Roanoke Times photographer Stephanie Klein-Davis sends me e-mails on a regular basis with story ideas about food, cooking or traveling. Like me, she seems to have one of those topics on the brain at all times.

Yesterday, she sent me an idea that piqued my interest immediately. Where are the best salads in Roanoke and the New River Valley?

Obviously, if you’ve got the freshest ingredients at home, then perhaps that most delicious salad is on your own dining room table. But if you are too hot or tired to make dinner yourself, where do you go for a great salad when you’ve really got the hankering?

Restaurant salads don’t have to be healthy. In fact, much of the time, they are not — particularly if they are loaded down with fried chicken tenders, cheese, egg, bacon and all that good stuff. But for the purpose of this blog question, let’s throw healthy right out the window in favor of delicious.

I can think of two of my favorite salads right off the bat.

Read more »

Chef Brett McKee, Oak Steakhouse, Charleston

For those of you foodies who haven’t had a chance to see my Front Burner column in today’s newspaper, here it is.

And for those of you who have, I’ll bet you still didn’t see the awesome audio slide show that was put together by photographer Stephanie Klein-Davis. Sometimes, we can read all day about great food, but it doesn’t make the same kind of impact that a photo can.

Hanging around the kitchen while seven talented chefs put together a ritzy dinner for almost 200 people was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had on this beat to date. It sure was hard to squeeze down all my notes into one story, though (and some of my colleagues would argue that at 40 inches, I didn’t do a very ruthless job of squeezing).

Here are a few highlights I didn’t get to share:

* Chef Brett McKee of Oak Steakhouse in Charleston, S.C. was a joy to encounter. It’s a good thing I’m not offended by cursing, because McKee curses like a sailor. As a Roanoke College graduate myself, I was proud to see what a fellow alumnus has achieved. Check out his restaurant Web site and let me know if you get a chance to dine there before I do.

* Chef Jeff Bland of U.S. Food Service introduced me to several easy, delicious hors d’oeuvres that would be a wonderful addition to anyone’s next cocktail party.

Read more »