A Trio of Westfield Winners 

If at first you succeed, why not keep at it? It’s hard to remember a time when Theresa’s wasn’t around to feed families who realize they can’t make meal ends meet in between soccer and homework. Or couples who commute and, on occasion, want more than takeout rotisserie chicken and strip-mall Chinese. Or 20-somethings just off the train who are looking for a gathering place with more eats than drinks. The successful formula at this Italian-leaning, something-for-everyone restaurant on Elm Street encouraged founder and guiding force Robert Scalera to open a Southwestern-style spot called Mojave Grill, a mere blink away in downtown Westfield. Now folks craving a good bowl of black bean soup, quesadillas with punch and pizzazz, and chile-infused main courses had a downtown alternative in the same come-as-you-are vein as Theresa’s. And when it seemed there was a niche not yet explored, Isabella’s American Bistro was born in yet another storefront on Elm. It borrows culinary themes now and again from its siblings, but does have a much-loved jazzed-up meatloaf, wasabi-crusted seafood specials and a fruited bread pudding locals can’t do without. In other words, bistro style with an American-food attit      ude. An old friend from Westfield told me her four kids might have gone hungry during their high school days if not for Theresa’s and Mojave. They were at one or the other— sometimes both—every week. They’d all zero in on their favorite dishes, order and feel sated. Tara King, catering manager for all Scalera’s restaurants, says the faithful indeed do pop in two, three nights a week. And that doesn’t include lunch stops, since they all serve midday meals as well. Curious? Come dine with us then. We took in dinner at each of the Westfield mainstays to catch the individual flavor of each place. Neighborhood joints though they may be, there’s a sense of pride in the crafting of dishes that’s not always apparent in restaurants with a similar purpose and point of view. Ingredients are fresh. Stocks are made in house, not purchased in vats from food distributors. Though there are no ahead-of-time reservations to be made, there is a nightly call-ahead system that keeps table waits to a minimum. The restaurants routinely are packed to the gills, but on most occasions, there’s commendable flow from kitchen to table. Scalera’s restaurants are well run.

THERESA’S The always-smart partnership of shellfish and beans makes for a simple, yet engaging starter. Shrimp are marinated, then grilled, and plated with a white bean salad. The pair is united by a sweet flash of roasted red pepper and the herbal kick of a pesto-laced oil. Flashy and fussy? No. Soulful and satisfying? Yes. So is a local favorite pasta dish, the now-classic penne with vodka sauce. It’s so often tired and trite, laden with massive amounts of sauce that prompt giggles among teens, who think they’ll get a buzz from a sauce labeled “vodka.” Sorry. There’s a vaguely astringent quality to the spirited sauce, but what gives Theresa’s version of the dish a lift above the norm is the carbonara-like addition of crumbled pancetta and sweet peas. Potent in a non-alcoholic way. It’s possible that riots would ensue in genteel Westfield if the asiago-crusted chicken ever were taken off Theresa’s menu. Our polite server on this night said there was no chance of that. Folks love the cheese-on-cheese aspect of the dish, what with mozzarella layered in the mix. It’s all balanced by a dose of tomato and a garlicky cream sauce. If you’re looking for a sweet-tart sensation, give the balsamic-and apricot-glazed pork tenderloin a go. It’s got the appeal of something barbecued as well as a couple of hearty standbys on the side in garlic-licked mashed potatoes and a tangle of spinach. The dessert of choice? A dense, yet light, flourless chocolate cake that demands, and receives, a dollop of vanilla gelato.

MOJAVE GRILL There was a special soup on tap the night of our visit that intrigued: caramelized onion and potato, punctuated by the freshness of scallions and topped with crisped onions that have been shot through with cayenne. Of all the Scalera concepts, I’ve liked Mojave the best. There’s bolder seasoning and more of a distinctive personality on the plates, particularly on the specials’ roster. This soup crystallizes why?: The onion-potato soup is thick, rich and calls for counterpoint, which it gets in the rawness of the scallions and the heat of the crunchy cayenne’d onions. The signature black bean soup needs its jalapeno spike, as well as the luxurious lime crema, chunks of avocado and chopped, spiced tomato. Extra dimension in a dish is why we eat out, so we can experience what we might not do for ourselves at home. We tend not to make tuna ceviche at home very often, either, which is why Mojave’s faithful snag the chunks of yellowfin made brazen by ginger and pasilla chilies and then soothed by cooling cucumbers and avocado. Tune into the pulled chicken enchiladas and, if you’re in the mood for comfort food, for the ancho mole, red rice and black beans with a swath of cotija cheese and sultry crema. They’re just about as harmonic as a chorus from The Mamas and The Papas. If you’re craving quesadillas, nab the blackened chicken number that comes cosseted with a Monterey Jack-esque cheese and a generous slather of avocado-basil aioli. I wasn’t taken with the yucca-crusted grouper, a nightly special, for the grouper was overcooked, the taste of the yucca not doing a thing for the fish, and the red pepper puree overwhelming. The one-two punch of seared flank steak topped with a vigorous chimichurri hit on all cylinders, though—and it just might make you whip up your own take on the parsley-garlic-hot pepper-vinegar sauce this summer when you’re grilling a flank steak in your backyard.

As I scooped up the last of the spiced walnuts in the orange-and-arugula salad at ISABELLA’S, I sensed an impatience on the part of my dining companion. It took no special powers of deduction for me to realize my pal wanted our bacon- Cheddar meatloaf now. It soon arrived and began to disappear. I managed to score two bites and reasonable enough spoonfuls of mashed potatoes and creamed spinach, both of which benefit from gravy chunky with shallots. You’d think meatloaf is only served in this country when the moon is full on a fourth Tuesday the way some people attack slices of the stuff. There’s no denying the appeal of Isabella’s meatloaf. (Which has a lot to do with an abundance of bacon, I suspect.) While the attack on the meatloaf was taking place, I took advantage of an uninterrupted spell communing with the night’s special ravioli: pasta pockets stuffed with goat cheese and roasted red peppers, then drizzled with a vibrant tomato-pesto sauce. There’s an accord reached on the fettuccine tossed with baby shrimp, corn, sweet peas, sundried tomatoes and mushrooms, all of which is bound by a chipotle-charged cream sauce. This is vintage Scalera and what I think his restaurants do best: Take a bunch of familiar ingredients, a concept that’s not off-putting, then jazz it all up to the level of food you expect when you go out to eat. My wish for Isabella’s? That it would pair a cut of beef other than filet mignon with a crust of peppercorns. That intense coating would work much better with a chewier, heartier flavor, such as strip steak or rib-eye, than it does with a mildmannered filet. But all ends well here with a banana-studded bread pudding streaked with caramel and served with vanilla ice cream. It usually does at Westfield’s trio of winners. EDGE

Editor’s Note: Andy Clurfield is a former editor of Zagat New Jersey. The longtime food critic for the Asbury Park Press also has been published in Gourmet, Saveur and Town & Country, and on epicurious.com.

A glamorous golf getaway is closer than you think.

As a rule, it’s wise to steer clear of playing 18 holes with any golf course owner who tells you one of two things: 1) His handicap is higher than the national debt; 2) He rarely gets in a round at the course he owns. Why is it prudent to avoid such a fate? Chances are, when you walk off the 18th green and settle up, your wallet will be noticeably lighter and you’ll feel like you just spent four hours in an overgrown cow pasture. That being said, Ken Wang isn’t your normal golf course owner. And Pound Ridge Golf Club in Westchester County is hardly your normal course. “It has a sublime rhythm,” says Wang, a married father of three sons, MIT grad and brother of famed fashion designer Vera Wang. “You remember every hole individually. The course has a certain harmony and serenity.” “May and June are beautiful here,” adds Todd Leavenworth, the general manager at Pound Ridge GC, “but you can’t beat the fall. That’s the best time of year for the course.” When Pound Ridge is green and lush, it’s a sight to behold. Designed by the legendary Pete Dye, the course is about 90 minutes away from Central New Jersey. It’s distinguished by unique rock formations and breathtaking views, including several of the Long Island Sound. In typical Dye fashion, there is an exquisite logic to the course, a quality that appeals to the mathematician in Wang. “It’s hard to pinpoint my favorite holes,” he says. “I love number 7, number 10 and number 11. They are gorgeous.” Leavenworth gushes about the par-3 15th hole known as Headstone. “It’s spectacular,” he says. “There is white marble behind the green that slopes at about a 20-degree pitch. You can actually hit to the marble and have the ball roll back toward the hole.” One feature of Pound Ridge GC that golfers of all levels love is the number of tees per hole—a staple of any course designed by Dye. There are at least five tees on every hole, and some have six. “Pete is sensitive to the fact that all golfers don’t play at the same level,” says Wang. “When you play Pound Ridge from the correct tees, it’s a very enjoyable experience. The course is unusually fair to women.” There’s a good reason for that—Dye’s wife, Alice. The winner of nine Indiana Women’s Golf Association Amateur Championships, she has her husband’s ear every time he starts work on a new course. “Pound Ridge was a family affair,” says Wang. “Alice gets extremely involved whenever Pete is designing a course. She makes him more in touch with how women play the game.” “This is a really fun course for women,” he adds. “Probably more so than any other course I know.” Dye also puts a premium on exactitude. To score well at Pound Ridge GC, you have to hit the ball straight and the correct yardage. “The first time I played Pound Ridge, I felt like I had stepped into a math problem,” Wang recalls. “There’s an elegance to the course and artistry to the environment.” That’s a good way to describe the area surrounding Pound Ridge, as well. The closest neighboring towns are Bedford in New York and Greenwich and New Canaan in Connecticut. Close enough for a day trip, the surrounding area also offers enough to build a romantic weekend or ladies overnight around a round or two of golf. There are great restaurants, charming inns, lots of antique stores and all manner of shopping. Soon, says Wang, golfers at Pound Ridge GC won’t have to leave the course for a good meal. He has been working with architects on building a clubhouse. “It’s a funny project,” he says. “We’re talking about a ‘destination course’ in a residential area. We get local members and people flying in from London and Japan. We have several audiences to please.” With the current trend in clubhouse construction trending toward downsizing, Wang has shed his notions of what a traditional design looks like. Fortunately, he has a sister who knows a little bit about style. “Vera is pretty hip,” Wang says. “I defer to the higher power. She reminds me that the world isn’t filled with wood-panelled walls.” There’s always a chance that visitors to Pound Ridge GC will bump into Vera. According to Ken, she plays there severaltimes a year. “Vera is a pretty good player,” he says. “I’m probably better on the first ball, but she likes to throw down a second sometimes. She’s usually better on that one.” Ken’s sister isn’t the only celebrity who frequents the Pound Ridge area. Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and Mike Myers are among those who claim residency in and around the town. Gere also owns a cozy place there, the Bedford Post Inn (above). While Wang prefers to stay out of the spotlight, he can’t deny the legacy he has created at Pound Ridge GC. “I didn’t use to think of it in those terms,” he says. “I started playing golf as a kid. The idea to buy the Pound Ridge property came after my father built a house in town in 1980. When we decided to turn the course into 18 holes, it took nine years to get all the approvals. Now we have a glamorous golf course that is very sensitive to the environment. It’s unlike any other course in the area. It’s nice to know that you’ve built something that will be around for a long while.” EDGE

Editor’s Note: Mike Kennedy is EDGE’s Business Editor. Born and raised in Ridgewood, he is the best golfer on the magazine staff, which is how he pulled this assignment. Mike writes often about the business of sports, and has also authored several children’s books.

Mike and Suzanne are what some would call the classic suburban power couple. They are generous, good-natured and successful. Both are fit, focused and—when it comes to sports— fearsome competitors. Naturally, their teenage sons have followed in their parental footsteps. Michael (15) is a member of a state championship swim team. George (17) is nationally ranked at two miles and a member of the winning 4 x 800 prep relay team at the Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden. Along with their growing collection of ribbons and trophies, the boys have also acquired the less than- charming adolescent swagger that comes with the realization that they can now best Mom and Dad in almost any sport they choose. One notable exception? Operating an automobile. Neither yet has the means (nor the license) to prove what, to them, is a foregone conclusion: that they are “better drivers” than their mother. This is the same woman, lest they forget, who has chauffeured them flawlessly to and from more practices and meets than they can, or she cares to, remember. Water under the bridge, Mom. It’s all about what you can do, not what you’ve done. And so it was with considerable enthusiasm that Suzanne accepted the opportunity to put her two backseat drivers in the front seat for a Family Race one Thursday evening in March at Pole Position Raceway, the indoor karting venue located near the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. She admits she was itching to teach Michael and George a lesson as all three pulled on their helmets and strapped themselves into their karts (which—because of Michael’s age—were limited to a still-speedy 30 mph). Suzanne also admits to underestimating the fact that her sons work together like Velociraptors. With their three vehicles lined up one behind the other to start, the boys insisted she have the honor of taking the lead kart. In almost any race, both teens knew, you want your adversary ahead of you so you can choose the time and place of their ultimate defeat. In other words, she was dead meat before they started their engines. The flag dropped and the three roared into the first turn. Moments later, Suzanne found herself in third place. A nudge from George and then a stronger bump from Michael sent her into the black-and-yellow padded barrier. By the time she got back up to speed, she was playing catch-up. She never did close the gap on her sons, who showed her no mercy and gave her no daylight. They were too busy fighting for fraternal supremacy. George edged Michael at the finish line, with Suzanne a few heartbeats behind. “I should have realized they would never let me win,” she says bemusedly. “Even though I’m their mother, they will still win at any cost. The mistake I made was that I never should have started in front of them.” In the days that followed, as Suzanne returned to chauffer duties, mother and sons had something new to discuss: the fact that they were now officially, indisputably and undeniably “better drivers” than she—against a wealth of evidence still to the contrary. Suzanne reminded Michael and George that she had nearly caught up to them after they sent her into the wall. They corrected their mother, informing her that she had actually fallen a full lap behind! Shifting gears quickly, Suzanne pointed out that handling a kart at 30 mph takes considerably less skill and experience than zig-zagging through Turnpike traffic at 75 (although for the record she has never done that). Blank stares. Exasperated, Suzanne said that intentionally running your materfamilias off the road doesn’t make you a “better driver”—it makes you a dangerous one. Michael and George refused to dignify their mother’s accusations of collusion and dirty driving. Both maintain that Suzanne was the unfortunate victim of an unlucky accident. Looking back, Suzanne says the only humiliation she actually suffered that evening was being photographed on the victory stand with her boys (now both six-footers) towering over her. Otherwise, it was a tremendous experience. “It was very entertaining,” she says. “We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It’s a great place. We hung out for an hour after the race. The people there couldn’t be nicer.” Okay, down to brass tacks. In a return engagement, does Suzanne think she would avenge her defeat? “I do,” she says with a competitive smirk. And just how? “No way I’m divulging my strategy! Let’s just say that Mom’s still got a few tricks up her sleeve.” EDGE

Editor’s Note: Pole Position (polepositionraceway.com) is located off Exit 14B of the New Jersey Turnpike and is open seven days a week. Family Races are run Monday thru Thursday. Direct:

The fast-food Drive-Thru has transformed our lives. Well, that’s one way of looking at it.

Fast food giant Taco Bell recently became embroiled in a high-profile lawsuit, during which it was compelled to respond to allegations that its “beef filling”

contained— what’s the delicate way of putting this? —twice as much “filling” as “beef.” The media seized on this story, as did the late-night comics. Unfortunately, everyone missed the point: The crime is what’s in fast food, not what isn’t. “Fast food poses a huge threat to the American public’s health, along with smoking and substance abuse,” says Ari Eckman, MD, chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism and director of The Diabetes Management Center at Trinitas Regional Medical Center. “Fast food meals are high in fat, sugar, salt, starch and calories, and very low in fiber and nutrients.” Indeed, the convenience of grab-and-go meals is far outweighed by the dangers that await us after we make that final hard left to the pickup window. Study after study is showing that reliance on heavily processed foods could be costing us our health. In a 2005 report published in The Lancet, healthy young adults who consumed fast food more than twice each week gained 10 more pounds and had twice as great an increase in insulin resistance—a precursor to type-2 diabetes—as their healthier eating counterparts. Fast foods are rich in trans fats, those manmade fats that have been shown to wreak havoc on the human heart. “Trans fats are terrible for one’s cholesterol,” Dr. Eckman says. “It’s dangerous to eat these foods if you have high blood pressure

e or high cholesterol.” Fast food isn’t just a nutritional nightmare. With the constant push to supersize, fast food portions are warping our sense of when to say when. “People are not at all in touch with the reality of how much they’re eating,” Dr. Eckman says. “The portion sizes are encouraging people to eat more. Burgers 50 years ago were only one ounce, and now they’re six ounces. You buy a 64-ounce soda, which is a half-gallon— and contains 48 teaspoons of sugar.” As a result, Dr. Eckman maintains, our society is becoming supersized. “Over 60 percent of our population is overweight, and 30 percent is obese,” he says. “And the children’s statistics are even more mind-boggling—nine million American kids were considered obese, a rate that has nearly doubled in the last 20 years. It’s getting out of control at an epidemic rate.” Fortunately, there are measures you can take to fight back—even if you have to eat fast:

• Check the labels. Most fast-food restaurants offer nutritional information on their websites or on pamphlets, which enables you to make a more informed decision about what you order. “Try to stay away from the foods that are highest in cholesterol, saturated fats, sugar and salt,” Dr. Eckman says. “Choose low-fat options, if they’re available.” Keep in mind that that healthy salad may come with a not so – healthy dressing, so resist the temptation to squeeze the entire packet onto your greens.
•  Cut down on your portions. Avoid the push to supersize your meal—those value menus may be a better dealfinancially, but could cost you your health. “To help spread out the calories, consider eating half of it and giving the other half to your partner or taking it home for another meal,” Dr. Eckman advises.
• Turn your kids into educated eaters. The fast-food commercials—and those little plastic toys—may entice your kids into clamoring for a drive-thru run, but you can fight back. “Making a healthy dinner at home can be a fun activity you do with your kids, that can help encourage them to eat healthier,” Dr. Eckman suggests. “You can also talk with your kids about the problem of obesity and some of its long-term effects on health, so they can become educated and make healthier choices on their own.”
• Moderation. Dr. Eckman suggests limiting fast food to only one meal per week, at the most. “Enjoy it once in a while, but this really shouldn’t be a weekly or biweekly event,” he says. “You don’t want to sacrifice your health for convenience.” EDGE

Editor’s Note: Lisa Milbrand is a New Jersey-based writer whose articles on health and relationships appear in Parents, Arthritis Today and Modern Bride. Her blog themamahood.com celebrates the life of a working mother.

  At the Union County Kennel Club Show, there’s competition at both ends of the leash.

The problem with a bright idea is that sometimes it becomes a do-it-yourself project. During a fit of `insomnia last January I found myself watching a silly late-night cable show called Animal Champions. It got me thinking about what makes an “official” champion in the animal world. A few days later I assigned a writer to attend the 101st Union County Kennel Club Show—held near the southern tip of New Jersey, at the Wildwood Convention Center—and try to capture the spirit of competition in a fun and lively story. Alas, the original writer, having been stuck in one too many snowdrifts during the winter that wouldn’t quit, bowed out after hearing rumors that the top two-thirds of the Garden State Parkway might be a sheet of ice on the morning in question. With one child in college and another getting close, a gruesome highway death didn’t seem to have the same downside for me, so I agreed to go in her place. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should point out here that I am not a dog person. And they seem to know it. Even “my own” dog—the one my wife and daughters outvoted me on 3-to- 1—is careful not to irritate me. I’ll spare you my troubled history with canine-Americans. Not that it isn’t interesting. It’s just that I can’t stand it when other people yammer on about their childhood this and childhood that. Upon arriving at the convention center, I was greeted with open arms by show officials, who cheerfully tolerated me as I got my facts straight and asked a lot of stupid questions over a quick lunch. Then it was out onto the floor. My goal? Quietly observe, form an opinion, and then dig-dig-dig until I understood what it means to compete at a real dog show. What surprised me after watching several breeds go through judging was that the dogs were not eyeing one another or trying to intimidate each other, at least not that I could tell. They were completely absorbed by their work. And make no mistake, they treated it like work. It’s a job they love, of course—a champion show dog has to enjoy the experience. However, there was no interplay between the animals even when they were standing inches apart in the ring. It was a little weird, but I got it. These were the “pros” of canine competition. Whatever makes my dog run in crazed circles around vehicles exiting—but not entering— our driveway had been bred out of these animals. Still, this was a competition, with money and prestige at stake. Someone in the building was driven to win. I just had to find out whom. I decided to cruise the aisles between the different handlers. Each had a space staked out, with dogs in crates, dogs on grooming stands, and dogs on their way to and from the judging rings. An unattended Cocker Spaniel eyed me with suspicion and I returned its glance with a raised eyebrow. I hadn’t lost my touch. The animal leaped off the table and ran down the aisle in front of me, causing a brief panic. I felt bad, like I’d broken something in an antique shop. Since the dogs clearly were not going to help me, I turned my attention to the people preparing them for competition. I’m better with people anyway. Among the many top handlers and trainers present at this event was one who towered over the rest, at least figuratively. His name is Kaz Hosaka, and he is to the poodle world what Michael Jordan is to basketball. Smooth, clever, elegant and nearly unbeatable. (And he’s been on Charlie Rose, so take that other poodle handlers!) Based out of Greenwood, Delaware, Hosaka attends as many as 150 shows a year and has been honing poodles like samurai swords for three decades. You do the math. The important number is #1, and he has racked up a bunch of ’em during his career, including the #1 toy poodle in 2010. Hosaka is a “finisher” of dogs. In other words, if you think you’ve lucked into a great poodle, Kaz is the man who knows how to transform it into a champion. He won’t take a dog unless he truly believes it can be a winner. Often he must break the bad news: This is a wonderful pet, but not a show dog. That being said, Hosaka will consider animals that other handlers have turned down because they may be too difficult. “I am the last stop,” he smiles. “If I can’t do it, nobody can.” Like many in his profession, Hosaka (left) is a handler of owners, too. Most ship their dogs off like boarding-school kids, dropping in occasionally to monitor their progress at important shows. The bulk of handler-owner contact is accomplished over the phone. When one does appear at an event, Hosaka’s rule number-one is don’t come near his set-up and throw your poodle off its game. Helicopter parenting may be tolerated in the human world, but during shows it is definitely frowned upon. One owner who left her dog alone was Charlize Sutton, and the strategy paid off. Her confident little Norwich Terrier went out and blew the fleas off the competition, grabbing Best in Breed. Charlize had more pressing matters to attend to, barely acknowledging the victory. She had her nose buried in an iPad, watching Dora the Explorer. Charlize is two—by far the youngest owner I could locate, though probably not, a neighboring groomer whispered to me, the least mature. Charlize (right) was stationed in a portable playpen in the midst of a dizzying ballet involving three humans, 17 dogs and a seemingly endless array of clippers, snippers, brushes and blowers, each of which was wielded with maximum expertise and minimum effort. Her parents, Jessy and Roxanne, along with assistant Tom Durst, have a first-class operation back in Narvon, Pennsylvania, and they get paid well for the work they do. The Suttons were on a winning streak when I barged into their little corner of doggie heaven. Miles, a regal, self-possessed Rhodesian Ridgeback, was returning from the judging ring with, yawn, another Best in Breed nod. Miles looked like he could stare down a lion (which, apparently, he was bred for), and so did Jessy. He handles the working breeds at shows, while Roxanne works her magic with terriers. “We are sticklers for conditioning,” Jessy responded when I asked what gave his dogs an edge. “When an owner hires us, it may not seem cost-effective right away, but the constant work we do pays off in the long run, because we finish dogs quickly.” Is the flip side of this equation, I wondered, that owners apply a huge amount of pressure? The Suttons confirmed this after getting off the phone with Miles’s owner, reporting the Rhodie’s win within seconds of the judge’s decision. “The owners who hire us believe they should win every time,” says Jessy, adding quickly that “it’s okay, because that’s the attitude we have. We want to win every time, too. Of course, not even the number-one dog in the country wins breed in every show—if they did no one would show. It would be boring.” After talking to a half-dozen handlers I began to wonder how often owners actually show their own dogs. The people I asked offered wildly varying percentages, but I could tell the number isn’t high. Basically, owners who can afford show dogs tend to work for a living and therefore rarely have the time to show them. Those that do are more likely to participate in a weekend show as opposed to mid-week ones like this one.

It is accepted wisdom, however, that owners don’t “shine” the way top handlers do, meaning they are not as adept at pushing a dog’s best attributes to influence judges. What is the price tag for a top handler? Hang on to your teeth. To take a dog from obscurity to the Westminster Kennel Club Show can easily cost $250,000. One breeder described the animals that reach Westminster as “Yale pHd’s.” My first thought was that a quarter-million is a bargain for any kind of advanced degree from Yale, even for a dog. (And believe me, I know a few.) Then I wondered how much of that goes to the handler? The answer is a lot, but also not as much as you’d think. A huge chunk covers the endless travel and other costs that mount up at this level of the game. That being said, dog handlers with a winning track record do generate handsome six-figure incomes, especially when they work with several championship dogs at once. This was something of a revelation to me. I was frankly astounded. Although, when you sit down with a pad and paper (as I did) and actually work out the huge amounts of time and travel involved, it makes a lot of sense. They may make a nice living, but they definitely earn it. Suddenly it dawned on me where the true competition was at these shows. For my first four hours I had been looking at the wrong end of the leash. Follow the money, right? Every win is a notch in a handler‘s belt, and every notch has a dollar value attached to it. More wins demand higher finishing and showing fees, and at the big shows there is serious bonus money, too. Come away from a few shows empty-handed and the phone might stop ringing. Simply put, the real competitors at these shows are not the dogs. They are the handlers. The competition is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s deadly serious, yet only in the rarest circumstances could it be considered cutthroat. You get that after you’ve talked to a few handlers. They are focused and tense and totally on their games. But they honestly adore what they do and adhere to a strict code of conduct and ethics. Apparently, there are enough owners, enough shows and enough money to keep everyone happy. Including my friends, the dogs. EDGE

You’ve probably heard that NASCAR has become a really big deal. You may even know a couple of closet racing fanatics yourself. But let’s be honest— New Jersey is hardly a breeding ground for stock-car racing talent. Well, just don’t tell that to the folks in Ocean County. Every weekend they root for one of their own, MARTIN TRUEX JR., to take the checkered flag against the likes of living legends Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and another “junior”—Dale Earnhardt. How does a world-class racer go from the dirt tracks of South Jersey to the legendary ovals and super speedways of NASCAR? Turns out, it’s all in the family.

EDGE: Your father was a short-track racing legend in the northeast, and also the local “Clam King”—the owner of a large seafood business here in New Jersey. What do you learn from a family culture like that?

MT: Well, it’s a little bit different from what most people grow up around. My dad was a businessman who raced as a hobby, but he was very serious about it. He had aspirations of moving up and running in the big time—which he did, but he never had the equipment to drive for a living. Obviously he put a lot into it. His passion for racing is one of the things that made him successful in business, because he knew he had to make money to go racing.

EDGE: So you understood the connection between passion and work ethic?

MT: Yes, I did. My dad worked really hard so he could go racing. That’s what I learned from him, that you have to work hard for something. And that to be a racer you really have to want to do it, because there are thousands of people who want to do it, too. You won’t get that chance without working hard and taking it seriously.

EDGE: When you and Martin Sr. talked about racing, did you focus much on the danger of the sport?

MT: No. As a racer you worry about how you can go faster, how you can do better than the guy in front of you. I don’t think anyone who has raced for a long time worries about the danger of it. You’re passionate about winning, and all that other stuff is just secondary.

EDGE: How was the competition in South Jersey when you were growing up?

MT: When I was racing in Jersey it was never what I’d call a “hotbed.” There were only a few places we could go. But there was good competition. So I was able to learn the ropes and refine my techniques at a young age. That had a lot to do with why I became successful.

EDGE: Did you feel at home behind the wheel when you first began competing as a teenager?

 MT: Racing was something I was interested in long before I got to do it. The will to get into racing was there for a long time. I was able to learn a lot from my dad—I didn’t just go and watch him race. I really paid attention to what was going on. I hung out in the shop, worked on the cars and tried to learn as much as I could. When I first got into a race car it was second nature. I felt I’d been doing it all my life. It felt natural to me.

EDGE: Your younger brother, Ryan, has gotten off to a fast start in his career. Do you think you two had a similar feel for racing?

MT: Yeah, I think we did. One day he came to my father and me and said, “I want to race.” We’d never really appreciated his interest in it, but once Ryan started, we could tell that he really knew what he was doing. He had been paying attention, he had been learning—almost with no one even noticing it. Right off the bat he was fast, and right off the bat he’s been winning. When Ryan got into a car, he clearly understood racing. He’s going to be running some Nationwide races this year and he’s only 18! That tells you how quickly he’s learned and how well he’s been able to adapt to different cars in different situations.

EDGE: You won back-to-back Busch championships in 2004 and 2005. Obviously, at that point you knew you could be successful at the top levels of auto racing. Looking back, what was your Eureka Moment—the time when you first thought to yourself, “Oh, man. I can do this!”

MT: As soon as I got in [Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s] Chance 2 car in 2003, I knew right away. The first time we ran, no one was expecting much and I had a shot at winning that race. I knew at that moment that this was my opportunity, and that I had to take advantage of it. I knew we could do it. With the crew we had and the equipment we had, I knew it was possible to win. From that moment on I was able to focus on what I needed to do as a driver and as a member of a team. And I had a great team. So we went into 2004 with a ton of confidence. We knew we could win races…and we ended up winning the championship.

EDGE: At the Daytona 500 in 2010, you were right there at the end, leading the race.

MT: Yeah. We had as good a shot as anyone. We were leading right up until the end. It’s hard to be the leader at the end of the restrictor plate races because you’re kind of a sitting duck.

EDGE: That’s an example of how razor-thin the difference is between winning a race and coming in, say sixth, which you did—just a couple of seconds behind the winner.

MT: It all comes down to circumstances. It takes not only your decisions but the decisions of the other drivers to determine the outcome. If two or three other guys had made different moves, and then I had made a different move, the outcome would have been completely different.

EDGE: Do you look back and say I should have done such-and-such differently?

MT: It’s really hard to second-guess, hard to look back. Obviously I wanted to win the race—that’s what I was there for—but there were 10 or 15 guys who could have won that race! So it’s a little bit of a crapshoot. That’s just the way it goes. You don’t think too much about the past, you just learn from it—and hope you do better the next time and win.

EDGE: One of the great challenges in any sport is filling the shoes of a legend. In 2010, you were hired to replace one of the all-time greats, Michael Waltrip, a two-time winner of the Daytona 500. And you were hired by Michael Waltrip— talk about pressure!

MT: No, working with Michael has just been a blast. When he got out of the car, he wasn’t looking for a guy who was “as good as me”—he was looking for someone he thought was better, because he wants his car to run up front. To have him pick me, that was a cool feeling. To be honest, it reminded me of when I was 18 and my dad was still racing in the Busch North series. We were planning on running a few races together and seeing what happened. We ran one race and he retired. He said, “I realize you’ve got a great opportunity to do what I always wanted to do. I’m going to quit right here and put all I can behind you to get you ready to go.”

EDGE: It’s the NASCAR version of the Circle of Life.

MT: I guess. But I can’t imagine stepping out of the car and handing over the keys, per se, to someone I thought would do a better job. It just blows my mind. I love racing so much, I can’t imagine being in a position where I’d do that. And for my brother Michael, racing’s all he’s known and done. He is so passionate about it. So that really showed his true character—and made me very proud. It makes me want to do a good job for him.

EDGE: The main sponsor of your car is NAPA. Do you have much interaction with them?

MT: NAPA Auto Parts has been a huge part of this sport for a long time, so it’s an honor to drive the race car for them and be the face of NAPA. Being a part of the company, of the storeowners and employees, that part’s actually been a lot of fun.

EDGE: Does winning a race ever get old? Do you still get the same thrill you did when you were a teenager?

MT: To be honest, these days, at this level, wins are so much more difficult to come by that it’s better. The harder they are to get the sweeter they are!

EDGE: When you return to New Jersey for the holidays to visit friends and family, is there any one place that is special to you?

MT: The Jersey Mike’s in Manahawkin. My friends and I spent a lot of time in there. You know how on TV you have those restaurants the high school kids use as their hangout place? That was ours. That place will always be special.

EDGE: A lot of people who grow up in Jersey don’t truly appreciate it until they’ve left. What is it about the Garden State that you remember most fondly?

MT: The thing I appreciate, having grown up at the Jersey Shore, is the natural diversity of the state. Where I lived in Ocean County I could go five minutes and be out on the bay fishing, or go five minutes in the other direction and be out in the woods hunting. But with my family being in the seafood business and me loving to fish, the salt water is what I miss the most. Jersey sometimes has a bad reputation, but if you ask me, it’s a pretty great place to live.

Knowing how to get into the ‘best possible college’ starts with understanding what that actually means.  

We have all consumed the Kool-Aid. We all crave and covet the translucent rear-windshield sticker announcing to the community what a great job we did getting our child into a name-brand college. In doing so, however, we are committing a heresy of emphasis; we have become so obsessed with the outcome that we have overlooked the whole point of the process. As a Certified Educational Planner with many years in the trenches of the “admissions game” (as one colleague playfully refers to it), I have accumulated an abundance of two things: anecdotes and raw data. The data speaks for itself; in the end, numbers are numbers. But the anecdotes—the “data” lived out through the hearts, hands, and hormones of respiring teenaged beings—is why I cannot imagine doing anything else with my life. It is this passion that is incendiary with my students; it is the invisible permission slip for each of them to permit themselves to dream of a life and future that is so meaningful, so gratifying, so spectacularly promising, that they cannot help but begin to vision what it might be. Which is why nothing makes me cringe like hearing a parent say, “WE want to apply to…” My philosophy is this: Focus on the student’s process of growth and self-discovery in the college application process, and the ideal college match will be the beautiful consequence. Your child’s “reach” school may not even be on your radar when you begin. Thus your first and most important effort should be to identify the best possible destination—not just for those four wonderful years, but for the rest of his or her life. I may be uttering heresy to those Type A’s among us (myself included) who cleave to the Machiavellian means-to-an-end mentality of Why do anything if it doesn’t get you to the next level in life? But the experts back me up. Steve Antonoff, of Antonoff and Associates in Denver, Colorado, says this about people in my profession: “The treasure the consultant has is not the list, the treasure lies in figuring out who a young person is and helping them discover what colleges will be the best fit for them.” What Antonoff is gesturing at is that a great consultant—or a great guidance counselor, or a wise mentor—will do whatever it takes to: 1) cut through the teen peer-pressure culture that oppressively enforces conformity, 2) focus on students for who they are, and 3) mirror back to them the unique gifts with which they have been blessed. In my own practice, I encourage each young person not to put his or her light under a basket, but to hold it aloft so as to illuminate the room, the school, the community and, I daresay, the globe. Only then does a true picture begin to emerge of the “best possible college.” Only then can a young person start building an application strategy to get into that school. In that spirit, consider the experiences and outcomes of the following four students…

JANET: Almost Famous Janet attended a “magnet” public high school. She excelled academically and acquired along the way a specialization, due to the unique coursework and curriculum of her specialized high school. With a friend (and following the promptings not of her single parent, but of her passion), she began a music and entertainment web site. This enabled her to obtain press passes, which she and her friend used to gain backstage access at various performances and concerts. What would have been fun and games for her peers was work for Janet. She spent countless hours preparing questions for interviews and then sitting with musicians pre-performance. But Janet’s love of this subject made this work feel like play. She would then blog about her interviews on the website, which developed a devoted readership (à la Almost Famous). When Janet came to me to select colleges, her mother was concerned about pursuing too narrow of a focus in music industry management. Herein lay the folly. While I understood her mother’s apprehension, Janet was perfectly poised, based on her industry exposure and connections to be an ideal candidate to such coveted programs as the Clive Davis Department at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and Drexel University’s Music Industry program. These are specialized and, as such, require specialized students who  “make sense” to the admissions reader. Not only was Janet accepted to every college to which she applied, she received copious amounts of merit aid to incentivize her to come hither.

JULIA: Model Applicant Julia, a print-model blonde go-getter with a husky voice, possessed perhaps the healthiest self-esteem I have ever encountered in a young adult from a public high school. My preconceived notion of the modeling industry’s impact on a teen was that the vulnerability, competition and rejection based on the mercurial whims of anonymous PR marketers would crush a young person’s confidence and spirit. However, Julia not only developed real empathy for the outcast and socially ostracized, but a “centeredness” wherein her confidence emanated from an aquifer within. The resilience she learned from the endless industry “go-sees” amplified her determination and attenuated her fear of failure—a debilitating attribute of today’s Millennials. She got passionately involved with a buddying program that pairs special-needs adolescents with their peers. Julia shot high, landing among the stars, at a small liberal arts college that is providing her the raised academic bar that she did not always receive during her high-school experience. She is “opening it up” as they say on the Autobahn and seeing just how fast those horses under the hood can take her. Yet it wasn’t without a fight. Julia aimed very high and was waitlisted. She did not have a final answer until the summer months. However, when she received that all-important call back, she immediately seized the opportunity! Fortuitously, the waitlist situation provided an opportunity for all the eager adults in Julia’s life to clamor on her behalf to the admissions representative reading her application—evidence that the squeaky wheel does get the grease. Julia’s tenacity, her “nothing ventured, nothing gained” attitude—combined with persistence and patience—earned her acceptance to her “reach” school.

ADDIE: Academic Goddess Addie is a gifted scholar with the intellectual Midas touch. Her challenge lay in discerning a focus, as she truly excelled in every subject area—in addition to being a concert pianist and visual artist. I often wondered if she descended directly from Mount Olympus or, at the very least, possessed a divine bloodline. I encouraged Addie over the course of our two-year consulting relationship to begin to explore “insights,” those tenuous moments of epiphany in which an overlap or connection between two or more seemingly disparate disciplines collide and novel and nascent ideas are born. She researched a summer program in London that amalgamated her love of art history with her burgeoning interest in the fashion industry. Leave it to Addie to design, for her culminating assignment, contemporary street wear employing medieval monastic and Tutor-inspired hoodies for the common hip-hop man on the street! Upon her return, we explored the conundrum of the typical fashion studies program: Fashion minus intellectual rigor. The notable exception was Cornell’s Fiber Science and Apparel Design Program in the College of Human Ecology. Addie scheduled a visit, and with her stellar grades and the ideal programmatic fit, she was ushered in Early Decision and could not be more elated to this day.

ROGER: Mr. Clutch Roger is another story entirely. A lovable guy, Roger stood 5’ 5” in cleats. Conspicuously smaller than his teammates, Roger chose the topic of being the runt underdog and had lots of fun with himself throughout his personal statement. He came across as affable, humble and perseverant—three characteristics that we brainstormed during his second foot swinging session in my office’s pair of worn leather chairs. Roger also conveyed depth. His father’s work revolves around cars and Roger had developed an abiding passion for all things automotive, including a deference for Lee Iaccoca. He wrote a moving essay tying the current event of the American car-maker crisis to the future of business in America, which earned him an acceptance off the waitlist at a notable undergraduate institution with an accomplished undergraduate school of business. Roger channeled his passion and, through his voice, translated his ardor for cars and the automotive industry into a profoundly passionate plea to be admitted. He succeeded. It was a testament to colleges wanting doers a well as believers.

Pop Quiz: What’s the common denominator that enabled these kids to first identify and then successfully apply to the best possible college? If you answered passion, you have cracked the proverbial code. Bravo. Now, for the extra credit. What have you done to model that level of passion for your own student? Have you drawn out of yourself or your child a love so profound, an interest so strong that as much of your free time as possible is spent gathering information about that passion without counting the hours? Or have you encouraged résumé-padding or highlighted the “because it looks good for college” rationale? If you are raising a recalcitrant leader, soul-search as to why. Do you have the tendency to swoop in and take over school projects or science fair experiments? Do you occasionally or frequently send the message You are not actually capable of doing this yourself, therefore, I must help you? We Type A’s do so unwittingly—from the moment we tie their shoes— because we don’t have the patience to wait for them to do it themselves. And besides, it has to be a certain way, doesn’t it? If passion is the birth, then ownership is the conception. You hear your child needs a “hook” to get into college, so you steer him toward Habitat for Humanity. But can he swing a hammer? Does he have a heart for the homeless or disenfranchised? Listen intently to him. What does your child find outrageous? Enervating? Inconceivably unjust? What website (besides Facebook) does your child most frequent? Remember when he was into dinosaurs and you took him to the museum, and reread him that book ad nauseum? Remember when she loved those Pokemon characters and you listened as she recited the hundreds of different permeations she had memorized? What about that train kick, or that vampire phase? Perhaps, over time, you have fanned the flame of their curiosity. Do so now. Do so always. But avoid seizing the stick and flint and attempting to ignite it for them, because unless they can own the process, they can never fully or truly own the outcomes. EDGE

 Editor’s Note: When Erin is not authoring articles, she runs Avery Educational Resources (averyeducation.com). She also does pro bono work with children who lost parents on 9/11. A Division I varsity athlete and a competitive Irish step dancer, she holds two Masters degrees from Oxford and Yale Universities, respectively.

Tablets join SMART Boards, e-Readers and other technologies that are transforming the classroom experience.

Around this time last year, Steve Jobs introduced the iPad to an eagerly waiting world. For many tech critics, the device was a head-scratcher. It was dubbed the “Giant iPhone” by its detractors. Among those who immediately saw the awesome potential of the iPad were educators. Tablet devices and e-readers (by this time next year there may be close to 100 out there!) seemed tailor-made for the technological needs and aspirations of schools at every level. Teachers, students and educational researchers all nod in agreement that we have come to at an important place in the evolution of learning. Things seem to be changing at light speed. The same pulse-quickening technology that drives lunchroom chatter is finding its way into classrooms all over the state in the form of SMART Boards, iPads and other devices that connect kids to information in attention grabbing ways. It’s an exciting time to be a student. For teachers, it’s a time of transition. They must evolve with the technology. Fortunately, the traditional forms of delivering information, despite losing ground, are not leaving the scene.

 

Teachers know how to get students involved and active, and emerging technology is just another weapon in their arsenal. Power, after all, comes not from a cord. Knowledge is power. Allison May, Director of Curriculum and Instruction at the Chatham Day School, confirms that the newest trends in education rely on technology. “Technology allows teachers to personalize education more effectively,” she says. “By using the Kindle and iPads, teachers can attract more students to read.” May also notes that online textbooks offer myriad tools for teachers to engage and retain students’ attention. At the Pingry School, teachers have found integrating tablets into the classroom flow to be a more or less natural process. “They are using iPads to create a forum for discussion, and a way to share which apps are working best for each student,” reports Ted Corvine Sr., Pingry’s Assistant Headmaster and Lower School Director. “The next generation of technology is creating additional opportunities for differential learning and student collaboration in the classroom.” At Oak Knoll School in Summit, students are benefiting from technology and online capabilities. They learn how to sift through data on wiki sites, utilize digital cameras, make use of computers, apply software and employ apps to learn, and make multimedia presentations. Science teacher Tatiana Kurjaninow notes, “Because businesses, companies and educational institutions are collaborating more online than ever, I believe it is so important for us to be teaching our students how to use these technology tools now in the classroom.”

 

Technology is also transforming the way parents, students and teachers keep in touch. Through email, blogs, and teacher websites, parents can communicate with the school 24/7. As we grown-ups catch up to our tech-savvy kids, this kind of communication will eventually just become a part of ordinary parenting. Jennifer Phillips, Director of Educational Advancement at Far Hills Country Day School, predicts that, 10 years from now, no one will be questioning the role of technology in schools. Everyone will have it and everyone will use it. “No longer will we be asking, ‘Should we use technology in this lesson?’ Technology will be portable and accessible all the time, everywhere—and a given tool for all learning.” When Donna Toryak of Mount Saint Mary Academy looks into her crystal ball, she predicts that paper, pencils and textbooks will be passé, and will no longer be a staple of the traditional classroom. “Online and virtual classrooms may replace what we now see as students sitting in rows at desks, listening to a lecture or annotating the day’s lessons. Technology is a very thrilling theme for the future.” The future has arrived at a growing number of New Jersey schools, and in some cases it’s in the hands of four-year olds. The Rumson Country Day School built a Passport to Adventure afternoon enrichment program around 10 recently purchased iPads. “Our pre-school iPad program enables students to learn through interaction with technology,” explains Laura Small, a teacher and administrator at RCDS. “They practice and master letter recognition, handwriting and math concepts technologically as well as traditionally.

 

The iPads also enable our preschoolers to explore hands-on different cultures, traditions and animals from around the world.” Remember when teachers used to reprimand students for having their heads in the clouds? Well, Michael Chimes, Director of Academic Technology at Gill St. Bernard’s School in Gladstone, looks into the future and says, “Institutions like our school, and users like our faculty and students, will move to the Cloud.” The Cloud is a service that stores applications and data on remote servers, allowing users to access programs and files without having to invest in expensive hardware or software. It is sometimes referred to as virtualized computing. “In other words, remote servers will hold the software and the files we work with,” says Chimes. “The web and all that is available will be far more accessible.” For budgetary reasons—with which New Jersey parents are all too familiar—the most sophisticated learning technology tends to be in private schools right now, from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. However, most schools have begun the transition to new technology and, as competition between hardware and software manufacturers intensifies, those schools that have had to wait will find it less expensive to play catch-up. For now, the price tag of staying on the leading edge is still considerable. With tuitions rising in private schools and public school budgets gobbling up 60 to 70 percent of property taxes in some towns, many would argue that this is not a good time to pour precious dollars into educational gadgetry. Granted, keeping up with technology may seem expensive and taxing. But, in the end, the price of ignorance is so much greater.

The power of television in our society has been made painfully clear by the current Reality TV craze. With careful editing and decent ratings, it seems any half-wit can become a major media star. Yet for all of the bad things this genre says about us as a culture, it can also do a lot of good. Exhibit A is IRINA SHABAYEVA, an outrageous young talent who rose above the competition to win Project Runway. For all its contrivances, the program transformed an industry unknown into New York’s newest designing woman—a career-launch that might never have happened but for the magic of basic cable. EDGE Style Editor Dan Brickley has been there and done that. The former host of TLC’s A Makeover Story is now a regular in US Weekly and runs a successful pop-culture web site. Dan caught up with Irina while she was putting the finishing touches on her new Fire & Ice collection (see pages 55-62), due to debut at Fashion Week in February. As he discovered, the first thing you need to know about Irina is that she was born in Georgia…and raised in Brooklyn.

EDGE: Georgia? I’m not hearing that.

IS: The Republic of Georgia—not USA Georgia. From grade one to four, I was in Georgia. Then my parents moved to the States and I finished my education in Brooklyn.

EDGE: How is that fusion of cultures reflected in your personality?

IS: Europeans in general are straightforward, want to offend anyone. I think there’s a way to be both, to be polite and honest. EDGE: Did this help you on Project Runway? IS: I think it did. EDGE: What goes through your head when you stand in front of the judges…and a couple of million viewers? IS: You’re nervous because of the lights and the cameras, and the whole situation makes your heart race. But I wasn’t really afraid of what the judges had to say because, chances are, whatever they found—good or bad—I already knew. Most creative people can look at their work and, if it’s not that great, call themselves out on it and just say, “Hey, you know what? Maybe this is a flop.” Everyone has had a day where nothing seems to come together. Unfortunately, on Project Runway the whole world knows about it because the judges make sure that you hear it over and over again. EDGE: Did the judges ever have a bad day? IS: Everyone had their days. EDGE: When you live, work and—most importantly— compete with other designers 24 hours a day, it can bring out the worst in someone. Yet you managed to stay above the fray. IS: Project Runway was a big deal, so I decided that if I was going to do it, I was really going to focus. I knew that some people would be really friendly and others would reach their boiling points quickly. The competition never stops. When we were off camera, we were still interacting, so someone could say something that would trigger a reaction the next day when the cameras were rolling again. In order to avoid getting swept up in the drama, I just stayed focused on doing what I was there to do—which was to meet a challenge every day. EDGE: One of your fellow contestants said that you weren’t there to make friends. Naturally, that’s the reputation you got as a “character” on the show. Fair or unfair? honest people. They call it like it is. American culture is a lot more sugar-coated. People are afraid to be honest sometimes because they don’t want to offend anyone. I think there’s a way to be both, to be polite and honest.

EDGE: Did this help you on Project Runway?

IS: I think it did.

EDGE: What goes through your head when you stand in front of the judges…and a couple of million viewers?

IS: You’re nervous because of the lights and the cameras, and the whole situation makes your heart race. But I wasn’t really afraid of what the judges had to say because, chances are, whatever they found—good or bad—I already knew. Most creative people can look at their work and, if it’s not that great, call themselves out on it and just say, “Hey, you know what? Maybe this is a flop.” Everyone has had a day where nothing seems to come together. Unfortunately, on Project Runway the whole world knows about it because the judges make sure that you hear it over and over again.

EDGE: Did the judges ever have a bad day?

IS: Everyone had their days.

EDGE: When you live, work and—most importantly— compete with other designers 24 hours a day, it can bring out the worst in someone. Yet you managed to stay above the fray.

IS: Project Runway was a big deal, so I decided that if I was going to do it, I was really going to focus. I knew that some people would be really friendly and others would reach their boiling points quickly. The competition never stops. When we were off camera, we were still interacting, so someone could say something that would trigger a reaction the next day when the cameras were rolling again. In order to avoid getting swept up in the drama, I just stayed focused on doing what I was there to do—which was to meet a challenge every day.

EDGE: One of your fellow contestants said that you weren’t there to make friends. Naturally, that’s the reputation you got as a “character” on the show. Fair or unfair?

IS: It bothered me that it was taken to an extreme. It wasn’t like I said, “I hate everyone!” It was more like, if I made friends, well, that was a bonus. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to make a friend or two? But I wasn’t there to socialize. It wasn’t cocktail hour. I wanted to win that thing.

EDGE: Is it true you hadn’t watched previous seasons of Project Runway?

IS: I never watched any season in its entirety. I watched it randomly, like I’d go over to someone’s house and they’d be watching it.

EDGE: And what was your impression? What made you think it was worth a shot?

IS: I thought it was great. I mean, I knew there was a downside to Reality TV, but I felt that if there was something positive that comes out of a show like this, then maybe it’s worth doing. Tim Gunn was a judge, and that gave me a comfort level because he taught me at Parsons. That was disclosed to everyone, by the way—it wasn’t like we had a secret friendship. But I thought if Tim was part of the show, he’s so respectable and honest, I knew the judging had to be fair.

EDGE: What was the casting process like?

IS: It was a challenge. I understood that they pick people for their work but also for their personality. A lot of talented and creative people tend to be introverted. I tend to be laidback, and I can’t be someone that I’m not, but luckily they felt my personality was a good fit.

EDGE: That first day, when you were surrounded by all the lights and cameras and producers, did you think, “Oh my God! I’ve got to look good, too!”

IS: That first day, Dan? I did. But soon I was like, “Who cares? I’m here to win this thing!” I wasn’t going to look glamorous—it was too exhausting. My sister would watch and say, “Why are you wearing that grandma outfit? Why are you wearing that headband?” And I’d be like, “Because my hair is gross! I haven’t washed it in days!” In retrospect, they could have given us more time to get ourselves together, but I think they wanted us looking as tired and worn out as possible because then viewers sympathize with you. And people should have sympathized with us. We were beyond exhausted. There were days when I was thought, “Do I really have to move now? I don’t think my body can.” Ultimately, it was fun—in a weird, distorted way.

EDGE: When did you think you actually had a shot at winning Project Runway?

IS: A little more than half way into the competition. I was standing on the runway and it was my turn to go when one of the lights blew out. They brought out this three-story ladder to replace the light, which took an hour. I had that hour to just stand there and think. And it came to me. “I could really win this thing…and I think I am winning. I’m so winning this thing!”

EDGE: After you won, was there a clock ticking in your head? Did you think, “I’ve got to capitalize on this notoriety and strike while the iron is hot?” IS: I didn’t assume anything. As you know, Dan, the fashion industry is funny. People in the business like the show. They think it’s great. But it doesn’t validate you in their eyes. What validates you is your work. So I didn’t feel I had this celebrity glow that would take me places. Yes, it’s great to have fans and a recognizable name, but remember, those fans aren’t necessarily your consumers. Building a business—a real, successful business—is very different than winning Project Runway.

EDGE: So what’s it going to be for Irina Shabayeva? Custom order? Big label? Big backing?

IS: Well, I launched an evening line last season, as well as a bridal collection, and it’s been great. I’m at Kleinfeld Bridal and I’m in great company—Monique Lhuillier and Oscar De La Renta—so I’m going to stick with doing the bridal and evening custom order. In terms of my Ready To Wear, I want to build it up and become a brand because it has a place in the market. I’ve gotten so much great feedback. I just have to figure out how to juggle both.

EDGE: If you had to describe your aesthetic in three words, what would they be?

IS: Feminine. Strong. Luxurious.

EDGE: If you could pick anyone, past or present, to represent your line, who would it be?

IS: That’s a hard question. The first person who pops into my mind is Cate Blanchett. I think she’s a phenomenal actress. Maybe Queen Elizabeth I? She came from nothing to become queen, and struggled with being a woman and trying to rule a country. Cate played her in the movie, which I guess is why I thought of her.

EDGE: If you had to create a bumper sticker for all of the young designers who are following you into the business, what would it say?

IS: “Be Prepared to Make Sacrifices.”

EDGE: Meaning what?

IS: You have to grow up a little sooner. If you really want to perfect your craft, it requires a lot of time and dedication. There’s not a lot left over for fun and partying. I’m 29 and I still struggle to find balance in my life and do what I love to do. It’s a constant struggle. EDGE

Cold feet. Heavy legs. Cramping. As the years pile up, we deal with life’s extra little discomforts every day. They can be a real pain in the you-know what. Dealing with them, however, does not mean ignoring them. If annoyances such as these persist, it may be prudent to speak with a vascular surgeon. The fact of the matter is that each of the aforementioned symptoms (including, yes, buttock pain) could point to something more serious. “We’re not talking about spider veins here,” says Salvador Cuadra, MD. “Vascular system disorders such as Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) and Carotid Artery Disease—including Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIAs)—can begin with relatively mild symptoms. The earlier we catch these problems, the more likely a patient is going to have a favorable outcome.” As a vascular surgeon, Dr. Cuadra is a specialist who treats diseases of the major blood vessels. A member of the Cardiovascular Care Group (with offices at Trinitas and in Westfield, Springfield and Belleville), he treats problems with the carotid arteries in the neck, as well as the veins and arteries in the abdomen, arms and lower extremities. One of Dr. Cuadra’s specialties is called a carotid endarterectomy. In lay terms, this is a surgical procedure that addresses blockages in the artery feeding the brain. Plaque can build up and potentially cause a stroke. The surgery literally “shells out,” or removes, the plaque through a small neck incision. Although the condition is extremely serious, the surgical prognosis is excellent and recovery time is relatively short. Typically, it involves only an overnight hospital stay. Within the past decade, there have been other advances in the development of less invasive treatments for vascular system disorders. Most of these involve the use of stents, which are applied through a catheter inserted through the groin area. The less invasive nature of this procedure certainly makes it more attractive to patients. Vascular surgeons routinely perform angioplasty to repair arteries that are blocked or narrowed. There has been much recent research and discussion about the relative efficacy of stents compared to surgery. The much-publicized CREST Trial has indicated that stents have no statistical advantage over surgery and, in certain cases, might even run a higher risk of subsequent stroke. However, Dr. Cuadra is uniquely qualified to perform either angioplasty or surgery. He has found that some patients have better results with angioplasty and stents, while others benefit more from surgery. Another problem that can be addressed by inserting a stent is an aneurysm. In such a case, an artery develops a bulge (widening) rather than a blockage. Over time, this can cause a weakening in the arterial wall. A vascular surgeon will perform a procedure to insert a specialized stent that allows blood to pass through it removing the pressure on the arterial wall (the aneurysm) thereby reducing the risk of rupture. At present, dialysis patients constitute approximately 50% of Dr. Cuadra’s group practice. In cases of kidney failure— which requires hemodialysis to remove toxic waste and excess fluid from the bloodstream—surgery is done to establish the necessary connection between an artery and a vein thereby allowing for dialysis to be performed. Of the remaining 50%, different people land in his office in a number of different ways. Many patients come via their PCP referral already suffering from obesity and/or diabetes; their doctor may have found an abnormality through physical examination or through an ultrasound, or some other procedure such as a CT scan. Others come because of physical symptoms such as loss of circulation to the legs causing pain, ulcerations, and even gangrene in the extremity. Although Dr. Cuadra says he enjoys working with patients to prevent the onset of vascular disease, he embraces the myriad challenges he faces every day. Being a surgeon suits him, he says. “I like using my hands to solve relatively serious patient problems. Surgery is more rewarding to me than some other specialties. I can see a problem, diagnose it and fix it in a relatively short time period.” EDGE  

Editor’s Note: Dr. Salvador Cuadra attended Cornell University as an undergrad and received his medical degree—and became Chief Resident in surgery—at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has authored a number of vascular surgery treatises, receiving awards for several of his publications.

A Rock Industry Insider Recalls the Malibu Wildfire that Consumed (Almost) Everything 

I miss the change of seasons in New Jersey. Transplanted here in Southern California, I must make do with Football Season, ’Tis the Season and the new TV Season. And then there is that other, more ominous, time of year: Fire Season. In a matter of minutes, it can turn you from a “have” into a “have-not”. For my friend Sue Sawyer (right), the November 1993 blaze that raged through the Malibu canyon where she lived swallowed more than just her home. It took a bite out of the joie de vivre she once had—the loss of which she is still coming to terms with today. In the early 1990’s, Virgin Records America was in its heyday, and Sawyer was its V.P. of Media Relations. Her clients included Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Keith Richards, Lenny Kravitz, and The Clash. Over the years she received many gold records from artists such as Cyndi Lauper, Sade, and Cheap Trick that she hung on her living room wall. Her five platinum albums from Michael Jackson had an inscription from Michael that read Dear Sue, thanks for the hard work. These also were displayed in her home. A triptych photograph taken in the early 1980’s, showed Sue sitting on a sofa with Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. Ozzy was promoting his first solo album, and a marketing meeting was set up at Epic Records. Ozzy walked in with a photographer, which was unusual; this should have been the tip-off for Sawyer that he had something up his sleeve (or in his pockets, to be exact). When everyone was seated, Ozzy produced a white dove from his coat, smiled sweetly at it—and bit its head off. He reached in his other pocket and pulled out another white dove and prepared to dine on that one, but the conference room erupted in protest, and the bird and everyone else in the room was saved from another unsavory spectacle. Although the photographs showed Sue’s expression going from Oh, what a pretty bird Ozzy has to utter revulsion, the triptych was exhibited on her walls to prove that, yes, this really did happen… I was there. The fire took everything. Sawyer’s “to die for” record collection? Vaporized. Her priceless collectibles? Incinerated. Early punk rock singles, including Elvis Costello when he was with Stiff Records? Up in smoke. A few charred 4×4’s, the bottom drum to her Weber grill, the blackened and ash filled carcass of her boyfriend’s vintage1967 metallic gold Thunderbird, the blob of melted coins from her piggybank, and the over-baked Halloween pumpkin that was sitting on the porch, was all that was left. There wasn’t even a place to hang the red UNSAFE FOR OCCUPANCY notification, so it was left under a rock. After the fire ran its course and Sawyer was allowed back on to the smoldering property, it was her incinerated books that she mourned the most. Everything that Graham Greene and Raymond Chandler wrote she collected. She had all of her childhood books, especially Winnie-The-Pooh, lovingly placed on bookshelves. “I would look at my books and it gave me a kind of a…hug,” she recalls. “I don’t have that now.” The literary collection was her treasure. Through the day-today roller coaster ride that was her job, those books provided a sense that everything was going to be all right.

It kept her grounded in a world of music icons and crazy, all-night industry parties. Sawyer has since acquired more books to fill new shelves, but the concertized connection to her younger, more carefree self was gone; as was the piano that she was more than proficient in playing. “When I was seven, I could play Rachmaninov in C sharp minor,” Sawyer says. She hasn’t owned a piano since she found the twisted remains of its soundboard nestled in the ash and soot of what was once her living room. “My house was completely gone.” The great Malibu fire of 1993 burned for three days. Sue Sawyer and 267 others lost their homes. Among her burnt-out neighbors were Sean Penn and Madonna, Ali MacGraw, Dwight Yokum, and Roy Orbison’s widow, Barbara. Three people perished in the fire, which was fueled by a combination of oil-rich and highly combustible chaparral, severe drought, and the hot, dry Santa Ana winds that roared through the canyon. In the first 10 minutes the fire spread from one acre to 200, and within an hour it had scorched over 1,000. It was about 20 minutes into the burn that Sawyer knew her house was in its path, and she had to get home to save her pets. Normally, there were a lot of meetings on Tuesday mornings, but she happened to be in her office with the television on. There was a breaking news bulletin about a fire sweeping toward the sea. “I knew this was no small deal by the way the newscasters talked about it,” she recalls. “And I knew my house was directly between the origin of the fire and the ocean.” The sick feeling that started to take hold of Sawyer was confirmed when a neighbor called. He told her he was evacuating and would take her Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy, but she needed to come and grab her cats. Driving along Pacific Coast Highway toward he

r threatened home, she was struck by the surrealism of it all. “The ocean was glittery with the sun bouncing on the surface, and the sky was such a beautiful blue,” she remembers. “And then there was this huge plume of smoke going up into the sky.” There was a state-of-the art fire station with a helicopter pad just up the road from where she lived. Would her home be spared? She knows now that when an out-of-control fire is in the mood to burn, there’s not much you can do about it. She reached her home with minutes to spare. With two cats and one cat carrier, she ended up stuffing one in a pillow case and tossing both in the car. Then she bolted back into the house to save what she could. It was about 1:30 in the afternoon and the sky had darkened with soot. Ash was everywhere, inside the house as well as out,

and an orange glow was licking at the ridge line, edging ever closer. “I was rushing around sick to my stomach,” Sawyer says. “There was no rhyme or reason to what I was putting in the car. I grabbed a photo album, my skis, a computer, and bicycles.” “But not enough clothes,” she chuckles wryly. “Next time I’ll pack better.” There was only one way out of the canyon; if an ember had leapfrogged onto her escape route, there would have been no way out. She took one last look at her home and—still hopeful that this evacuation would turn out to be nothing more than a fire drill—thought, “This is going to be so much work putting everything back!” Sawyer retreated to her parents’ house in Simi Valley, where a friend phoned to tell her that the street Sue lived on was gone. Wow, she thought, I guess I’m homeless. The next morning, with the fire still gobbling up homes north of Los Angeles, Sawyer’s office phoned to ask if she would be coming in for the marketing meeting. Hey, that’s show biz! “I don’t have a toothbrush or any underwear,” she told the caller, “I think I’ll be a little late for work today.” A month later, Sawyer began her slow return from the weightlessness of the dispossessed. She was living in a rental home in Burbank and her friends and co-workers threw a surprise benefit party to help her pick up the pieces. “This outpouring of kindness was the best thing that happened after the fire,” she says. “These were not the wealthy people of the music business; these were the publicists and writers. The $50 checks that they gave meant so much to me. I still have the checks from the freelance writers. I didn’t cash them. They didn’t have a lot of money, and I still had a job. The irony was that those same people got hit by the [January 1994] earthquake a month later.” Sawyer has regained most of her zest. But part of that happy-go-lucky, young woman vanished that November morning. “I regret the loss of my books and my music,” she says. “And my love letters. I dated a lot of writers, so there were some incredible love letters. I regret that I didn’t really mourn what I had lost; I was changed by the loss, but I didn’t mourn it. I wish I had had some therapy, it would have helped.” From the ashes eventually there is growth. The élan that defined Sue Sawyer both personally and professionally was replaced with a “don’t sweat the little stuff” sensibility that has served her equally well. After a hiatus from the world of media marketing, she is working as an independent publicist for a boutique public relations firm in Los Angeles. And she bought another house, in Glendale, where she can hear her neighbors’ son practicing the piano. With a twinkle in her eye, she says that she would like to start playing again. EDGE

If you haven’t caught ANNE BURRELL on the hit series Worst Cooks in America, you’ve almost certainly seen her somewhere else. The Food Network star is, well, kind of hard to miss. Over the years, Anne’s big personality, signature hairstyle and culinary creativity have made an indelible impression on viewers of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and patrons at Manhattan eateries Felidia, Savoy, Lumi and Centro Vinoteca. And, of course, there was her unforgettable stint as Mario Batali’s second in command on Iron Chef America. On Worst Cooks, Anne plays drill sergeant to a team of culinary clods as they go head-to-head with a platoon led by co-host Robert Irvine. Like most EDGE readers, Assignments Editor Zack Burgess has been known to whip up an Italian meal or two. He jumped at the opportunity to compare notes with one of America’s most engaging and innovative Italian chefs.

EDGE: What kind of town produces an Anne Burrell?

AB: I grew up in a tiny town in upstate New York. Very Beaver Cleaver-ville. Zero ethnicity, a very upper-middleclass, boring existence. I was like, “I have stuff I’ve got to do. I’ve got to get out of here.”

EDGE: Is your hair a recent thing, or does it date back to those days?

AB: I’ve always had wild hair—always, always. In high school and everything,

AB: I’ve always liked the spiky hair. What can I say? I’m a child of the 80’s.

EDGE: How did your family feel when they saw you gravitating to cooking?

AB: When I decided to cook there was no Food Network. It was before being a chef was cool. It was a strange thing, but it was the right thing for me. My mother was always very supportive. My dad was not supportive at first. He is now.

EDGE: Who was your culinary inspiration?

AB: I guess I can say I started having a culinary inspiration when I was three. I told my mother, “I have a friend named Julia.” Who? “Julia Child. I watch her every day on TV.” Over the years, I developed a love for all things Italian, so definitely Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich.

EDGE: After training at CIA, why all things Italian?

AB: The Culinary Institute of America has a very French based curriculum. I loved learning and knowing how to cook, but it was the Italian mentality of the ingredients and the simplicity of everything that just spoke to me. EDGE: When people cook Italian at home, what is the thing they tend to overlook?

AB: A lot of people think that it’s just pasta and red sauce. There’s so much more to the kitchen than that. Get a really good olive oil and cook with the best ingredients that you can afford. Also, think about seasonality. There are so many things that are in season, and those are the things that taste the best.

EDGE: EDGE readers are brilliant cooks. But just for the record, give us the five things every kitchen should have.

AB: Well, if you’re remodeling a kitchen, get a really good stove and, if you can, get a stove with gas burners. I also like an island in a kitchen. Invest in a good set of knives and a good set of pots and pans. You can buy food processors and mixers, too, but I’m really about low-tech stuff— wooden spoons and food mills and rubber spatulas.

EDGE: When you’re working with America’s Worst Cooks, what is the first thing you try to convey to them?

AB: I have a little saying: Food is like a dog. It smells fear. If you’re nervous while you’re cooking, you’re food knows it and reacts. To become a confident cook you just need to practice and do it. If you don’t know how to do something, go do some research. Read your recipe before you start and follow it. Make sure you have all your ingredients and do your prep work before you cook. Get all your onions and garlic out. Clean as you go. Have a glass of wine. Cook with your family and friends. Then the process becomes fun.

EDGE: And healthier, too.

AB: Absolutely. Cooking at home is so much better for you. Fast food, or anything that comes in a bag loaded with salt, it’s just bad for you. Cook from scratch with fresh meat and fresh vegetables. People watch my show and comment on the amount of salt that I use. But the amount salt I use is nothing compared to what you get when buy food in a bag.

EDGE: Does it irritate you when a “confident” cook is overconfident about his or her actual skill?

AB: I like it when anybody tries. So whether people are really good cooks or just think of themselves as really good cooks, it’s all good. There’s nothing bad about that.

EDGE: How does a good cook become an even better one?

AB: I know a lot of people might think it’s daunting, but that’s because they just haven’t taken the time to learn how to do it. It really isn’t that hard. Once you spend your time and focus on something, it really isn’t that hard.

EDGE: So what makes a legitimately good cook?

AB: That’s very subjective. I always say, “You’re the chef of your own kitchen. If you like what’s going on and you like what you make, then you’re a good cook.”

EDGE: Really? What about the contestants on America’s Worst Cooks?

AB: Ah, but then they’re in my kitchen. And yes, I’ve seen some pretty horrendous things on Worst Cooks.

EDGE: What was your own personal Worst Cooks moment?

AB: One of the worst things I ever did was trying to do a persimmon sauce with persimmons that were not ripe. Persimmons are one of those things that if they are not ripe then they’re just terrible. I was simmering some persimmons around in some chicken stock and they had this crazy reaction. They turned this whitewashed gray color. Of course, it was right before service was starting and I had it on the menu and it was just a disaster. It was gross. I had to change the whole menu. It was very stressful, but now I look back on it and just laugh.

Taking the Chill Out of Home Cooking

There are two kinds of home cooking. There is the home cooking that involves chopping and miles of counter space, measuring and splatter stains on the stove, heaving heavy pots and brandishing Brillo pads, finding the Microplane and losing time for a siesta. Simmering can describe the scene, from the time you issue an invitation until you pay the dry cleaner for getting red-wine stains out of grandma’s linens. This suits some folks. It suits them well. It even makes them happy. Then there is the “home” cooking that involves smart shopping. It makes you happy and allows you to retain control of your life. It’s home cooking with help. It requires little more than sourcing ingredients that ease food preparation. Whether you have a designer-showcase kitchen or little more than a galley, smart shopping is the means to a delicious end—particularly when you have neither the time nor inclination for the whole-nine-yards process. Exhale. This is fine. This is permissible. This is also fun. I know because I recently enjoyed mining a number of Union County’s best specialty food shops with an eye toward short-cutting the dinner party process. I bought a bounty of food—from raw ingredients to partially prepared options to ready-to-eat dishes—and saw what I could do with them. While I was shopping, I also picked up tips from fellow foragers who told me about a couple of restaurants they’d used as sources for takeout…and turned that takeout into smashingly successful dinner parties. A bounty, indeed. So, come shop with me. I’m sure when you step inside each of these six shops (and the two recommended restaurants), ideas will bubble to the top.

Alan’s Orchard • Westfield The new center of the locavore movement in these parts, Alan’s Orchards opened in September. It is owner Alan Weinberg’s intent to sell food—from poussin and grass-fed beef to in-season vegetables and cheese—all produced within a 150-mile radius. Enter the tidy and inspiring 1,000-square-foot shop and you’ll see that New Jersey’s got it going when it comes to quality ingredients. Pick a Griggstown Quail Farm’s chicken pot pie and rely on that as the centerpiece for a supper with friends. Snag a couple of cheeses from Valley Shepherd Creamery, just outside Long Valley, and partner them with Baker’s Bounty breads (typically found at New York’s famed Union Square Greenmarket) for starters. Buy whatever in-season fruits Alan has in store and make a warm compote drizzled with a local honey. Or choose a ready-made fruit pie and serve it with the frozen yogurt sold here. If you’re more ambitious, roast one of Griggstown’s chickens or poussins or break out the grill for a loin of pork from the High Hope Farms division of Ted Blew’s Oak Grove Farm in Pittstown. Alan’s happy to direct folks in need of certain seasonings and condiments to the Trader Joe’s in town. Two-stop shopping isn’t bad at all. But thanks to the high quality of the ingredients, you’ll need to do very, very little to make a big impression on your guests.

Union Pork Store • Union The sausage capital of the East Coast is owned and operated by Jabi. Jabi (as Jabi himself will tell you) is “a stage name, like Cher or Madonna.” No surname necessary. But no performer makes spicy mango chicken sausage or lamb-blue cheeserosemary sausage like Jabi and his crew. Jabi simply can’t stop creating. “We make at least one new sausage a week,” Jabi says as he packs up spicy Buffalo chicken sausages that deserve to be on Super Bowl watching menus everywhere, and ginger-chili bratwurst that takes the concept of fusion in new directions. My thoughts fly as I consider the more than 100 types of wursts, 20 kinds of kielbasa and tubs of prepared foods. Stuffed cabbage? Herring salad with beets? Time with Jabi is not for the faint of decision-making. Don’t leave without his spicy turkey sausages with chipotle and prunes. Cooked with cut-up root vegetables and diced tomatoes, they make for a dazzling Moroccan tagine, an exotic stew that can be served over rice, couscous or noodles. The myriad sausages also can be served simply in hot dog buns or hard rolls topped by a quick sauté of peppers and onions. A schmear of mustard is nice. But of the eight types I sampled, I have to say a Jabi creation needs no embellishment to be the star at your dinner.

The Greek Store • Kenilworth Since 1950, the Diamandas family has served forth at this small, crammed-full shop on Boulevard in Kenilworth. They’re one of the original ethnic grocers in the area, and they can take credit for introducing the masses to the delights of moussaka. Rifle through the freezers of local residents and you’ll find the Diamandases’ Greek meatballs waiting for that night when nothing else but a tangle of linguine topped with a few of those oregano-scented meat poufs will do. You also may find phyllo pies filled with spinach and cheese (aka spanokopita) and wedges of pastitsio, a lasagne-like casserole rich with eggy-creamy goodness. Don’t hesitate. Score some of these heat-and-eat entrees for tonight or for your next soirée. Then go to town with selections from The Greek Store’s olive bar and refrigerator case. Here all manner of dips in half-pound or full-pound sizes are sold. There are a good 30 different types of olives at the bar. There is no better way to launch a dinner party than by setting out a selection of Greek olives: Amfissa, the large and soft purplish-black variety from Delphi; Ionian, brine-cured green olives from the Peloponnesos; the traditional Kalamates, the fleshy favorite from Kalamata; Thassos, the oil-cured, dry type from the Aegean island of the same name. Partner these with one of the half-dozen varieties of feta, and lay all out with a spirited dip and pita chips. My personal favorite dip is the taramasalata, a decadent spread of fish roe and olive oil jazzed with nibs of shallots and herbs and a squeeze of lemon. Keep for yourself: a tub of tzatziki, the part-sauce, part-salad classic of sliced cucumbers rolling in thick Greek yogurt laced with mint and garlic. It’s restorative the morning after.

Mr. J’s Deli • Cranford Mr. J’s defines the concept of corner deli—corner deli with really, really good food, that is. Owned by Cranford native John Taggart, Mr. J’s is the breakfast-lunch hot spot locals pop into for pancakes or cold-cut sandwiches, but also know as their savior for to-go meals. Here you get your chicken parms, your sausage-and-peppers, your francaises, barbecued birds and pans of baked ziti and lasagna. It’s where traditional reigns—and those who only wish they had time to cook for their kid’s First Communion or the folks’ 50th anniversary go for a personal bail-out. Sure, there’s a sizable sit-down space, and many do partake daily of the corner deli’s in-store hospitality. But what you need to know when you’re in a pinch for party-ready takeout is the name of Mr. J’s signature dish: Sloppy Joe. There are almost as many Sloppy Joes out there as there are fellows named Joe. But these piled-high sandwiches, here cut into quarters for easy at-home serving, are superior. Turkey and Swiss are layered with a snappy Russian dressing and extra-rich cole slaw on rye. There are combos renowned for their compatibility: chocolate and hazelnut, for instance, or smoked salmon and cream cheese. But turkey, Swiss, Russian and a phenomenal homemade cole slaw is sandwich nirvana. This winter, when you’re suffering from terminal envy of those vacationing on a sunny Caribbean island, lay out a spread of Mr. J’s Sloppy Joes with a side show of sausages doing a do-si-do with peppers. Home, sweet home.

Pinho’s Bakery • Roselle Raul and Julia Pinho first landed in Newark’s Ironbound, then bounded down to Roselle to open the muchneeded Portuguese bakery that locals quickly made a regular pit-stop. Pinho’s doesn’t stint on anything, especially variety. There are fist-size rolls and there are divine, pillowy Portuguese babkas, a slightly sweetened bread that suits for breakfast as well as it partners with a rousing Mediterranean-inspired stew for dinner. There are pastries ranging from Rococo to Spartan in style. Meaning, you can get what you need as accompaniments to your dinner at home without fussing over flour, water, butter and sugar. Just don’t forget to tote home Pinho’s specialty: nata, or custard cups. The little round eggy creations fly out of the store. But the Pinho’s crew makes them constantly. For good reason.

 

Bovella’s • Westfield Bovella’s has been around since 1949, when it was born in Plainfield as the sweet dream of Michael Bove. Some 36 years ago, Bove moved his pastry shop to Westfield, eventually passing its proprietorship onto family and co-workers. Today it’s owned by Ralph Bencivenga, who can’t remember not working at Bovella’s. That’s a little history. For residents of Union County, Bovella’s is their pastry past, present and future. For some, there are no birthdays without a Bovella cake. No Christmas Eves without a Bovella cannoli. No Easters without a Bovella chocolate-fudge cake.  I may not be able to imagine life without a Bovella chocolate  mousse bombe. I thought the cannolis and cannoli cake exemplary, the mini fudge balls addictive, the basic raisin scones and blueberry muffins fine ways to start the day. But that bombe — partnering a chocolate cookie of a cake and a spiraling mass of chocolate mousse—is one blast of a confection.

 

Star of India • Kenilworth Cozy and softly lit, this Indian restaurant is worth your time for a sitdown feast. But I was putting on an Indian-cuisine home show for friends as, well, a lip-syncher might. So I ordered, had it packed to-go, then served it all up without breaking a sweat. I started things off with a handful of crisp, pert cheese fritters (paneer, or panir, pakora) and a spirited little stew of chickpeas and potatoes called aloo chola. Americans don’t pair chickpeas and potatoes nearly enough, I thought as I ate. Next, shrimp slow-cooked in a warmly spiced coconut-milk bath (shrimp nirgisi) and chicken in the gentlest yogurtbased sauce infused with tomatoes and onions (chicken pishwari). A winning twosome, any night of the week. Cooks in India have a mastery of eggplant—never, ever pigeon-holing the vegetable. Need evidence? Try Star of India’s Punjabi-style eggplant (baingan bhurta) cooked in a tandoor oven with tomatoes, peas, onions and a judicious amount of fresh ginger. Don’t forget to include the crown jewel of this restaurant’s biryani selection, saffron-scented rice studded with chunks of chicken, lamb and shrimp. Paella of another stripe. I was struck by how easily the food here transported and reheated. It was a smash hit dinner for six.

 

Thailand Restaurant • Clark Set in an old diner in Clark, Thailand Restaurant has fired up local palates for years. As I waited for takeout, regulars told me it’s the one Thai spot they can count on for authentic fare. “They don’t dumb it down here,” said a gent presiding over a table of eight. “It’s not sweet-sour Thai. The spices are more evolved.” He was right, I learned, when I took a passel of soups, salads and a grand rice noodle dish to the home of friends who live nearby. Gulf of Siam is a hot-and-sour soup in which chilies and lemongrass warm both shellfish and finfish and mushrooms and tomatoes offer a calming backdrop. The  seasonings don’t fight with the fishes; they complement. In the coconut milk-based soup tom-kha gai, chunks of chicken laze about the surprisingly light broth amid riffs of lemongrass and kaffir lime. In tom yum puk, a feisty little soup chunked with Asian vegetables and tofu, the lemongrass-lime component comes on stronger. As it should. We swooned over the Grand Palace Salad, a veritable party of grilled beef plied with onions and smacked with chilies and lime. There was no letdown with the nato-sad salad, a rather unusual toss of ginger-licked ground pork enlivened by onions and made elegant by the addition of cashews. I’m an easy mark for rice noodle dishes and my new favorite is Thailand Restaurant’s pad kee mna puk, a melange of those silky noodles, crispy fried tofu, egg, Thai basil and shards of vegetables. Sigh. I’ve got to learn to cook like this.

Editor’s Note: Andy Clurfield is a former editor of Zagat New Jersey. The longtime food critic for the Asbury Park Press also has been published in Gourmet, Saveur and Town & Country, and on epicurious.com.

 More remarkable stuff has happened here per square mile than in any other state in the nation. These are the cold, hard facts.

 Where would the planet be without New Jersey? Resist, if you can, the urge to crack wise and consider seriously for a moment the gravity of this question. Yes, we have given the world an occasional glimpse of our seamier underside. A submerged mobster may resurface from time to time in the Hackensack River. Occasionally a few civic leaders might get mixed up in some organ theft. And, okay, far too many of our youth are comfortable using the word “allegedly.” However, these are all mere jug handles on the road to greatness that our state has traveled. In these pages, EDGE celebrates the remarkable people, places and things that make New Jersey the hottest thing going.

SINGERS

New Jersey’s coolest “crooners”…

1. Frank Sinatra (Hoboken) Never recorded Newark, Newark. Why?

2. Dionne Warwick (East Orange) Her collaboration with Burt Bacharach made music history.

3. Paul Robeson (Princeton) Magnificent bass-baritone and stage actor, his three-year run as Othello in the 1940s still holds the Broadway record for any Shakespeare play.

4. Frankie Valli (Newark) Just too good to be true. He made Jersey Boys as famous as Jersey Girls.

5. Connie Francis (Newark) Where the Boys Are star grew up in the Ironbound neighborhood. Honorable Mention: Donald Fagen (Passaic) Depends on whether or not you like Steely Dan.

SWINGERS

New Jersey’s coolest jazz artists…

1. Count Basie (Red Bank) Led his own groundbreaking band for 50 years.

2. Sarah Vaughn (Newark) Her PBS performance with the NJ Symphony in 1980 ranks among the greatest TV moments in jazz history.

3. Dizzy Gillespie (Englewood) Those cheeks…spectacular!

4. Jimmy Johnson (New Brunswick) Gifted pianist helped transform Ragtime into early jazz.

5. Wayne Shorter (Newark) Saxophone virtuoso was a Newark Arts High School grad.

Honorable Mention: George Benson (Englewood Cliffs) Legendary jazz guitarist is a long-time Bergen County resident.

BLINGERS

New Jersey’s coolest rap and hip-hop stars…

1. Queen Latifah (Newark) Just celebrated her 20th year in the biz.

2. Lauryn Hill (South Orange) She and Zach Braff were friends and classmates at Columbia High in Maplewood.

3. Ice T (Newark) From Gansta Rap pioneer to TV cop on Law & Order SVU. Only in America.

4. Poor Righteous Teachers (Trenton) Who could forget this socially conscious hip-hop trio’s haunting single, Butt Naked Booty Bless?

5. Faith Evans (Newark) Wife of the late Notorious B.I.G. has three platinum albums to her credit.

Honorable Mention: Naughty By Nature (East Orange) Renamed East Orange “Ill-town.” But you knew that already, didn’t you?

CA-CHINGERS

New Jersey’s coolest music superstars…

1. Bruce Springsteen (Freehold) The Boss. Top of the list. Period.

2. Whitney Houston (East Orange) First wowed the world as a teen soloist at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark.

3. Jon Bon Jovi (Sayreville) The hits keep coming.

4. Southside Johnny (Ocean Grove) The hippest thing ever to come out of Ocean Grove.

5. Les Paul and Mary Ford (Mahwah) Their Bergen County home studio turned out a bunch of #1 hits in the early ’50s.

Honorable Mention: Paul Simon (Newark) Moved to Queens when he was a baby, so not a “real” New Jerseyan. No truth to the rumor that Bridge Over Troubled Waters was actually the Goethals Bridge.

STAR FACES

New Jersey’s coolest acting talent…

1. Meryl Streep (Summit) A Bernards High School grad!

2. Jack Nicholson (Neptune City) You make me want to be a better man.

3. Ed Harris (Tenafly) Captain of the Tenafly High football team.

4. Tom Cruise (Glen Ridge) Cut from the Glen Ridge High football team.

5. Bruce Willis (Penns Grove) We forgive you for Hudson Hawk. Actually, no we don’t.

Honorable Mention: Frank Langella (Bayonne) He brought Dracula to life on Broadway.

SCARFACES

New Jersey’s coolest mobbed-up television and movie stars…

1. James Gandolfini (Westwood) Raised in Park Ridge,

graduated from Rutgers— a bona fide Jersey Boy.

2. Ray Liotta (Union) You’re a pistol, you’re really funny.

3. Joe Pesci (Newark) I’m funny how? I mean funny like I’m a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I’m here to amuse you? What do you mean funny? Funny how? How am I funny?

4. Steven Van Zandt (Middletown) A member of the E Street Band and The Sopranos… that’s a Jersey Double.

5. Joe Pantoliano (Hoboken) Joey Pants, yet another Sopranos alum.

Honorable Mention: Sterling Hayden (Upper Montclair) Film Noir heavy played the police captain gunned down by Michael Corleone in The Godfather.

WRITERS

New Jersey’s coolest authors and poets…

1. Allen Ginsberg (Paterson) The best of the Beat Generation poets.

2. Dorothy Parker (Long Branch) A leading light of the fabled Algonquin Roundtable.

3. Norman Mailer (Long Branch) The Naked and the Dead was on the best-seller list for 62 weeks.

4. Philip Roth (Newark) Several of his novels are set in Newark’s old Weequahic neighborhood.

5. William Carlos Williams (Rutherford) Haven’t read the epic poem Paterson? And you call yourself a New Jerseyan!

Honorable Mention: Walt Whitman (Camden) His New Jersey retirement cottage was the epicenter of American literary culture in the late 1880s.

DELIGHTERS

New Jersey’s coolest comic performers…

1. Jon Stewart (Lawrenceville) Reminds us each night that the news is an inexhaustible source of laughs.

2. Danny DeVito (Neptune) Grew up in Asbury Park, went to boarding school (Louie DePalma—a preppie?) in Summit.

3. Bud Abbott (Asbury Park) and Lou Costello (Paterson) Heyyyyy Aaaabbottttt!

4. Nathan Lane (Jersey City) Born Joe Lane, he changed his name to Nathan in honor of Nathan Detroit of Guys and Dolls.

5. Ernie Kovacs (Trenton) Only a guy from New Jersey could have come up with a three gorilla version of Swan Lake.

Honorable Mention: Jerry Lewis (Newark) Ranks higher on French lists.

FIGHTERS

New Jersey’s coolest pugilists…

1. Joe Walcott (Merchantville) Won the heavyweight crown at age 37. Anyone nicknamed Jersey Joe goes to the top of the list, right?

2. Marvin Hagler (Newark) Marvelous Marvin was undisputed champion for almost eight years.

3. James Braddock (North Bergen) Played by Russell Crowe on the screen, the Cinderella Man was born in New York but fought out of Hudson County.

4. Mickey Walker (Elizabeth) A beloved champion, the middleweight often beat heavier boxers.

5. Tony Galento (Orange) Two-Ton Tony once knocked down Joe Louis in a title fight. He also wrestled a bear and an octopus, and acted in Guys and Dolls and On the Waterfront.

Honorable Mention: Hurricane Carter   

MOVERS

New Jersey’s coolest political figures…

1. Grover Cleveland (Caldwell) Our 24th President, and the only one from the Garden State.

2. Aaron Burr (Newark) Killed Alexander Hamilton and tried to start his own county. Those nutty Princeton grads!

3. Frank Hague (Jersey City) For 30 years, no one in the state sneezed without his permission.

4. Thomas Kean (Hillside) 9/11 Commissioner set the bar high for NJ governors.

5. William Brennan (Newark) Progressive Supreme Court Justice was best known for his “absence of malice” stand.

Honorable Mention: Chris Christie (Newark) Um…we’re still waiting for that groundbreaking EDGE interview.

SHAKERS

New Jersey’s coolest cultural pioneers…

1. Alice Paul (Mt. Laurel) Took the fight for suffrage to unprecedented heights and won wo

men the right to vote in 1918.

2. Buzz Aldrin (Glen Ridge) His mom’s maiden name was—you guessed it—Moon.

3. Bull Halsey (Elizabeth) Guided the USS Enterprise through key battles in World War II.

4. James Marshall (Hopewell Twp.) The original Blingmeister—first to discover gold in California.

5. Alfred Kinsey (Hoboken) Known as the Father of Sexology….wait, I thought that was Barry White.

Honorable Mention: Martha Stewart (Nutley) Thanks to her, we all can be perfect.

STAR-MAKERS

New Jersey’s coolest coaches…

1. Amos Alonzo Stagg (West Orange) A member of the very first All-America team in 1889, he went on to rewrite the playbook for college football.

2. Vince Lombardi (Englewood) Began his legendary coaching career at St. Cecilia’s in Bergen County. More importantly, has a rest stop named after him on the NJ Turnpike.

3. Bill Parcells (Hasbrouck Heights) The Big Tuna was born and raised in Bergen County.

4. Bob Hurley, Sr. (Jersey City) 900-plus victories, 20-plus championships and the coach behind the Miracle of St. Anthony’s.

5. Gene Wettstone (West New York) Gymnastics guru coached Penn State to nine national championships between 1948 and 1976.

Honorable Mention: Effa Manley (Newark) Co-owned (but never coached) the Newark Eagles in the 1930s and 1940s, she was the first woman enshrined in the Baseball

CHANCE-TAKERS

New Jersey’s coolest sports leaders…

1. Carl Lewis (Willingboro) Won Olympic gold in ’84, ‘88, ‘92 and ‘96. Top that Michael Phelps.

2. Marty Liquori (Cedar Grove) Marty ran a sub-4:00 mile… in high school!

3. Rick Barry (Roselle Park) Last of the underhand free throw shooters.

4. Larry Doby (Paterson) He and Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color line in 1947.

5. Franco Harris (Mt. Holly) Steelers’ star was John Grisham’s favorite football player.

Honorable Mention: Derek Jeter (Pequannock Twp.) and Shaquille O’Neal (Newark) Both were born in Jersey but grew up elsewhere, so it’s a tie.

EARTH–QUAKERS

New Jersey’s coolest sporting events…

1. Princeton vs. Rutgers (New Brunswick 1869) The first intercollegiate football game. The first tailgaters convened three hours before kickoff.

2. Cosmos vs. Santos (East Rutherford 1977) In his farewell game in jam-packed Giants Stadium, Pele scored in the first half for the Cosmos, then switched sides and scored for his old Brazilian team in the second half. His fame helped America land World Cup 94.

3. Jersey City Giants vs. Montreal Royals (Jersey City 1946) In his first game as a pro, Jackie Robinson electrified the crowd at Roosevelt Stadium with four hits and four runs in Montreal’s 14–1 victory.

4. Ederle Sets Record (Sandy Hook 1925) Gertrude Ederle set a record for the 21-mile swim that stood for more than 80 years. A year later she stroked her way across the English Channel.

5. Knickerbocker Club vs. New York Club (Hoboken 1846) The famous

“first” baseball game took place at the Elysian Field. Shhh…rumor has it that baseball was being played for 20 years before this in New York City.

Honorable Mention: Let Pepe Play! (Trenton 1974) Two years after Little League Baseball banned Hoboken’s Maria Pepe from playing with the boys, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in her favor. Today 50,000 girls play Little League baseball!

DRIVEABLE

New Jersey’s coolest roadways…

1. Boulevard East (Weehawken) New Yorkers pay through the nose for their Hudson River apartments, but the million-dollar view is really from the Jersey side in Northern Hudson County.

2. Green Sergeant’s Bridge (Sergeantsville) Beloved covered bridge. Scheduled to be replaced in 1960, it was rebuilt after public outcry from the people of Sergeantsville and their neighbors.

3. George Washington Bridge Iconic structure drops to #3 here because half of it is in New York.

4. Pulaski Skyway This engineering marvel gained national historic status in 2005.

5. Oceanic Bridge (Rumson & Middletown) Spanning Monmouth County’s Navesink River, it’s considered by many to be the most beautiful bridge in the state.

Honorable Mention: Bayonne Bridge One of the longest and loveliest steel arch bridges in the world.

ARRIVE–ABLE

New Jersey’s coolest tourist destinations…

1. Statue of Liberty As of 1987, Liberty Island is officially ours!

2. Atlantic City Boardwalk The longest boardwalk in the world…. but sadly, no longer home to the Miss America Pageant.

3. Jersey Shore From Sandy Hook south, more than 120 miles of beautiful beaches.

4. Cape May New Jersey’s #1 tourist destination.

5. Twin Lights The Highlands landmark was America’s launch pad for optics, wireless communications and radar technology.

Honorable Mention: Ellis Island Among the immigrants who came through this gateway were Bob Hope, Bela Lugosi, Charles Atlas and Chef Boyardee.

SOUND IDEAS

Coolest New Jersey inventions…

1. Light Bulb (Edison) Edison was actually known as Raritan Township at the time.

2. Movie Camera (Edison) Menlo Park Mall is good. Menlo Park Museum is better.

3. Phonograph (Edison) Another Edison invention. Noticing a pattern here?

4. Transistor (New Providence) A little power in, a lot of power out. The first working one came out of Bell Labs in 1947.

5. Charge-Coupled Device (Holmdel) Another miracle from Bell Labs, circa 1969. The CCD is the key component in optical devices ranging from the Hubble Telescope to the camera in your cell phone.

Honorable Mention: Electric Chair (Edison) and Jughandle (Montville) A tie—quick death vs. slow one.

FOUND IDEAS

Coolest New Jersey discoveries…

1. Radio (Highlands) Marconi proved the commercial viability of wireless communication here in 1899.

2. The Big Bang (Holmdel) Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias proved this controversial theory with their experiments in cosmic background radiation at Bell Labs in 1964.

3. Dinosaurs (Haddonfield) The 1858 discovery of the aptly named Hadrosaur in a New Jersey marl pit launched American paleontology.

4. Antibiotics (Piscataway) Rutgers-educated Nobel Prize winner Selman Waksman developed (and named) these disease-fighting drugs in the 1940s.

5. Zincite (Franklin) Rare zinc oxide crystals, abundant only in New Jersey, were the “crystals” used in the first radio Crystal Sets before the advent of vacuum tubes.

Honorable Mention: Valium (Nutley) Making it all better since 1963. Thank you, Hoffmann–La Roche.

FULL BLOWN

New Jersey’s coolest headlines…

1. Hindenburg Disaster (Lakehurst 1937) Definitely not a miracle of German engineering.

2. Lindbergh Kidnapping (East Amwell 1932) H.L. Mencken called the abduction of the hero aviator’s son the “biggest story since the Resurrection.”

3. Martian Landing (Grover’s Mill 1938) Orson Welles’s Halloween prank proved the power of radio.

4. President Garfield Dies (Elberon 1881) He moved to the Jersey Shore two months after an assassination attempt and died 13 days later.

5. Black Tom Blast (Jersey City 1916) World War I sabotage in New York Harbor riddled the Statue of Liberty and shook windows all the way to Philadelphia.

Honorable Mention: Washington Crosses the Delaware (Titusville 1776) No actual headlines, but too important to leave out.

HOME GROWN

New Jersey’s coolest edibles…

1. Jersey Tomatoes Technically a fruit… which is probably why it’s New Jersey’s official state vegetable.

2. Jersey White Corn Sweet and tender. Hey, no stripping the corn in the store!

3. Salt Water Taffy Your dentist has just ordered new furniture for his living room.

4. Jersey Blueberries Once thought to be poisonous, today’s blueberries are the result of early genetic engineering.

5. Jersey Eggplant We grow more than any state in the nation. Can you say rollatini?

Honorable Mention: Taylor Pork Roll Introduced by John Taylor of Trenton. Unchanged since the 1850s. Why mess with…urp…perfection?

GLOBALLY KNOWN

New Jersey’s coolest cultural “firsts”…

1. Air Mail The first Air Mail service went via sea plane from Keyport to Chicago in the 1920s.

2. Diners The first gleaming pre-fab diners were made in Elizabeth during World War I.

3. Drive-In Movies The world’s first opened for business in Pennsauken in 1933.

4. Lazy Susan Keyport again! The first was produced by William Beadle in 1854.

5. Campbell’s Soup The Camden company was an international brand more than a half-century before Andy Warhol turned its cans into pop art. Now sold in 120 countries.

Honorable Mention: MTV’s Jersey Shore Proving you don’t have to be good to be cool.

 

PLEASE DON’T GROAN

Some final cool things about New Jersey that the world has yet to fully appreciate…

1. No Self-Serve Gas If I had the choice, I’d never fill ’er up in another state.

2. Pledge of Allegiance First recited as the National Loyalty Oath at the Twin Lights in Highlands in 1893.

3. The Pine Barrens A UN International Biosphere Reserve and home of the Jersey Devil. What’s not to like?

4. Omission of T’s in the middle of words Mitten, Kitten, Bitten.

5. Omission of R’s at the end of words …Ovuh, Rovuh, Clovuh.

Honorable Mention: Kelly Ripa Liked her on All My Children. Love her on Live with Regis.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to Christine Gibbs, Rachel Rutledge, Mariah Morgan, Caleb MacLean and Lily Kennedy for their work on this feature. Special thanks to the Twin Light Historical Society (twin-lights.org). Memorabilia images courtesy of Upper Case Editorial Services.