I didn’t get away with “this trend begs to be aborted,” unfortunately.
Tempest in a turkey roaster
Edible Brooklyn: Less at Moore Street?
Online now: Singing in four-part harmony
Fines herbes: One up from menage a trois.
No trees were harmed
The print version of this was roundly lambasted in cyberspace, and as time has flown past, I realize why: There was no need to tell when I could just show. Because I still get asked constantly how to start a blog, here’s a recipe, meant to be followed bottoms-up.
Slicing, dicing and posting
Drafted for the LATimes/2008
Joel Robuchon recently made news in the food blogosphere by doing what chefs have done since Al Gore invented the internet: complain about food bloggers. Judging by the latest trend, you can expect him to become one any day now.
MarioBatali, after all, went from lambasting to posting in less time Continue reading
Dumpling Hero
Produced for the LATimes/February 2008
Not so long ago I went to the best party in years: The guests brought wine or beer. The hosts provided the makings for Chinese dumplings. And everyone did the work assembling them. I walked into a kitchen full of mostly strangers and left having enjoyed a good conversation with nearly all of them.
Clearly, there are icebreakers, and then there are dumplings.
Online now
German chocolate — more than just a cake
Los Angeles Times/February 2008
GERMAN chocolate cake looks pretty good for 50 — the combination of tangy-sweet layers and nutty custard is as irresistible as it was when the recipe was first published in a Texas newspaper back in the Eisenhower era. If it were a Reese’s cup or an Oreo, German chocolate cake would be into its 10th reincarnation by now.
But this is one venerable dessert that needs an homage more than a makeover. If you take the same concept, with essentially the same ingredients, you can produce any number of variations with just as much extravagant flavor and texture but with 2.0 attitude.
Beignets: It’s air time
Los Angeles Times/January 2008
DEEP-frying is the bacon of cooking techniques: It makes everything taste better. Do it with beignets, though, and you get the irresistible results in a more lyrical package. The word is almost as satisfying to say as the real thing is to eat. Beignets sound so much lighter and airier than fritters, but they are no easier to pass up.