At HGS Home Chef, our kitchen store in the Hudson Valley-Berkshires, we’ve been lucky to attract some pretty stellar culinary talent. Those who are not informed on the magic of our rural region might be excused for thinking we are “in the sticks,” but the truth is our historic town, surrounded by amazing farms, is a pretty sophisticated place when it comes to food.
Enter David Leite (rhymes with “eat,” he likes to remind us), who lives just over the border in nearby Connecticut. What can we tell you about David? He’s funny, fabulous, gay (natch) and an amazing cook…oh, and he has an armload of James Beard Awards. His website, Leite’s Culinaria, was an early entry into the blogging world (1999!), and is packed with sage cooking advice told in his unique and hilarious personal style–especially the section called “David’s Blahg.”
On April 13, 2019 he will be teaching a class called Passport to Portugal, calling upon his background and deep love for Portuguese food. The recipes he’s demonstrate are from his book “The New Portuguese Table,” and will carry you away to that very romantic place. He also wrote a memoir in 2017 titled “Notes on a Banana” (read an excerpt), which someone should option to make into a movie. Seriously. A little drop of his brand of humor is below:
So, allow us to brag a bit about the talent that we greatly admire coming to the country kitchens in our tiny town. Lucky us!