Michael Donahue

What made you decide to become a chef, and when was that? When I moved back from Florida six years ago I started helping out my dad. ... The main responsibility there was shopping every morning for everything. And the ...

The King Cake, with its spring-like colors of purple, yellow and green, probably is my favorite cake. Many King Cakes are just coffee cakes with icing and a plastic baby stuck inside. They make me feel good because it's Mardi ...

Brad, Angelina and Meryl would have fit right in Saturday night at The Children's Museum of Memphis as "Night in Hollywood: A Vanity Affair" was the theme of this year's Cirque du CMOM fundraiser. The event was designed to make ...

Describe a dish you created: Our version of the muffaletta. We don't have a New Orleans style. We have a different style of muffaletta. It's our best-selling sandwich. It's a big, meaty sandwich with salami, ham, roast beef, mozzarella and ...

There's something about quiche and the 1980s. I remember covering an REO Speedwagon concert in the late 1980s at the Mid-South Coliseum. I was backstage after the show when Gary Richrath, the lead guitarist at that time, asked me, "Do ...

Not every fundraiser can boast an Oscar-winning actress as one of the guests, but the FedExFamilyHouse "Home is Where the Heart is Gala" counted Hilary Swank among the attendees Saturday night at The Peabody.

What is the Xena Lovelady style? Simple. I think food should taste like what it is. The more you add on your food, you kind of get away from what it was intended to be.

If you're at Java Cabana on Thursday evening, you might catch Nicholas Gwinn playing guitar during singer/songwriter night. If you're at Mama Mia's Pizzeria on other nights, you might catch Gwinn tossing large circular slabs of dough into the air ...

When he learned "British Invasion" was the theme of the St. Jude Red Carpet Bash, John Shea found a shop where he could rent curly white wigs with little ponytails. John, Cannon Smith and John McArthur wore the wigs with ...

What was the first thing you ever cooked or baked? A cookbook. It was on top of the toaster oven. I was making breakfast for my mom and burned it up. It was Mother's Day morning.

NFL player Brandon Jackson's Super Bowl ring apparently didn't get in his way waiting tables Thursday night at Buffalo Wild Wings on U.S. 64.

I was at the Central location of Central BBQ to order a jumbo barbecue sandwich when I noticed a sign that read "Brunswick Stew $2." The "Brunswick Stew" stood out, but not as much as the "$2." I liked that ...

For Chaos Order, the accent is on "Order" during their practice sessions. "A lot of bands will probably get together and play music and drink and get high or whatever they do and that's fine," said Jared Filsinger, bass player ...

Kasey Spilman wanted to raise money for Invisible Children, so she organized a rock and rap concert at The Abbey in Lifelink Memphis church in Cooper-Young. Invisible Children is a movement that seeks to end the conflict in Uganda and ...

Who or what was your first cooking influence? My great grand maw. She used to own her own restaurant up near Cleveland, Ohio, called Sid's. They did the steak house stuff. ... She taught me how to do fried chicken ...

Whether charitable events, art show receptions or annual gatherings, a week didn't go by in 2011 without some type of party.

When someone says they "adored/loved/craved" and are "addicted" to a particular dessert, I need to check out what they're talking about. That's how Leslie Pretsch described via e-mail the house-made ginger doughnuts with coconut sorbet at Tsunami Restaurant.

Wearing a knee brace and sunglasses and carrying a gold-handled cane that belonged to the late Memphis mayor E.H. "Boss" Crump, Nate Utkov hit the dance floor with Jordan Upton at the Memphis Junior Cotillion Presentation and Holiday Ball at ...

Fifteen young women were presented at the Memphis Chapter, The Links Inc. 22nd Holiday Cotillion on Saturday night at The Peabody.

Who or what was your first cooking influence? My grandmother. She cooked all Italian dishes, lasagnas we feature on the menu here. I used to watch her. Mary Liberto. She passed away last January.

I recently ate dinner at Sweet Grass. Later that night I ran into a friend, Steve Goldstein, at a party. He asked if I'd ever eaten the fried egg sandwich at Sweet Grass Next Door -- the more intimate bar/restaurant ...

Grammy Award-winning singer Patti LaBelle didn't roll up her sleeves or wear an apron, but she taught audience members how to make her Seafood Salad at "An Evening With Patti LaBelle" on Thursday in the Garrett Auditorium at Baptist Memorial ...

What made you decide to become a chef and when was that? It's the only thing I ever wanted to do, period. Fourteen or 15. The minute I walked into a kitchen, it was over.

If your Christmas tree decorations look good enough to eat, buy a box of marzipan at Dinstuhl's Fine Candies before you take that first bite. This beautiful candy looks like an expensive holiday ornament, but also tastes great. Each piece ...

Who or what was your first cooking influence? I've always been a sweet tooth fanatic. My dad used to wake me up in the middle of the night and we'd go eat frozen Snickers bars. We never ate actual food. ...

Sharon Johnson's gumbo at Stone Soup Café & Market is chock-full of chicken, shrimp, sausage and vegetables. It's thick. It's a meal in itself. It's excellent.

Black Friday was more like "Black, Red, White, Purple, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Blue and Green Friday" at the opening reception for WinterArts 2011 at the Shops of Saddle Creek.

"I truly love what I'm doing," says Robbie Cirillo, executive chef at Bleu restaurant and executive chef at the Westin Memphis Beale Street. "A chef told me one time -- he loved what he did, also -- 'We're the luckiest ...

Andy Keuter looked at the ceviche on my plate when he passed my table at Swanky's Taco Shop. "What is that?" he asked, looking at the mixture of shrimp, cucumbers, red onions, tomatoes, cilantro and orange and lime juices.

This year's star-studded Freedom Awards ceremony to benefit the National Civil Rights Museum was a success, said Beverly Robertson, the museum's executive director.

Now the sous chef at Sweet Grass, Henry Kay says his first professional kitchen job, at The Grove Grill, made him fall in love with cooking in a restaurant. I was just blown away by how the kitchen was run ...

I tried Joshua Perkins’ chilled Granny Smith apple soup with cranberry-walnut chutney at the recent March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction. I thought it was incredibly delicious, and I wasn’t the only one.

Dean Deyo wore his first pair of five-inch stacked heels Friday night.

"Turkey and dressing" still sounds special. Growing up, we ate turkey just at Thanksgiving and Christmas. We even made little paper "booties" for the turkey's legs. We never did that for chicken. Willie Earl Bates also considers turkey and dressing ...

What was something important that a fellow chef taught you? If a person goes out, works 40 hours a week to earn money and he's going to bring that money to your place to eat, at least cook him a ...

Michael Douglas took a break from the silver screen to charm fans Friday at The Peabody. The star of movies, including "Basic Instinct," "Fatal Attraction" and "Wall Street," for which he won his Best Actor Oscar in 1987, was the ...

What was the first thing you ever cooked or baked? The first thing I remember cooking was with my mom. There's actually a picture of it on Facebook. I'm in a Chicago Bulls jersey cooking eggs at 11 years old.

The dearly departed were costume choices of guests at Halloween parties Saturday night. The night of the living dead included Tim Collins, who did a dead-on Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the Dirty Dozen fundraiser for the Church Health Center ...

Eggs Hussarde at Owen Brennan's transports me to the French Quarter in New Orleans. Everything about Owen Brennan's, including the huge Mardi Gras float decorations with their purple, green and gold colors, evokes New Orleans, but one bite of their ...

What was something important that a fellow chef taught you? The importance of having a sharp knife. I think probably the one that harped on me the most about it was Kevin Stein, owner of Montana Fish Co. (in) Bozeman, ...

Santa Fe artist Aaron Coleman loves RiverArtsFest. "RiverArtsFest has a good reputation among the people who do art festivals," said Aaron, who layers resin and acrylic on canvas. "And it's kind of known throughout the country as being a good ...

The first cobbler I remember eating was a cherry one served by Mrs. Pandolfi at the Blessed Sacrament grade school cafeteria. It tasted so good. My favorite chocolate desserts growing up included "Cookie Dessert," which my mom made with thin ...

Guests were transported back to 1936 on Saturday night at the "Sunset Soiree" at the Levitt Shell. That was the year the open-air theater opened in Overton Park. Songs celebrating the 75th anniversary of the theater, known for many years ...

What is something you learned from a fellow chef? (Chef Bernie Murff at L'Ecole Culinaire) He said you don't find a lot of female chefs who are able to lift and do the heavy-duty work that a man can do ...

"Hockadoo" means "yay" or "whoo hoo," according to the Urban Dictionary. And that's what audience members probably were thinking when Bryan Fenkart sang the dynamic "Memphis Lives in Me" from the musical "Memphis" on Saturday night at the "Orpheum Hockadoo ...

What do you cook or bake at home, if anything? I don't usually get out of here until 10 or 11. So, if I cook anything at home I'll probably cook eggs. That's easy. Sunny-side-up eggs and eat it with ...

Kay Mims, who works in my building, turned me on to the Turkey Burger at Sky Grille. She loves them. "And I don't even like turkey burgers," she said. I don't think I'd ever eaten a turkey burger until I ...

If you hear a popping sound and Scotti Fife is around, it’s probably his feet. That’s not unusual, said Fife, 23: “Everywhere I go — in the car, walking around, sitting down. I think people hear it, but they don’t ...

Instead of cutting iron, blacksmiths cut loose and cut the rug Saturday night following the Repair Days Art Auction at the National Ornamental Metal Museum. Along with the venison stew, the dance party is one of the Saturday evening traditions ...

Who or what was your first cooking influence? My parents. My mom; it's funny, she's like claustrophobic when it comes to the kitchen. She doesn't like anyone in there at all. But, actually doing hands-on cooking, definitely my dad. We ...