Celebrity Chef

Cooking is cool, especially if you are really good at it like David Rosales, chef/owner of La Capitale and Andaluz in downtown Salem. At the Salem Saturday Market, David showed a crowd of folks how to make appetizers using ingredients purchased from local vendors at the market. Ever since Julia Child, people have enjoyed watching and listening to someone prepare food. The Food Network is huge, promoting chefs to superstar status. Without a TV network in town, public appearances and social media like Twitter and Facebook are the best ways for restaurant industry folks to promote themselves and communicate directly with the customers. David is often heard chatting on his Twitter account, @kidcapitale. There is a large group of local people following David's dialogue on there and he is great at responding back. He often tweets about what he is working on, picture included. Here's a recent example;

Working plum purée for La Capitale and gazpacho for @AndluzSalem http://yfrog.com/n6v7rkj http://yfrog.com/jnrdwij

A snapshot like that, is enough to get people to put down their smart phones and head into his restaurants. While you are in one of his restaurants on State St. and High, order a drink from his celebrity bartender, Rob Melton, aka @RobDrinkenstein on Twitter. Also read about Rob in yesterday's paper.

I know this whole Twitter and blogging thing may seem silly, but it is becoming the norm in today's culture. For most folks who do it, it's actually a lot of fun. There is a growing number of people in Salem that are using Twitter throughout the day including myself. This group meets up occasionally at Tweetups loosely organized by @RobMcGuire. Twitter is different from Facebook in that most of the folks that are on there, you may not know already. This is great for meeting local people with similar interests. Join the fun and open a Twitter account and follow me @eatsalem. Give it a try and let me know you read this post. I'll follow you back.

If your preference is in person, visit the Friends of Salem Saturday Market site for info on the next Chef at the Market event. It's a must see and it's free.

PS, David, thanks a bunch for wearing the eatsalem.com shirt to the demo. It looks good on you. I'm glad that with the JJackson mic you didn't have a wardrobe malfunction.