I was eating at an Indian restaurant recently, enjoying some naan bread with a dollop of tabbouleh. Since the main ingredient is parsley, it occurred to me that this is one useful herb. And Chef Jerry Pellegrino will tell you, parsley shows up in a lot of things, and we’re lucky that it grows so well in Maryland. You’ll see it in every herb stand at the farmers markets.

Of all the ways of cooking food, using water is probably the most basic. Before we had ovens and ranges, we had water and fire, and for early man, that was all it took. Chef Jerry Pellegrino can tell you, there are some tricks to cooking with water we need to know.

This is my favorite time of the year, especially for food. The Maryland harvest is in full swing, and our markets are loaded with all kinds of great food. And as Chef Jerry Pellegrino suggests, you’d better take a big basket to market these days.

Since most cooking is about applying heat to food, it’s sometimes beneficial to think about all the variations on that theme. Chef Jerry Pellegrino has boned up on this and can tell us what our options are when we haul out the old skillet?

When people travel, they not only dine in fine restaurants, but they also eat a lot of what we call “street food”. A few decades ago, visitors to Mexico discovered that the beloved taco had undergone some changes. And Chef Jerry Pellegrino will tell you, it was a great decision to incorporate deep fried fish into the classic taco.

Sometimes when I am peeling an onion, I play a little mental game: name one cuisine around the world that doesn’t depend on onions. The only one I can come up with, and I’m not certain about it, are the Innuits of the snowy north. Chef Jerry Pellegrino thinks it’s fair to say the onion is universally important.

I haven’t been shy about chowing down on fresh Maryland corn this summer. Although I’ve been enjoying corn on the cob, I keep reminding myself that there are a lot of other ways to enjoy an ear of corn. And Chef Jerry Pellegrino agrees, if you can scrape those kernels off the cob, there’s a lot you can do.

As summer enters the homestretch we can begin to look forward to a new phase of the harvest. This is the time when so many of our Maryland root vegetables come into play. And Chef Jerry Pellegrino agrees, these sometimes-forgotten veggies deserve a little attention.

Grilling season is in full swing and there is one cut of beef that does extremely well on the grill and that’s flank steak. Maryland farmers who raise beef will always have some of this delicious cut on hand, and if you haven’t tried it, you ought to. And as Chef Jerry Pellegrino has pointed out, grilling a flank steak does require a little bit of savvy.

We Marylanders are perfectly situated to enjoy a summer favorite, the salsa. What makes it so appealing to us is that the produce of August and September is just what we need to make great salsa. Chef Jerry Pellegrino knows that the combinations of home-grown ingredients are endless.