One of the great things about chefs and restaurateurs here in our state and across the nation is the never-ceasing giving that is part and parcel of their everyday lives. The food-service industry is at the forefront of good works, in times of trouble and more importantly every day helping people you and I never hear of. more

I was invited to Stowe, Vermont to broadcast from the Stowe Wine and Food Classic, a festival of wine and foods to be paired by chefs, winemakers and purveyors from throughout the culinary world. The headliners were nationally known winemakers and chefs who joined their colleagues based in the Green Mountain State to dazzle the crowd with their creations. The pairings were expert, even artistic. What I found most impressive was that two of the primary artists were from Rhode Island. One is a leading Providence restaurateur, the other an up-and-coming chef who helped launch two restaurants in the Ocean State between stints up north in ski country. more

Two Providence-area chefs – Nemo Bolin and Benjamin Sukle – are in the running for Food & Wine’s list of the 10 most brilliant up-and-coming chefs. more

Three Rhode Island chefs and two restaurants have been named semifinalists for the 2013 James Beard Foundation’s restaurant and chef awards. more

Everyone has had a Rhode Island “moment.” You’re in a faraway city, don’t know a soul, and you find yourself in a café on some crowded street. You strike up a conversation with a total stranger at the bar and find that the person you’ve just become acquainted with is a nephew of the daughter of your next-door neighbor in Rhode Island. more

PROVIDENCE – United Natural Foods’ fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 46 percent from a year ago, The Associated Press reported last week. more

Warwick Ice Cream owner Jerry Bucci Jr. is the third generation in a family business founded in 1930. He hopes one of his sons will one day run the company. more

“Marty [Lyons] is a rising star in the Providence culinary sky,” said John Elkhay, the self-described maestro of the Chow Fun Food Group. For someone like Elkhay to offer such effusive praise might put a bit of pressure on a new chef. But as Lyons, XO Café’s new executive chef, and I sat at the intimate restaurant on North Main Street, it was certainly not evident. As we chatted amidst the early week preparations that must take place at any dinner restaurant, he was the picture of calm. more

“Look at the history in this street,” said chef Jake Rojas, as he looked out the front window of his restaurant, Tallulah on Thames. Even as he admired the scene, he did so with a certain amount of trepidation. Lower Thames Street in Newport was undergoing a repaving operation and like his colleagues from Memorial Boulevard to Wellington Avenue, Rojas was casting a wary eye on the craters and potholes in the pavement before him. more

This time of year, one might think that it is more difficult for the chefs who use the “farm-to-table” philosophy to practice their craft. Not so, says one local chef who is at the forefront of the local sourcing movement that makes dining out around here such a pleasure. more