The Making of a Menu
- Details
- Written by Kris Legates
Coming up with the right combo takes time and a willingness to test new ideas
By Pam George
Photograph by Scott Nathan
From the May 2022 issue
As a young chef, Lisa DiFebo-Osias worked in Florida and New York establishments, executing the same dishes each night. The then-20-year-old quickly grew bored, and she vowed that no one working under her would feel that way.
Today, the owner of two coastal DiFebo’s restaurants revamps her menu every three months. “And sometimes, depending on my travels, I might change it every week to reflect where I’ve been that week or that month,” says DiFebo-Osias, who has locations in Bethany Beach and downtown Rehoboth.
Menu planning, however, is far from easy. Indeed, DiFebo-Osias and her husband, Jeff Osias, have spent plenty of road trips hotly debating a new dish’s merits or the validity of an ingredient. The brainstorming part is only the beginning. Chefs must also consider the concept, sales, seasonality, sustainability and price.
In a competitive market like this one, the right blend is crucial.
Birds of a Feather
- Details
- Written by Kris Legates
Migratory shorebirds flock to Delaware Bay beaches to feed on their way to northern breeding grounds
By Lynn R. Parks
Photograph by Deb Felmey
From the May 2022 issue
‘It’s not just people, yearning for surf and sun, who make annual treks to coastal Sussex. Migratory shorebirds — those stouthearted little creatures that travel thousands of miles every spring to reach their breeding grounds — include the beaches along Delaware Bay as a regular stop on their northward itineraries.
Up to 1 million shorebirds visit those beaches every spring, says Henrietta Bellman, a coastal avian biologist with the state’s Division of Fish & Wildlife. They represent as many as 30 species, including red knots, ruddy turnstones, semipalmated sandpipers, sanderlings and dunlins.
The birds typically arrive in late April and early May, Bellman says, with their populations peaking in mid-May. By the middle of June, they have left to continue their way north. Timing is everything in this journey: The shorebirds, exhausted and emaciated, arrive in Delaware at the same time that horseshoe crabs — like the birds, compelled by a centuries-old spring ritual — are crawling out of the bay to lay their eggs in the sand. The birds’ timely arrival along the Delaware Bay allows them “to forage during peak [horseshoe crab] spawning,” Bellman says.
Health Care in Crisis
- Details
- Written by Kris Legates
COVID accentuated the pre-existing condition of staff shortages. In coastal Delaware, other factors heighten the need for a remedy.
By Pam George
Photograph by Neil Parry
From the May 2022 issue
Julie Short didn’t dither over career choices after high school. Like her grandmother, she attended Beebe Healthcare’s nursing school, now the Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing. “I joke with my manager and say, ‘You know, I drank the Kool-Aid in the womb because I have grown up at Beebe,’” says the fifth-generation nurse, whose mother has worked at Beebe for more than 40 years.
“I have a loyalty to Beebe,” says Short, a rapid response and “code blue” nurse. (A code blue is called when a patient experiences unexpected cardiac or respiratory arrest that requires resuscitation.)