Majik led the carnival atmosphere and captivated the audience with a spellbinding magic show accompanied by igniting cocktail flaring performances from the talented Chương and Phước.
On Friday, the stage was taken over with a charismatic live performance from Vietnam’s premier DJ and saxophone duo Omar and Pierre. The party continued Saturday with the contagious energy of DJ PIA.
Interactive Masterclasses and Exclusive Tasting Room
For spirits connoisseurs the festival also offered a wealth of knowledge with 4 optional interactive masterclasses hosted per day, where industry experts from Lady Triệu, Bruichladdich, Jose Cuervo, Highland Park and Lý Gia Viên shared their craft and insights with eager participants.
Luxury spirits aficionados could enhance their experience further and purchase tickets to enter the event’s Exclusive Room, featuring personalized tastings from 8 of the world’s super and ultra-premium brands, with a combined retail price of over 600 Million VND.
Competitive Spirit
One of the highlights of the festival was the highly anticipated Best Cocktail, Best Bartender and Best Brand Competitions with guests encouraged to vote for their favorites.
Bartenders from across the country battled it out for top honors.
With precision, flair, and a dash of showmanship, contestants dazzled spectators with their signature creations, showcasing the ingenuity and talent within Vietnam’s cocktail community.
On Saturday 15th June, the 2024 winners were announced: Mai Thanh Phong’s “Banh Mi Saigon” cocktail, made with Matusalem Rum, won Best Cocktail.
Nguyen Tuan Cuong, who works at Yugen Bar and is sponsored by Shanky’s Whip, was named Best Bartender. Also, Jägermeister was awarded Best Brand of the event.
Cultural Fusion
Beyond the cocktails themselves, the festival served as a social celebration of cultural fusion, from modern Vietnamese influences to global trends, the event highlighted the diverse tapestry of brands and the pioneering people shaping the country’s dynamic cocktail scene.
Vietnam’s Cocktail Revolution
As the final glasses were raised and the last drops were savored, the Vietnam Cocktail Festival 2024 left an indelible mark on the hearts and palates of all those who attended. With its vibrant energy, innovative spirit, and unwavering passion for mixology, the festival has undoubtedly cemented its place as a must-attend event on the global cocktail calendar, promising even more excitement and inspiration in the years to come.
Cheers to the next chapter of Vietnam’s cultural cocktail revolution!
Awards were announced on Saturday, June 15th, at 8 PM
Best Cocktail of the Event 2024
- Cocktail Name: Bánh Mì Sài Gòn
- Bartender Name: Mai Thanh Phong
- Brand Name: Matusalem Rum
- Bar Name: Madam Kew Bar
Best Bartender of the Event 2024
- Bartender’s Name: Nguyen Tuan Cuong
- Brand Name: Shanky’s Whip
- Bar Name: Yugen Bar
Best Brand of the Event 2024
- Brand Name: Jägermeister
Participating Brands:
- Large Exhibitors: Lady Triệu, Jose Cuervo, Cointreau
- Medium Exhibitors: Bushmills, Naked Malt, Kaibutsu, 1800, Campari, RCR Crystalleria Italiana.
- Small Exhibitors: Kurayoshi Matsui, Duncan taylor, Lark Distillery, Hangar 1 Vodka, Maestro Dobel, Bruichladdich Distillery Company, Passoa, The Botanist, No3 London Dry Gin, Dictador The Arthouse Spirit Brand, Colombian Gin, Stranger & Sons Gin, Fernet Branca, Espolon Tequila, Michter’s, Shanky’s Whip, Gran Centenario Tequila, Jägermeister, The Kyoto, Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin, Matusalem, Brookies Byron Gin, Ly Gia Vien, Torani, Fentimans, Mercantile.
Participating Bars (in collaboration with brands):
- Kraken x The Dot Bar
- Sexton x Dram Bar
- Wild Turkey x Lost Birds Bar
- Glenrothes x Firkin Bar
Master Classes: Lady Trieu, Bruichladich, Jose Cuervo, Ly Gia Vien, Highland Park
Photos courtesy of Nick Middleton @glam.foodbev
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Springtime in The City: Manhattan’s La Grande Boucherie Executive Chef Maxime Kien Offers New Foodie Flavor
It’s Springtime in the city and Manhattan’s La Grande Boucherie Offers an inspired New Springtime Menu led by Executive Chef Maxime Kien.
Starting March 15, La Grande Boucherie is offering a new menu for Spring time. In addition to its best-selling current menu, the new items led by Executive Chef Maxime Kien promises dishes you won’t find on any other Manhattan menu, such as the refreshing Salad De Poireaux.
The goal of the menu under Executive Chef Maxime Kien’s leadership is to keep the plates simple and express the food’s pure expression, not to distract with too many flavors, but rather to be true to one specific flavor and present it in its best form.
Manhattanites and foodies already find the name La Grande Boucherie very familiar as it’s the most-booked restaurant in the city and the other NYC restaurants within the company include Boucherie Union Square, Boucherie West Village, Petite Boucherie.
Executive Chef Maxime Kien is a world-renowned chef with more than two decades of experience in fine dining. Growing up in the Côte D’azur region of Southern France, Maxime developed a deep appreciation for natural ingredients Southern France has to offer.
He has worked in several esteemed establishments around the country. The Hilton in Cleveland and Cincinnati, the only AAA Five Diamond recipient in Ohio and one out of 68 in the United States. His most recent position was Resort Executive Chef at Nemacolin Woodland Resort, a 5 Star 5 Diamond property in Pennsylvania.
Over the next several months, The Group NYC is launching restaurants in major cities throughout North America and Executive Chef Maxime Kien is a leader in that revolution.
Today we walk through a decadent and delicious multi-course meal.
Executive Chef Maxime Kien explains:
Tonight you’re gonna be tasting all the new dishes that started two nights ago. The idea would be to transition from what was done in the past and now with me coming in and bringing a different vibe.
People think about French food and they think about heavy food, a lot of butter, a lot of cream, strong flavors, but sometimes it’s depending on which part of France you come from, it’s gonna be something completely different. If you drive for 30 minutes, it may feel like it’s the same region, but no, it’s gonna be different aromas, different flavors, different techniques.
So tonight is going to be some dishes that we just started that are going to be a little bit more on the lighter version as we approach spring and summer.
I believe a good idea would be to start with the leek salad. It’s very light. The idea of taking a simple product [such] as a leek and then making it as your starter dish. I’m not trying to be pretentious. You can go anywhere in the city and you will not find a leek salad on any other menu besides us. I did that menu for my tasting for Emil (Stefkov), the owner, and he absolutely loved it.
And that, to me, was good recognition to put that on the menu because it’s simple it’s rustic, but it’s very flavorful; and you’re not gonna find it anywhere else.
After that, the scallops. That’s another dish that I did for Emil and everybody loved it. And so we’ll be able to see dishes that have just gotten started.
I explain to Chef Max that I always look for a “story” within the courses, from starter to entree to dessert and more. Is he telling a story with his courses?
My story is: simplicity is best. I don’t try to do an overly-complicated dish that you’re not gonna be able to understand. So simplicity. Taking a beautiful product as simple as a leek, [deciding what’s] gonna complement it, and it’s gonna give you a chance to be able to taste something that hopefully you’ve never tasted before, or not in that fashion at least. Being able to say, ‘Oh, you know what? That leek salad was so simple that it was beautiful. That’s what I’m trying to accomplish. That’s the whole story.’
Boucherie Old Fashioned
Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Espolon Anejo, Lavender, Plum
An excellent rendition of the Classic Old Fashioned. The lavender adds dimension to the nose. The Espolon Anejo added spice to the mouth.
Salad De Poireaux
Braised leeks and smashed eggs vinaigrette topped with roasted hazelnuts.
This is a meal by itself. Refreshing, but providing an earthy note. An excellent palate cleanser. But surprisingly filling starter dish.
Les St Jacques Roties
Roasted scallops, thyme polenta, and herb salad
This was presented exactly as I could have wished for. Per Chef Max’s suggestion, it was a simple dish, delivered incredibly well. It was heaven to look at, smell and taste. By my third bite, I still wanted more.
Branzino
Pan-Seared Mediterranean Branzino, topped with Olive Oil vinaigrette and watercrest salad.
A perfect combination of flavors. The white fish was tender and flavorful. The carrot, onion side was a partner without ever overwhelming the star of the plate. Highly recommend.
Flan Parisien
Vanilla Malagasy custard with gianduja heart
Pushing your spoon into the crust as it bursts creates a sensual triumph. The flan’s crumbly, biscuit-like texture allows your spoon to ease in and pull out the most delicious Vanilla Malagasy. You might promise yourself you’re only going to have one bite. But this plate deserves more attention leaving you craving a second or third spoon visit. And honestly, you’ll be dreaming about it again tonight.
Chef Max fulfills his promise. Not only are the new menu items light, Spring and Summer-oriented, but they’re unique to Manhattan.
If you’re a passionate foodie who craves new and invented plated, full of original flavors, presented simply, but powerfully, you need to visit La Grande Boucherie.
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Daytime TV Star Thaao Penghlis Seducing Celebrities in His newest Book
Daytime TV Star Thaao Penghlis Seducing Celebrities wants to Give You a Taste at his next dinner party. Read all about it in his new book.
Thaao Penghlis has starred in some of the biggest TV shows of all time – including playing on daytime TV’s “Days of Our Lives”.
Thaao Penghlis new book Seducing Celebrities: One Meal at a Time
Now in Thaao’s new book, Seducing Celebrities: One Meal at a Time he reveals seduction in the dining room by creating incredibly delicious for his famous friends.
Today’s conversation has been edited for length and clarity. For the full, un-edited conversation, visit our YouTube channel here.
Joe Winger
Congratulations on your new book. It’s a tasty read and a fast read.
Thank you for joining us for a conversation today.
Thaao Penghlis:
Thank you for inviting me.
Joe Winger:
You’ve done a lot of work in your life. We’re going to go to food and books as quickly as possible.
When you’re at an airport or in public, what is the most common thing people remember you from?
Thaao Penghlis:
Certainly Days [of our Lives]. There’s a big Armenian contingency out there who always comes at me at the airports, [Days…] was in 152 markets. Especially when you’re in New York and it’s an international port. When Mission [Impossible] was on. I certainly enjoyed that. I think it had a large male audience because of the action and that I liked it was interesting. That kind of prepared me for the masks that I did on Days [of Our Lives]. So it was a real challenge. Working in daytime; I think the biggest challenge is remembering all those lines and giving it some kind of conviction and taking those lines off the page.
And a lot of the time, because there’s too many lines, we’re just on the edge, and so because I have a certain intensity I’m able to cover. I think through all those years people, airports probably are the biggest. I’m going to do a PA [public appearance] at the Grand Canyon in August.
It’s a very special train ride through the Grand Canyon with just 22 fans. It’s going to be a very intimate affair. So over the years, you get the older people who are the real followers, because the youth today have different appetites.
Just like they do with food, they’re not always conscious about what they’re eating. Unless they’re educated about it or they’re raised on good food. And I think today food has become a convenience rather than a celebration.
Joe Winger:
You use wonderful words in your book. It feels almost like poetry. “Food is the magic of our universe.” Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Thaao Penghlis:
We’ve been given such diversity as far as food is concerned, that we have that many choices, especially in countries that can afford food. But to me, once you’ve grown up tasting octopus – we used to hang it on the [clothes] line for three weeks until it dried out. There’s no blood in the octopus, therefore, it doesn’t rot – that was mouthwatering.
Some of the fruits you have in life, like mangos. When you can appreciate the way they’re being served. It’s not like eating an apple. If you eat a mango and you slice it, then cut it up in quarters, there’s a different texture to it. The flavor. To the eye it becomes attractive. I think food, when you think about what you can control in your life and you are blessed to have it. I think food is magical because of that.
Joe Winger:
One more line of food poetry from your book. “You discover your body’s secrets by the way you feed it and how it feeds you back. “
Thaao Penghlis:
When we who are in the Greek Orthodox church, we go through a fast to the last day [of holidays like Easter] before we go to the church and get the bread and the wine.
You start to appreciate the food that you can’t have because of its limitations in the religion. The last day you’ll have olive oil on bread with some sugar, things like that. So when you get to food and understand it, when you stop eating and cleanse your body, sometimes it just juices, you become hungry.
You get to understand what food does to the body by emptying it out. If you don’t eat well, or if you eat late, then the next day, you’re not going to feel great.
So you get to understand what the body can take and what, and when, are the limitations to eating and at what hour, if you drink too much wine.
As an actor, I don’t drink very much. But if I have wine, the next day, my eyes are going to show it. So it tells me something about the kidneys, because the eyes are connected to the kidneys. So it’s understanding how the machine you’ve brought into life carries your soul. How does that express itself in the best way possible?
As actors, we have a responsibility because of that body being presented on camera as a certain responsibility to the producers to the show and to your audience. So you get to understand. I would go through a four day fast with Bela’s broth, Celsius broth. I would find that would cleanse me through the days I did like a liver cleanse, which got rid of stones.
You get to understand what the organs are, that you can do things naturally without having to take all those dreadful medicines and those pills.
The body is all we’ve got. Why have I overcome certain things in my life? It’s always been through nutrition.
Joe Winger:
Your journey, the things you’ve learned, and you touch upon that in the book a little bit, lessons you learn from different actors and producers and people you’ve worked with, but that’s another great lesson is as far as using it as a medicine.
The book is called Seducing Celebrities: One Meal at a Time. It is an enormous undertaking: beautiful pictures, recipes, Hollywood stories, your family. There’s a lot going on.
What inspired you to write the book?
Thaao Penghlis:
The hardcover has all the colored pictures inside. So it has a different dimension to it when you actually see it, because let’s face it, presentation is very important.
So when you see color, when you see something displayed you want to get into it. If something looks like someone just piled something, it’s not attractive to the appetite.
My manager called me one day and he said, “You always talk about food. Why don’t you do a cookbook?”
I went, “Oh, I don’t know how to do a cookbook. Everything that I’ve caught has come out of my head.”
I remembered, I learned when I worked at the UN [United Nations] for a year when I was in the diplomatic corps. In my youth I went into kitchens where they had chefs. I saw presentation. I understood the etiquette of arriving there on time.
45 minutes later you’re having the hors d’oeuvres, maybe it’s champagne, maybe it’s some caviar or whatever they presented.
Then it was time to go into the dining room and sit there. It became a ritual. And so you got to appreciate the time, the presentation that someone put in.
So all these memories came into my head. I said how would you think? How do you think about food? I said it’s really seducing people, isn’t it?
By the way you create an atmosphere, by the way you look at a dish, and by the aroma. So I said, Let’s call it “Seducing.”
I said who have I seduced?
How about celebrities that I’ve met and worked with? That’s how it came about seducing celebrities. One meal at a time.
I always like to serve the first, second and the third course. But usually, I don’t join the guests on the first course, because I’m busy preparing the main course.
So I present the first course to them. Then I’m in the kitchen. The actor, Danny Kaye in the old days. He used to be an expert of Chinese food and around the counter in his kitchen is where his friends sat and he just fed them. That was something that was so gratifying for him.
So I understand if it’s done well, and your friends leave. They take it for granted.
People don’t cook these days, or they’re intimidated because of the way you’ve presented it. So therefore let’s take you out instead. So you don’t get that personal touch that I think is so important.
When you sit around your watering hole, as I call it, that “table”, which is something if when I leave this country eventually and go home to Australia, that is one thing I’m going to take with me is that table because it has a huge history to it.
To me the table and how you decorate it and how you present it is very important to the appetite of the person joining you.
Joe Winger:
I’m thinking of your table, sometime in the future when you do move, that could be a heck of an auction item. The amount of people who sat around it and heard stories and shared stories.
Speaking of those stories, you’ve named huge Hollywood stars like Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson George Clooney, amazing actors, Joanna Cassidy, William Hurt.
Your Hollywood life has been so many decades of work and amazing people. What was the process like deciding who makes it into the book and deciding who you had to leave out?
Thaao Penghlis:
You don’t like everybody you’ve worked with and everybody you’ve met, food is very personal
In the old days they serve you poison. In the French 18th century, you’d be sitting there and if you were an enemy, they’d serve you a dish with poison. That’s how they got rid of enemies. But I don’t know.
Dame Edna, who I was best man at his wedding, which is Barry Humphries. He was very particular. He was also a person who loved art. So he would walk around my house looking at what kind of a collection and made his judgment on it.
The same thing with the food, he would taste it. He would give you that quite qualifying look that he approves.
Omar Sharif was different. When I worked with him, we had champagne and caviar every day, because that’s the way he lived.
[He would be] telling me stories of Lawrence of Arabia and many of his other films and I think, because I look like his son, he was very taken not in the beginning. In the beginning, he was quite rude and quite distant. It wasn’t until I was about to start the first scene with him where he comes into the room and when I met him, he was distant, shook my hand and said, “Hello”.
So when he comes into the room, he’s supposed to slug me after something I say.
He says to me, by the way, “Please, when I hit you do not go over this 18th century table and break it. It’s very important that we are respectful about this table.”
And I said, Oh, I’m not going anywhere. And he says, what do you mean?
I said, “Oh, Omar. I said, if you hit me and I go flying off that table, where do you and I go for the next four hours?”
He says “What will you do?
I said, “I’ll probably adjust my tie.”
He started to laugh and that’s how it started.
How do you infiltrate a person’s personality who comes in defensive working with Bill Hurt in “Altered States”.
I had some very difficult dialogue because it was very technical. How do you make it real? I started to do this sequence and he says to me, “Is that how you’re going to do it?
And I said, “Why is that how you’re going to do it?”
And from that moment, he goes, “You’re an arrogant son of a…,”
And I said, “So are you.”
From that moment, we clicked. When we joined hands in Mexico, away from Warner Brothers, we had a good bond.
I never stood for his star attitude. You have to call it. So I don’t like it. When someone brings that, I leave that, I go outside.
Joe Winger:
Doris Roberts, after dinner once wrote you a note. I took that idea as an incredibly loving gesture.
if you could talk a little bit about that note, and then any other amazing gifts from you dinner parties?
Thaao Penghlis:
When I approached Doris and she would write the introduction, her comment was, “Oh, darling, why don’t you do that?”
I said, Doris, you’ve been coming here for dinner for years. So why can’t you just get in touch with your heart and write something pleasant?
And that’s what she wrote.
Because every time she came, it’s like my friends who come over always know they’re going to get a good meal. I never go cheap on the thing. I’ve seen people come in the house with daisies in their hand. I said, “Does this house look like it collects daisies?”
Or they’ll bring me Two Buck Chuck.
I said, are you bringing that so I can put it as a wine for the food, because it’s certainly not going on the table and things like that.
Where people are not experiencing you or contributing and also shows you how cheap it is. And even when Doris, who used to get crates of champagne from Dom Perignon for free, because she was connected to somebody who worked there, she would come in.
She would say “Darling, here’s some Dom Perignon, put it in the fridge.”
I said, “Oh, okay. Thank you.” I think, Oh, this is a person who understands quality.
Then five minutes later, she’s sitting at a chair. She says open the champagne for me, will ya?. So I realized it wasn’t for the house. It was for her. So she didn’t bring anything.
Here’s this woman who makes an enormous amount of money. I’ve studied with her for over 20 years with Katsalis, the director, and then she would come in and sit at the table and she would look at the flowers and then she would look at the presentation of everything and then she would smell the food and so through that experience – you don’t always get respect, you have to earn it.
With her, because of my work as an actor, and because of my success as an actor, and also now writing some people will say to you, “Are you writing another book?
But they say it in such a derogatory way.
Whereas Doris said, “I’m so proud of you.“
I went out with Doris, just the two of us went to movies because she always had to have company. She was like Joan Rivers. She had to have every night filled. She couldn’t stand just being on her own. So when she was invited to my home, she always remembered the presentation and the flavors of that evening.
Joe Winger:
Let’s talk a little bit about what was the process of writing the book like this time?
Thaao Penghlis:
Recipes are in my head.
So I had to cook in my head. For six months I started to think, Oh,I never wrote anything down.
I would call friends and say, “What was your favorite meal I cooked?”
Then I would say, Oh, okay, that’s good; and then I would just test my friends and they would tell me what they like the best.
So I got all these recipes that were still in my head. And I somehow remember what I put in it. My sister in law in Australia says to me, the difference between you and I as chefs is that I have to have a cookbook in front of me. You open the fridge and say, what are we going to eat?
I spent six months going through recipes.
Then finally I said, what did my mother cook? The Greek traditional foods or the Greek desserts. And my sisters are very good at cooking desserts.
Then slowly I collected the foods and started to make them.
Joe Winger:
That’s an incredible journey.
We’ve pushed toward the idea of an impolite or a bad dinner guest. How do we find an appropriate dinner gift? And then what would be a definite no?
Thaao Penghlis:
People will ask me, what can we bring?
It’s a silly question because you can’t bring food. So you, what do you bring wine? Or flowers? Or whatever enhances the atmosphere?
But something that’s not here, but sometimes when they keep asking me that, I say, bring cash. And that always throws them because they take it seriously.
So sometimes I won’t answer that question. I said, “Surprise me. But make it expensive.”
So I like to play with them.
I said to a friend of mine once, your hands are always empty. They never spoke to me for three years after that. They turned around and left.
There’d been guests who arrived when you had a seven o’clock dinner and arrived at 9:30. I’ll open the door and say to them, “I’m sorry, we’ve already had dinner. We’ll talk another time.” And then I closed the door because I find it disrespectful.
It tells you who people are and their consciousness. I don’t like unconscious people, but we’re going through a very difficult time in the world.
And it’s all because people are not conscious of others. It’s always about them. And so to me, the wonderful thing about serving food and expecting something in return, something.
Even if it’s – we used to write notes in the old days, a phone call – but texts now have become such a convenience.
Why don’t you just call me and tell me where I spent two days preparing this, that you can’t afford a five minute phone call, but you’ll text me in one sentence and that’s it.
Things like that I don’t approve of.
I think that kind of communication short changes [the memory of the experience]. I want to be at times where you want to cook again. If you’re not gonna share something about yourselves, call me the next day and say, I had such a wonderful evening. Some people think it’s enough when they leave, or they got here,
But they don’t understand how you complete things. Completion is very important. Just as an actor, you have an arc in your character, it’s complete.
The same thing with food.
When I serve food, it’s complete. I have an order: I have hors d’oeuvres. I have a first course. I have the main course. And then I have dessert and maybe some Greek coffee or tea or whatever people need and the wines.
But I just find people are unbelievable. They don’t understand what it takes to put an evening together.
If you don’t know how to treat me, I’m going to show you. So that’s what I said there.
Joe Winger:
Have you ever played with the idea of a cooking show? Is that something you see at all for yourself?
Thaao Penghlis:
It’s a lot of work. All that preparation. I’ve done it as a guest here and there.
Joan Rivers used to join guests and everything, she always made some wonderful jokes.
Dame Edna would make wonderful jokes.
I’m doing a book signing May 22nd at the Grove in Los Angeles at a Barnes and Noble. I’ve got to do a cooking show. I thought what are we going to cook? Something that’s not difficult.
So I’m going to do a vegetarian dish, which is not in the book, but it’s with shiitake mushroom, truffle oils, mint, basil heirloom tomato, raw peas and pine nuts. Then I will mix that in with the pasta and some olive oil and then some truffle oil and with some herbs and that’s about it.
That’s so convenient and it’s such a delicious dish with Parmesan cheese over it.
Joe Winger:
The book is called Seducing Celebrities: One meal at a time
You breezed over Joan Rivers for a moment and I wanted to touch upon it because In that chapter, you help us see her in a different way than what we always think of her as, especially being in the car with her daughter, Melissa as a young girl.
When I think of Joan Rivers, the stereotype, I think of outrageous, and you have one or two moments beyond her, Barbra Streisand, there’s a little bit of outrageousness there, are there any outrageous moments that you didn’t include that you thought about including?
Thaao Penghlis:
I don’t I don’t mind telling stories, or privately telling stories.
There’s got to be a borderline, just like etiquette. If I’m expecting for people to behave a certain way.
One time, there was a famous guest, which I won’t mention, who was having problems with their daughter, and they were sitting around the table. The phone rang in the middle of dinner, and he answered it, he starts screaming on the phone, and telling his daughter off.
I just lost it, I got up and I said, “If you don’t mind, take your bloody phone call outside, we’re not interested in your private business and how rude of you.”
Because I don’t like people bringing phones into the house.
The inner chatter that goes on with people’s minds, where they’re so distracted with life instead of just being there. Being present.
With Telly Savalas as well. There have been times also with people with Days [of Our Lives] and I couldn’t tell those stories because firstly, I have to work with him again. Secondly, I don’t think it’s everybody’s business.
There was a book that Hustler put out all the stories about those magnificent stars of the [1940s] and talked about their sexual proclivities.
Someone said, “Why would you do that?” Why would you betray your friends that way?
You smash the myth. They spent years creating a myth. But when you start getting into the nitty gritty, you make those people ordinary. And show business is not about being ordinary.
So I try to refrain from telling things that go beyond the norm. I want to be able to see these people later in some time, even though they’re gone,
I still believe we’ll see them on the other side that they did more good for me. Otherwise it’s a matter of respect and keeping someone’s dignity there.
Joe Winger:
Your book starts almost like a love note or a Valentine to growing up with your family. Your mother, your father, their first trip to L. A., to your grandfather George’s herrings and olive oil tin.
Thaao Penghlis:
Yeah, that was something to watch growing up.
To see my grandfather bringing his knowledge of food from the islands of Greece.
What I remember the most, even my grandmother, you’ve come down in the mornings and you can smell the cinnamon toast. She would be dipping wicks into wax and creating candles for the church.
Joe Winger:
Seducing celebrities one meal at a time.
Can you give us a tease about what you’re looking forward to in the future?
Thaao Penghlis:
I just finished exploring the Holy Families.
I did a two week trek up and down the Nile to these sacred places. So I’ve written a story because most of the things we see about religion are postcards or lovely paintings. What do we do when we explore it within ourselves and follow those routes? Something else happened.
I’ve written a teleplay. It’s very interesting the way it begins and where it begins and how it follows through into The Great Escape.
Find Thaao Penghlis’ new book on Amazon at Seducing Celebrities: One Meal at a Time
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Your Coffee Should Taste Better, shares Maurice Contreras at Volcanica Coffee
You’ve Got Your Coffee All Wrong, shares Maurice Contreras at Volcanica Coffee
Just about everyone has their coffee preferences. But the truth is, most of us aren’t enjoying coffee the best it can be and we don’t even know it. The beans, the grinding, the flavor (or lack thereof).
And before you ask, nope, good coffee doesn’t need to be expensive. Actually most great coffee is more affordable than the bad stuff you’re currently drinking. True story.
But I wanted to get answers and advice from a coffee expert, so I had a conversation with Maurice Contreras from Volcanica Coffee.
Native Costa Rican Maurice Contreras started Volcanica Coffee to import excellent-tasting coffee from volcanic regions, such as his homeland, to consumers. He started the company in his garage and now operates a coffee plant near Atlanta with 20 employees, including his wife and two adult children.
What is your favorite thing about coffee?
My favorite thing I like about coffee is really the flavor. That actually was how I got started. I’m from Costa Rica and for a long time I would do annual trips with the family. It was a family vacation. One of our trips we did a coffee farm tour. And just got to learn about coffee. And this is back in 2004. One of the things that dawned on me is how coffee in Costa Rica was so much better than coffee in the United States. I just didn’t understand why a 3rd world country had better coffee. The quality of coffee in the United States has really come down over several decades. So that’s when I thought that there was an opportunity to bring better tasting coffee or specialty coffee as it’s known today to the United States. That was really how it got started. It really was more about the flavor and just enjoying the richness of a Costa Rican coffee.
Is there a simple reason why first world coffee just isn’t as good?
Yeah, the general sense was because it became more of a highly produced, big production, big coffee house; and I’ll tell you a quick story. A lot of people don’t know this, the word Maxwell House, it actually is a chain of hotels. Some of them are still in existence. And so Maxwell House started from the Maxwell House Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. They served breakfast and they had really good coffee and it became really popular. It became very famous, and then eventually it became its own brand Maxwell House, and then it ended up getting acquired by corporate conglomerates. And that really good tasting coffee just turned into [not-great] coffee.
So that’s really what happened to coffee in the United States. At one time, back in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, people would really appreciate good coffee and then just kind of lost sight of what good coffee was.
From a coffee lover’s point of view, what would you say to convince them to give your coffee a try?
That coffee really is an enjoyable drink to be appreciated and enjoyed for the flavor of what it is. It’s not just something to wake you up. But really coffee and all the different varieties, there’s a lot of flavor notes, a lot of different flavors to be enjoyed. A lot of it depends upon the different regions. My recommendation is try it out and get some good coffee with some flavor notes that you enjoy. Like, for example, Ethiopian coffees, they have a lot of berry notes, a lot of fruit tones, even red wine notes. Some of those things can really open up people’s perspective on coffee.
Before we jump more into coffee, I wanted to ask you about your background as far as the work you did before Volcanica Coffee
My career was in marketing specifically I was in the wireless telephone industry. It really was just about creating a brand. I was part of the startup team at TracFone Wireless which is now a part of Verizon. I was the National Director, I created the brand. In fact, there’s still a lot of things in the brand that I created. I had a passion for marketing.
It was kinda like, “Hey, gee whiz, what if I created my own brand and just created a business?”
And so I actually was on a hunt for a couple of years thinking what would be a good business? And then I just kind of stumbled on coffee because it was staring me in the face.
There’s such a message in there. The success you’re currently riding is because you took industry knowledge of marketing, a personal passion for coffee, and took the risk of putting them together in a business start-up.
Yep, that’s true. It was a risk because I was making a good living, I had a young family, I didn’t wanna affect any of that. It was something part-time, working nights and weekends, that’s how it all started out. I
How did your family feel about that? Was there anxiety?
It was definitely a struggle and I loved spending time with them and being with them. But part of how I resolved that was I would just wake up early in the morning and spend 1-2 hours before I had to go to work doing this. I didn’t want to neglect my family and I didn’t.
There’s so many people out there who aspire to take those steps and they always find reasons not to, but you found a way. When people are drinking your coffee, they’re not just drinking delicious coffee, they’re supporting someone who took a huge chance, who followed his passions.
So segueing to the actual coffee part now.
Your website mentions coffee regions and how the region’s soil contributes to the taste. A lot of our audience who’s into food and wine will realize the terroir aspect is very familiar to that.
Can you pick two or three regions and explain their soil and how it contributes to the taste?
I’ll start with African coffees. Their soil is very unique. Coffees from Africa tend to have a lot of berry notes, a lot more flavor of fruit which is very unique and very different compared to coffees from Indonesia.
Indonesian coffees tend to be lower in acidity. Acidity provides flavor but they’re still very good tasting coffees, even though they’re lower in acidity.
Also the coffee in Indonesia, Sumatra, for example, Papua New Guinea, and even Hawaiian Kona coffees, those tend to have a lot of boldness. When you taste the cup, your mouth just tends to [recognize] that bold flavor, which you don’t get in African coffees. So those are a couple examples.
So really it is like old world wine versus new world wine. A noticeable difference in mouth feel depending on what region you’re going after.
When people ask, Hey, what kind of coffee should I buy? I always ask, what kind of flavors do you like? Start there. Then for people that are experimenting, try different coffees from different regions.
You mentioned that you’re from Costa Rica. So tell us more about the Costa Rican volcanic regions.
It’s the most popular coffee growing region in Costa Rica, the Tarrazu area, which is very mountainous, goes up to 5,000 feet above sea level south of San Jose. Very steep.
The coffee beans, because of the volcanic soil, have a lot of flavor. It’s a very mild flavor, but very flavorful as well. And because of the elevations, the beans are also very dense. They’re a harder bean. In fact, there’s a designation strictly hard bean that is used in the industry because of that.
Being from Costa Rica I came here [to the U.S.] when I was a baby. My mom would tell stories about how she would assist with her father, which is my grandfather, in the harvest. Because my grandfather was a teacher, he would work out in the rural areas of Costa Rica where the coffee bean farmers worked. They would assist during harvest time with picking coffee beans off the tree. There was the connection going back a couple generations in our family.
There has been a coffee influence throughout generations of your family.
Yes. For decades, maybe even a century, coffee was the number one product for Costa Rica. Today it’s tourism.
I’m glad you brought up tourism. We cover a lot of travel. If somebody wanted to visit Costa Rica, maybe even a specific coffee lover, is there a place you can recommend to come visit?
One of the farms that we work with actually has an Airbnb right on their plantation. We’ve had several customers that have made trips there and have gone and stayed at the house. It’s gorgeous.
More people are working from home and making coffee at home. A lot of us making coffee wrong. Can you just walk us through step by step the best way to grind and brew your coffee?
The single largest improvement in the freshness of your coffee is by grinding your beans at home. A lot of people don’t know this: buying ground coffee, because it’s in smaller particles, tends to deteriorate very quickly. So you’re not enjoying the best of what coffee can be.
So first of all, grind at home and it’s the type of grinder.
We recommend a burr grinder. The other type of grinder is a blade grinder, which is a cheap type grinder, which does not do as well as a burr grinder.
Second thing is you wanna match your grind type to how you’re brewing. So there’s different levels, how fine or how course you want the coffee. If you’re doing a French press, you want to have a coarse grind. The opposite spectrum is an espresso grind. It’s almost like very fine sand. So if you had coarse coffee and an espresso maker, you’d have a bad cup of coffee. And the opposite too. If you had a French press where you’re using espresso ground coffee, you would not have a good tasting coffee. A lot of it has to do with the extraction and this is the chemistry behind coffee.
Then in the middle of that would be like a traditional drip grind, which most people have which is a medium coarseness of a grind type. That works best to pour over or a drip grind.
Once you buy the equipment, you’re saving quite a bit of money by doing this all at home. More value and quality out of doing it at home?
Oh yeah. A cup of coffee outside can cost $3-6. At home, 50 cents per cup. Plus you’re controlling the flavor, how hot it is and how fresh it is.
How many cups do you think the average coffee person drinks per day?
The average is between one to two cups per day. Wall Street Journal says 66% of Americans have had coffee within the last day.
So with volcanic, you’ve mentioned low acid. Tell us more.
Low acid coffee is actually a natural occurrence. There’s no additives that need to be added, at least we don’t add anything to our coffee. It’s just how it’s sourced. How it’s brewed also affects acidity.
So for example, the cold brew method tends to lower the acidity of coffee. Even more than if you brewed it traditionally in a drip grinder. It benefits people who suffer from acid reflux; and different types of indigestion abnormalities can benefit from low acidic coffee just because the pH is a higher number.
We have a lot of customers thanking us because they could not drink coffee before they heard about our low acid coffee, so now they can drink coffee again.
We have a blend of different coffees called the low acid coffee, plus 12 or 15 other coffees that are also rated as low acid. We rated them, we’ve done the pH levels on all of them, and all of them fall into that category of being lower in acidity.
Volcanica has built up a really strong community on your social media avenues. What have the results been like?
We’re on all the major socials: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok. It’s very easy to find us. We take customer feedback really seriously. We’re always looking for input and ideas.
We’ll get a request [to] carry a type of coffee or coffee from a region and we’ll always look into it.
We offer 100% customer satisfaction. We take returns, even when the customer just didn’t like a coffee, which is no fault of ours.
When someone does suggest a new bean, a new region, is that an easy outreach to investigate, or is that a whole process?
It is a whole process.
What’s a great online shopping strategy for finding the right coffee beans?
Align yourself with a brand that has a quality product. Look at customer reviews, their roasting technique. Then it’s a matter of what type of coffee do you like? What flavor notes? Something mild? Berry notes? Lower in acidity?
So I go onto your website to buy some beans. What’s a safe way to pick a bean that I’ll probably enjoy?
We carry over 150 different coffees, which is a lot. Visiting our website you have to know your preferences. Having some [filtering/search ] tools out there would be beneficial to people helping the selection process, that’s actually on our roadmap for the future.
Part of the reason why we have 150 coffees is because we’ve been listening to our customers over the years.
Tell us something about Volcanico Coffee that not everyone knows.
We love to give back. We’ve been blessed, we’ve been very successful, so we donate 1% of our website sales to an organization called Charity Water. They build water projects in impoverished communities around the world. This year we’re actually sponsoring a well in Ethiopia for a particular town. We know that we buy a lot of coffee from Ethiopia and we’d love to give back to them.
What is the future of coffee?
The future of coffee is specially curated lots. We call them our “Private Collection”. Farmers that are actually fermenting their coffee with mango, peach, different types of fruits. We have a few of them right now. We’re hoping to be carrying more in the near future.
Our audience is listening right now. What would you like them to do?
If you’re interested in finding out more about coffee and experiencing coffee, start exploring. We offer a great cup of coffee. Great different flavors and varieties. We even offer decafs, flavored coffees, something for everybody.
Website: https://volcanicacoffee.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gourmet.coffee.beans
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VolcanicaCoffee
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/volcanicacoffee
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