The Chopping Block Cooking & Wine Blog

Ben W

Ben is a Chef Instructor at The Chopping Block. He is originally from Wales in the United Kingdom. After 14 years working in European restaurants, he married a Chicago girl and moved to the city. He loves it here and has never looked back.

The Flat-Pack-Taco-Stack, Freeze-n-Broil Technique

When I cook at home, I want to make my life as easy as possible. On my days off, I tend to prepare things in bulk, and freeze them in Ziploc bags. I arrange the bags so they are as thin and square ...

Killer Kebabs on a Homemade Hibachi

When I moved to Chicago last summer, I found myself for the first time in my life with a lovely big back porch. I quickly developed an insatiable urge to grill meats, but had no grill to grill them ...

A 'Special Occasion' Shrimp Wonton Soup

Making any kind of dumpling is always a special occasion for me. You should always make dumplings for your loved ones, because that little bit of extra effort just shows that you love them and they ...

A Quick and Easy Chicken Terrine

The thing I really love about cooking, and specifically charcuterie, is taking humble ingredients, and turning them into something special. A terrine is the perfect example of this idea. Today we are ...

Great Eggspectations: Making Scotch Eggs from Scratch

As a recent arrival from the good old United Kingdom (Wales to be precise), there are many things I love about Chicago, and a few that I miss about home (pubs, hills and valleys, and the Metric ...

Fight for your right to Pâté

Chicken Liver Parfait. The finest, smoothest and richest pâté known to man. People love ordering it at high end restaurants, but no one wants to make it at home. Up until recently, I wouldn’t want to ...

Hooray for Purée

Garlic, ginger, chillies and herbs are some of my very favorite things! I like to use them liberally, and often. I want them to be near me at all times, with the minimum effort on my part.

Sous-Vide Steak in your Kitchen Sink

There are many ways to cook a steak, but this one is my favorite. By combining a little modern thinking (i.e. sous vide) with the ancient power of cast iron, we can achieve world-class results with ...

Homemade Ice Cream… in a Vitamix?

We all know the Vitamix blender makes the best frozen cocktails, and it was one night, after a stellar round of Pina Coladas, I was inspired to make a pineapple sorbet with leftover frozen pineapple ...

Recipes	Ingredients
Cooking Techniques	Cookbooks & Tools
Food News	Local Spots
Travel	Wine
Vegetarian	Gluten-Free
Kids	Baking & Pastry
Boot Camp	Retail

Ben W

Recent Posts

The Flat-Pack-Taco-Stack, Freeze-n-Broil Technique

Killer Kebabs on a Homemade Hibachi

A 'Special Occasion' Shrimp Wonton Soup

A Quick and Easy Chicken Terrine

Great Eggspectations: Making Scotch Eggs from Scratch

Fight for your right to Pâté

Hooray for Purée

Sous-Vide Steak in your Kitchen Sink

Homemade Ice Cream… in a Vitamix?

Subscribe to Email Updates

Location

Awards

Recommended on

The Chopping Block accepts