THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996 TAG: 9605070031
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F5 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: MORSELS
SOURCE: RUTH FANTASIA
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
THEY'RE NOT just selling espresso machines and Calphalon at Bouillabaisse anymore. They're cooking as well.
Denise Strickland and Trish McTague, owners of the store on Colley Avenue in Norfolk, have turned a back room into a demonstration kitchen and lined up local cooking experts to teach.
The series started Tuesday night with ``Make Ahead Appetizers.'' But don't fret, there's more to come.
``Pasta: Healthy and Fresh'' will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday. Italian is on the menu for May 16 and June 13 when Richard Chinappi, chef-owner of Chardo's Italian Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills, N.C., takes the range. And ``Cakes and Cookies for Kids'' is the topic for 10 a.m. May 18.
Adult classes usually cost $30; children's, $20. Preregistration is required. For a list of events, call Bouillabaisse at 627-7774. NEW GUARANTEE
Farm Fresh hasn't kept secret its ``200% Pledge of Freshness,'' but it hasn't touted it, either.
The program, begun in 1992, promises that if you aren't happy with the freshness or quality of anything you buy at Farm Fresh, you may return it to the service desk and the store will refund your money AND replace the product.
Now, Farm Fresh is taking the program a step further: You don't even have to buy the product.
The store's new ``Product Freshness Guarantee'' states that if you find an open-dated product that has passed the ``sell by'' date, you can bring it to the service desk and the store will give you a gift certificate for the value of the product. If you find more than one item, you receive the price of all the items you find.
Farm Fresh president and CEO Mike Julian says he expects customers to be ``treasure hunting'' in Farm Fresh stores for a while, looking for expired dates, but that doesn't bother him. ``Frankly, we'd like to have help from our customers on this. We don't want expired products on the shelves.''
By the way, the 200 percent pledge still goes. And, Julian says, one of the company's goals for the next few years is to make consumers more aware of the program. HIS AND HERS
He eats meat, she's a vegetarian.
Or maybe she sticks with McFood while his tastes run to exotic.
If your taste in food is a bad match with your mate's, we'd love to hear from you for an upcoming story in the Flavor section about how couples cope with differences in eating habits.
Drop a postcard with your name and a daytime phone number to: Flavor, Virginian-Pilot, 150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510. HOW SWEET IT IS
It's the same old song, but it never grows stale.
Marcel Desaulniers, the award-winning executive chef and co-owner of the Trellis in Williamsburg, has won two more prizes to add to his stack of James Beard Awards.
This time, Desaulniers' book ``Dessert to Die For'' received the Cooks' choice award AND the Julia Child Cookbook Award for Bread, Other Baking and Sweets at the recent International Association of Culinary Professionals Conference in Philadelphia. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Marcel Desaulniers of the Trellis in Williamsburg has won two more
awards.
by CNB