The easiest way to separate pomegranate seeds from the surrounding bitter white membrane is to cut the grenade in half, turn it upside down over a bowl and beat the mound with a wooden spoon. The seeds will fall into the bowl. In Greece they're eaten like snacks in the hand together with fresh walnuts at the milky stage before they have dried - a wonderful combination. Contemporary chefs have caught up with pomegranate juice, using a little of the sweet-sour liquid to deglaze a pan. It's been used by Middle Eastern cooks for centuries as a meat tenderizer and marinade for lamb. It is sold here in bottles in most Middle Eastern groceries. A sprinkling of rose water, from Middle Eastern groceries, adds an intriguing scented flavor to a dish of strawberries, a fruit salad, home-made vanilla ice cream and sponge cake frosting.

The resume of Michael Santoro, new chef de cuisine at The Blue Duck Tavern, reads like a guide to good restaurants around the world. In England he’s worked at Heston Blumental's The Fat Duck and with bad-boy-but brilliant Tom Aiken, as well as Fergus Henderson. He’s been through the kitchens of the one-star Mugaritz Restaurant near San Sebastian, Spain. He’s worked at Mill’s Tavern in Providence, RI. He’s served as sous chef at the Michelin one-star Restaurant Gilt in New York. And before joining The Blue Duck Tavern he was chef de cuisine at Boqueria, a popular Spanish restaurant in Manhattan.