NORWALK, Conn., September 8, 2008 – Practically anyone can follow a recipe, but learning chefs’ secret tips and time-saving tricks can be the difference between serving roast chicken or coq au vin. For all those times you wish you had a chef in your kitchen, now you can. Well, at least virtually.

"Stew's Chef Shorts" is a monthly five to six minute webcast featuring Stew Leonard's chefs, focusing on top-selling seasonal foods and customers' favorite dishes from the stores' Winning Recipes cookbook. The chefs share their tips for buying ingredients as well as their trade secrets and shortcuts, such as how to prevent butter from burning in the pan, prepping fresh herbs or making a pastry bag in a pinch. The webcasts are meant to broaden culinary skills, save time in the kitchen and make cooking even more fun.

"More than just a recipe demonstration, the value in watching these videos is in learning the chefs' tips and time savers they use in their cooking," said Stew Leonard, Jr. "I always wondered why I could never replicate Chef George's signature beef tenderloin sauce. After watching the holiday "Stew's Chef Shorts' episode, I now know his secret (psst – it's in the beef stock and Port.)"

The series launches this September with Chef Chaz Fable offering an easy and versatile dish for using leftover corn on the cob. In October, Chef George Llorens shares a simple pomodoro sauce bursting with the flavor of farm-fresh tomatoes and basil. November's webcast showcases an entire Thanksgiving menu with tasty turkey tips, and in December even the novice cook will be able to wow friends and family with a sophisticated holiday meal featuring beef tenderloin.

"Stew's Chef Shorts" is available on Stew Leonard's website, http://stewleonards.com/html/08chefshorts.cfm, and YouTube (www.youtube.com.) Customer feedback and suggestions on "Chef Shorts" can be submitted by going to http://www.stewleonards.com/html/suggest_box.cfm.

About our Chefs:
George Llorens has been the Executive Chef at Stew Leonard's Norwalk store for 15 years and oversees the freshly prepared gourmet foods and catering departments. George was born in a resort town just south of Barcelona, and moved to Paris for his formal culinary training. His style of cooking today still reflects these Mediterranean and French influences, as evidenced in his signature seafood paella and truffle-filled beef Wellington dishes. George is in demand for catering events, from large weddings to intimate anniversary dinner celebrations, to celebrity parties like The View's Elizabeth Hasselback's baby shower and a Hillary Clinton fundraiser.

Chaz Fable has been with Stew Leonard's since 1992 and was promoted to Executive Chef in 2000. Chef Chaz apprenticed under Chef George Llorens when George owned Le Paradis restaurant in Westport, Conn. While there, Chaz developed his passion for the pastry arts, including his signature dish, French apple tart, which he demonstrates in November's "Chef Short." Chaz is a member of the Paris Gourmet Chef Club and the American Culinary Federation. In 1998, he was voted "Chef of the Year" from the Northwest Connecticut Chefs Association.

Stew Leonard's, a family-owned and operated fresh food store founded in 1969, has four stores in Norwalk, Danbury, and Newington, Conn. and Yonkers, N.Y. The company was named among FORTUNE magazine’s "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" for the past seven consecutive years. For more information, visit Stew Leonard's website at www.stewleonards.com.