Latah Bistro chef has all the answers

If you had the ear of the chef at your favorite restaurant for just a moment, what would you ask?

Want to know what’s in season? Maybe you’d ask for the recipe for the chutney served with your pork tenderloin? Perhaps you’re curious about what is in his or her cupboard at home?

Well, now’s your chance. Chef David Blaine, of Latah Bistro, answers all of the above and more in his new blog.

“It’s something that we all have in common. Everybody eats. Everybody eats in restaurants. A natural part of our culture is an interest in what is happening on the other side of the wall,” Blaine said.

He wants to bring the conversations that are already taking place in downtown coffee shops, across lunch tables and in restaurant kitchens into the blogosphere.

In his blog, which he started last month, Blaine speculates about new restaurant openings, shares his love of local ingredients, gives a chocolate 101 lesson, counts the orphaned ingredients at the Latah Bistro (Szechuan peppercorns, cornichons and Smithfield ham) and inventories his home kitchen (and even confesses to having Stagg’s classic bean chili on hand).

Blaine also hopes the blog will help him network with other people who work in the restaurant industry.

Check it out and add your two cents. There’s even a recipe for kumquat chutney.

Get your Café Cookies

Girl Scouts will be offering a taste of their new Café Cookie at River Park Square this Saturday as a kick-off to the annual cookie sales drive.

“This new Café Cookie is made with caramelized brown sugar and a hint of cinnamon and it’s perfect with a cup of tea or coffee,” Lori King, sales manager for Girl Scouts Inland Empire Council, said in a news release.

There will be a free sample offered at a table next to the Nordstrom Coffee Bar between 10:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Girl Scouts will be selling eight varieties of cookies for $4 a box starting Friday through April 16 in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

To find a cookie sale location go to www.gsiec.org or call (509) 747-8091 or e-mail cookies@gsiec.org.

Look inside today’s Food section for the recipe for Café Cookies Kuchen, from the Girl Scouts Mile High Council in Denver.