Hermosa Beach resident Mary Ellen Rae has created a business for people who desire to cook well, but never felt comfortable learning in a large class or outside of their own kitchen.
Rae’s Personal Touch Gourmet offers people the chance to learn how to make countless recipes in the privacy of their own home through one-on-one teaching.
Arugula Pesto Pasta Serves- 4
Arugula, the peppery green leaf that adds a mustardy bite to a mixed green salad, is a delicious substitute for basil in the classic pesto recipe. Leave the oven off for this dinner, the arugula pesto is an uncooked sauce, simply stirred into the hot pasta. Add cooked shrimp or chicken for a protein boost. Tastes great at room temperature, bring plenty to share at the next concert on the beach. When purchasing arugula, look for dark green crisp leaves, free of brown spots and use within in a few days.
Back when I was an intern in the L. A. Times Test Kitchen, Donna Deane, the test kitchen director asked me to develop several recipes for the upcoming Easter Dinner story. Um…something with chocolate Easter eggs came to mind, but that idea wasn’t practical. Instead, I pulled from a childhood memory, my mom’s devilled eggs. I updated the recipe with the addition of sun-dried tomatoes, capers and basil to give it a new twist.
Red Grapefruit, Jicama and Pea Sprout Salad (Serves 4)
Looking for a culinary inspiration? Spring time is my favorite season at the farmer’s market. Create a simple salad with a mélange of flavors and textures using red grapefruit, jicama and pea sprouts. Red grapefruits are high in vitamin A, C and potassium adding a sweet-tart component to the traditional green salad. Using some of the vinaigrette as a marinade for grilled shrimp, turns this salad into a main dish.
News flash – Valentine’s Day is in two weeks. What are you doing? What are you buying your sweetie? Most importantly, what’s for dinner?
We asked Chef Mary Ellen Rae to suggest a special home-cooked meal. Chef Mary Ellen toiled for years as a chef in the Los Angeles Times test kitchen and now owns Personal Touch Gourmet, a full-service foodie operation for catering, cooking classes, freelance recipe testing and more.
The best baker I know is my friend, Mary Ellen Rae. Her cakes, cookies, breads and coffee cakes are so good that it’s fortunate I don’t live nearby. I would constantly invade her kitchen to overdose happily on those gorgeous pastries.
Perhaps it’s her Scandinavian heritage. The rich, buttery, cardamom-flavored baked goods from that part of the world are so extraordinary that I collect Scandinavian cookbooks just to read about them.
Put these shrimp on the barbie, and you’ll put them there again and again.
The recipe is from my friend and former colleague in the food section of the Los Angeles Times, Mary Ellen Rae.
Mary Ellen is now giving cooking classes, catering parties and private cheffing through her company, Personal Touch Gourmet.
The shrimp are one of her most popular party appetizers. (I tasted them at a holiday party at her home and couldn’t get them out of my mind, they were so good.)
Infused with lemony flavors associated with Thai and Indonesian cooking, they also taste of fresh dill, a seasoning from another part of the globe.
The recipe is really convenient. Part of the marinade seasons the shrimp. The rest becomes a dipping sauce.
As a “Nearly-Wed”, you are starting new traditions as a couple. One of the “biggies” – is Thanksgiving Dinner! Since I am far from the title of “domestic goddess”, I rely on the talented people in the world around me to provide wisdom in their art and area of expertise. Chef Mary Ellen Rae from Hermosa Beach developed this recipe for a fresh cranberry relish which has been featured in the Los Angeles Times Food Section. It appears to be surprisingly simple to make – and even I might try this on Thanksgiving day…much to the surprise of my relatives, I’m sure!
As some of you remember from a previous post, I met Chef Mary Ellen Rae of Personal Touch Gourmet at an event and signed up for one of her cooking classes. Those who know me were a little surprised … not because I am a domestic goddess and don’t need any pointers – quite the opposite! I have never shown much interest in this subject, until lately. Maybe my wine tasting business has expanded my horizon in the whole arena of food and wine – or maybe I have been enjoying more wine and realize it might be a good idea to add a little food to the equation. In any case, I went, I cooked, and I loved it! First off, Mary Ellen is a lovely person and such an expert in her field. 10 of us gathered in a catering kitchen in Manhattan Beach and after 2 hours of slicing, chopping, combining, stirring, mincing, grilling (yes, we covered it all), we ended up with Stuffed Pasta Shells, Halibut Fish Tacos, Wok-fried Chicken, Chicken Cilantro Soup — and Dark Chocolate Cookies with Hazelnuts and Dried Cherries. Here are a few of Mary Ellen’s tips that might help you “Nearly, Newly and Already Weds” —- as well as the “Single Chefs” out there:
Chef Mary Ellen Rae fine-tuned her culinary skills while working at the Los Angeles Times food section. Her duties as “recipe tester” included preparing, testing and editing recipes for publication. She also wrote articles and developed many recipes for the newspaper, several winning awards. She created Personal Touch Gourmet, spe-cializing in catering, private chef services, in-home private or group cooking classes, freelance recipe testing and food product development. Rae graduated from the California School of Culinary Arts with a Le Cordon Bleu High Honors Degree.
Chef Mary Ellen Rae is amazing!!! I am from AZ and planned a surprise Bachelorette party in LA for 12 girls. All of us at different cooking and interest levels I can honestly say everyone had a blast and ate extremely well!!! We all walked away with some new tricks and a smile on our faces. The thing that was most amazing was how she kept this many people interested and actively evolved. We split up into groups and each group manned a dish and when we finished, the ones that wanted to keep cooking worked on something new and the others that wanted to kick back enjoy a glass of wine did. I learned more about cooking, ingredients, what to buy and where to go then any other cooking experience I have even done and believe me I have done a bunch. Honestly if you are torn between 2 chefs or different fun activities, go with Mary Ellen, it is well worth it! I can't wait to come back to LA and when I do I will definitely be calling her.
