The singer's name entices -- Olga. Her venue isn't commonplace, either -- a cooking-store window in the Strip. And while some might spurn the title, she dotes on diva.

	John Beale, Post-Gazette Olga Watkins sings as she prepares shrimp at Wholey Balcony Cookware in the Strip District. Click photo for larger image. "Cooking With Olga," featuring Olga Watkins, will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Wholey Balcony Cookware, Strip District. Details: www.olgawatkins.com or call 412-716-5119.

But, baby, oh, baby, this bluesy singer can cook.

In one more example that food is sexy and that sex sells, 34-year-old Olga Watkins stokes up the kitchen heat and her powerful voice from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on alternate Saturdays in the window of Wholey Balcony Cookware. In a more traditional venue, she appears next Thursday with pianist Craig Davis and drummer Subha Das at the New Crawford Grill, Station Square.

This Saturday at Balcony Cookware, in honor of the Labor Day weekend, Watkins will demonstrate how to prepare chicken wings and some vegetarian dishes that would be good for the holiday weekend, singing along all the while with songs made famous by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. She loves Etta James songs.

Even if cooking makes you happy, how often have you burst into song?

Watkins, the owner of Elite Catering, recalls the first time she combined cooking with singing. She was doing a contract dinner for a country club's Valentine's Day party, which had a sit-down seven-course dinner with a choice of three entrees. There were three other people in the kitchen, including the dish washer.

"We cooked 180 covers [restaurant talk for number of guests]," she recalls. "I was delirious by the time I came out of the kitchen. I had booked the band I worked with, and I sang the last two sets with the band."

Still, as a caterer who does corporate and private events, she's used to juggling tasks and having it all come out without burning the brulee or straining her sultry singing voice.

One of Watkins' most memorable two-fers was catering the VIP Tent for the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce's "Wine and Dine in the Park" at Robin Hill Park. The menu included elaborate chocolate desserts, cheeses and fruits, and puff pastry.

"There's always a catch in a catered event," she says. "Someone was late, the time got set back, and the hour I had allotted to run home" to Coraopolis evaporated.

"I changed [for the performance] in 10 minutes in my car. I was sticky. I had chocolate and powdered sugar all over me."

In an increasingly competitive market, with the opening of the Waterfront in Homestead and the eventual completion of the SouthSide Works, longtime business people are inspired to try new ventures such as food-as-entertainment. Balcony Cookware moved from the second floor of Wholey & Co. to the street level in 2001 and doubled in size last year, according to manager Carol Moorhead.

Seeing people such as Olga Watkins entertain "brings excitement to the Strip on Saturdays," says Robert Wholey of Robert Wholey & Co.

Watkins, who has been entertaining there since June, grew up in West Virginia and moved to the Pittsburgh area 10 years ago. After culinary school at West Virginia Northern Community College in Wheeling, she says, jobs were scarce and she took a position managing a McDonald's. People may pooh-pooh that experience, she says, but "I was in my early 20s, and I learned a lot about training and labor costs. I also found out how food cost works and about inventory controls."

Strict standards of cleanliness are something she puts into place in her own home as well. "We wear gloves at home, too. I tell my staff if we haven't used a whole box of gloves during an eight-hour shift, we're not changing them often enough. To prevent transfer of bacteria, we use tons and tons of gloves and lots of bleach."

One event that has not required cooking is her gig singing the national anthem before the games of the Pittsburgh Passion, the women's football team that plays in Ambridge. "As a woman, it's just fun to participate in that," she says.

This Saturday Watkins will cook on Cuisinart nonstick cookware. On the day we visited, Watkins was backed up by jazz pianist Craig Davis, and we saw her lose her concentration only momentarily -- when her mother brought daughter Ella, 2 1/2, to see her mother cook and sing.

"I call her Diva-in-Training," Watkins jokes.

SAUTEED SHRIMP IN BACON

• 1 pound medium shrimp, raw, peeled and deveined 1 lemon
  
• 6 to 8 thick-cut slices bacon
  
• 1 tablespoon Old Bay sea- soning
  
• Tabasco or other cayenne pepper sauce
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• Cook bacon in saute pan until crispy on medium to medium low heat. Remove cooked bacon from heat, save bacon drippings in pan.

Mix Old Bay seasoning with flour. Pat and dredge raw shrimp in flour mixture and add to hot bacon grease. Cook about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove shrimp from grease, set aside to drain before plating. Add the juice of one lemon and a few dashes of Tabasco to the bacon grease. Stir with a whisk. Should reduce and thicken slightly. If not, add a little flour through a small strainer, 1 teaspoon or less at a time.

Plate with seasoned rice and spoon sauce on top of shrimp.

Serves 4 to 6.

Olga Watkins