• Chef Alex Guarnaschelli might be a revered judge on TV's Chopped, one of the few female iron chefs and the author of two best-selling cookbooks, but in her 11-year-old daughter's eyes, Chef Gordon Ramsay is still the ultimate authority on food. "She only has one cookbook -- Gordon Ramsay's last cookbook. She'll say, 'let's make chicken parm' and I'll say, 'Great. I'll get out Dione Lucas' book,'" said the Food Network star. "She'll say, 'no, we're gonna do what Gordo says.'" Guarnaschelli is in Miami this month hosting a clambake and other events at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. She talks about cooking with her daughter, Ava, and what it was like growing up with a famous cookbook editor as a mom. Maria Guarnaschelli edited the seminal Joy of Cooking. On Instagram, Guarnaschelli shares snippets of her cooking adventures with her daughter, showing pics of her slicing salmon, making kumquat marmalade (they love to make homemade jams, mustard and hot sauce together) and even revealing a small burn on Ava's arm from a kitchen mishap. Some days, Ava says she wants to be a chef and even gave her mother a handwritten plan of action starting as a sous chef and working her way to executive chef and owner. Guarnaschelli is quick to stress, "I'm not forcing her." She encourages parents who want their children to join them in the kitchen to let it happen organically. "The more I leave her alone ... the better chance I have of her coming to me if I give her space to find the questions to ask."
• Grammy-winning singer John Mayer is forming a foundation focused on improving the health of veterans through scientific research. Mayer on Friday announced The Heart and Armor Foundation, which plans to focus on veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and meeting the emerging needs of female veterans. Although he publicly announced the foundation on Friday, Mayer has been working on the organization since 2012 alongside veterans, scientists and clinicians. "We're going to the public with things like published research papers and having raised enough money to really build some pilot programs. We have some really great data and ... we want it to be working first so that a lot of the questions were answered before we brought things to people by way of awareness," said Mayer, whose father was a World War II veteran. So far, the foundation has released 10 publications in peer-reviewed journals, developed an exercise-based intervention for PTSD and created a screening tool for nutrition in female veterans, among other accomplishments. The foundation also has a goal of bringing the military and veteran communities closer together with outreach, events and conversation.
A Section on 03/02/2019