Chicken

3) CHICKEN!
Give us a moment while we go find one. A good one.

Let's Get Busy with a Little History

2) Sixteen or more years ago I found myself in a messy puddle of contrary prescriptions. The many doctors I had visited for indistinct pains had left me filled with experimental pharmaceuticals. I was first fat then thin. I was as happy as a Lark then sadder than a Snail in sand. It was in a moment's rest between the lows and highs that allowed me to make important realization: Food, Drink, and Entertainment was the answer. Which is to say: Life itself! So began my gradual weaning from Western medicine. Sure, I had lapses, most recently yesterday, but the essential truth of my innermost being was that nothingness should choose something far livelier.

Later in the evening I had my revelation put to the test. I found myself in a filthy alley. I had known alleys but this one took the three layer cake. Rats, mais oui, but also there were unpleasant people getting into position, according to their cruel hierarchy of authority, to rid my pockets of help. I would not fight, such is my peaceful nature, but someone stepped forward who would. Rita. She was a street urchin of the rentable sort. Tall, muscular, frightening to behold. Formidable. She stepped forward and said, "Me first!" The assembled crush took a step back. Rita entered the circle about me. "If you want to live take my hand", she said. I was not sure at first, but I did! And now you have before you the fruit of that superb rescue.

Rita's comments on that fateful night sure to follow. Then we cook!


Rita says: Quelle chance?! Such kismet is rarely seen! There is no doubt a formidable force was at work the night of our meeting. Once I had wiped the fluids from Claude's person, we took the last of my ill-begotten pay and headed straight for the nearest café. Two baguettes et fromage and three bottles of the gooiest Bordeaux ever imbibed, and Claude and Rita were never more to be the pill addict and whore of yesterday.

Today, we have found happiness and success beyond our wildest dreams. Our entertainment empire has grown to include a weekly segment on our local community television station and a stellar reputation among our dearest friends. Every day we find another way to bring something new to the art of cooking and, thanks to a boon in the wine industry, another appellation to knock back!

Hopefully our story is as inspiring to all of you, dear Readers, as it has been for us. We changed our lives, and you can too.

Enough of this chit-chat! Claude, let‚s get cooking!

Claude and Rita

1) Welcome to the inaugural posting of perhaps the finest food, wine, and entertainment blog on the world wide net. Here you will find not only the most wonderful cooking techniques and wine and food pairings, but also please find enclosed an entre into the difficult world of dinner party entertainment. How to get it right. How to know what is the best thing to do with difficult guests. How to throw together a dinner with only your wits, however galore. Perhaps most important, where to find live things to cook!
I am from a part of the world where every dinner, every opportunity to taste any little thing, is done with monumental class and discretion. Not to mention aplomb! Together with my esteemed colleague, Rita, we will scour the world for the final word on eating, but also drinking. And how Claude and Rita love to drink! We know wine, cordials, and after dinner liqueurs as well as others know carpets and baseball bats! Forgive my English. I have learned just enough to get me through last week only!
Rita shall add her unique introduction in only a matter of days. Can you wait? I know I cannot, though it does me no good. Yes!


Hola, bon jour and howdy! My name is Rita, the “Rita” part of “Cooking with Claude and Rita!”
My comrade has done a superb job giving you some insight into the wonderful world that we have found through our shared love of cooking, entertaining, and, of course, drinking! Together Claude and I have found unique and wonderful ways to not only create gastronomical wonders, but also a lifestyle.
Our motto is, “It’s not what you wind-up with in the end, it is how you got there and what happened to you as you were getting there!” This philosophy makes for infinite possibilities!
We invite you to share in our adventures. We promise to share with you helpful hints, mind blowing creations, and, yes, even a little magic now and again. We never know what’s going to happen! So please, join us as we set sail on this wonderful journey that is…Cooking, with Claude and Rita!