Nice DayOne Day,One Nice!!!!

Avett Brothers cellist Joe Kwon and his refined palate
(By Helen Schwab, hschwab@charlotteobserver.com) Watch Joe Kwon pivot from pot rack to burner to sink in his red kitchen.

He’s toasting garlic, salting water, tending to his All-Clad stainless with a precise grace and perfect posture.

Food Notes
March 28 bash will benefit the staff of restaurant that burned

Regulars at Big Ben British Pub & Restaurant – including me – are still mourning the loss of one of Charlotte’s best hangouts. A fire destroyed the restaurant on Valentine’s Day, leaving the owners and employees stunned and out of work. While the owners regroup, some of the bands that played at the pub are hosting a benefit concert for the staff who helped make the place so popular.

Chef’s star rises with reputation of Irish cuisine
(By Natalie Haughton, Los Angeles Daily News) Rachel Allen is the darling of the Irish cooking world. A television cooking show host in Ireland and the U.K. for more than six years, she has written six cookbooks since 2003 with the seventh, on entertaining, due in September. An American version of her “Favorite Food at Home: Delicious Comfort Food from Ireland’s Most Famous Chef,” (William Morrow; $24.99), published in Great Britain in 2006, was recently released in this country.

“The recipes in the book reflect how Irish people eat now,” Allen said during a call from England, where she is filming a television show. “We’re more cosmopolitan than we used to be.

Thanks to Conservatove Rumblings Blog for this update and story. Providing great iinsight at http://ianessling.com/blog/.