I had a great weekend of watching food television. "Wisconsin Foodie" featured a segment on one of my favorite things to cook with: truffles! They showcased a specialty dinner where the main ingredient was celebrating fresh imported white and black truffles.

For many years as the chef de cuisine of Dream Dance we would raise funds for Miracle on Canal Street with truffle dinners, and the proceeds would benefit local children organizations. The dinners were quite the event; we got to handle an ingredient that most chefs never get their hands on. And the only way we could justify this indulgence was the children it helped.

I tell you it was intoxicating, every year when we cracked open that case the entire restaurant smelled of that perfume. We would handle them with care, gently brushing off any excess dirt and immediately storing them in mason jars with rice and even fresh eggs – the eggs and rice would be infused with flavor. Also the rice would keep the proper level of humidity.

At one of our annual dinners at Dream Dance we served almost two pounds of shaved white truffles over the course of the night. The first course we served was a poached duck egg with a parmesan truffle broth. The next course was a day boat scallop with trofie pasta and chiffonade white truffles. We then featured a sous-vide strauss veal breast with root vegetables and truffle potato puree; this being the entree course we proceeded to shave more truffles tableside.

We finished with one of Wisconsin's award-winning cheeses: Pleasant Ridge Reserve with Awe's organic honey that we infused with white truffles ourselves.

I have to tell you that this ingredient is humbling. I can't tell you how much money was spent on these truffles but if you missed last night's episode of "60 Minutes" it will give you a great background and idea on the value of this prized tuber.

"60 Minutes" featured Olga Urbani from the Urbani family, which has been a prestigious and respected…

This past year one of the big trends was do-it-yourself soda. Sound like fun? Well it is, and if you're not careful it can be messy fun.

I set out to create the most popular soda you might find; a version of a homemade Coca-Cola.

There are a couple of kits and carbonators on the market that are relatively affordable. William Sonoma sells the iSi's Twist 'n Sparkle for $49.95, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond sells the SodaStream Pure Soda Maker for $130.

Most kits on the market offer an option to use their version of syrup that you mix with carbonated water – pretty easy. Well, I skipped that part and made the syrup all from scratch using all-natural ingredients – no food coloring, no fructose corn syrup or preservatives. Not an easy task.

First you have to procure the ingredients. You can read the back of the label, but that doesn't give you the recipe. So I turned to the internet to hunt down some kind of starting point.

This recipe was like putting together a puzzle with missing pieces and only your taste buds to guide. I learned most soft drinks require citric acid to some degree, a water-soluble powder having a strong acidic taste, obtained by fermentation of crude sugar or corn sugar. Thankfully, I didn't have to do that part; you can find citric acid pretty easily – The Spice House carries it and it's not expensive.

Another ingredient hurdle was cassia oil; this is supposedly the secret ingredient to Coca-Cola. This Vietnamese cinnamon oil usually is used for aromatherapy. This hard-to-find ingredient is essential for flavoring and is very intense. You can find this at most health food stores.

I found in Coca-Cola they use lemon oil, orange oil, citric acid, cassia oil, vanilla (I used fresh bean paste), caffeine (which I chose to omit, but crushed NoDoz can be used) and carbonated water. I recommend finding the oils; extracts lack the potency.

One of the challenges about recreating the cola syrup was the color. I attempted to create the right flavor b…

So I have been pretty busy reading, thinking and talking about food a lot these days.

My focus has been bringing Tim Dixon's culinary vision to life for his future developments – sorry, no more details than that for now. But, one can't help but think to the future for myself and what's next?

I think about Milwaukee often and when discussing with chef friends we talk about the culinary landscape and what we think it should/could look like.

What kind of experience do guests want? What do diners look for in a restaurant? When it comes to food is it cutting edge/molecular? Regional? Sustainable? Affordable? Gourmet grub? International?

Certainly the economy has effected how we dine, but any chef worth his or her salt will tell you it doesn't matter what you cook it's how you do it.

Growing up through restaurants over the years you learn it's quite common most chefs aspire some day to open their own restaurant. The thought has crossed my mind more than once and so Milwaukee give me some feedback – what's next?

It probably seems unlikely I would write about something other than food, but another love of mine is music.

On weekends during my short time in college I was fortunate enough to have my best friend, Milwaukee native Kurt Meister, bring me in on his weekend radio show to co-host with him.

It was a great experience we had no format and it was a small technical school with few restrictions. We chose our own format and on Sunday afternoons we played "alternative" music long before the term was invented, a college music show affectionately named after an R.E.M. song – The Bandwagon. The best part about it was we discovered music before it hit the airwaves. The station was littered with promotional albums everywhere.

One band that Kurt and I discovered were from Manchester, England – The Stone Roses. They were unlike anything we were familiar with. They sang melodies and were incredibly talented musicians. They didn't pass off shoddy musicianship as "art."

Their sound was heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix, with melodies and harmonies reminiscent of something from the '60s. Their music had soul and rhythm, things you weren't hearing on the radio. They were a rock band in the true sense with a charismatic lead singer channeling the German '70s band Can, they had drum solos, 10-minute jam sessions, maracas and bell bottoms (I know what you are thinking but, they made the pants work and no, I never owned a pair).

With a splash of arrogance they reaffirmed the belief that rock and roll was not dead. One of their most popular tracks – "Fool's Gold" – hints that they were on to something truly genius.

They had a style all their own. Lead guitarist John Squire was also an amateur painter and was pretty enamored with Jackson Pollock. Not only did Squire paint all their album and single covers, he splatter painted, Pollock-style, all their instruments.

However, The Stone Roses only released two albums before inner turmoil and long legal b…