The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Portland

“As a chef and as a food lover, having access to food that is that local and fresh is an unsurpassed thing,” said Renée Loux, green expert and organic chef.

Any food begins to slowly leech its flavor and its nutrients once it’s harvested, Loux says. So, to simply walk outside to a garden or a pot and grab a tomato or basil often ensures the best possible flavor.

Steve Venne, Chef Director for the International Culinary School at the Art Institutes International — Kansas City, seconds the point by saying: “Even fresh vegetables from high-end markets are not as fresh as home grown.”

The ultra-local food movement is finding converts among the ranks of restaurant owners, too. Thomas Keller’s French Laundry famously boasts a three acre garden across the street in Yountville, Calif. In Rockland, Maine, Melissa Kelly and Price Kushner have turned the grounds of their Primo restaurant into extensive garden spaces and greenhouses.

At The Art Institutes International — Kansas City, a garden should supply the culinary school with fresh herbs all summer, Venne says. Culinary programs at other schools in The Art Institutes system also draw on their own garden produce, says Joseph Bonaparte, the Director of Curriculum and Quality Assurance at the International Culinary Schools.

The system’s school in Charlotte, North Carolina, for example, has a “beautiful garden the size of a volleyball court,” Bonaparte says. In an Ai InSite article last year, Bonaparte explained how he created a garden while working as an instructor at The Art Institute of Houston as a way to introduce fresher ingredients into school kitchens.

Growing your own vegetables isn’t just tasty, it also can be good for the environment and cost effective.

“First and foremost, it’s as local as it gets,” says Loux, who is the author of several books and cookbooks including The Balanced Plate and The Whole Green Catalog.

Gardening for the kitchen eliminates the need to drive to the farmers’ market. Plus, the practice can reduce your carbon footprint, providing the planet with more plants that promote oxygen and pull carbon dioxide from the air.

“It’s a way to offset the impact of living,” Loux says.

Actually keeping a garden “green” means avoiding chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Even if vegetables are rinsed, any kind of chemical can invade the plant, Loux says.

She recommends companion planting — mixing in plants that naturally repel pests. For example, marigolds are a natural insect repellant (and they are edible). And anything in the allium family (green onions, chives) are naturally pest resistant and offer a quick harvest.

The harvest also can save cash. According to Better Homes and Gardens, a $2 tomato plant can easily provide 10 pounds of fruit over the course of a season.

For the average non-gardening household, getting started on growing your own vegetables may seem daunting. But creating a garden is not as difficult as you might think — even for those who lack green thumbs.

One of the easiest ways to start is with fresh herbs. Basil, thyme, rosemary, mint, cilantro and dill are all easy to grow and fairly hardy. They offer quick rewards because they can be harvested soon after they are planted. And it’s a great way to procure hard-to-find and expensive varietals, such as Basil varieties (lemon basil, purple basil, thai basil).

Herbs also lend themselves well to pots, which are a convenient way to start gardening, Loux says. Pots work well in any small space and can be rotated with the sun. And they eliminate the need for soil prep, as you can just add your own high quality potting soil without concern for the soil conditions in your area.

Loux recommends beginner gardeners skip the seeds and go with starts (young plants), which are readily available at home and garden centers.

Other items for your first garden plot or container: tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, peppers, snap peas, green onions, summer squash, and green beans. Also good are salad mixes, including mesclun mixes, which are easy to start from seed, says Loux. She also recommends arugula, which is not very susceptible to pests.

Finally, gardeners should learn what grows naturally and easily in their region. Pros at the nearby farmers market, hardware store, or gardening center can provide tips.

As Loux points out: “My sheer will will not make things grow.”

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“Wine is very complicated,” says Jamie Kluz, a 2009 Culinary Arts graduate of The Illinois Institute of Art — Chicago. “Some places have incredibly long wine lists that can sometimes be a bit overwhelming.”

Part of the problem is that ordering wine involves multiple languages. Tim Gaiser, Education Director for The Court of Master Sommeliers Americas, says there are more than 1,000 fine wine grapes grown around the world and about 75,000 wines produced each year. With those numbers, customers new to the wine ordering experience don’t stand a chance.

“If you’re a consumer trying to figure out [the] language and you have your own set of favorites, you can use those as a benchmark for comparison,” says Gaiser, whose group promotes excellence in hotel and restaurant beverage service. “But once you wander outside of your comfort zone, you need help.”

Such wanderers will find plenty of help at restaurants. Servers, sommeliers, and even wine buyers can guide customers to the best wine complement for meals of chicken or beef, as well as those for dessert.

Tips on how best to link wines with food can be helpful even to those with discerning palates.

“I used to do the same thing — pass the wine list to the person next to me and hope they knew what they were doing,” Kluz says, “because while I knew what I liked, I didn’t have the faintest idea sometimes about what food to have with it.”

All of those varieties and pairing possibilities can be too much even for aficionados when ordering wine.

“Most people don’t understand the flavors and differences in wine,” says Joe LaVilla, Senior Academic Director for three culinary programs at The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Phoenix. “It’s like trying to learn the names, relationships, and personalities of a football stadium worth of people all at once. Most people find one thing they like and then stick with it, but we would never do that with food.”

As with food on a menu, establishments can place wines in an order that would suggest one over another, or guide customers to certain pairings of food and wine. But restaurants aren’t trying to rip off customers by doing so, Gaiser says.

It’s more important, Gaiser says, for customers to consider value than price when ordering wine — especially in a tight economy.

“Obviously there’s an inherent part of any job in a restaurant that is to up-sell,” he adds. “If you’re selling someone a bottle of wine, that’s part of your job. [But] if someone shows interest and you know of a better wine that costs more, you recommend it.”

Sometimes consumers struggle to spot the best value.

If servers first direct customers to a high-priced wine, and then show middle and low–end bottles, customers usually order the wine from the middle category, Kluz says.

“There is a perception of poor quality in lower-priced wines that just isn’t accurate,” he continues. “Though often times the mark-up on the highest priced is the lowest, so sometimes you’re getting a good deal on something rather extravagant.”

Customers can get caught up in the prices when ordering wines and try to impress others with what they order. LaVilla says these “status seekers” can be easy to spot — especially when they turn the bottle so that neighboring diners can see the label.

“They order wine based on the reviews in magazines, or on the boutique nature of the business, not the quality of the wine or their personal taste,” he says. “They want to show off that they know ‘good wine.’”

Kluz says a similar phenomenon occurred with Pinot Noir once the movie Sideways became popular. After people heard the buzz about the film, they began ordering the wine more and more.

“It is one of the more difficult and expensive grapes to grow, which is why a decent bottle usually costs around $30,” she says. “If you find a Pinot from South America at $12 a bottle, chances are it’s not the same wine that created all of the hype in Sideways.”

The best advice, those in the wine industry agree, is to ask and trust the restaurant employees when it comes to ordering wine. And diners should remember why they chose the restaurant – for the food it offers.

“People should spend more time thinking about the entrée they are going to order than they do the bottle of wine,” Kluz points out. “Wine is sort of like an expensive condiment — the fancy ketchup, if you will. It’s meant to enhance what you’re eating, not steal the show.”

Almost every cook has a special recipe that consistently gets rave reviews from family and friends. But when that specialty provides the inspiration needed to jump start a home-based baking business, there's often a tasty story with kernels of unexpected wisdom.

Kevin Lindee transformed his baking hobby into a business three years ago, after serendipitously opening up a box of his homemade truffles while at a local coffee shop. The shop's owner sampled one of the confections and asked if Lindee sold his creations. The experience convinced the 2008 Baking & Pastry graduate of The International Culinary School at The Art Institutes International Minnesota to launch a store called Ganache: Truffles for Every Occasion. Lindee has since expanded into specialty desserts and traditional torts. "I actually was not planning to be in business this soon, but fate said differently," he quips.

Keri Trbovich's interest in cooking and baking led her to pursue a second job as an at-home baker. She perfected her skills by taking a Wilton Cake decorating class and soon after started her specialty fondant cake and gourmet cupcake baking business called The Icing on the Cake. "I have always loved to bake and the class demonstrated an array of decorating techniques for the beginner decorator," she says. Trbovich continued her self-education by watching YouTube cake decorating videos, gaining the techniques needed to make her cakes stand apart.

While Lindee and Trbovich each found success following very different career paths - Trbovich has no formal training in the field - there are some universal truths for those dreaming of a home-based baking business, according to Executive Corporate Chef and Pittsburgh Hot Plate blogger Chuck Kerber.

One of the most important: To grow a baking business, you have to provide a quality product at a reasonable price. "You can always create a demand for a product if it's exceptional," he states.

Balancing the creative side of baking with the management of a business can be a big challenge. Start-up costs are often high due to needed equipment and ingredients. Trbovich also had to learn to make the most of her small kitchen. "Figuring out how to bake and decorate cakes in a confined space was very challenging at first," she says.

Finding good help, when needed for a large order, may also be difficult. And for bakers interested in marketing their creations to larger commercial enterprises, there's another hurdle - the home kitchen is out. Food must be prepared in a food safety certified location such as a restaurant or catering business.

Lindee has been able to use his employer's professional kitchens in such instances, just one of the many benefits he's gained through his culinary work experience. "There are many challenges, especially when you do most of your work at home," he adds.

But good equipment and business skills can only take you so far. Kerber suggests that it's critical to know what product you want to produce - and to find a way to make it consistently perfect every time. "Make sure that you have a recipe that you can count on. This means a recipe that is extraordinary and unlike any other." He urges the need for consistency. "Whatever you make has to be exactly like it was before. Any variations in the recipe will cost you customers," he states.

Finding and keeping customers is one of the most gratifying parts of having a baking business, according to Kerber. "Hit the pavement, and give some product away. If the potential customers like what you're selling, they will give you a call," he says.

Lindee seconds this assertion, saying he regularly takes advantage of local events to market his creations by providing samples, taking part in competitions and demonstrations, and donating to local charities. "Even if the outcome is very small, the little bit of exposure in the market will help you build a client based relationship," he says.

Using social media is a new way to build business awareness, according to Trbovich, who has a Facebook page dedicated to her fondant cakes. Other tips include setting up a dedicated website and utilizing the old standby - word of mouth advertising from satisfied customers, family, and friends.

For home bakers interested in transforming their hobby into a successful profession, there's one common thread: a passion for food and a dedication to creating something that keeps customers coming back. "If your clients can see your passion in everything that comes out of your kitchen, then you will always have a thriving business," asserts Trbovich.

Lindee adds that there's an unexpected bonus at the end of the day -the gratification of seeing positive results from hard work combined with a passion for culinary arts. "I am true to myself as a baker and when I deliver my services to clients."