Chef

The more things change, the more they stay the same. For the most part that's a good thing -- at least when you're talking about Hampton's, Baltimore's premier luxury dining room.What has changed is the hotel's executive chef, now Craig Scott; his sous chef, now Galen Sampson; and Hampton's chef, now Michael Delcambre. The three worked together for the past six years at big-name resorts before coming to Baltimore. This summer, with much fanfare, they revamped Hampton's menu, promising important changes, bold combinations, lighter foods and less fuss in preparation.

Kevin Odoms' mother showed him how to make breakfast.Gwen Kvavli Gulliksen's taught her not to be afraid of making a mess in the kitchen.And Nancy Longo's mom, with her nonstop simmering and sauteing, gave her daughter a lesson in running a restaurant.For Mother's Day, we asked five local chefs what they learned about cooking from their mothers, from the practical to the esoteric. One says her mom was a culinary trend-setter 30 years ago. Several have sweet memories of their mother's desserts.

John M. Vernarelli, who served in both Korea and Vietnam as a military police officer and later had a second career as a chef, died Saturday of lung cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The Perry Hall resident was 80. Mr. Vernarelli, one of 14 children of Italian immigrant parents, was born at home on East Chase Street. When he was 16, he tried to enlist in the Army, until an older sister and military authorities learned his actual age and he was sent home from Fort Meade to Baltimore.

Julia Child, the beloved "French Chef" whose pioneering cookbooks, instructional television shows and culinary joie de vivre changed the way America cooked, died Thursday at her home in Southern California, three days before her 92nd birthday. Mrs. Child had been suffering from kidney failure and died at her home in Santa Barbara, Calif., according to a niece, Philadelphia Cousins. In a career that spanned more than four decades and made her a culinary legend, the immensely talented but down-to-earth Child inspired generations of chefs and taught a nation obsessed with convenience that making good food could be fun. "She stands front and center of the American culinary revolution," said renowned wine critic Robert Parker.

Last month, I received an e-mail from a Towson office worker who told me about his pleasurable first visit to Havana Road Cafe , and he told me how much he and his friend loved the pulled-pork sandwich and the classic Cubano, with slow-roasted pork, ham, Swiss and pickles, He was hoping Havana Road could get some attention, and he acknowledged that he was acting out of self-interest: "I want to be sure they get plenty of business so they stay in...

Chef's block. This phobia, like its literary cousin (writer's block), causes the novice to regard an empty pan with as much terror as a would-be scribe does the blank page. Convinced that anything he puts in the pan - oil, butter, a diced green pepper - will taste "wrong," the sufferer of chef's block is paralyzed. There is a cure, according to a trio of local chefs. In fact, they say you can start cooking with the contents of one small shopping bag. Timothy Dean of Timothy Dean Bistro recommends experimenting with large scallops, mushrooms, shallots, garlic, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and pine nuts.

Walter Gilliam, who rose from a being a sandwich maker and dishwasher to become a chef at the old Haussner's Restaurant in a career than spanned more than 50 years, died Monday of complications from a stroke at his East Baltimore home. He was 91. "Walter was a splendid rock through all the years. He was someone to lean on, and he was always there when you needed him," said Francie George, the daughter of William Henry Haussner, a German immigrant and master chef who opened the venerable restaurant in 1926 at Eastern Avenue and Clinton Street, and Frances Wilke Haussner.

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - Confectioners' sugar ices the valley rim. Fog hugs the pine-scented air, like steam from a sizzling meat platter. Half Dome's peak rises in the distance, a huge, half-eaten scoop of granite ice cream. All right. So maybe food images don't come to mind when visitors first lay eyes on Yosemite, quite possibly our best national park. But a new chef at the park's historic lodge, the Ahwahnee, is out to make the park a year-round destination not just for great vistas and outdoor fun but also for superb food and service.

All over town, there are talented chefs languishing in semi-obscurity. These are the chefs heading up the kitchens in public institutions — universities, convention facilities and even hospitals — and in private institutions like country clubs. They might not operate in the limelight, but the hours are more regular and the benefits packages are often better. The executive chefs of hotels fall into their own blurry category. Their audience is mostly transient, but a few manage to find a following and make a name.

At the height of the Friday dinner frenzy in the kitchen of Rudys' 2900 in Finksburg, the chef's softly German-accented voice rises above the clatter, calling attention to the rockfish with corn relish and red-pepper beurre blanc. If more than one order goes to the same table, he says, make sure the cuts are the same, either both center, belly or tail, for consistent plate appearance. There are other such exchanges. There's a chat between the chef and a young cook about rice pilaf: when to stir and when not. An exchange between the chef and another young cook about the precise plate placement of the two egg-shaped scoops of mousse -- one dark chocolate, one white chocolate -- in relation to the berry-cluster garnish and the vanilla-sauce puddle.