Chef Debbie Says: Uh Oh!

Who the hell is in charge of their marketing department?

And don't even start me on the childish package design...

Chef Debbie is Nominated for a "Best of Cincinnati" Award!

Wow!

Yummy~issimo! is nominated for a prestigious "Best of Cincinnati" Award in the Catering Category!

So, I'm going to grovel and ask that you all vote for me!

So here's what you do:

Click here

Scroll down in the EATS Section to CATERER (New) and there's a drop down menu of names.

Click on Chef Debbie Spangler which is the next to the last name in the column.

That's all there is to it!

You can only vote once for each email address so if you'd be so kind as to forward this to anyone and everyone you think would fill it out, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks so much! You, my darling friends, are AWESOME!

Chef Debbie's Amazing Dinner at Radio Milano

Do you Twitter? I started just a couple of months ago am finding it addictive.

If you're so inclined, you can follow me at ChefDebbieCPC. I Tweet about my blog, recipes, the cook day or anything else I can say in just 140 characters at a time.

I follow lots of foodie people around the world ~ restaurants, chefs, food writers, etc. and when I happened to mention a couple of weeks ago that sweet husband and I would be in Scottsdale this week, I received a Tweet from Radio Milano.

So sweet husband and I left our resort paradise to have dinner at Radio Milano ~ and, boy, are we glad we did!

My food photos didn't turn out very well ~ not sure if it was the second glass of wine or the lighting. The service from the instant we arrived (free valet parking) to immediately being greeted at the door to our super server, Les, was stellar.

The menu is small but packed full of interesting choices. Sweet husband started with the roasted red pepper soup followed by a beautiful, perfectly cooked piece of roasted halibut served over sautéed spinach. A generous splash of the grilled lemon accompaniment and sweet husband was very happy.

I'm never one to pass up an opportunity for pasta and I certainly wasn't disappointed. When I'm in a new restaurant, I always ask the server what his/her favorite entrée is and I'm rarely unhappy with the choice. Our server last night was Les and I can honestly say if he wasn't such a talented musician, he could make a bloody fortune as a server. Attentive, knowledgeable about the menu and not too bad on the eyes, his recommendation of the linguine and clams was spot on.

Baby clams ~ lots and lots of baby clams ~ were tossed with a perfect prepared al denté linguine and all tossed in a light white wine, olive oil, butter and garlic sauce. In many restaurants the white sauce is heavy but here all I wanted was 3~4 more loaves of bread to soak up the sauce. Sometimes I embarrass myself when I pick up the plate and lick it clean so I (occasionally) try to act dignified and use bread to finish the job.

Even though we shouldn't have, and really didn't need it, we finished our wonderful dinner with the radio chocolate pudding ~ a creamy confection of chocolate decadence topped with an espresso meringue. We fought over the last bite!

So thanks to my new foodie friends, Daniel (the general manager), Joe (Twitter expert extraordinaire) and Les, super server. It was a wonderful dinner and Tim and I can't wait to return and try an entire new array of delightful delicacies.

Chef Debbie is in Your Face!

You can't open the paper, drive down the highway or go to the grocery store without seeing my smiling face everywhere you look!

I received a phone call from Queen Janeen, the queenly half of the WGRR Married With Microphones morning team.

Seems that she saw one of the billboards while driving down to work one morning.

And, at 4:30 in the a.m., seeing my face 15' tall in 4~color with that screaming yellow background, well it's amazing there haven't been a few multi~car pileups!

If it were just a few billboards all over town, then you'd be able to avoid me.

But nooooo. In fact, everywhere you look, I'm right there looking back atcha!

In the front section of the Sunday Enquirer, in all that yellow 4~color glory. In the Door Store. Online on the bigg's website. In the store ads.

Is this my 15 minutes of fame? I'm ready for my closeup Mr. DeMille.

Chef Debbie Has Gas Issues!

So. I really don't endorse products or services.

Unless it's a family owned small business grocer, butcher or farm market. Like my buddy, De Stewart, at Herbs & Spice located in historic Findlay Market.

But.

bigg's has introduced a new customer incentive program called bigg's Pump Perks®.

The incentive program has only been in effect for two weeks. And, this is THE BEST customer incentive program they could have ever devised for ME.

For every $10 you spend, you receive .01 (one cent) off of 20 gallons of gas at Sunoco. And, then there are the incentive items. Purchase certain items and receive an additional .01~.15 cents off PER GALLON of gas.

Last week, the first week of the program, I bought my normal weekly client groceries on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Had to fill up on Thursday morning.

Gas was $1.77/gallon. I paid $1.02/gallon for 20 gallons.

Not bad. In fact, after the last couple of years, paying just $1.02/gallon for gas is down right freaking great.

Today gas was $1.95/gallon. I paid $0.019 ~ yes, less then 2 cents per gallon ~ for 20 gallons.

In other words, I paid a mere 38 cents for 20 gallons of gas today.

Finally, it's more than a job going to the grocery store.

And when you drive something as big as the Yummy~mobile, paying less than 2 cents per gallon of gas is a really really good thing!

The down side of this program? I can't ever travel again. Imagine paying full price for a gallon of gas!

Yes. Spoiled brat is back.

Oh, by the way.

Look for a familiar smiling Chef face in this weekend's bigg's Pump Perks® weekly newspaper ads.

Chef Debbie Designs Logos, Websites and Blogs

A Blog A Day For A Month: Day 25. Only 6 more days to go.

In today's Internet centered world, it's still amazing to me that small business owners haven't developed a web presence.

As many of you know, I have a background in marketing and graphic design. When I started Yummy~issimo! three years ago, I was worried that I wouldn't have outlets for my creative energy.

But. New businesses open, move or are ready to upgrade their marketing brand. With my creative background combined with my current culinary focus, moving into a food marketing and design phase seemed like a natural move.

This is a 4~color, two~sided business card I designed for my personal chef friend, Chef Debbie Burgess, of The Hungry Fox PCS in South Carolina. She is a Personal Chef as well as a Wine Advisor. Boy, does she know her wines! I love to visit with Bacchus ~ so going out to dinner with her and her darling husband, Bob, is always a great experience. In addition to the amazing company and delectable food, it's always an adventure to try the new wines she picks. And, they're always awesome!

My good friend and best butcher in town, Luigi Berardo of Luigi's Olde World Market didn't have a web presence at all. Marketing Chef Debbie to the rescue. First thing I've done ~ and I haven't even shown them yet ~ is to design the logo which will flow into everything else they're going to have: website, blog, business cards, new signage. Here is the 4~color, 2~sided business card I designed for them ~ one side is for Luigi and one side is for Adam. I've also designed a new blog for the business and am in the process of developing a website for them.

Another blog I designed this week is for the Master Spice Mixer, De Stewart, of Herbs & Spice at Findlay Market.

Ah. The creative juices are flowing again and they taste good.