Three things found while Googling Charlie Ayers, author of the new cookbook Food 2.0: Secrets from the Chef Who Fed Google (DK, $25):

*An interview with the Scotsman in which Ayers describes a 10-course tasting menu at Ken Oringer’s Clio as the best meal of his life: “It included a liquid Parmesan ravioli, which was like eating Parmesan-scented air. It was out of this world.”

*A blog entry by a slightly dotty amateur chef that uses 25 photographs, including a picture of what two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce looks like, to show how to make Ayers’s Google Hot Sauce.

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Your Chowder hounds have sniffed down the best culinary events in town. Check back every Thursday for your weekly prix-fixe of foodie feasts, cooking classes, wine tastings, and more.

June 26, 6-9 p.m.
Healthy Cooking Demonstration
Sebastian’s Interactive Kitchen

“Summertime Soups & Salads” is a hands-on cooking class led by Sebastian’s executive chef Tom Barton. Guests will learn to create seasonal soups and salads that are high in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and they will also enjoy a three-course, healthy dinner with wine pairings.

June 27, 6:30 p.m.
Talking Taste with Chris Schlesinger
The Institute of Contemporary Art

The East Coast Grill chef holds forth on barbecue, and will sign copies of his grilling cookbooks and share samples of his renowned cuisine. (more…)

At some point, everyone’s attended the kind of gathering where food figures prominently, but isn’t really the focus (and, consequently, isn’t very good). I’m talking wedding receptions, dinner theaters, transatlantic flights—the kind of “chicken or beef?” food service that prompts people like me to pre-eat in anticipation of mushy pasta and chewy steak.

It was with some hesitation, then, that I boarded the YachtStarship in South Boston last Friday night for a two-hour trip around Boston harbor. A new addition to Boston’s dinner-cruise lineup (the other players being Odyssey and Spirit), the ship’s press release promised grand skyline views, dancing on the deck, and delectable, upscale cuisine. I believed #1 and #2.

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Keeping track of Boston’s dining scene can feel almost as daunting as getting a window seat at Ciao Bella. Chowder scours the internet for the latest good news, funny Chinese translations, and the most controversial color-coded map since red and blue states.

Good News
Theatergoers will soon have another place to grab a sweet treat. Troquet has announced the addition of Le Patissier, which the press release describes as “desserterie serving decadent plated desserts.” It will be open in Troquet’s lower level Tuesday through Saturday evenings.

While it may not be the favorite stop for MBTA conductors, parents love Legal Sea Foods. The local chain was named the best family restaurant by the readers of Parents magazine.

Those who really want to be sure their steak is cooked to their specifications may enjoy Bokx 109, a new steakhouse opening Friday in Newton’s Hotel Indigo. The joint boasts an exhibition kitchen, according to Zagat Buzz.

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Don’t get me wrong: I’m a food snob at heart. Nothing whets my appetite more than the prospect of taking a delicately crafted plateful of precious farm-fresh, heirloom, artisanal morsels and scarfing it down in seconds. If the menu includes the first and last name of the farmer/forager/clamdigger who personally wrested said ingredient, hours earlier, out of the soil/forest/swamp, so much the better. To my mind, O Ya and Clio are regular hangouts, not once-a-year splurges—a dangerous habit on a food writer’s salary.

What with all the rarefied feeding frenzies at the city’s most exquisite botes, who has time to give casual-dining chains the time of day? My budget-conscious grub crawls tend to involve ethnic hole-in-the-walls, not Cheesecake Factory and Applebee’s. Life’s too short to suffer generic food that’s been whitewashed for the masses. Right?

Well, right-ish. Over the years, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to stray from the straight-and-narrow of the, um, organic skate-and-marrow. Yes, most of the food served at national chains is pretty abysmal (I’m not talking local chains like Legal Sea Foods or Boloco…). But there actually are a few rare, hidden gems amid the chipotle-southwestern grilled chicken and mandarin-orange fajita nonsense; you just have to pick and choose.

So…with my foodie credentials precariously on the line, I will attempt to go where no Chowder posting has gone before. Here are a few chain dishes worth slumming for: (more…)

We’re all aware that a recession is upon us. It’s affected the real estate we buy and (can’t) sell, the gas we pump into our cars, and alas, the already overpriced food we sling into our reusable shopping bags at Whole Foods. Somehow, that weekly ritual of discreetly tossing rotted bags of lettuce and freezer-burned chicken into the community trash receptacle on my floor seems like an even bigger waste now than when I was paying a few dollars less for groceries.

Now I’m trying (the operative word being trying) a different approach to my weekend supermarket shopping. I’ll deem it the “One Meat Per Week” theory, otherwise known as the idea that you can create multiple meals using the same package of protein all week long. (more…)

Your Chowder hounds have sniffed down the best culinary events in town. Check back every Thursday for your weekly prix-fixe of foodie feasts, cooking classes, wine tastings, and more.

June 18-22, 10 a.m.-11 p.m.
Phantom Gourmet BBQ Beach Party
City Hall Plaza

Get ribbed for your pleasure as barbecue pit masters from all over the States come to town for for a party that includes all of the grilled meat you can eat, beer, a beach, and music from Ernie and the Automatics. Tickets do not include food or beverage purchases.

June 19, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Boston Uncorked Summer Solstice
blu, Sports Club LA., 4 Avery St.

Nothing says summer like a roof deck party. Sample warm-weather wines and light appetizers while overlooking Boston Common, and mix and mingle to live jazz from Patrick Purdonon. (more…)

I can never get enough strawberries. I start my day with a bowl of cereal with dried slices, and sometimes I have a peanut butter and strawberry-jam sandwich for lunch. There’s nothing better than strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Now that it’s mid-June, strawberry season is in full-swing. After the jump, we give you three ways to celebrate the berry goodness.

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In my cell phone address book, there are four buttons I push to get food (how do you say, behavioral conditioning?). They are: “Thai,” “Pizza,” “Indian,” and “Wndrsp.” Since I live in JP, that translates as Ban Chiang House, Same Old Place, Bukhara, and Wonderspice. With those four buttons, I’ve been able to avoid using my kitchen appliances for anything but reheating leftovers and hiding dirty dishes for months. Still, I’m always on the lookout for Button No. 5.

Could it be the Real Deal, the West Roxbury–based sandwich shop that recently made its debut on Centre Street? I’ve been there twice now, and I still don’t know—mainly because I’ve left both times feeling flattened by a Mack truck. (more…)

They… pay bills!

They…work out!

They…summer on Cape Cod!

And, apparently, the Islands.

You know that pesky pang-of-guilt that creeps up just as you’re jaunting off to P-Town or Vineyard Haven, thinking of your poor old favorite chef stuck Hub-side, slinging hash to the city-bound? (Right. I made that up.) Well, cast it aside. (Just roll with it.) At least a few top local chefs, refusing to accept their fate passively, have come up with a brilliant game plan: Open up a second restaurant in a fab locale. (more…)