In the nineties, I went to college in Canada, a long way from my home in South Carolina. One snowy weekend, my mother came for a visit. Because I was in class when she arrived — and you can’t skip class the day your mother arrives — I left her a key. When I walked in the door at the end of the day, knocking the snow from my boots and shaking it from my scarf and coat, I inhaled a smell I had forgotten; my mother had a pot of what we called “spaghetti sauce” on the stove. Our spaghetti sauce, I now understand, was a cross between bolognese and puttanesca, and it was delicious.

Making lasagna in the slow cooker lets me pretend my mom is home.

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Who cooks and eats here: Ed Cotton, Executive Chef at Sotto 13 in New York, Top Chef Season 7 runner-up, and former sous chef for Cat Cora on Iron Chef America
Where: Long Island City, Queens, New York
See His Kitchen: Chef Ed Cotton’s Comfortable Queens Kitchen

Yesterday we visited Chef Ed Cotton at home in his Queens, New York kitchen, where we learned about his love for his vintage cast iron skillet (it belonged to his grandmother) and the spices he always keeps on hand (La Boîte Blue Grass Blend, which he puts on pizza).

But when we opened Ed’s oven, we got a bit of a surprise: pots and pans everywhere! Yes, it turns out this pro chef stores his cookware in his oven, and he’s not apologizing for it one bit.

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With warmer weather inching its way into New York, I felt inspired to make a fresh spring cocktail. Well, I did some experimenting, and while my first inclination was to use strawberries, I found piles of rhubarb at the farmers market — and came up instead with this lovely pink concoction.

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From famous chefs opening new restaurants, to reviewing a restaurant, to talking about restaurant design – restaurants are not something The Kitchn talks about on a regular basis. We’re all about the home cook. Restaurants, however, can and do provide the home cook with opportunities to learn something new about food. It’s a different side of cooking smarter.

I’ve worked at a few high-end restaurants in New York, including one three Michelin star restaurant where I was maître d’hotel. Even though I was working front of house – instead of in the kitchen – I learned an awful lot about food from a service perspective. Let me explain how this restaurant taught me a new side of food.

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