Wire Food & Wine

Wrapping foods into tidy packets for the grill is a contradiction, right? Wisps of smoke and flicks of flame are supposed to be what makes grilling so flavorful and special.

MINNEAPOLIS - Melinda Olson has given her 12-year-old son raw milk for years. When he walked away virtually unscathed from a serious bike accident last year, she credited his healthy diet of raw milk dairy products.

After March brought us a miraculous string of 80-degree days, Midwestern fruit farmers were praying for an equally miraculous April - one warm enough to protect all the vulnerable fruit blossoms coaxed into early bloom.

QUEBEC CITY - Those who possess the soul of a locavore, a respect for the classics, a taste for the innovative and a well-stamped passport should pack an appetite and head to Quebec City.

We asked Atlanta personal chef Mark Alba to come up with breakfast recipes that would match the wow factor of a fine dining brunch menu.

If you want to cook like a chef, half the battle is having a pantry and refrigerator filled with the right ingredients.

Graduation party season is revving up.

Sour is an essential cocktail component. That's why, every day, bartenders squeeze mounds of lemons and limes.

Strawberries are the luscious start to spring and summer's bounty of gorgeous, juicy fruit. Chefs greet their arrival with creative juices flowing.

Many, many years ago, my first experience with saffron turned into love at first scent. Saffron, although pungent at first, adds a wonderful floral note to dishes once cooked. It's the world's most expensive spice, and no wonder. Saffron comes from the dried stigmas of a purple crocus, and each flower has only three stigmas, which must be hand-picked.

Exhaustion reigns when a new baby arrives. Between the 2 a.m. feedings, endless diaper changes and extreme sleep deprivation, merely getting dressed becomes a herculean effort. And don't even get us started on cooking one-handed while a purple-faced infant howls in your ear.

Rhubarb is one of the first food plants ready for harvest each spring. Bright red stalks start appearing at the market just about the same time as strawberries, making strawberry-rhubarb combinations a natural.

The sushi craze in America has led to a wider interest in Japanese flavors. Tataki, beef or fish that has been seared, thinly sliced, chilled and served with a dipping sauce, is a recent addition to menu. A traditional tataki accompaniment is grated daikon (white radish).

Roasted chicken garnished with refreshing tomato and corn salsa is stuffed in a pita bread to make this quick supper. Let the supermarket do the work. Make the fresh salsa using diced tomatoes and onions found in the produce section or at the salad bar and add some defrosted frozen corn.

Wine of the Week: 2007 Rainoldi Valtellina Superiore "Inferno Riserva"

Dear SOS: My wife and I recently dined at the 14K restaurant at the Crowne Plaza in Washington, D.C., during happy hour, and we had the most wonderful and addictive ahi tuna tartare. We had it every day we were there. Can you please get the recipe for this? It seems like a simple five- or six-ingredient dish with fried wontons, but I just cannot seem to figure it out. Thank you.

Have you ever considered milling your own flour? Whether you go for an inexpensive hand-cranked mill or a larger electric grinder, you'll find that you can vary the flavor and texture of a variety of goods - breads, cakes and more - when you grind your own grains.

"The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Sixties Cookbook: More than 100 retro recipes for the modern cook"

What's hot in restaurant food trends?

It's been almost two years since the introduction of Ritz Crackerfuls, sandwiches of crackers and semisoft cheese in several flavors, in a box that was kind of a natural-look homage to grain. At the time, Mr. Tidbit pointed out that the crackers are large rectangular made-with-whole-grain or multigrain items (the fiber content is 3 to 5 grams per serving), and he noted that neither the regular nor multigrain version of the cracker bore much resemblance to regular Ritz crackers. Since then there have been several additional cheese-filling varieties.

Welcome, comrade. The good food revolution has begun. Will Allen, urban farmer and activist was here last week to read from his book, "The Good Food Revolution," and Saturday is celeb chef Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day (foodrevolutionday.com), a delicious day of action and outreach.

Q: First I want you to know how much I enjoy your column and look forward to it each week. You have often stated that family recipes should be gathered and treasured, you are so right. I am 76, and my grandmother made a very simple cake that she topped with a lemon sauce. The sauce is easy to replicate, but I have never found a recipe for the cake that matches hers. It was usually baked in a square pan and had a coarser texture than the average cake, but there was not corn meal in it.

Q: I have a small bag of basmati rice but don't know what kinds of dishes to use it in.

You're in a restaurant or at a friend's house, and you're served a wine - say, the opulent 2009 Charles Krug "Generations" Cabernet Sauvignon - that's simply to-die-for.

Each chapter in my book "Molto Batali" is built around a big, festive main course, usually meat or bird, but meat does not need to be the focal point of every meal. That said, it's perfect for a special occasion as we approach the end of spring.

Uber-chefs Ferran Adria, Grant Achatz and Wylie Dufresne aren't the only kitchen wizards on the planet, whipping up plates festooned with flavorful gels, foams and spheres. You can too (!) with Cuisine R-EVOLUTION by MOLECULE-R Flavors. Think of it as a science kit for foodies geeked by molecular gastronomy and eager to make mint "caviar," beet "foam," "spherical" tzatziki and more.

The scent of green garlic reminds me of tromping through woods and farm fields this spring on a quest for morels (ultimately a middling success, but fun, nonetheless, for the hunt). Thin wild onions (or leeks, we weren't quite sure) grew everywhere, giving off their pungent aroma as we followed my brother Paul around his favorite spots near his country home north of Indianapolis.

It's farmers market time again, a time of rebirth and renewal for local agriculture but also resolutions for smarter shopping and cooking.

CHICAGO - Welcome to the real-life version of Candy Land.

A couple of times a year I feel the need to rise to the defense of rose wines. It's because they don't get the respect they deserve.