Photo by Sam Yu The appetizer table prepared by Marty Qually, executive catering chef for Carriage House Catering.

It's about the ingredients, the timing, the preparation.

A good chef also needs a good staff.

Qually is the executive catering chef for Carriage House Catering. This is the catering side of Carriage House Inn, in Emmitsburg .

Last month, he also debuted "Cooking on the Fringe," a partnership between Adams County Winery in Ortanna and the Carriage House Inn. This was part cooking lesson, part wine tasting, and it took place on the bucolic grounds of Adams County Winery.

Qually set up a makeshift kitchen under a tent, and chatted with his audience. This was composed of about 50 people, seated at round tables under the tent, who were there to learn about cooking and sample some wine. He used liberal doses of Adams County Wines with each dish, showing how wine can add to the flavors of the meal as much as it can add to the enjoyment of a meal.

Qually stirred up some ratatouille, paired baked brie with fresh raspberry filling, coated shrimp in coconut and served it with pineapple salsa, and roasted pork and steak on skewers on a grill.

Along the way, he dished out advice with aplomb.

Sweat the eggplant, he said as he prepared to saut? it with a julienne of zucchini, fresh tomatoes, artichoke hearts, garlic and roasted red peppers in a dry Vidal wine.

"Sweat both sides," he said as he salted the eggplant to draw out the moisture. "This is why people don't like fried eggplant."

As he sliced the vegetables, he recommended using a mandoline. Buy a good quality one, he said.

He prepared the coconut shrimp, cautioning the audience to never overcook shrimp. "Overcooked seafood is not good," he said. "It's always better to underestimate."

He prepared a pineapple salsa topping, adding cilantro and cumin. "I will put in just about anything," he said. "Be forewarned, the spicier it gets, the less you're going to taste anything else." A chunky pineapple salsa is good for fish or chicken, and adds a summery flavor to the grilled meat.

For the Caribbean Pork Skewers, Qually used a curry paste to flavor the meat. He topped this with a cherry and pair chutney. This time of year, cherries are fresh and local to this area, and Qually reminded his audience to use local ingredients, including locally raised meat, whenever possible.

"Cooking is a community thing, and it starts with the local farmers market," he said.

He grilled strips of marinated flank steak. Flank steak is not tender, but marinating it in something acidic tenderizes it. Wine and wine vinegar are options. He used a sprig of rosemary as the skewer to hold the vegetables.

He recommends using olive oil spray for the grill to keep items from sticking. Vegetables must be timed right to taste right.

Dessert featured fruit crepes with a citrus-scented white chocolate wine sauce. These can be made in advance and refrigerated. The crepes were light and eggy. Qually often uses crepes for entrees, simply by removing the small amount of sugar in the recipe.

Speaking of sugar, Qually recommends using organic sugar, not refined white sugar. The dinner was complete with miniature cheesecakes glazed with a strawberry wine reduction.

Qually graduated from college in 1994 with a degree in sociology. He then spent eight years at the Carriage House Inn, with a gap of a summer spent at Yellowstone National Park.

That was a memorable summer, spent cooking in a restaurant. It was there that he learned that he absolutely must be prepared, because there was no going out to the grocery store if an ingredient was missing.

He was the chef at the Carriage House the night when President Clinton and wife Hillary stopped by for dinner after a weekend at Camp David. He took it in stride. "It was the day before my last day there," he said.

In the interim, he worked at Tauraso's Restaurant and at Province 2. There, the head baker told him never to waste a single ingredient. "That's how you learn," he said. He has taken a few cooking classes over the years, but mostly, he relies on what he learns from other chefs, his own creativity and planning ahead.

"It's the creative side that is something that cannot be taught," he said.

A year ago, he returned to the Carriage House Inn to lead the restaurant's catering section. In the summer months, he is most often cooking at Stone Manor Inn in Middletown , where Carriage House provides the catering.

"What I do is a matter of doing good food for 200 people," he said. "If you're at the last table or the first table, the food should be the same. You're trying to make this wedding special for everyone there." He caters more than 40 events a year at Stone Manor. A weekend wedding there is usually a 13 to 14 hour day.

"Most chefs avoid catering," he said. "It's challenging work." Catering doesn't allow the luxuries of a restaurant kitchen, so preparation, again, is key.

In the winter, diners will find him back at the Carriage House Inn. He is planning a second wine dinner with Adams County Winery this fall, for Oktoberfest.

Qually grew up in Adams County, and has lived there most of his life. He now lives in Gettysburg with his wife and son.