Blood, Smoke, Butt And Bivalves: A Culinary Valentine

Whether you hate or love it, Cupid-via Hallmark-strikes millions with his arrow every February. Expectations are high, appetites are piqued, and diners everywhere are ready to settle in for some culinary love.

StarChefs.com's Valentine's Dishrag is a tribute to the seductive, the studly, and the unapologetically sensuous in the industry. Chefs are knee-deep in blood, smoke, and candied pork ass (you heard right); mixologists are stirring up cocktails with a deliciously masculine edge; and oysters, those lusty shellfish, will flood romantic mouths with their creamy, briny, aphrodisiac payload. Saddle up, sweethearts, and dig into a seriously stimulating Valentine's Day Dishrag.

There Will Be Blood

Valentine's Day just got a whole lot redder. Chef Brad Farmerie is positively gushing with tips, techniques, and recipes for the blood in your kitchen.

1. Love Potions vol. 12: Valentine's Mixology Gone Macho

Forget doily hearts and syrupy liqueurs. Mixologists are stirring up balances, broad-shouldered cocktails for a manlier kind of romance.

2. The Oyster Guide for Chefs: Does Cup Size Matter?

Right on time for holiday demand, we crack open the seductive secrets of this classic aphrodisiac bivalve.

3. Smoking Permitted

Regulations be damned: chefs, pastry chefs and mixologists are smoking everything from pork to panna cotta.

4. The Story Behind the Dish: A Barbecue Fiasco Gone Horribly, Horribly Right.

Chef Chris Shepherd credits the creation of Catalan Food and Wine's best selling dish-Candied Pork Ass-to the "one-too-many-beers" syndrome (and an inspired f*ck-up).

The StarChefs.com Valentines Dishrag can be found at:

http://www.starchefs.com/news/newsletter/starchefs/html/issue_226.html

About StarChefs.com

StarChefs.com, the magazine for culinary insiders, continues to keep its finger on the pulse of the food industry, providing the tools working chefs need to maximize their career potential since 1995. With a dedicated mission to catalyze culinary professionals' success and give them the tools they need to overcome their specific challenges, StarChefs.com's original culinary content is driven by in-person tastings and interviews across the world. In addition to featuring top chefs, pastry chefs, sommeliers, and mixologists, the StarChefs.com JobFinder is the leading job board connecting culinary and hospitality professionals to careers in the foodservice industry. StarChefs.com� features 25,000 published pages of original, chef-focused culinary content and generates monthly traffic of over 20 million hits a month and was recently nominated for Best Web Site for Food and Nutrition by the James Beard Foundation.