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Fresh Look: Clementine Culinary Productions
October 2, 2007

I love food and more specific, eating food. Since I’ve embarked on my green journey, I realized that some of the best foods are made from local, fresh ingredients that has it original flavor, unmarred by long distance trucking, pesticides or genetic enhancements. So I was very excited when my friend Jess left her corporate job, became a TV personality (as one of the finalists on the Next Food Network Star) and founded Clementine Culinary Productions to provide personal chef services and in-home cooking classes for beginners and enthusiasts alike. One of Jess’ personal interests is to peruse farmers’ markets and visit local farms and vintners for inspirations to create quality dishes using fresh, seasonal ingredients.

Promoting local green (or aspiring green) businesses is one of Organicpicks’ missions. So we were very excited when Jess agreed to collaborate with us on a promotion this past summer: write reviews on green products for opportunity to win a Tuscan Inspired Feast from Clementine Culinary. The promotion was a great success and in the end, it was Jocelyn from Palo Alto who won the coveted prize! Clementine Culinary worked with Jocelyn to create a delectable menu for an intimate and fun at home gathering for friends.

In Jess’ words:

“Last month, I had the pleasure of preparing a meal for Jocelyn and friends. The dinner couldn’t have come at a better time as every stall in the farmers market were displaying the fruits of summer so I chose a menu to match the late summer harvest. We started off with one of my new favorite summer salads, an heirloom tomato carpaccio.

Thanks to a new mandolin I recently purchased, paper thin tomatoes were a cinch. Dressed with some balsamic vinaigrette, I can’t imagine a flavor that better represents the season. For the main course, I seared up some scallops to accompany cream based pasta that was kept light with a hint of lemon, tarragon and summer peas.

As a big fan of vegetables, I also included a cold green bean salad with fennel and capers and potatoes with white truffle oil to round out the meal. We ended the night on a sweet note – decadent crème brulee topped with perfectly crystallized sugar and fresh raspberries.”

And apparently, the meal was a big hit as Jocelyn raved:

“We and our dinner guests had a Tuscan-inspired dinner that was just fabulous. Our foodie friends raved that it was the best dinner they’d had since B.K. (before kids) — comparable to what they have eaten at top-rated restaurants. ….. we ate the meal at home without having to prepare, travel or clean anything. Was it a dream? Rather, it was a dream come true….“

From the looks* and sounds of things (too bad we couldn’t taste it personally), it was a wonderful meal showcasing seasonal ingredients at the peak of their flavors. Kudos to Jess and Clementine Culinary Productions for demonstrating that good eating starts with good ingredients.

Read what Jocelyn and others thought of Clementine Culinary Productions.

*pictures courtesy of Jocelyn and friends
CindyC at
Organicpicks

Related Fresh Look Entries:
Preserving Basil Season
Heirloom Tomatoes
Buy Local Beef

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