Chef’s Corner

I grew up working in my parents’ Greenwich restaurant called Dorothy’s Place, which was a popular luncheonette for 30 years. Creating a menu is as exciting as it is complex. For the past 35 years I have written menus for Dorothy’s Place, Willow Street in Port Chester (3 Stars, Melanie Barnard), Five Mile River Grill in Rowayton, Old Rialto in Norwalk, (Very good, N.Y. Times), Bella Luna in Greenwich (Excellent, N.Y. Times), Kathleen’s in Stamford (Very good, N.Y. Times) and most recently, Katie’s Gourmet in Stamford. I’ve written over 70 menus representing a wide variety of food categories including Home Style Cooking, Contemporary American, Italian, Pacific Rim, Seafood, Southwestern and, returning to my roots of cooking, Comfort Foods.

When creating a menu, I start off with simple combinations of the highest quality ingredients, and with the restaurant’s theme and the desires of my customers as my priorities. In the end, I know that it is the customer who determines what is popular or well received.

Katie’s Gourmet’s menu is always evolving, with specials, new food products, new preparations, recipes and food facts. I want to share with you these new ideas and also the traditional elements of cooking, so let’s begin! We welcome your e-mails with questions or suggestions that you may have regarding Katie’s Gourmet.



Katie’s is offering Bargain Meals along with our Daily Specials. This selection of meals represents low cost items which can be either a single lunch item or entrée, paired up with other smaller items on our menu; e.g. soups, ½ salads, ½ sandwiches, side dishes, etc. In addition to reducing the cost, we are responding to requests from you for lo-fat or diet special such as the spinach salad and lo-fat chicken salad. Our regular menu also offers healthy options, but the Bargain Meals are smaller, less expensive and change weekly according to customers’ requests and the seasons.

Tip: Use ½ the amount of mayonnaise and replace it with Lo-fat or Non-fat Plain Yogurt. You’ll barely notice the difference and it even adds a pleasant tang to your dressing.