As you may know, I have been working for years to get a band into the kitchen to do some real cooking. The reality has been that I've only had access to touring bands between their sound check and set, which means I've been doing a lot of talking about cooking with rockstars.

I'm very excited to announce that my dry spell has ended, and now it seems that everybody wants to do some cookin'! I've already cooked with Nada Surf and Dresden Dolls and have several more (top secret) cooking episodes in the works.

Nada Surf's Daniel Lorca

When I first invited Nada Surf to be on the show (I'm quite a fan of their new release, Lucky), I was told that Daniel was the guy I wanted to talk to. Then Daniel emailed his response:

I nearly cried!

I had the pleasure of spending a crisp, Spring day in Portsmouth, NH cooking and chatting with Daniel as he prepared a gourmet, sit-down dinner for 28 pals (Matthew and Ira from his band, their manager and road crew, the bands The Jealous Girlfriends and Minus Scale, our lovely host Jo Lenardi from Barsuk Records, a gang of her local friends and coworkers, and last but not least, the Cooking with Rockstars crew).

The menu consisted of an arugula salad with goat cheese, smoked tomatoes, home-made tomato jam, and grilled avocado (!) followed by tarragon cornish hens with a cognac cream sauce loaded with chanterelles and grapes, and wild rice with grilled ramps (wild garlicky leeks). Jo prepared a meringue/whipped cream/berry dessert that was the size of a raft.

We left that night (technically, early the next morning) with full bellies, new cooking tips, and nearly 5 hours of footage. I'm considering renaming the show "Cooking with Nada Surf". Lucky, indeed!

The Dresden Doll's Brian Viglione

The very next day, I headed to Jamaica Plain, MA to spend the afternoon cooking with Brian of The Dresden Dolls. Brian was extremely excited about doing some cooking for the show. It was my first time meeting him, but after a whole day cooking together, we were BFF!

Brian prepared two dishes: The first, the Viglione Family Sauce, is one that he knows like the back of his hand and brings back a rush of childhood memories for him. The other, Kahlua Cupcakes, is one that he was trying out for the first time after tasting one at a recent dinner party (says Brian,"you know when it makes your eyes roll back in your head that it's a good cupcake!"). It was a nice balance of old and new, and everything turned out de-LISH!

I can't wait to show you the results, but first I've got nearly 9 hours of awesome video to log and edit. Be careful what you wish for!