I have to give the nod to Chef Michael Salmon, owner/chef Camden’s Hartstone Inn for my choice. I do enjoy a well prepared lamb dish very much, and would rate a rack of lamb cooked medium-rare with an interesting glaze or sauce among my most favorite entrées.

When we were preparing our restaurant feature, To Market and Home Again, for the Holiday 2006 issue of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine, we chose Chef Michael as our subject. We traveled around Camden with him to the local Farmer’s Market as he collected the freshest local ingredients he could find for the meal ahead. Then we followed him back to the Hartstone Inn kitchen to watch him prepare his chosen menu, and to document the event.

Chef Michael chose his Phyllo-Wrapped Double Lamb Chops with Rosemary-Mustard Aioli recipe as the entrée for the meal. We had left the choice of menu to him, and couldn’t have been more pleased with the results. When it was plated up and served, it was one of those "I can’t believe I ate the whole thing" moments. And I wanted more. Absolutely fabulous!

You can find Chef Michael’s recipe for this wonderful lamb entrée along with the rest of this meal (including his recipes for Wild Mushroom Soup with Dry Sherry Cream, his Celeriac Purée, and his Macadamia Nut Guava Tartlet), in our article online at: To Market & Home Again with Chef Michael Salmon

Trust me, this was a meal "to die for" …

Jim Bazin is the creative director of Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.