Rebecca McKinney
I was born a foodie. My dad is a chef, baker, and restaurant owner and my mom might as well be because she owns whatever kitchen she walks into. I grew up working in my family’s restaurant and bakery in Pawling, New York – McKinney and Doyle. I started behind the bakery counter at 12 years old after begging my parents to let me start working. At 16 I worked as a hostess. By 18 I was serving tables and training behind the bar where I then worked every other weekend throughout my college career. Even now, when I am visiting my family in New York, I help out where I’m needed. To make a long story short, the food and restaurant industry has been my life for as long as I can remember.
I wanted to create this blog for a few reasons. First and foremost, to share tips, tricks, and knowledge about the food and beverage industry in general but also to help people see a different side of the restaurant world. Every restaurant has a totally unique culture and world within it. I want to help open people’s eyes to more than how fast the service is or how easy or hard it is to secure a reservation.
So, thanks for stopping by! I welcome your ideas, input, and feedback and hope you enjoy!
Eat well & travel often,
Becky McKinney
I wanted to create this blog for a few reasons. First and foremost, to share tips, tricks, and knowledge about the food and beverage industry in general but also to help people see a different side of the restaurant world. Every restaurant has a totally unique culture and world within it. I want to help open people’s eyes to more than how fast the service is or how easy or hard it is to secure a reservation.
So, thanks for stopping by! I welcome your ideas, input, and feedback and hope you enjoy!
Eat well & travel often,
Becky McKinney
Latest posts by Rebecca McKinney (see all)
- Why Food Makes the Best Gift for a New Mom - April 12, 2023
- 5 Ingredients to Cook With This Spring - March 15, 2023
- 10 Reasons to Dine Out on Valentine’s Day - February 2, 2023
You know, there’s a reason people say, “eat the rainbow.” The more colorful your plate, the more nutrients you’re getting (unless the colors are coming from Skittles – sadly, there are no nutrients in those). Dark leafy greens are possibly the most nutrient dense but those aren’t 
that fun. Lucky for us, fruit is both beautiful and healthy and can do major things in terms of boosting your weekday dinner. But, isn’t it hard to pair fruit with protein? We’ve all seen berries in salads but not so much on our chicken …Continue Reading
work, from cooking to serving and cleaning up. That’ll boost any meal for sure. But there are also some hidden tips and tricks that professional chefs know that can take a meal from good to great and while it would take much more than a blog post to go over all of them (not that I know all of them anyway), I’m happy to share a few that you can try at home!
to be guest friendly. The more dinners I plan and parties I throw, the more I care about whether the drinks I am serving compliment the food. It never used to matter. “ People can drink what they want, I don’t have time to figure out whether or not it goes with each course.” I have also always been spoiled having Andrew, our GM and sommelier at M&D, available through text or quick call so if I’m being honest, I never had to learn how to do this on my own. But one day I decided enough was enough and I needed to learn. In the following post I am going to take what I’ve learned about pairing wine (cocktails another day) and condense it to keep it short, simple, and easy to follow.
cooking and playing with new recipes can be therapeutic in a way and it’s also a great way to bring your family together at the end of a busy work day. While it would be so much fun if we could all afford to dine out every single evening, that’s a pretty unrealistic (and pretty unhealthy) way to live. So today, I thought I’d help you map out a plan to fit cooking at home into your regular routine so that when you DO go out to eat, it’s more of a special occasion than necessity.