Questions Answered: Chef Style

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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

Latest posts by Rebecca McKinney (see all)

I try to stay as engaged with our regular M&D guests as I can. We connect monthly via our newsletter, weekly here on the blog and daily on our Instagram page. But I always encourage emails with comments, questions and suggestions as well. Over the years, I’ve Shannon McKinneyreceived a lot of questions pertaining to my father, aka the owner of M&D. Today, I thought I’d take a moment and interview my dad FOR you all so that you could get to know him in the ways that seem to interest you all most. Continue Reading

Croatia is a Dream

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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

Latest posts by Rebecca McKinney (see all)

To be totally honest with you all, Matt and I didn’t know a whole lot about Croatia when we booked half our honeymoon there. We both have friends who had nothing but wonderful things to say, the Internet seemed to agree and after looking at some photos and doing some research on the food, we were sold. We stumbled upon an incredible travel company, JayWay, based in Croatia that would help us to plan the most wonderful vacation of our lives (so far) for MUCH less than we had budgeted to spend on the trip. All signs pointed to “yes.” As is the theme of this three blog series, I have endless things to say about our experience in Croatia but for now, I will keep things food related.

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What Put’s the “Comfort” in Comfort Food?

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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

Latest posts by Rebecca McKinney (see all)

Comfort food. It’s a term we all know and love, right? Over the years I’ve noticed that everybody I speak to has a different idea of what comfort food really means. For example, I bet as soon as you read the term “comfort food” you pictured a specific meal in your head. I think of stuffed shells. My fiance thinks of corn bread. I know some people who think of candy and ice cream. The point is, comfort food means different things to different people, but did you ever stop and wonder why?Continue Reading

This Year’s Upcoming Food Trends

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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

Latest posts by Rebecca McKinney (see all)

Every year for the last 29 years, The Food Channel has conducted research with CultureWaves (a behavior insights company) and the International Food Futurists in order to predict the top 10 food trends for the coming year. I love this because food trends are my pop culture. I may not know which celebrity got divorced for the fourth time, but I can gab all day about which spices and grains will pop up on restaurant menus around the country. As a chef’s daughter, it’s so cool to see just how popular the food industry and hospitality really is these days, especially compared to five years ago. Anyway, today’s post will go over some trends to look for throughout 2017.Continue Reading