Chef

YO, CHEFS! I love sun-dried tomatoes under olive oil, but, being retired, I find them expensive. I have a bag of sun-dried tomatoes but don't know how to prepare them. Can you help me? Ray Cascella Penrose Park Dear Ray, Carla Fusaro is the chef/owner, with her husband Enzo, of the classic Northern Italian restaurant, Il Gallo Nero, which they recently relocated from Center City to Ambler. Carla says sun-dried tomatoes are similar to dried fruits like apricots.

Sylva Senat is right on time. Sous chef by 25, chef de cuisine or executive chef by 30, "and by the time I'm 40, I want to own a place," says Senat, 33, the chef de cuisine at Stephen Starr's stalwart, Buddakan, in Old City. He is a study in contrasts, this ambitious but inherently humble sophisticate who presents a striking appearance with his chiseled jaw and long dreads. A French-speaking Haitian native with Manhattan fine-dining sensibilities, Senat is a kitchen-trained, not culinary-school-educated chef who learned from some of the absolute best: Andrew D'Amico when he was at the Sign of the Dove; Marcus Samuelsson, who made Senat his sous chef at Aquavit; and Jean-George Vongerichten, who made Senat chef de cuisine at 66 Leonard Street and the Mercer Kitchen.

Authorities are turning up the heat on chef Guy Sileo. Montgomery County's first deputy district attorney yesterday called Sileo the prime suspect in the murder nearly two years ago of James Webb, Sileo's business partner and fellow chef at the General Wayne Inn. The two men were deeply in debt when Webb, 31, was shot in the head Dec. 26, 1996, as he worked in the offices of the historic inn in Lower Merion. Following the killing, authorities learned that Sileo and Webb owed more than $1 million on the restaurant, had been feuding over its operation and had taken out $650,000 life insurance policies on each other.

Joshua, 15, loves going hunting with his foster father. When the teenager bagged his first deer, using only a bow and arrow, they were both excited. Joshua's many other interests include camping, swimming, weight lifting, video games, and playing football. In the 10th grade, Joshua attends a vocational high school. He enjoyed carpentry classes so much that he may make this trade his career. He is learning auto repair. His brother Jason, 13, is in seventh grade and receives help in math and reading.

Nicola Shirley wants to be a cook. Well, cook may not be exactly the right word. The Germantown High School senior has set her sights a bit higher. "I want to be a chef," she emphasized in no uncertain terms. "I don't just want to cook. I want to learn the culinary arts. This is what distinguishes cooks from great chefs. " Quite an interesting view from one so young. And just how does this 18- year-old with the self-designed challenge intend to accomplish this? "Lots of hard work," she explained.

Thanks to its recent takeover by one of the region's best chefs, the Golden Pheasant Inn has a new lease on life. The 1857 Bucks County landmark had been in a state of senescence in recent years, but it was reopened Oct. 3 by Michel Faure, a native of Grenoble, France, who has worked at a number of the area's best restaurants, including Le Bec-Fin and the Bellevue Stratford in Philadelphia and the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington. Faure had operated the nearby Carversville Inn since July 1984, but he jumped at the chance for the Golden Pheasant's larger quarters and more visible River Road location in Erwinna.

Family and friends of James E. Webb, who co-owned the General Wayne Inn in Lower Merion, will hold a memorial service tomorrow night to commemorate the third anniversary of his slaying. The service will take place 8 p.m. at St. Timothy's Church on Route 452 in Aston. Carol Casey of Folsom, a friend of Webb's, said the family wanted to honor his memory and keep him alive in the thoughts of those who knew him. "It's also important, I believe, since it's an unsolved murder, to keep it out in front," Casey said.

Head chef Nathaniel Frison, 79, of West Philadelphia, a legend in the kitchen at the Old Original Bookbinder's restaurant on Walnut Street for nearly half a century, died Friday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. A quiet, meticulous man, Mr. Frison developed the recipes for Manhattan clam chowder, snapper soup and bouillabaisse at Bookbinder's. "He was a wonderful person and a magnificent chef," said John Taxin Sr., the restaurant's owner since 1941. Mr. Frison began working at the restaurant in 1936.

Anna Pilla, who worked side by side with her late husband, chef and restaurateur Vincent "Cous" Pilla Sr., to make the old Cous' Little Italy a favorite dining stop for movie actors, mob bosses and other fanciers of Italian cuisine, died Saturday. She was 56 and lived in South Philadelphia. "When my dad first started, Mom was a waitress," said John Pilla, one of the couple's two sons. "It was like a partnership, in a sense. "He was always in the kitchen cooking. She would tell him what was happening on the floor, what people liked.

This is one in an occasional series of profiles of local chefs and restaurant owners. The image of a celebrity chef as a raging perfectionist and whirling dervish in the kitchen does not apply to Alison Barshak, the unassuming chef-owner of Alison at Blue Bell. As one of the region's handful of high-profile female chefs, she has captivated the local restaurant community since her debut at the Striped Bass more than a decade ago. Her 65-seat restaurant, in a mini office complex in Blue Bell, generally is filled to capacity on weekends.

RICH LANDAU is a magician. What other explanation is there for the amazing tricks he pulls off with vegetables? Fingerling Potatoes with Creamy Worcestershire Sauce? Roasted Cauliflower with Black Vinegar and Kimchi Cream? In every case, the veggies retain their flavor essence while surprising and delighting. It's a culinary feat that seems beyond mere mortals. And it's no fluke: From the "Food of the Future" days of Horizons Cafe in Willow Grove to the last days of "Modern Vegan Cuisine" Horizons off South Street, and now their latest project - the sophisticated "vegetable restaurant" Vedge - Landau and his wife and partner, Kate Jacoby, have consistently wowed even the carnivore crowd with vegan creations that prompt the awestruck "how do they do it?"

* Eating well to fight hunger is also the theme for a six-course dinner "Top Chef" Kevin Sbraga is putting together at his restaurant Sbraga (440 S. Broad St., 215-735-1913, Sbraga.com ) with a stellar lineup of local chefs May 14. Nicholas Elmi, Walter Abrams, Shola Olunloyo, Jonathan Adams and Dave Katz will join him in support of Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry campaign. Tix are $150 each. * Food-truck operators stake their claim to be the city's best at the Philadelphia Vendy Awards' third-annual competition from 2 to 6 p.m. June 8. A limited number of early discount tix, $45, are available now at eventbrite.com . The event raises funds for the nonprofit Food Trust.

WHAT'S with all the beer and food pairings? It's getting that you can't down a mug without someone shoving a plate of ale-braised Brussels sprouts under your chin. Wednesday night, Nick Macri, the chef at Southwark, at 4th and Bainbridge, laid out a four-course menu pairing imaginative dishes (seafood stew and hot-pepper relish) with suds from Ardmore's Tired Hands Brewery. Friday, the new Victoria Freehouse, on Front Street in Old City, will throw down a variety of British-style bitters and complementary English-themed plates.

OF ALL THE topics that diners tend to fuss over, "authenticity" is the fussiest to understand. Just listen to one of the food scene's more talented over-thinkers run a restaurant through his or her analytical atom smasher and you might agree. The quantitative critiques - service, prices, vibe - are all there, but things get weird once culinary credibility undergoes cross-examination. Is it "authentic" to use this sauce? In that soup, is marjoram an "authentic" garnish? Was the pot used to braise tonight's pork wrapped in indigenous leaves, buried beneath loose earth and gently attended by a pitmaster with Taíno ancestry?

YOU CAN spend years toiling in obscurity, hoping for a shot at the big time. Then, one day, someone taps your shoulder, and suddenly it's time to show the world what you're made of. That happened to Elijah Milligan earlier this month when he was named executive chef at Stateside, on East Passyunk Avenue. Just 24, he joins an exclusive club of executive chefs at standout restaurants in our city's lauded food scene. Milligan replaced hotshot George Sabatino, who had guided the now 2-year-old Stateside from obscure neighborhood spot to best restaurant in the city, according to Philadelphia magazine.

Sylva Senat's New York chef friends never used to ask about Philadelphia. But they're calling now. And they want to know whether the growing national buzz about his adopted home is true: Is Philly really the next great destination for up-and-coming chefs? Should they come, too? "At least eight have asked me in the past year," says Senat, the chef at Tashan who grew up in Brooklyn and worked at iconic Manhattan restaurants like Acquavit and Jean-Georges before moving to Philadelphia four years ago. The romantic notion of Philadelphia as the East Coast's land of opportunity for culinary ambitions, where the rents are fair, a sophisticated dining public is hungry for "honest food," and line cooks can actually afford to live, has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

BANANA bread. Gumbo. Hot browns. Shellfish. Rice. Citrus. No, this isn't a rundown of a culinarily gifted fraternity's refrigerator contents. It's just a few of the ingredients and dishes that have inspired intra-staff cooking duels at Sbraga, where chef-sanctioned battles keep the minds as sharp as the knives. Kevin Sbraga, who opened at Broad and Pine in late 2011, knows about creating on the fly. He won season seven of Bravo's "Top Chef" by adapting to every bizarre challenge thrown his way, from developing a plate inspired by the phrase "bring home the bacon" to crafting a dish that could be eaten by astronauts in zero gravity (seriously)

Irish celebrity chef Clodagh McKenna has fond memories of celebrating St. Patrick's Day while she was growing up in County Cork. "We would be looking forward to it for weeks," she said in a phone interview from Dublin. "In school, we would be studying the history of Ireland, making Irish flags, then on the day before, we would make brooches with fresh shamrocks, blessed by the priest, and tied with a white ribbon," she said. On St. Patrick's Day, she and her sisters would put on their best dresses for Mass with the family.

SJ Hot Chefs, an all-star lineup of the South Jersey Independent Restaurant Association, kicks off its annual Spring Restaurant Week on Sunday to showcase the region's abundant culinary talent. At events that continue through Friday, more than 35 restaurants in Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester Counties will offer four-course menus for $25 and $35. This year, chefs also are pairing with culinary-arts students for two demonstrations Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. in Voorhees and Sewell.

If the accents coming out of the television during the 11th season of the Fox cooking competition Hell's Kitchen sound familiar, that's because at least five of the 20 chefs have ties to the Philadelphia area. The premiere is 8 p.m. Tuesday. "Oh, there was a lot of Philly there," said Zach Womack, 34, of West Philadelphia, a cook at The Cambridge on South Street.Also competing are Jacqueline Baldassari, 27, of Florence, Burlington County, executive chef at Ivy Inn in Princeton; Drexel University student Cyndi Stanimirov, 25, of Willingboro, a chef at the Madison in Riverside, Burlington County; Brasserie Perrier alumnus Michael Langdon, 33, of Hanover, Pa., executive chef at Huntsville Golf Club in Shavertown, Luzerne County; and Allentown native Jessica Lewis, 26, who left a finance career with Vanguard in Malvern and now cooks at Bagatelle NYC. A sixth chef - if you count York, Pa. - is Jon Scallion, 27. Early buzz has the solidly built, bearded Womack playing a key role in the season, whose premiere - including cooking sequences - was taped before an audience in Las Vegas.