Culinary Sagacity

Ewald Notter & The Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie

2011-02-25T14:23:00.000-08:00

Since its inauguration in 1989, I've dreamed of attending the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie in Lyon, France. And even though I have yet to make it, I still follow it every two years when the best pastry chefs in the world gather to compete for the most prestigious pastry challenge in the world, what we English speakers call the Pastry World Cup.

The 2011 Coupe du Monde, sponsored by Chocolat Valrhona, wrapped up at the end of January. Spain took the gold, Italy the silver (woo hoo), and Belgium took the bronze. The US did win first place for its sugar showpiece, and the ever dominant team France didn't compete this year. All gold medal winners are prohibited from participating in the following competition (France won in 2009).

Spain's winning showpiece. Photo courtesy of Chocolat Valrhona.

USA's sugar showpiece. Photo courtesy of Chocolat Valrhona.

Since I didn't make it again this year (sigh), I decided to do the next best thing, interview the captain from the only US team to ever win gold in Lyon.

At the 2001 Pastry World Cup, captain Ewald Notter and his team mates En-Ming Hsu and Michel Willaume made history, bringing home the first and only gold medal for team USA. Ewald Notter, author of the newly released book The Art of The Chocolatier, master of chocolate and sugar art, and founder of the Notter School of Pastry Arts in Orlando, Florida, was a well seasoned competitor by the time he was selected for team USA.

Having won 15 gold medals at various pastry competitions across the globe before moving to America in 1992, he took up the US pastry competition scene and won gold two consecutive years at the World Pastry Team Championships in Beaver Creek, Colorado. By the time he made team USA for the Coupe du Monde, he was ready to retire from the competition circuit.


Ewald Notter creating a sugar showpiece at his Notter School of Pastry Arts	.

When I asked Notter if he was nervous despite his formidable competition record, he replied, "Oh my god I was very nervous. I knew it would be my last competition and there was a lot of pressure too, we wanted to make a good job. And we took risks, if you want to win you always have to take risks. I don't think you win if you don't take risks. You want to be better, everything should be a step up."

Notter and his team only had six months to prepare, unlike many teams who have up to a year and a half to prepare. But in Notter's mind, this wasn't a disadvantage.

"We all had the right motivation and the right mood. It was very intense but having only six months is sometimes better than having a year or a year and a half to prepare. You have to get it done so you concentrate and you start and you pull it through. It worked for us very well."

All competitions are stressful, just watch an episode of Food Network Challenge and you'll see. But the Pastry World Cup is hands down the biggest challenge of all. It's prestige brings with it a lot of press, and a lot of stress. And it's no exception to the general rule that if things can go wrong, they will go wrong. But rising to the challenges that crop up during a competition sets the winners apart from the losers.

2001 was no exception for Notter and his team.

"Oh we had our challenges on that day. The ice wasn't standing well, my sugar piece broke, and in the morning we had no power. A lot of things happened, but in any competition things happen and I think you can only prepare so much. But if your team worked and trained together a lot of times, well every time you train together things happen, and so it's never a total disaster if anything breaks on the day of the competition because you're used to fixing things. You're used to working together and helping each other."

Notter's sugar showpiece for Team USA in 2001.

All of Notter's competition experience over the years helped him a lot when it came to the Pastry World Cup. As he explained to me, to his mind, when things go wrong or showpieces break, it can be an opportunity instead of a setback.

"I tell you, in any competition I did, always something broke. I honestly believe that because something broke and the judges can see how you can fix it again and you don't lose your mind, you just put your head down and redo it and put it up, this can be impressive too. You have to learn to work with what you have. It's what I like to teach my students as well, if something breaks you find another way to arrange it and find a way to still put something up. It's the only way if you want to be successful."

Winning the 2001 Pastry World Cup was a fitting end to such a long and prestigious competition career. Today Notter focuses on teaching at the Notter School of Pastry Arts, where he offers both a six month pastry arts course for beginners as well as continuing education for professionals. And when he's not teaching, he's traveling the globe doing demonstrations, coaching competitors, and acting as a guest instructor at other schools.

"There's a time to compete and a time to help other people to compete. I did a lot of competitions before I came to America and then did it all again. I made a lot of friends and learned a lot, so it was time to give back."

Though not competing himself, Notter still goes to Lyon to watch the Coup du Monde de la Patisserie, where he has often coached members of other teams. Here's hoping I see him there myself in 2013!

Special thanks the the sponsor of the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie, Chocolat Valhrona, for the photos from this year's competition.

Wild Abundance: A Beautiful Cookbook for Carnivores and Hunters

2011-01-25T11:49:00.000-08:00

I love books, so when I come across a beautiful new cookbook -- so lovely it doubles as a coffee table book -- I'm a happy camper. Recently I've been losing myself in Wild Abundance: Ritual, Revelry & Recipes of The South's Finest Hunting Clubs, gazing at the stunning photography of Lisa Buser, drooling over the delectable recipes of the chefs and cooks, and reading the warm tales about the people and places brought together by editor Susan Schadt.

Wild Abundance (courtesy ArtsMemphis)

Odd as it may seem for a girl who grew up in cities, my family actually did a fair bit of hunting when I was a kid. My father was a chef who loved to hunt, and my family would pile into our camper and drive all the way from California to Montana or Wyoming for weeks-long hunting, fishing and camping trips on horseback.

Perhaps because of this, I've always been skeptical of carnivores who shun hunting. I've just never understood why someone who is not a vegetarian could have anything against the hunt. Often when I speak of hunting, people gasp, You'd kill Bambi?! Yet these same people happily order venison in a restaurant and buy it from the market. I truly believe the modern mentality born of experiencing meat all cut up and sold in plastic wrapped packages at the grocery story is the very disconnect that has led to the horrible animal raising and slaughtering practices rampant in today's food industry. To hunt is to respect and appreciate the life of the animal with which you're nourishing yourself, as well as the land on which they nourish themselves.

Chef Derek Emerson's Grilled Quail with Corn Salsa (courtest ArtsMemphis)

Chef Derek Emerson with NY Giants Quarterback

Eli Manning at Fighting Bayou Hunt Club

(courtesy Arts Memphis)

Wild Abundance is enough to make this nature-loving, game-craving city girl want to run for the wilds of America, and never look back.

Read the full article and see more of the beautiful photos from this stunning cookbook at The Huffington Post.

Carl Warner's Cool Food Landscapes

2011-01-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

For Carl Warner, it all started with Portobello mushrooms. Now the landscape photographer who has spent 25 years in the advertising industry is famous for his foodscapes, which you've probably seen in an email that went viral back in 2008. I caught up with Carl when he was in New York City to present his Chocolate Train at the NYC Chocolate Show, as well as to promote his new book, Food Landscapes.

"I came across these Portobello mushrooms and they were beautiful specimens," said Carl when we sat down for an interview at Barnes & Noble. "Then I looked at them from a low angle and thought, Wow, that kind of looks like a tree. I wonder if I could photograph these in a way that would really make them look like trees?"

So he brought the mushrooms back to his studio in London, bought some seeds, beans and rice for the ground cover, and started constructing a landscape, using mackerel for the sky. With his knowledge of lighting and his talent for photography, he got down to the photo shoot. The result was his first ever food landscape, which he calls Mushroom Savanna, "because it looks like an African Savanna on another planet."

Read the full article and watch a slide show of Carl's Food Landscapes on The Huffington Post.

Fresh Cranberry Bread

2010-12-07T06:59:00.000-08:00

Fresh cranberries aren't in season for a long time, but fortunately their bright red color makes them perfect for holiday baking. This is my mom's recipe for quick cranberry bread and as kids my sisters and I would beg her to make it as long as fresh cranberries were around. Over the years I've adjusted it and made it my own, but it will always take me back to childhood and that wonderful feeling of being a kid at Christmas time.

Fresh Cranberry Bread

Makes 2 loaves

114 g (1/2 cup = 1 stick) unsalted sweet cream butter, plus more for greasing pans

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice (no pulp)

200 g (2 cups) walnut halves

440 g (about 4 cups) fresh cranberries

Measure in the bowl of a stand mixer:

480 g (4 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour (King Arthur or 365 brand)

400 g (2 cups) granulated sugar

1tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Heat oven to 350.

Grease 2 loaf pans with butter and set aside.

Melt the stick of butter and remove from heat to cool.

Toast walnut halves on a baking sheet for about 5-8 minutes, shaking the sheet pan a couple of times for even toasting. When you begin to smell the scent of toasted walnuts in your kitchen, they're usually ready to come out of the oven. Set aside to cool.

Rinse the cranberries in a colander under cold running water. Remove any bits of stem and discard any cranberries that are mushy. If you have to throw out too many mushy berries, you may want to add some more from another bag. Dry the berries in a clean kitchen towel by rubbing them inside a folded towel with your palms flat, in circular motions. This will also help you find any mushy berries you may have missed during rinsing.

In a food processor, pulse the cranberries to roughly chop them. Do this in two batches. You don't want them finely chopped, so if you have some whole berries this is fine. Put the chopped cranberries in a bowl.

Next, roughly chop the cooled walnuts using the same machine, no need to rinse it before adding the walnuts. As with the cranberries, you don't want them finely chopped. Add the chopped walnuts to the bowl with the berries and set aside.

Crack the two eggs into the orange juice and whisk by hand until blended. Set aside.

Whisk by hand all of the dry ingredients you've measured in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Using the paddle attachment, run the stand mixer on low and drizzle all the melted butter into the bowl in a steady stream. Continue to mix on med-low speed until the dough becomes crumbly. Add the orange juice / egg mixture all at once and beat on medium speed until the dough is evenly moist, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. The batter will have lumps in it, this is fine, you'd don't actually want a completely smooth batter. Fold in the cranberries and walnuts by hand using a large rubber spatula.

Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans and level it with the spatula. Bake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes turning the loaves halfway through baking. If you have a convection oven, the bread will take less time to bake, and you won't need to turn the loaves. The bread should be golden brown and firm to the touch, and a tester inserted in the center should show no wet batter—a few crumbs stuck to the tester are fine.

Cool the loaves on a cooling rack for about 2 hours. After about one hour, you can slide a small metal spatula or paring knife around the edges to loosen the bread from the sides of the pan.

The bread keeps in the loaf pan, covered in aluminum foil (or out of the pan and wrapped entirely in foil), for up to one week, at room temperature. To remove the bread from the pan when it's completely cooled, slide a knife or small metal spatula around the edges again and turn it upside down on a cutting board. Tap the pan against the cutting board until the bread slides out (you may need to give it a firm whack, but it'll hold together fine).

The best way to eat this bread is to cut it into ½ inch thick slices, using a serrated bread knife, and toast it in a toaster oven or broiler. It's a very crumbly bread, so you don't want to slice it thin or put it into a normal toaster, it has to lay flat and be turned with a metal spatula. If you use a broiler as I do, then place the slices on a metal cooling rack over a jellyroll pan. With this bread, you actually want to broil it until the corners get slightly charred. For some mysterious reason, this tiny bit of char on the edges of the bread make it super yummy. Butter the slices of bread and gobble it up while it's warm!

Gordon Ramsay Wants YOU!

2010-11-12T12:50:00.000-08:00

Are you a talented home cook with nerves of steel? Or, like me, can you injure and burn yourself while preparing dinner for guests and just keep on cooking as if nothing happened? Then maybe you should try out for Season Two of MasterChef on FOX, and put your skills (and nerves) to the test under the eagle (or is it evil?) eye of Gordon Ramsay.

The casting scouts of MasterChef are making their way across America on cattle calls for contestants. But before you show up, be sure to visit the website to complete the application. You don't want to get yelled at when you arrive unprepared, do you?

Here's the list of cities and dates, for exact times and locations, follow the links provided below.

Los Angeles - Saturday, November 6

New York - Saturday, November 13 & Sunday, November 14

Boston - Saturday, November 13

New Orleans - Saturday, November20

Orlando - Saturday, November 20

Chicago - Saturday, December 4 & Sunday, December 5

Dallas - Saturday, December 4 & Sunday, December 5

Denver - Saturday, December 11

Portland - Saturday, December 11

How to Apply

Exact Times and Dates of Casting Calls

If you can't make it to one of the open calls, then you can still apply by sending in a video submission. Since there's plenty—if not more—fabulous home cooks who don't live in a big city, just follow this link to instructions on how to submit your video!

Good luck!

13th Annual Chocolate Show in NYC

2010-11-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

The 13th Annual New York City Chocolate Show kicked off last night with a Chocolate Fashion Show. While not quite as spectacular as the fashion show at the original Salon du Chocolat in Paris, the models sporting chocolate couture still wowed the audience. Among the pastry chefs who participated last night was Top Chef Just Desserts contestant, Zac Young.

The Chocolate Shows began in Paris 16 years ago, and have gone international, with events in Shanghai, Tokyo, Bologna, Madrid, and New York City.

The New York City Show is being held through Sunday, November 14 at the Metropolitan Pavilion at 125 W. 18th Street (between 6th & 7th Avenue). Tickets are available online for $28.00. In addition to last night's Fashion Show, the event includes a marketplace with about 70 chocolatiers, as well as demonstrations and workshops from chocolatiers and pastry chefs, including Jacques Torres, Nick Malgieri, François Payard, Johnny Iuzzini, Zac Young, and Carl Warner (the man who does the cool food landscapes--"Foodscapes").

Links:

NYC Chocolate Show http://newyork.salon-du-chocolat.com/salon_intro.aspx

Event Schedule http://newyork.salon-du-chocolat.com/salon_animation.aspx?catanimation_id=10

Tickets http://nychocolateshow2010.eventbrite.com/

Check out these pics from last night's Chocolate Fashion Show!

Eating Lamb Belly on Day Two of The International Chefs Congress

2010-11-08T07:26:00.000-08:00

Day Two of StarChefs International Chefs Congress had a high-energy buzz. Maybe it took everyone a whole day to get into the swing of things, but there was a definite upswing in the energy level inside the Park Avenue Armory.

I started my day at the interactive workshop conducted by Ken Oringer of Boston's Clio restaurant. A regular to the International Chefs Congress, I first became an admirer of Ken when he made the most delicious oyster chowder for the cocktail hour in 2006. Served inside a hollowed-out egg shell with tiny straws, I must have consumed at least twenty of them.

Ken Oringer's Lamb Belly

Read the full article on my Huffington Post Food Blog:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/regina-varolli/international-chefs-congress_b_745638.html

Snorting Cocoa on Day 1 of the International Chefs Congress in NYC

2010-10-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

The first big event on the main stage was the highly anticipated panel discussion on Art vs. Craft. Sitting in directors chairs at the center of the stage were David Kinch of the two Michelin starred Manresa in California, uber chef Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and Per Se, and farm-to-table chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns. The discussion was moderated by food writer Michael Ruhlman.

To me, the best part of Day One at the StarChefs ICC were Bernard Lahousse and Dominique Persoone of The Chocolate Line in Brugge, Belgium--the guys who invented the Chocolate Shooter for snorting chocolate. On the main stage, this chocolatier/scientist duo discussed food pairings with chocolate, and demonstrated to the audience how the experience of tasting chocolate, or any food for that matter, is greatly affected by our physical surroundings--the sights, sounds, and smells in our environment at the time we're eating any product. They used the example of eating seafood on the beach versus eating seafood in a restaurant, arguing that the fish will always taste better when it's consumed sitting on the sand in front of the ocean, smelling salt water and hearing waves crash on the shore. In their presentation, the audience sampled their chocolate-Tequila bonbon while they played Mariachi music and filled the main stage with the scent of lime.

Read the full article on The Huffington Post!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/regina-varolli/international-chefs-congress-snorting-cocoa_b_745429.html

Food Trucks Are Hot, But Gourmet Ice Cream Trucks Are Cool

2010-10-14T08:38:00.000-07:00

There's something about gourmet ice cream trucks that makes them cool. No pun intended, a gourmet ice cream truck is just more hip than an ice cream shop. Maybe it's the quirky people who operate them, maybe it's their funky flavors, or maybe it's their high quality ingredients. Whatever it is, this new breed of ice cream truck has adults chasing after them, or at least following them on Twitter.

Read the full article at The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/regina-varolli/food-trucks-are-hot-but-g_b_700546.html

Cesar Ramirez Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare Gets Two Michelin Stars

2010-10-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

I just heard it on good authority that the Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare, the one year old home of the talented Chef Cesar Ramirez has been given two Michelin stars in the 2011 Guide Michelin.

Open for just one year, and not holding a liquor license when the Michelin reviewers came to dine, those two stars are be based solely on the talent of Cesar Ramirez and his team at Brooklyn Fare.

Ramirez took a big risk when he left the Manhattan fine dining scene for the borough of Brooklyn, but that risk has evidently paid off, big time.

Congratulations to Cesar Ramirez and his team, Douglas Kim, Christopher Ramos, and Michele Smith, and to co-owner Moe Issa! I know first hand how hard you have all worked for this, and you completely deserve it!

Cold Summer Soups, Vichyssoise

2010-08-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

Lunchtime Vichyssoise

This has been the hottest, most humid summer in recent memory, so I'm always craving cold soup—especially when I've been running around the sizzling and steamy city all day. Cold soups are refreshing, simple, and delicious—all of which are a must when you need a serious pick-me-up. Cold soups keep well in the refrigerator for easily a week, if they last that long, and their flavors intensify over time. For me, one of the best things about cold soup sitting in the fridge is that it makes a great, quick lunch, of course with some nice, crusty bread to go with it.

My version of Vichyssoise is thicker than traditional Vichyssoise, because when that's all I'm having for lunch I want it to really fill my belly. If you want it thinner, like you might for a first course at dinner, you can always add more water or cream just before serving.

Vichyssoise (makes about 3 ½ quarts)

700 g russet potatoes (about 5 large potatoes)
700 g leeks (about 6 thick leeks, white and pale green parts only)
140 g unsalted butter (about 1 ¼ sticks)
1 pint organic heavy cream
3 quarts water
sea salt
chives
fresh ground black pepper

Remove the dark green parts of the leeks and discard (or save for later use in a vegetable stock). Cut the white and pale green part of the leeks into quarter circles of the same size and rinse them completely under cold water. Leeks have tons of dirt in them usually, so you really want to wash them well. The best way I've found is to use a salad spinner, completely submerge them in water, swish them around a lot, then dump the water. Submerge them a second time, swishing again, and dumping the water. Depending on how much dirt you see (or how clear the water is when you dump it the second time) you may want to give them a third rinse. Then spin/strain them to get out most of the water.

Peel the potatoes and rinse them under cold water. After rinsing them, cut them into pieces roughly as thick as the leek quarters. Don't rinse them a second time, unlike with mashed potatoes, with soups you want to retain a fair amount of the starch in the potatoes and rinsing them a second time removes too much starch.

In a heavy stock pot, melt the butter, then add the leeks and a pinch of salt and sauté to sweat and soften them a little, stirring for about 3-5 minutes on med-high heat. Don't let them take any color. When they've softened, add the potatoes and mix well, then add the water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for about 35-45 minutes until the potatoes are falling apart and the leeks are completely soft and cooked.

With a hand blender or in a stand blender in several batches, purée the soup very well, leaving no chunks at all. Add the cream and whisk to incorporate. At this point, you want to taste it to see if you'd like to add more salt. I always do add some more, but everyone's taste varies with salt, just add it cautiously because you can't take salt away from something that's too salty.

Pour the Vichyssoise into containers, allow it to come to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until completely chilled. When the Vichyssoise is completely cold, it will thicken up, then you can try some and see if you'd prefer to have it thinner by adding more water or cream. I usually make it thinner if I'm serving it as an appetizer, but I do that à la minute and leave it thick in my fridge for lunches. Vichyssoise keeps in the fridge for about a week (just make sure the date on the cream you use is good for at least that long too).

Serve the Vichyssoise (hot or cold) garnished with chopped chives and freshly ground black pepper.

The New Brooklyn Fare Kitchen

2010-07-30T17:19:00.000-07:00

After weeks of remodeling, a long wait for the Molteni stove to arrive from France, and a slight spacial expansion, Brooklyn Fare Kitchen, home of Chef Cesar Ramirez, has a knock-down drag-out gorgeous new space.

The space is more like a theater than a kitchen, which is fitting for food that shines like a hit Broadway show. Yes, Ramirez and his team do cook all day in this space, preparing the food sold in the gourmet Brooklyn Fare Market as well as the Kitchen, but when guests arrive, the place has been so thoroughly cleaned and shined you'd almost think nobody ever cooked a thing in there.

The team, minus Doug Kim, who was behind the camera.

The optimistic Cesar Ramirez had hoped this process would only take a week, so booking was closed from July1-8, but when July 9 rolled around and the place was still a work in progress, he didn't disappoint the people who'd waited months for their seats, and he managed to perform despite the drywall, brilliantly so.

"The Ferrari of stoves."

When Cesar showed me around the new Kitchen, pointing out all the bells and whistles in the custom made counter, he looked as excited as a kid in his own shiny new candy factory. Showing off the new Molteni stove, he said with glee "This is the Ferrari of stoves! And we have the only Molteni salamander in America!"

The only Molteni salamander in America.

Even with seating up from 12 to 18, and the price up too, there's still a long wait list. But with the expansion of the kitchen, and his team, Cesar Ramirez has upped the menu as well.

All photos were shot by Cesar Ramirez's newest team member, the multi-talented Douglas Kim. Thanks Doug!

The new Brooklyn Fare Kitchen work/eat space was designed by Ken Schimpf, founder of KDS Consulting & Design, Inc. (http://www.kdsconsulting.net/index.html)

Looking Forward to Letter Grades at NYC Restaurants

2010-07-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

Four years ago when David Bouley poisoned his patrons with carbon monoxide because he didn't have any detectors in his restaurant, patrons literally passed out in their plates of fine food. Workers and patrons alike had to be rushed to the hospital and the EMTs evacuated the place as soon as they showed up, leaving the dining room full of half eaten dishes overnight. But that didn't shut the place down. Nor did it's D and F grades from the health department, several actually.

I think New Yorkers would be astonished if they knew the actual grades of some of the finest restaurants in the city. Fortunately, they're about to find out.

I strongly support the mandatory posting of health inspection grades at all the city's restaurants. My home town of LA has been doing it for years and guess what, you'll rarely find an establishment with less than a B because people just won't patronize a C, let alone a D. Now I know that you can lose points for silly things that don't actually pose any health risk, like leaving an ice cream scoop in a receptacle of hot water or having the fridge one degree too high. But other point losers, like rat feces on a counter top, dangerous bacteria found in the lettuce, or the lack of carbon monoxide detectors, do pose health risks.

Overall, to my mind, this is a good thing. The coming of health grades could only be loathed by those who have failed repeatedly to get an A or B, and, well, we don't really want to eat in those places now, do we?

Currently, if you go to the website for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the guys who are responsible for inspecting restaurants, they do have a page where we're supposed to be able to look up the inspection results of any restaurant in NYC. Oddly, when I've gone to this page over the past few weeks, it never seems to work properly, and I can never get the results I'm seeking, yet another reason for these places to have to post their grades. Give it a try yourself, let me know if you got it to work!

NYC Health Department Restaurant Inspection Results

Brooklyn Fare Kitchen Under Construction

2010-07-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

Here's just a few pics of the ongoing reconstruction of Brooklyn Fare Kitchen. As with all construction and remodeling projects, this one is running a bit late! But that didn't daunt Chef Cesar Ramirez, who managed to make his marvelous meals despite a half-finished Kitchen space. "We'll make it work because we have to, we just won't cancel on our customers!" said Ramirez.

Joining the team is sous-chef Jooeon Kim, who worked with Chef Ramirez years ago at Bouley restaurant, and who is also an alum of Per Se. These photos were taken by Kim.

I'll be posting more pics once the Kitchen is finished (and the amazing new Molteni stove has arrived)!

Fine Cooking's (to-die-for) Chocolate Chip Chiffon Cake

2010-07-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

This has been my favorite home-made cake for years and years. I had saved the Fine Cooking issue from 2000 until I moved from DC to NYC 5 years ago and it got lost in the move. I had told my man about it so many times, but hadn't made it for him, that he started calling it the "legend Chiffon cake." For 5 years this cake wasn't available on the Fine Cooking website, but it's back!

This cake does take a fair bit of time to prepare, but it's SO worth it. My only suggestions are to use a bit more chocolate and sugar glaze than the recipe calls for. You also don't need the cream of tar-tar, this is only for stabilizing the egg whites, but if you whip them correctly, you never actually need cream of tartar in any recipe. It leaves a subtle taste that I just don't like.

I was just so happy to find this recipe again, and to finally make it for my resident patissier (it's proof positive that American cakes can be as wonderful as French desserts sometimes!). The recipe says it serves 12-14, but it served just two in my house, because it lasts for about 4 days, and we eat huge slices.

Follow this link to the best damn Chiffon cake ever!
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/almond-crunch-chocolate-confetti-chiffon-cake.aspx

P.S. Fine Cooking is one of the two best magazines for people who actually want to bake and cook what they're reading, and not just look at pictures (and irrelevant ads).

The Butter Bell is a Brilliant Kitchen Gadget

2010-06-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe it's not quite a gadget, but the Butter Bell Crock is one of my favorite counter top residents, and in a small Manhattan kitchen where equipment competes heavily for space, the Butter Bell easily won its three inches of real estate over less frequently used items.

The Butter Bell does one thing, it keeps butter at room temperature while also keeping it from going bad. If you use a lot of room temperature butter for things like toast, but think butter that's been sitting out for days is a bit disgusting, the Butter Bell is a dream.

By storing butter in a bell-shaped vessel that you then submerge in another vessel filled with cold water, the Butter Bell creates an air-tight environment, preventing any bacteria from growing. It holds 114 grams of butter (1 stick), and if you change the water every day with fresh cold water, your butter will be beautifully spreadable, and not one bit rancid, for at least a few weeks.

I got my man the Butter Bell as a gift because he already has almost every kitchen tool and gadget and the box it came in said it was a classic kitchen item from France. He's French and eats a lot of butter, so it was perfect. When he got it open though, he'd never seen anything like it before (and he grew up in a pâtisserie). Since then I've asked a few Frenchies, none of them have seen one either, but now they all want one. "C'est trop cool!" is the common response.

French or not, we're stoked on the Butter Bell Crock. Finally, soft spreadable butter at our knife-tips, without any yucky yellow butter grease.

This is NOT an advert! I just loved this little thing and wanted to share it with my readers!

Butter Bell Crocks start at $19.95, come in different colors and styles to match your kitchen decor, and you can buy them online at http://www.butterbell.com/

A Conversation About Charity with Top Chef Masters Marcus Samuelsson

2010-04-19T08:29:00.000-07:00

Why did the producers of Top Chef Masters paint Marcus Samuelsson as the villain in Episode Two, It's My Party? Just because he chose to focus on his own cooking and not prep for the MIA Carmen Gonzales, who spaced out and forgot her main course at the studio, doesn't make him a bad guy, or an "ego chef" as CultureMap Houston called him. It makes him a serious competitor who wants to win a chunk of cash for his charity. As an advocate myself who has devoted much of my own time to charitable causes, I'd have done exactly the same.

Marcus Samuelsson takes his charity work seriously, and when I met him at last year's International Chef's Congress, we sat down and talked about why he's so actively involved in advocacy.

Samuelsson is UNICEF's first and only Chef Ambassador, appointed in 2000. He's traveled to Africa on behalf of UNICEF, and is a strong supporter of both the TAP project, which works to bring clean drinking water to communities throughout the world, and the Believe in Zero campaign, which aims for zero child deaths from preventable causes like malnutrition and malaria. He's also active with Chefs for Humanity and C-CAP, Careers through Culinary Arts Program, which helps inner city high school kids pursue careers in the culinary industry through training, scholarships and job placement.

When I asked Samuelsson what motivates him to devote so much time to charitable work he replied, "When you come from where I come from, you have to do something."

Unlike the Samuelsson presented on Top Chef Masters, the Marcus I conversed with was a soft-spoken man who has managed to maintain humility in the face of his huge success. Hardly an "ego chef," Samuelsson was genuinely down-to-Earth.

An Ethiopian who lost his parents to Tuberculosis as an infant and was adopted by a Swedish couple, Marcus Samuelsson remains true to his roots. I asked him why he doesn't try to run from his background as many with humble beginnings do. He said "Being connected to poverty is one of the richest things I have in life."

About UNICEF's TAP project—his designated charity for Top Chef Masters—Samuelsson hit on a truth we rarely want to think about, that people in rich countries like America take clean tap water for granted, we buy tons of bottled water just because it tastes better. "But in most parts of the world," explained Samuelsson, "clean tap water doesn't exist, and people die every day because they don't have something we take for granted—clean, safe drinking water."

Samuelsson also talked about "the connection between food in America and internal conflicts and refugees in places like Africa and Asia," about how our Agribusiness and government subsidies of crops like corn can literally topple communities and even governments. "Everyone needs to understand the global consequences of food production, so I try to maintain a dialogue with the public about these things."

Anyone who understands the politics of food or has seen the documentary Food, Inc. will know what Samuelsson is talking about. (If you haven't seen Food, Inc. yet, watch it!)

I don't know Marcus Samuelsson on a personal level, but I do know his record working with charities, and that's enough for me to root for him on Top Chef Masters. It's just unfortunate that Samuelsson's devotion to winning $100,000 for a charity he's so strongly supported was edited to make him seem uncharitable.

Marcus Samuelsson is no villain, and he certainly didn't seem like an ego chef to me. He seems like a driven, talented chef whose appearance on Top Chef Masters is more about helping his charity than it is about helping his career. Samuelsson's illustrious reputation is already secure, but, as he said about TAP, "We need to secure clean, safe drinking water for everyone."

TAP Project
UNICEF Believe in Zero campaign
UNICEF Chef Ambassador Marcus Samuelsson
C-CAP
Chefs for Humanity

Esteemed French Pastry Program Offers Courses in English

2010-04-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

For Americans wanting to study real French pastry, in France, few choices are available unless you actually speak French. Until recently...

L'École Nationale Supérieure de la Pâtisserie is now offering several pastry arts programs taught in English. The school, renowned for 25 years as a program for professionals looking to hone their pastry skills, recently developed an international program geared towards foreign, English speaking students. Located in Yssingeaux, France (about a 2h 30min TGV from Paris, and 30min from Lyon—the home of the Bocuse d'Or), the courses are taught in the newly renovated Château de Montbarnier (pictured).

Four specific programs are now offered in English. Three two-month programs are offered in the summer (July-August) and winter (January-February), and were designed for various levels of experience. The "Initiation Campus" offers beginners and hobbyists an intensive pastry program covering the fundamentals of French pastry. The "Perfecting Campus" is geared toward recent graduates of pastry programs and admission requires prior experience in professional pastry. The "Professional Campus" is also designed for professionals, those with minimum two to three years of experience, and includes added instruction in sugar and chocolate showpieces and ice sculpture.

The fourth program, The French Pastry Arts Program Nicolas Toulliou, is a six month pastry certification program that provides students with the fundamentals of French pastry and baking, upon successful completion of which the student earns their CCA, Certificat de Compétences Académiques.

What makes L'École Nationale Supérieure de la Pâtisserie, and the French Pastry Arts Program Nicolas Toulliou, just about the best choice for people who want to pursue a career in French baking and pastry is the level of instruction—no other pastry arts program has so many instructors and lecturers with the M.O.F. title (Meilleurs Ouvrier de France), the most coveted in the universe of culinary distinctions. The M.O.F. is awarded to only a handful of masters of their craft, even woodworkers, and in pretty much every culinary discipline from Pastry and Chocolate to Bread and Cheese.

The most surprising thing about the French Pastry Arts Program Nicolas Toulliou at L'École Nationale Supérieure de la Pâtisserie is the cost. At 13,000 Euro ($17,500), the pastry program is less expensive than the most prestigious pastry programs offered in America. A few examples are the French Culinary Institute in New York City, where the six month program costs between $37,000-$43,550. The Institute for Culinary Education, also in NYC, costs up to $28,000, and Chicago's French Pastry School will set a student back $21,500. The two-month programs range in price from 5,000 - 5,900 Euro ($6,725 - $7,900).

Considering that housing costs are not included in any pastry program's tuition and fees, a prospective student looking to study in New York City or Chicago will also be faced with high rent on top of high tuition. For housing, L'École Nationale Supérieure de la Pâtisserie has made arrangements for its students. At 390 Euro per month ($525), students can live ten minutes walking distance from the campus. Add to that the fact that breakfast is included in the cost, and lunch can be added at 10 Euro per meal (appetizer, main, and of course dessert), and the French Pastry Arts Program Nicolas Toulliou looks even more affordable by comparison.

What should make this program even more desirable to English speaking pastry students are the 80 hours of French language instruction. Not only will French language skills help future pastry chefs communicate with their French peers, students will need those skills when it comes time to do their one month internship. Another bonus of the program is their placement of students into choice internship positions throughout France.

One thing to understand about the program is that it focuses strictly on classic French Pâtisserie, so if you're interested in doing wedding cakes covered in fondant, or want to follow in the footsteps of Ace of Cakes Duff Goldman, then this isn't the pastry school for you.

The French Pastry Arts Program Nicolas Toulliou is accepting applications for its October 11, 2010 session. For more information, just follow the links...

International Programs Homepage:
http://www.ensp-adf.com/ensp-international-programs-classes-in-french-pastry-arts.php

Overview of The French Pastry Arts Program Nicolas Toulliou:

http://www.ensp-adf.com/certificate-of-academic-skills-in-french-pastry-arts2.php

Brochure for The French Pastry Arts Program Nicolas Toulliou:

http://www.ensp-adf.com/fichiers/PDF/ENSP_nicolas_touilliou_BR.pdf

Overview of the Three Two-Month Programs:

http://www.ensp-adf.com/pastry-summer-french-pastry2.php

Brochure for the Two-Month Programs:

http://www.ensp-adf.com/fichiers/PDF/DESCRIPTION_ENSP_PASTRY_CAMPUS_2010.pdf

Accommodation/Meals Information:

http://www.ensp-adf.com/fichiers/PDF/ACCOMMODATION_AND_MEALS_CCA.pdf

Chef Cesar Ramirez and Brooklyn Fare, Now on Facebook!

2010-03-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

That's right food lovers, if you want to follow Chef Cesar Ramirez and Brooklyn Fare, both the Kitchen and the Market, now you can be a Fan on Facebook. They'll be sharing updates on Market specials, catering menus, and press, as well as what the talented Ramirez concocts in his highly acclaimed Kitchen.

The expansion of Brooklyn Fare Kitchen is set for early July, when they'll go from the current one seating of ten people to two seatings of eighteen people, five nights a week. And, they'll keep all their Facebook Fans updated on the progress of the Kitchen's redesign, temporary closing (just a week though), and grand reopening.

Ramirez: "It's going to be a lot of work, but we're so excited. We needed to expand, but I wanted to keep the concept as close to what it is now, the intimate experience of eating in an actual kitchen. Now that we're on Facebook, we can share our excitement and progress with everyone."

As the lucky little Admin, yours truly will be keeping the Brooklyn Fare Facebook page updated with new images, inside scoops, and tidbits of wisdom from the sagacious Cesar Ramirez. I look forward to seeing you all there soon!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Brooklyn-NY/Brooklyn-Fare-Kitchen-Market/105845076110802?ref=ts

http://www.brooklynfare.com

Photos courtesy of Roy Govshovitz

Breast Milk Cheese?

2010-03-13T12:07:00.000-08:00

I just couldn't resist commenting on the breast milk cheese that Chef Daniel Angerer of Klee Brasserie is making from his lactating wife, Lori Mason. While many reports claimed that Chef Angerer is "serving up" his wife's breast milk cheese to customers of Klee Brasserie, this just isn't true, he is not offering breast milk cheese on the menu. Chef Angerer is offering guests at his home a taste of human cheese, and evidently many members of the press too.

On his blog, Chef Angerer actually gives his recipe for "Mommy's Milk Cheese," where one reader shares that they've made breast milk key lime pie. What I found most incredible about his blog entry was the fact that so many people were saying what a great idea this is.

Now I'm open-minded when it comes to food. I've eaten things that make most people cringe, brains, guts, feet, stomach, sperm, and even testicles, but never the human variety. While some people may say "milk is milk," I'd respond that "meat is meat," but that doesn't mean I have any cravings for a human rib roast.

4th Annual StarChefs' International Chef's Congress Lights Up NYC

2010-02-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

Having wrapped up its forth year and still going strong, the International Chef's Congress, organized by StarChefs.com and held every September, is still the premier food event in America.

I've attended three of the past four Chef's Congresses, and the only disappointing thing was that I didn't attend all four. With guests spanning the culinary elite from countries the world over, the roster of Chef's Congress speakers and demonstrators reads like a list of angels—and even some deities—from food heaven: Pierre Hermé, Albert Adria, Frédéric Bau, Ken Oringer, José Andrés, Eric Ripert, Daniel Boulud, Marcus Samuelsson, Masaharu Morimoto, Wylie Dufresne, Oriol Balaguer, Joël Robuchon, Gualtiero Marchesi, Dan Barber, Elena and Juan Mari Arzak, Elizabeth Falkner, Charlie Trotter, Pierre Gagnier, Grant Achatz, Paco Torreblanca, Pichet Ong, Albert Trummer....

The Congress, a three day event, not only highlights the talents and trends in the universe of food, it brings together seasoned professionals with budding up-and-comers for an exciting exchange of knowledge, experiences and ideas . Young chefs leave the event inspired, energized, and rearing to rise up in the food world and make a name for themselves with their own culinary creations.

At the fourth annual Congress I had the great good fortune of meeting founder Antoinette Bruno and spending a day watching her in action. A veritable force of energy on two legs, without Antoinette this event wouldn't go off nearly as well as it does, year after year. Of course every event of such a large scale has blips, but Bruno trouble-shoots in real time, juggling Blackberry messages, walkie-talkie communications among staffers, and the schedules of her star chefs, all while maintaining an air of sheer joy at watching her event unfold—like a kid who started her own candy shop. As if that weren't enough, Bruno is also a talented self-taught photographer whose images of food and chefs grace the pages of the Congresses' glorious program book.

Antoinette Bruno w/ Juan Mari Arzak

With more hands-on workshops, demonstrations and tastings than I can cover here, I'd just like to share some photos (well, quite a lot of photos actually) of my personal favorites from this year's Congress: Masaharu Morimoto, Jose Andrés, Juan Mari Arzak, Paco Torreblanca, Marcus Samuelsson, Rohini Dey and Maneet Chauhan.

Masaharu Morimoto (on Fish, of course), Iron Chef

The Highly Animated Jose Andres of Mini Bar, Washington DC

Owner Rohini Dey and Executive Chef Maneet Chauhan, At Vermilion

Hands-on Workshop w/ Chef Marcus Samuelsson, Aquavit

Pastry Chef Extraordinaire Paco Torreblanca

Last, but certainly not least, Juan Mari Arzak!

Friends at the Fore

2010-01-21T09:06:00.000-08:00

A quick shout out to Damien Herrgott, Executive Pastry Chef at the soon-to-open Bosie Tea Parlor in NYC. Time Out New York announced the opening, in which they said: "To go with the teas are sweets like macarons from pastry chef Damien Herrgott, who’s logged hours at Paris’s famed Pierre Hermé, and as executive pastry chef at Bouley Bakery. Quick correction to TONY, Damien Herrgott didn't just "log hours" at Pierre Hermé, he was hired at the young age of 23 to be the Chef for the opening of Hermé's first store in Paris. He remained with Hermé for four years, and also headed up the opening of his second Paris location.

Another bow to Cesar Ramirez, Executive Chef at Brooklyn Fare Kitchen, for the rave review he got on The Q, GQ Magazine's blog. Congratulations, Cesar! We knew you'd be a hit from the first time we ate there, and from the glorious birthday dinner you made for me and my friends. Kudos, you deserve it!

On Sick Leave!

2009-12-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers-

Unfortunately I have been on an extended leave from work due to illness. I wish all of you a Happy Holiday season, and hope to be back to work, posting articles, ASAP!

Right Wing Ice Cream?

2009-10-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

If you thought Ben and Jerry's was the only ice cream dipped in politics, think again. Turns out there's a conservative ice cream company that touts itself as the counter weight to Ben & Jerry's.

Star Spangled Ice Cream Company is the name, and like Ben & Jerry's, they donate a percentage of their profits to charitable organizations, in this case, those that support members of the military and their families.

This, of course, is a good cause—supporting members of the military, that is. However, it's interesting to note that the first contribution made by Star Spangled Ice Cream was to the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, founded by none other than Oliver North of Iran Contra infamy (though my guess is he can't recall why he started his organization, or that Star Spangled Ice Cream ever gave him any money).

What amuses me most about this little ice cream company are the names they give to their flavors. Iraqi Road, Navy BattleChip, Smaller GovernMint, Fightin' Marine Tough Cookies & Cream, G.I. Love Chocolate, and my absolute favorites, GUN NUT, Nutty Environmentalist, and I Hate the French Vanilla. Discontinued flavors and flavors in development have names like Cherry Falwell, Choc & Awe, and Donald RumRaisin.

Of course Ben & Jerry's has some amusing hippie names like Cherry Garcia and Magic Brownies, but they don't go nearly as far as Star Spangled Ice Cream.

This is unfortunate, it would be most amusing to buy Ben & Jerry's if only it had names like Public Option Heath Bar, Clinton Surplus Sorbet, Peachy Pelosi, California Liberal Lemon, Rocky Road to Iraqi Victory, Save the EnvironMINT, Legalize It Dutch Coffee House, Tolerance Toffee, Religious NUT, Equal Pay Fudge Sunday, Truly Hip Chocolate Chip, Big Tent Berry Medley, Al Gore's Internet Cookies & Cream, Racial EqualiTEA, or Go Green Tea . And, how about I Love the French Vanilla?

Hmmm, maybe I should start a liberal ice cream company? I'd better trademark those names, pronto!

From My Hometown to Yours: Parmigiano-Reggiano and Aceto Balsamico di Reggio Emilia

2009-10-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

Hardly anyone outside Italy has heard of Reggio Emilia. With the exception of Jacques Pépin—who had not only heard of it, but had visited and knew it as the food destination in Italy—most people stare blankly at me when I tell them Reggio Emilia is my Italian home town. So you can imagine my surprise as I watched a recent episode of Iron Chef America—where the secret ingredient was Balsamic Vinegar—when Alton Brown actually mentioned that Reggio Emilia is one of only two places that produce Aceto Balsamico. Not only did it make me proud, but it was pretty darn convenient as I had already begun drafting this article.

Despite the fact that Parmigiano-Reggiano is the number one imported Italian cheese in America, and that Reggio Emilia is a top producer, people—save for Alton Brown and Jacques Pépin—still don't know about my little town. Everyone knows Modena for its Aceto Balsamico and Ferrari headquarters, and Parma for its Prosciutto di Parma, but they just haven't heard of Reggio Emilia, its food, or the fact that it's located right in between these two famous towns.

Italians do know Reggio Emilia and its culinary reputation. In fact, there's a saying in Italy: "If you only have one night in Italy and can't eat at my Mamma's house, go to Reggio Emilia."

I'd like everyone to know Reggio Emilia and its culinary history. So I'll point you to the official website of Parmigiano-Reggiano, where you can watch a short film on the making of the cheese and read about its long history. You can also visit the international site for Parmigiano-Reggiano (look, Reggio Emilia is on the map!).

Besides our world-famous queen of cheeses, in Reggio Emilia we also produce award-winning Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale, as Alton Brown rightly mentioned on Iron Chef. Though produced in smaller quantities and much, much harder to find outside of Italy, Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Reggio Emilia has better flavor than its mainstream, mass-produced cousins from Modena.

I once visited the esteemed Acetaia Cavalli Ferdinando, where I was given a personal tour of the facilities and allowed to taste some amazing Balsamics. When my cousins and I finished the tour, we entered the warehouse where the wine store is located to see what we could bring home. As we walked past the employee kitchen, one of my cousins recognized an old refrigerator and thought it looked just like the one that used to be in my Nonna's home kitchen before I was born. When we asked the gentleman who had escorted us around the grounds, he told us that they had bought the fridge second hand, nearly four decades ago, from a Varolli. We all laughed and couldn't believe it still worked, and that it was indeed my Nonna's old fridge.

The result of this bizarre coincidence was that I was allowed to purchase a "not for sale" bottle of Cavalli Ferdinando Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale Extra Vecchio, Oro, bottle number 6, which had won the Consorzio award in 2002. With a normal Gold Label costing about $240, I won't even say how much this purchase set me back, but it was worth every penny to buy the un-buyable bottle that had won such high honors.

I still have some left today because I only break it out for super special occasions, or when I want to impress one of my foodie friends with a rare product from Reggio Emilia that they simply can't get for themselves. It's amazingly thick, complex, sweet and delicious, and I only serve it on its own, a couple drops in a spoon, because Balsamic this good needs no accompaniment. Yet, on this week's Iron Chef America, neither Iron Chef Michael Simon nor the challengers did what one should do with a 50 year old Balsamic, simply serve it in a spoon or drizzled over vanilla ice cream—the two best ways to truly appreciate this gastronomic gold.

There is, of course, more to the culinary landscape of Reggio Emilia than Parmigiano-Reggiano and Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale, but these two products are a good place to start if you want to get a feel for the food of this little town I call my home in Italy. You can also check out my recipe for rich Bolognese, based on the traditional version of Reggio Emilia, and look for my upcoming recipes for Tortelli and Tortellini en Brodo, both classic dishes from Reggio Emilia. If you'd like to read up on the culinary traditions of my home town, and home region of Emilia-Romagna, the best book by far is The Splendid Table, by Lynne Rosetto Kasper.

Brooklyn Fare Kitchen Extends Service, Finds New Location

2009-09-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

Heard it on good authority that the success of Brooklyn Fare Kitchen has led to the addition of Tuesday and Wednesday night menus, as their Thursday-Saturday seatings were booking nearly 3 months in advance.

Also rumored, Brooklyn Fare Kitchen has found a new home! Location TBA, but they're interviewing new staff, and though they will maintain the same concept, it's likely Chef César Ramirez and Sous Chef Juan Leon won't be serving and bussing any longer.

This isn't much of a surprise. They had been trying to find a new space nearby in Brooklyn when I was there for my birthday, but had no leads at that time. They've had amazing press, and I even saw Ramirez and Brooklyn Fare Kitchen featured on my NYC Taxi TV a few times lately. Kudos, they deserve every bit of press they get!

I'll post the new location, and expected date of opening, as soon as I hear it!

WISE TIP: Coping with Kitchen Burns

2009-09-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

When you've got 4 burners going, a roast and a gratin in the oven, and guests in your living room, what do you do when you've just reached for one of your pans and ended up burning yourself? It's not a riddle, it's a real home kitchen dilemma.

For me, after so many years of burning myself at times when I can hardly stop to nurse my wound, I've learned to just ignore burns. That's right, I ignore the pain and keep working as if nothing's happened. This may sound nuts, but it's what I do—and I dare say I wouldn't get shouted at by Gordon Ramsay thanks to this ability. In a professional kitchen, unless your skin is melting, you just can't stop working for every little burn. Mind over matter is the name of the game.

Burns are a fact of kitchen life—at home or in a restaurant—and learning to master them is key. When I first tried just ignoring my burns years ago, they would hurt despite my attempts to focus on my cooking and my guests. Slowly though, over time, they just stopped hurting. It's really a mind trick that anyone with a brain can master.

Today, when I burn myself and simply can't stop, I forget so completely about my little injury that I'm only reminded a day or two later when I knock my finger or arm up against something. My reaction of "Ouch!" is quickly followed by "Oh yeah, I burned myself yesterday."

Sometimes though, burns are too serious to ignore. In this case, if the ER isn't necessary, the only thing you can do is stop and immerse your burn in ice water. So long as your burn is submerged in water, it won't get worse and it won't hurt. This trick works, big time. I once stumbled towards a wood-burning stove registering 675 degrees. As I fell forward in seeming slow motion my choice was to hit the stove with my head or my hand. I chose my hand, which came down flat and hard on the metal part of the stove, and which I used to shove myself back up on my feet. Then I ran, shouting profanities, all the way to the sink.

The burn was so bad that the second I took my hand from the water it throbbed in a cartoon-like manner. Not wanting to spend the evening hovering over the tap, I filled a bowl with ice and water and spent the entire night with my hand in the bowl. When bed-time came, it still hurt too much to take it out, so I put the bowl on my bedside table and fell asleep with my hand in the water.

When I awoke the next day, much to my surprise, my hand was still in the water. So I lifted it out to see how it felt and you can imagine my shock when my hand didn't hurt one bit and there wasn't a single mark left from the burn. That's how well the ice-water method works.

Thing is, even when you get to the point where you can ignore your minor burns (not the major ones), if you don't want to be covered in scars then you should always treat them with Vitamin E. Just poke a pin in a Vitamin E soft-gel and squirt the oil onto your burn. The more often you treat your burn with Vitamin E, the less scarring you'll have.

If you're a cooking nut like me, having a few burn scars isn't anything to be ashamed of, quite the opposite in fact—these scars are like badges of honor, they attest to the fact that there's no need for me to get out of the kitchen, I can stand the heat.

The Ultimate Surprise Birthday Dinner at Brooklyn Fare Kitchen

2009-08-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

I confess, I've never had a surprise birthday party in my life. So when my man planned one for me this year, I hadn't a single suspicion, it was so off my radar. All I knew was that he was taking me to a "surprise dinner" on Sunday, and my only concern was what to wear (because I trust his choice in food).

All dressed and ready to go, Damien poured my favorite Lambrusco from my home town of Reggio Emilia, then he suggested we have a toast on the roof, where we have a spectacular view of the Statue of Liberty. Given I had dragged him up to the roof the previous night, at 1:00a.m., I didn't really want to go up again. It was cloudy, and the humidity was typical of August on the East Coast—swamp like and sticky.

Yet, for some mysterious reason, I could see in his pleading eyes that he really, really wanted to go up, so I conceded.

When we got to the roof I saw a group of people already hanging out, nothing out of the norm, everyone in my building takes in the view, so I didn't really look at them too closely. Then they all rushed towards me and shouted "Surprise!"

My head spun, it was so unexpected that it was more of a shock than a surprise. I was so thrown that it felt like mental whiplash. My brain had to shift gears without using its clutch. All I could think was "Is the apartment a total mess? Do we have drinks for everyone? Food! Do we have food?!"

We all came back down to the apartment and popped some Champagne to toast my birthday. Overwhelmed and totally thrilled that this was indeed a surprise party, and it was for me, I quickly forgot my immediate concerns. And, I learned that we were all heading to dinner together.

Brain working overtime, I started to guess where we might be going. Then, in our cars on route, I had a growing suspicion when we turned onto Chambers Street, heading for the Brooklyn Bridge, that we were going to our friend César Ramirez's new place, Brooklyn Fare Kitchen. Damien and I had been there just the second weekend it was open, but I forgot my camera, so I didn't write about it back then. I'm making up for that omission now.

When we all reconvened outside Brooklyn Fare Kitchen, everyone was surprised, they'd never seen anything like it. Even those of my friends used to gastro dining had yet to see a venue like this. I've eaten at many Chef's Tables and done plenty of Tasting Menus, but Brooklyn Fare Kitchen takes these concepts to a whole new level.

The normal menu usually consists of about seven courses, but Damien had booked the whole kitchen for my birthday, and Cesar surprised all of us with a few extra dishes, bringing the total to eleven.

The meal started with a Canapé of Iranian Hibiscus, a chilled shot of refreshing hibiscus liquid topped with hibiscus foam, perfect for cleaning the palate and perking up the humidity-zapped diners.

Our next course—Veal Brains with Sauce Gribiche—was a bonus for my birthday, so it isn't on the regular menu, which, by the way, changes rather frequently. A few friends not used to eating offal couldn't help but to cringe, yet, once they popped the tiny, perfectly fried Veal Brains into their mouths, they were more than glad they didn't let squeamishness stop them from trying something new... and fabulous.

The third course, simply called "Tomato" on the menu, was well more than just a tomato. In César style, a style I've loved for years, since he was the Executive Chef at Bouley in Tribeca, a "tomato" was transformed into myriad manifestations of an Insalata Caprese—including a frozen tomato marshmallow—and served in a show-stopping manner. Knowing the best of the best, César chose an Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale from Reggio Emilia, aged 20 years, to drizzle over his creation. After seeing the actual plate, one friend joked, "After eating his 'Tomato,' I can't wait to get to his 'Mango!'"

Our fourth course was also on the regular menu, a Kona Kampachi with Ponzu sauce and crispy fried leeks. César knows how to cut fish like a Sushi Chef, resulting in slices of Kampachi that were as soft and supple as butter. This was perhaps my favorite course of the evening, though it's more than difficult to say with everything being so good.

The fifth course, another special birthday bonus, was Bulgur, Black Rice, and Egg with Summer Truffles. The yolk was just warmed and still runny, and the white had been hard boiled then emulsified, producing a texture akin to custard. The smoothness of the egg was coupled with the crunchiness of the crispy black rice, and blanketed in the flavor and aroma of summer truffles. Simple perfection.

Typical of the deceptively unassuming Brooklyn Fare Kitchen menu, the next course was "Roasted Scallops with Parsley Mousse." In reality, it was a dish of roasted scallops, fresh Oregon-raised snails and langoustine, topped with a thin slice of pork belly, served on a parsley mousse. Now, I love escargot, I even tried to make some with my big sister when I was six years old, with snails we gathered from our back garden. The meal was a complete failure, but not so with César's fresh snails—of course. Truth be told, I have never had a snail so tender. Not in the U.S., not even in France. And, the addition of the pork belly provided the perfect fat needed to pair with such lean proteins.

The seventh course, another birthday bonus, was Japanese Snapper with Fava Beans, Corn Purée and Summer Vegetables. Melted over the snapper was a square of caramel that enhanced the natural sweetness of the fish itself. And the vegetables, though tiny, weren't one second overcooked. I've been served too many floppy, flavorless vegetables to take César's for granted.

Course eight, from the regular menu, was Steamed Fois Gras with Tofu and Dashi Sauce, and a hint of Shiso. I didn't know you could steam Fois Gras, but that's why I'm no César Ramirez. The result was a silky, perfectly cooked little piece of fatty liver heaven.

By this point, even those of us with enormous appetites were starting to feel a bit full. But with food this amazing, nobody was ready to stop. A good thing too, because our Fois Gras was followed by a stunning item on the regular menu, Maine Lobster with Fresh Horseradish, Cooked Beets, Beet Sauce and Beet Caramel. Having just talked with one of my friends about how we didn't like beets, but how I had had some that I did like, I turned to her and said, "Oh yeah, I remember, César made me beets I liked, so you have to eat this!" She, and I, both liked the beets, and the beet caramel atop the whole dish was a huge surprise to everyone, both for its flavor and its technique.

The final savory course, tenth overall, was a Veal Loin with Italian Kale from the menu. On our plates, it was more than just that, and included Tete de Veau with Mushrooms and Sweetbreads. I love fried sweetbreads, and César's were done to perfection, crispy on the outside, billowy on the inside. Again, even those who had never had sweetbreads tried them, and they began to understand that in the hands of a chef like César Ramirez, anything can be delicious—brains, organs, liver, beets—you name it. The veal loin was a rare mini-medallion married to a purée of blackened onions. Beyond yummy.

At last, and after some serious efforts to make room for dessert in our stuffed tummies, we finally got to the "Mango" on the menu, a creation of sous-chef Juan Leon. As my friend quipped earlier, it was more than just mango. The dessert was a parfait of sorts, served in a stemless wine glass, with layers of Mango cream, chunky mango compote, and thin slices of pound cake, topped with a torched wafer-thin layer of dried mango "caramel." No birthday cake necessary! But everyone did take the opportunity to sing.

More than just a surprise birthday dinner for myself, the evening ended up a celebration of food, friends, new culinary experiences, and, of course, the talent of César Ramirez and his sous-chef Juan Leon. At one point in the evening a friend said, "This has got to be the best birthday dinner going on in all of America tonight!"

You don't need a birthday excuse to head on over to Brooklyn Fare Kitchen. It's a gastronomic experience unlike any other. Sitting in the kitchen at the chef's actual workspace, being served by the chefs themselves, and having them articulate their dishes and answer questions, makes for an intimate and relaxed atmosphere, topped off with food from the stratosphere.

Though its ten seats are booking up almost two months in advance, it's well worth the wait. Lacking a liquor license, it's BYOW (for Wine), making the $70 prix fix menu a bargain. Just remember to bring enough wine to share with the chefs! Oh, and I'll hear none of that "I don't go to Brooklyn" from you Manhattanites. I used to joke about needing my passport to go to Brooklyn, but I made it to Brooklyn Fare Kitchen not once, but twice in two months. And I'll go back for sure, again and again, because the menu never stays the same. Indeed, with the theme "Food Under Construction," Brooklyn Fare Kitchen isn't a one-off experience.

Open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, Brooklyn Fare Kitchen seats maximum 10 people. The Prix Fix menu is a steal at $70 per person, and it's BYOW.

EDIT, July 2010: Brooklyn Fare Kitchen's days and prices have changed, and it's no longer BYOW. Call to get on the waiting list! : )

To make reservations at Brooklyn Fare Kitchen, please call 718.243.0500. Brooklyn Fare Kitchen is located at 200-3 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201... Just across the street from the A, C, and G stops at Hoyt-Schermerhorn (just three stops into Brooklyn, people).

http://www.brooklynfare.com/thekitchen.php?page=3,0

The Yummiest, Juiciest, Easiest BBQ Pork Ribs Ever

2009-08-07T07:42:00.000-07:00

I must give credit where credit is due. This recipe for Pork Ribs is my version of a recipe I got years ago from Executive Chef Derek Emerson, owner of Walker's Drive-In in Jackson, Mississippi. I haven't changed the fundamental techniques, I've just given it my own personal twists, which means that you can add your own personal flare to it as well, and still have the same, excellent results. These pork ribs are sooo good that I have had both a vegetarian and a Jewish friend who doesn't eat pork both break down and eat them. They just couldn't stand hearing all the "YUM"s, and "Oh"s all around and not try them!

This recipe is super easy, and though it takes some time, it's not a lot of active time. Because of the technique, you can make the ribs well in advance of your guests arriving and simply finish them off without any hassle. You can take the rib recipe for itself, but I've also shared how you can turn your ribs into an entire meal out of the same pot, and that's always a beautiful thing.

What you'll need:

Organic Pork Ribs (Berkshire and Niman Ranch Pork are my faves, one full rack of St. Louis Style ribs serves two people, look for the most marbled ribs you can find)
3 Medium Yellow Onions, roughly chopped
2 Large Carrots, peeled, roughly chopped
3 Celery Ribs, roughly chopped
2 Granny Smith Apples, washed (in warm water if they're covered in wax), halved
Whole Black Peppercorns
Whole Juniper Berries
Fresh Rosemary and Thyme
BBQ Sauce (my fave for this particular recipe is "Bone Suckin' Sauce")

In a large stock pot, bring the vegetables, apples, peppercorns, and juniper berries just to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium-high for a strong simmer and allow the liquid to reduce for about 2 hours. In the last half hour, add the rosemary and thyme.

You can use whatever vegetables you like, just don't skip the onions and carrots, or the apples and thyme. Like with any vegetable stock, you can use leeks, scallions, garlic, parsley—just be sure the flavors you choose will go well with pork. Choosing your ingredients is how to make this recipe your own!

When you have a flavorful liquid, add some coarse Kosher salt to the pot then add the rack(s) of ribs to the water. On medium-high heat, simmer the ribs for about 45 minutes, skimming the muck off the top of the liquid. The ribs will be cooked through completely, but leave them in the pot until you've finished your BBQ sauce, or for as long as you need, turning the heat down to the very lowest setting.

After cooking the ribs for about 30 minutes, take about one cup of the liquid from the stock pot and put it into a small saucepan. On high heat, reduce this liquid by about half. Then whisk in the BBQ sauce. Leave this sauce on low heat until ready to use.

As it's BBQ time of year, most of you will want to finish the ribs off on the grill. But if you live on the East Coast like me, it rains a fair bit in the summer, so you can also finish the ribs off in a broiler whenever the weather isn't being cooperative with your plans.

Have the BBQ or broiler all ready to go on high heat. Remove the ribs from the stock pot and place them on a large dish or jelly roll pan for preparation. If you're using the broiler instead of the BBQ, line your jelly-roll pan with heavy duty aluminum foil before placing the ribs on it.

Generously smother the ribs with your prepared BBQ sauce, immediately (if they sit out, they dry out). If grilling, place them bone-side down on the grill first, turning once, finishing up with the meat-side down. If broiling, broil the bone-side up first, then flip the ribs to broil the meat side. Whether in the broiler or on the grill, slather on more of your BBQ sauce when you flip the ribs. Remember, your ribs are already cooked through, you're just grilling / broiling them to get a nice, flavorful char on the meat.

Every summer I save the liquid each time I make these ribs. I freeze it, labeling it "pork stock," and I add the frozen stock to the liquid every time I make ribs.

If you would like to make an entire meal out of this single pot, you'll also need:

Small Potatoes (washed, unpeeled, left whole)
Corn on the Cob (husks and silk removed) or Artichokes (trimmed and cleaned)
Dental Floss

Small, whole potatoes, about 2" in diameter, will take about 20-25 minutes to cook. Add them to your pot after the ribs have been in for about ½ hour, and cook them until they slide easily off of a paring knife inserted in the middle. You can leave the potatoes whole for serving, or you can turn them into mashed potatoes (but then you'd have to use another pot). When I leave the potatoes whole for serving, I put some of the stock in a gravy boat so my guests can pour a bit over their potatoes if they like.

Corn on the cob only takes about 3-5 minutes to cook in boiling water. When you take your ribs out of the pot to put them in the broiler, turn the heat back up to high on the stock pot, and add the corn when you flip the ribs. To check the corn for doneness, pull one out of the water with tongs and pierce one kernel with the tip of a pairing knife or one fork prong. If the kernel squirts out some juice when pierced, your corn is done.

My thanks to Chef Derek Emerson for this recipe! He shared it with me ages ago, and it's still the best easy rib recipe I know. Hope you feel the same too!

WISE TIP: Pasta Water

2009-06-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

False: Adding Olive Oil to your water will keep pasta from sticking.

True: Using a very large amount of heavily salted water ("Salted like the sea" as they say in Italy), and stirring frequently, will keep your pasta from sticking while it cooks.

There's no need for olive oil in your pasta water. All it does is float on the very top, it adds no flavor, and does nothing at all to prevent sticking. And as the best way to cook pasta is to finish it in whatever sauce you've chosen, the olive oil will only serve to coat the pasta when you drain it, thus forming a barrier that prevents your sauce from infusing its flavors into the pasta. Also, even if you have used enough water and stirred the pasta frequently, if you leave the pasta in the sieve too long after draining it, it will stick to each other. So drain it and immediately add it to your sauce to finish cooking.

Michel Cluizel Hosts the First Chocolate Dinner in America

2009-05-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

When you adore chocolate and find yourself invited to the first ever choco-centric dinner in America, you don't walk, you run. A couple of weeks ago lucky little me found herself in this position, and it was with great expectations that my man and I entered Le Cirque restaurant—somewhat short of breath—to attend a chocolate dinner hosted by Chocolat Michel Cluizel.

Although Michel Cluizel had already hosted such a dinner in Paris, there had never been anything like it in the U.S. To add to the unique experience, Hardy Cognac partnered with Michel Cluizel to present a menu whose courses were paired with cognac instead of wine—making it a bit more challenging for a lightweight like me to remember every little detail of the dinner by the time it ended.

What I remember the most, what I will probably remember for the rest of my life, was one course in particular, the Buffalo Fillet Carpaccio with Cherries, Chicory and Shaved Chocolate, and the glass of Perfection, Hardy's 140 year old cognac, the world's oldest known unblended cognac, composed of 100% French Colombard. Overall, the menu, designed by Le Cirque's Executive Chefs—both savory and pastry—had its hits and misses.

The first course was the oh so memorable Buffalo Carpaccio, paired with the award-winning Hardy XO, a 25 year old blend of Grande and Petite Champagne. Not only was the buffalo meat impeccably tender, but the chocolate aspect of the course was perfectly harmonious with the Carpaccio, and made use of my favorite single origin—Venezuelan—in this case Cluizel's Conception 66%, "Premier Cru de Plantation." This course was so extraordinary that when I discovered I was sitting next to a vegetarian who hadn't touched his, I couldn't resist asking his permission to pinch some off his plate rather than see it tossed in the trash. With great food, one doesn't always care about good form.

Following the Buffalo was a Foie Gras Torchon with Cocoa Nibs and Bacon Caramel, paired with Hardy Noces D'Or, another award-winning blend of 40 different Grand Champagne cognacs and aged a minimum of 50 years. Although not as seamlessly carried out, the use of Cluizel's Los Ancones 67% "Premier Cru de Plantation" from Santo Domingo—combined with bacon caramel (yum!)—made this course another hit. However, having already stabbed my fork onto my vegetarian neighbor's plate, I refrained from doing so a second time. But I did have a moment of regret as I saw the plate being taken away untouched. I can only hope the kitchen staff treated themselves.

Next up was a Roasted Squab Breast with Confit, Kumquats, Chocolate Feuillete and Chocolate-Peppercorn Vinaigrette. While the Squab was a spot-on medium rare, my idea of the perfect doneness, the Confit missed the mark, and the use of chocolate in this course did seem disconnected, not nearly as harmonious as its use with the Buffalo or even the Foie. Still, one could nevertheless appreciate the delicious Dark 72% chocolate, as well as the pairing of Hardy Noces D'Albarte, aged 75 years.

It might seem that Le Cirque's savory chef had the more difficult task of the evening, but when your assignment was that of the pastry chef—to create a dessert using Michel Cluizel chocolate and Hardy Cognac—at least for me, expectations were higher for the dessert than the main courses. Unfortunately, the dessert, a Mangaro Chocolate Composition of Mousse, Sorbet, Croquant and Cognac, was a let down. While the sorbet was rich and deep in chocolate flavor, the Composition tasted way more like hazelnuts than chocolate, a double disappointment for a serious chocolate lover who isn't keen on hazelnuts. Frankly, I expected to be blown away by chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate, and I simply wasn't.

At the end of the meal came the Sweet Petit Fours and the glass of Perfection, on which I will muse for a moment. Never in my life have I had a drink so old and so rare, and at $600 a glass ($8,000 a bottle), it could be a while before I ever do again. Not much of a hard alcohol drinker, more of a wine woman, I was amazed at how soft and smooth the Perfection was, no burn, no sting. I couldn't help thinking about how the cognac I was sipping had been around since Andrew Johnson was in the White House. For me, that glass of Perfection was profound, conjuring historical events that had taken place since its creation 140 years ago, and seemingly containing ghosts in every glass.

Hardy Perfection, "Essential Elements" series, bottled in Daum Crystal, Pictured Above: Air, Fire, Water, and Earth

In all, despite the copious amount of cognac, it was a dining experience I'll never forget, and a privilege to attend. As I believe chocolate—especially single origin chocolate—can go very well in savory cooking, I do hope that this becomes a new trend here in America. It's about time our most creative chefs in the country start thinking of something other than Mole Poblano and Mole Verde when they think of the savory side of chocolate.

For more information about Chocolat Michel Cluizel, visit their website at
http://www.chocolatmichelcluizel-na.com/

For more information about Hardy Cognac, visit their website at http://www.ahardyusa.com/index.html

America's Northern Arapaho Tribe to Sell Beef to Whole Foods Market

2009-05-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

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A long-time supporter of all things organic and sustainable, as well as a supporter of the rights and economic empowerment of indigenous peoples, I was more than pleased to read an AP report today announcing that the Northern Arapaho tribe of Wyoming has certified its 70 year old cattle ranch as Organic and sealed a deal to sell its beef to Whole Foods Market.

I've always said that a happy animal in life is a tasty animal in death, and though not expressed exactly the same way, tribal council member Norman Willow told the AP, "Anything living we treat them like a brother, that will pass on to the people who eat it."

Though the initial sales will be to Whole Foods stores in the Rocky Mountains region, it's my hope that Whole Foods will move towards wider distribution and look to America's tribes for other organic goods they can sell in stores around the country. As another tribal council member, Ron Oldman, stated to the AP, "Part of our heritage is to be nurturers of the land."

Truth is, if modern American society had learned even one lesson about caring for the land—and its animals—from the people who inhabited this continent for 60,000+ years without causing environmental degradation, we wouldn't be in the mess we find ourselves today, nor would we have to distinguish between "organic" and crap foods full of dangerous pesticides and hormones. Organic, free-range, rBST-free are not new trends, they are old, very old ways of doing things, and we need to get back to them.

Even in times of economic challenge, I refuse to buy crap food, and you should too. Eat less meat to meet your budget, but eat good meat. It's better for the environment, your health, and of course, your taste buds.

Read the AP story!

All About Artichokes

2009-05-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

I love artichokes, I think I could live on them if they were in season year round. They're super yummy and really rather easy to handle, and given that they can be served hot or cold, it's great to make extra artichokes at dinnertime so you can enjoy some for lunch the next day too.

All you need for fabulous artichokes are fresh artichokes, a lemon or two, sharp kitchen scissors, a large serrated knife, a small paring knife, salt, and a large stock pot.

Choosing Fresh Artichokes

First, you want to pick the freshest artichokes you can find. When an artichoke is fresh, it squeaks when you squeeze it with both hands, and it feels heavy for its size. If you squeeze an artichoke and don't hear squeaking, move on to the next one.

Prepping Artichokes

I prep my artichokes before they're cleaned because prepping can leave bits trapped in between the leaves that you don't want trapped in between your teeth.

Start by cutting your lemon(s) in half, saving one half for use on the cleaned artichokes while using the other half for the unclean artichokes in preparation.

Pick up the artichoke and remove the very small leaves at the bottom, by hand, simply by pulling them backwards until they snap off. If they don't just snap off because they're too rubbery, then you didn't pick a very fresh artichoke.

Next, grab your scissors and start cutting off the top 1/3 of each leaf, starting above the ones you just pulled off. Normally, artichoke leaves have a bit of a split in the top of them, cut the leaf so that this split is removed. Do this for all but the very top leaves of the artichokes.

Using your serrated knife (known also as a bread knife), turn the artichoke on its side and saw off the top leaves you haven't yet cut.

At this point, generously rub lemon on the leaves and top of the artichoke, as you go... don't wait and do them all at the end, by then the first artichoke will have already gone brown. Lemon is for flavor, but at this point it's used to avoid discoloration.

Now you should be able to see the light yellow and purple leaves at the very center of your artichoke, called the choke or heart. You can remove the choke or you can leave it. Artichokes cook more quickly if you remove the choke, but the choke is removed more easily when cooked. A great trick for removing the choke of an uncooked artichoke is to use a spoon that got caught in the garbage disposal and now has jagged edges. It's the upside to accidentally "ruining" a spoon.

The last step before cleaning is to cut away the outside of the stem. The center of the stem is full of the yummy artichoke bottom, so I don't discard it. Even if I want to serve the artichokes without their stems (they sit up nicely that way), I just cut them off after cooking and eat the center myself. To trim down the stem, first cut off the dry bottom, then turn the artichoke upside-down and, starting from the bottom of the stem with a paring knife, cut down until you reach the bottom of the artichoke, then snap if off backwards like you did with the first small leaves. Then slather the lemon all over the stem.

Cleaning Artichokes

To clean an artichoke, start by rinsing it under cold running water, pulling it apart slightly to get the water down between the leaves. Then fill a large bowl with water and, with the artichoke upside-down, plunge it into the water repeatedly, spinning the artichoke as it hits the water. Finish by rinsing again under cold running water.

After washing each artichoke, generously rub and squeeze the unused lemon half all over it before cleaning the next one. If you removed the choke, make sure to get lemon juice in the middle and around the inner leaves. Place the artichokes in waiting in a bowl to collect the lemon juice.

Cooking Artichokes

I boil my artichokes, it's quicker than steaming. The trick with boiling is to get them to stay submerged in the water, artichokes are notoriously buoyant. If you have a large pot with a short steaming insert, fill the pot with enough water such that the steam insert will force the artichokes to stay under water. If you don't have this type of pot, then just get creative. In the photo I demonstrate this creativity, instead of using my All-Clad with the inserts, I used a smaller Calfalon and just floated a sieve on top of the water to keep the artichokes submerged.

Add the artichokes and their lemon juice to well-salted boiling water. If your lemons are organic and you washed them, you can boil the lemons with the artichokes for added flavor (just don't use the half you smeared on the unclean artichokes).

A medium artichoke will take about 20 minutes in boiling water. To test for doneness, try pulling out a leaf (using tongs so you don't burn your fingers). If the leaf comes out easily and the meat at the bottom of the leaf is tender enough to scrape off with your teeth, then the artichoke is done. Drain them upside-down so you don't accidentally burn yourself with trapped hot water when eating them.

Serve artichokes with melted butter when warm, and a vinaigrette or home-made mayonnaise when cold. And in case you care, artichokes have zero fat and are a great source of potassium and fiber. But I eat them just because they're delicious!

RECIPE: Bolognese alla Regina, a.k.a. The Queen's Bolognese

2009-05-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

Real Bolognese comes from the capital of Emilia-Romagna, the city of Bologna, but in Reggio Emilia, also located in Emilia-Romagna, we make a pretty wicked Bolognese ourselves. I'm not claiming my recipe is THE recipe of Reggio-Emilia, but it's the recipe I've been making for years—a bit lighter than the traditional, but way more flavorful and rich than most of what you find in the States. It's Bolognese alla Regina, which is me, and funnily enough, Regina means 'queen' in Italian. So that makes my Bolognese, "The Queen's Bolognese." And if I do say so myself, it's fit for even a real queen.

Olive Oil (for the pan)
8-16 oz (1-2 cups) Chicken Stock (home-made is best, by far)
2 oz Pancetta, very finely diced
2 large yellow onions, very finely diced
1 small carrot, peeled and grated (box grater or food processor)
1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb ground pork (you can use all beef or all pork, just use 2 lb)
Double-concentrated Tomato Paste (preferably imported Italian)
1-2 Rinds of real Parmiggiano-Reggiano cheese
4-8 oz (1/2-1 cup) Whole Milk, room temperature
Coarse Kosher Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Unsalted Butter, cold

In a heavy stock pot, bring the 16 oz of chicken stock just to a boil. Pour half of the stock into a small pot (your reserve), and leave both on the burners, set to low. While you're waiting for the stock to boil, do your mise en place (French for: dice all the ingredients so they're ready to go).

In a large, heavy sauté pan, on med-high heat, add just enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Add the Pancetta and cook until the fat has been rendered and the Pancetta is browned. Remove the Pancetta from the pan with a slotted spoon and add it to the chicken stock in the large stock pot. You want the fat from the Pancetta to stay in the pan for the next steps.

Add the chopped onions to the pan and sauté over high, med-high heat. Sprinkle a bit of salt on the onions as this will help them to release water. Sauté, stirring, for about 5 minutes or until the onions are soft, translucent and golden brown. It's important to brown the onions, but to keep the bottom of your pan from blackening. You want to build a flavorful fond in the pan, so avoid burning anything.

When the onions are done, remove them from the pan and put them in the stock pot with the cooked Pancetta.

Maintaining med-high to high heat, add fresh olive oil to the pan if needed, then add the grated carrot to the pan. Lightly salt the carrots (again to release the water as well as for flavor), and sauté, stirring, until the carrots are soft and golden brown. Remove carrots and add them to the onions and Pancetta.

Add more olive oil, as needed, then sauté the ground pork in the same pan over medium heat, lightly salting the pork. Don't crowd your pan with meat though, sauté it in small batches if your pan isn't a big one. If you crowd any pan with any kind of meat, it won't brown properly because too much water will be released at once. Cook the pork until it is browned, and make sure you don't end up with large chunks of meat, you want the meat to break down into small, uniform bits.

When the pork is browned, add it to the stock pot. Add oil to the sauté pan as needed, and repeat this process for the ground beef, again being careful not to burn the bottom of the pan.

When the beef is done and into your stock pot, add 2 tablespoons (roughly) of tomato paste straight into your hot sauté pan and cook it on medium heat for about a minute. Then add enough chicken stock from your reserve to the sauté pan to cover the bottom, turn the heat up to high, and using a heat-proof spatula (I prefer a wood spatula), scrape all of the fond off the bottom of the pan until it's incorporated with the tomato paste and stock. Pour this liquid into your stock pot.

Add about 4oz of whole milk to the stock pot and stir to incorporate. Then add the rinds of Reggiano-Parmiggiano cheese. If necessary, add more chicken stock to the Bolognese so it's more soupy than saucy.

At this point, your Bolognese will simmer away on low heat for as many hours as you like, but for a minimum of two hours to really reduce the liquids and concentrate the flavors. During simmering, the carrots, onions and Pancetta should slowly melt away and become one with the sauce. As needed, continue to add warm chicken stock and room-temperature whole milk. There's no need to constantly stir the pot, so most of this simmering time is not active. Just stir it occasionally and keep your eye on the heat level (the sauce should maintain a low simmer, not a boil, so it reduces very slowly).

When I make my Bolognese, I usually start it after work and simmer it all night (of course, using some of it for my dinner that night too). I often leave the pot on the stove overnight, covered but not heated, and continue simmering it even longer the following morning. There's no need to refrigerate it for this one night, it won't go bad! Thing is, with a Bolognese, the longer it simmers the richer the flavor, but I don't always have time to accomplish this in one night, hence why I leave it out overnight and continue simmering and adding stock / milk for a couple extra hours the next day.

When the Bolognese has simmered for the desired amount of time, taste it to check for salt. I don't add salt during simmering because as the liquid evaporates and the flavors concentrate, the salt used to sauté the vegetables and meats gets concentrated and you can easily end up with too salty a Bolognese. For this reason I add my salt, to taste, at the end of the simmering process so I get the perfect amount. Same goes for the fresh ground black pepper.

At this point, you may be wondering where the butter comes into the picture. Well, the butter comes in at the point when you're going to use the sauce with your pasta. My Bolognese has about 14 grams (1 tbsp) of butter per person, stirred straight into the sauce just before serving.

Bolognese keeps well in the refrigerator (in an air-tight container) for up to a week, and it can freeze for up to 2 months (in a heavy-duty, freezer-safe container). Defrost it in your fridge overnight. Reheat it just to a boil before allowing it to simmer.

Besides just using Bolognese as a sauce (perfect for Pappardelle), you can also use The Queen's Bolognese for Lasagna, or on toasted Ciabatta with Mozzarella melted on top in a broiler, one of my quickie lunch favorites. One thing is for sure, whatever you use Bolognese for, it's always nice to have some in the freezer or fridge for a more than satisfying meal in minutes.
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Congratulations to This Year's James Beard Awards Winners!

2009-05-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

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While not all of my personal picks pulled off a win, a few certainly did. I name them here first, then follow up with a few of the winners in the top categories. To read the full list of winners of the 2009 James Beard Awards, visit the James Beard Foundation website.

Outstanding Chef: Dan Barber, Blue Hill, NYC. Who could not support this selection? Dan Barber is a revolutionary, a pioneer, and an inspiration to all of us—but especially to his pastry chef, Alex Grunert.

Outstanding Service: Daniel, NYC. Even if you're not a VIP or a regular, at Daniel you'll find yourself always being treated like one. To my mind, Daniel's staff provides the best overall service I've ever experienced in America.

Outstanding Restaurant: Jean-Georges, NYC. Yes, Jean Georges is a fabulous restaurant, no denying that. But it wasn't one of my picks because I just don't think it's currently the best restaurant in America.

Outstanding Wine Service: Le Bernardin, NYC. While I haven't had the pleasure of dining at Le Bernardin yet, I will pretty soon because a good friend just started work there. In his words, "the wine list is as thick as a bible, but a lot more fun to follow."

Best Chef, Pacific Region: Douglas Keane, Cyrus, CA. Truthfully, I hadn't even heard of Cyrus until my friend Roy joined the restaurant as its Executive Pastry Chef. Having heard such wonderful praise from Roy, it's definitely at the top of my "To Eat" list next time I'm out visiting family and friends in Cali.

America's Classics: Yank Sing, San Fran, CA. It was ten years ago at least when I first ate at Yank Sing's downtown location. Since then, I have heralded it as the best Chinese I've ever had in America. I still have dreams about their roast duck steamed buns with plum sauce.

Cookbook of the Year: Fat, An Appreciation of Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes, by Jennifer McLagen. I LOVE this book! When it first caught my eye in a bookstore I ended up standing for twenty minutes exploring its pages and agreeing with the author's take on fat—an ingredient I've never misunderstood or not appreciated.

Cooking from A Professional Point of View: Alinea, by Grant Achatz. I got this book as a gift for my man this past Christmas, since then, it's been a coffee-table mainstay. Even if you're not a professional, any foodie would love the stunning pictures and inspirational flavors found in Alinea.
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An Interview with Alex Grunert, Executive Pastry Chef, Blue Hill at Stone Barns

2009-04-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

When I met Alex Grunert back in 2005 he was the Executive Pastry Chef at both Bouley and Danube restaurants in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood. My first meal at Bouley was finished with such divine desserts that I simply had to meet the pastry chef. Since then, Alex Grunert has moved above and beyond Bouley and Danube to the celebrated Blue Hill at Stone Barns, the renowned Farm-to-Table restaurant located north of New York City in Pocantico Hills, recently a location for this season's Top Chef episode Down on the Farm.

Born and raised in Vienna, Austria, Alex began his career at age fifteen at the prestigious Hotel Inter-Continental restaurant, Vier Jahreszeiten, in Vienna. During his eight years at Vier Jahreszeiten, Alex learned the fine arts of viennoiserie and pâtisserie, and rose to the position of Demi-Chef Pâtissier. From Vier Jahreszeiten Alex moved to Oberlaa Konditorei—the famed Viennese pâtisserie—to manage chocolate production. It was here that Alex had the tremendous opportunity to learn under the hand of master pâtissier Karl Schuhmacher.

Having pretty much perfected traditional pastry, viennoiserie and chocolate production, Alex side-stepped tradition, moving to New York City in 2000 to work as Pastry Sous Chef at Danube. Alex again proved his talent and soon became the Executive Pastry Chef for both Bouley and Danube restaurants, no surprise to anyone who knows his desserts.

Flourless Chocolate Brownie with Seckle Pears, Tonka Bean Ice Cream, "Gluehwein" (spiced red wine), Salted Chocolate Crumbs

Matsu Apple and Celery Gelée with Pickled Watermelon Rind and White Mellon Flesh with Yogurt-Vanilla Sorbet

Today, at the helm of the pastry department at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Chef Grunert finds himself a veteran surprisingly learning new things, thinking about ingredients in new ways, and performing new duties that he never thought he'd find himself doing—hand picking ingredients that inspire his creations being just one.

A friend to my tummy and my heart, Alex sat down with me recently to talk about his work at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, his new boss, Executive Chef and Co-owner Dan Barber, and what it's like working at a Farm-to-Table restaurant with ingredients grown in the kitchen's own "back yard."

CS: I'd love to start by hearing what it was like for you when you first went to work at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. After all, this Farm-to-Table restaurant is quite different than what you're used to.

AG: Yes, it's very different. I can only use seasonal ingredients and when I first came to work at Blue Hill at Stone Barns it was in the early spring and only strawberries and rhubarb were in season, so I had to make desserts using only strawberries and rhubarb. So in four weeks I created fifteen different items—entremets and desserts—with rhubarb, or strawberries, or both. It was so hard to come up with so many new desserts using just two ingredients, so I went to the kitchen director and told him I thought maybe this wouldn't work out for me.

I was surprised when he said that in all his years he had never seen someone come up with so many different desserts using just strawberries and rhubarb. So I guess I didn't have to do so many! Now whenever we have culinary students coming to Blue Hill at Stone Barns he always tells them, "This is our pastry chef Alex, you've never met anyone who can do so much with strawberries and rhubarb."

CS: So you don't have to develop so many new desserts as you thought at first, but still, using only ingredients that are in season, you must have to stretch your imagination every time something new pops up from the ground.

AG: Working at Blue Hill at Stone Barns is my biggest professional challenge, ever. Because I do have to constantly develop seasonal desserts, so I can't do just anything I want by using out of season fruits. But using only seasonal ingredients is good for me, it makes me think more! It's almost like being back at school, I'm constantly growing and learning.

Golden Beet Cake with a Pistachio Mayonnaise and Ice Cream, White Chocolate and Molasses

AG: Plus, I'm like a farmer now! I begin every day by going into the gardens and picking all the fruit I'll use in my desserts that day. I'm not used to picking my own fruit! It's more work for me and my team, but it's so nice to spend part of my day outdoors in a garden when I'm more used to being shut in a hot pastry kitchen—although my kitchen here is wonderful. But I was outside so much last summer that I got a tan just from picking fruit!

Also, it's beautiful up here. I live in the city, so my work environment couldn't be more different or more relaxing. It's funny, a lot of my chef friends in the city didn't understand why I would want to commute out of Manhattan, then they come up to experience the food, to see my kitchen and the gardens... then they get it.

CS: What's the most unusual thing you've learned or done since coming to Blue Hill at Stone Barns?

AG: Making maple syrup! I learned how to make maple syrup! Can you believe that? It's just unbelievable to realize where all these ingredients I've always used, and sort of taken for granted, actually come from.

CS: So how do you make maple syrup?

AG: You don't know? Just kidding, I didn't either! Well we started by drilling a small hole into the maple tree then fitting it with a plastic pipe that goes from the tree into a bucket. The sap comes out so slowly, drip by drip, and it's like water. In a few days, when I have enough in the bucket, I do a ten-times reduction to develop the caramelization and thick consistency. You have all this watery sap at first, then at the end you have about a pint of syrup from a whole bucket. It's crazy how much time goes into making real maple syrup.

CS: Now you knew I'd eventually get around to this, so don't laugh. The TV show Top Chef did a recent episode, Down on the Farm, where they came to Blue Hill at Stone Barns for a challenge. So what was it like having the hosts and competitors—not to mention the crew—of Top Chef in your kitchen?

AG: Well that was an experience! It was crazy to see all those Top Chef competitors working in our kitchens, and with all those lights and cameras, I was impressed they were able to cook anything at all. There was my kitchen full of all this TV equipment, it blew me away. It was so interesting though, to see three people I didn't know cooking in my kitchen and being filmed while they did. The Top Chef people interviewed me and then I got to sit outside for the tasting. I was at Team Chicken's table.

CS: So, honestly, how was Team Chicken's food?

AG: It was good, really! Especially considering they had to cook on camera. I tried the strawberry tarte too, which was good. The pastry was flaky, it had a nice balance of sweetness and acidity. It's funny, now I know how farming works, and thanks to Top Chef, I know how TV works too. For both, as for a dessert menu, there's a lot more time and effort going into the finished product than you'd think.

Bartlett Blue Panna Cotta with Honey and Bartlett Pears, Concord Grape Sorbet

CS: Dan Barber, your boss, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns co-founder, tell me a little about him.

AG: Well I can only say good things. Not because he might read this, but because I only have good things to say. Dan is incredibly interesting and intelligent. He's like a visionary, but he likes to keep things simple. I like that he's very straight-forward and direct with everyone. I think he lives for what he's doing here, he really believes not just in the food, but in the concept and practice of Farm-to-Table. It's funny, but for the first time in a long time I really look forward to coming to work. Dan has opened my eyes to new ways of thinking about food. Everybody here, not just Dan, respects and cares for our produce.

Blue Hill at Stone Barns really tells the story of the Farm-to-Table movement and we share that story with everyone who walks in the door. Like working here, dining here is a learning experience, and a pleasure nobody could ever forget.

Bavarian Spelt Chips, Dulce de Leche, Sweet Pickled Plum and Plum-Armagnac Sorbet

All the photographs in this article are courtesy of Thomas Schauer Studio for Photography. You can find the internationally renowned food photographer at his website, http://www.schauer.cc/neu/. Thanks Thomas!

Chef Alex Grunert's Current Dessert Menu at Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Candied Meyer Lemon with Passion Fruit and Yogurt

Pineapples with Cilantro and Bitter Orange Sorbet

Gin & Tonic with Meyer Lemon Sorbet and Pickled Buddha's Hand

Black Panther Soybean Tofu with Blood Orange Sorbet

Toasted Oatmeal Ice Cream with White Cinnamon and Caramelized Lady Apple

Parsnip Cake with Caramelized Ginger Ice Cream and Bergamot

Mocha Parfait with Toasted Soybean Powder, Banana Toffee, Campari Orange Gelée and Baby Minotina

Apple Cider Granité with Maple Sap Sorbet and Cream of Bavarian Spelt

Petit Fours

Parsnip or Chestnut-Whisky Macaron

Raspberry-Vinegar Chocolates

Yogurt Meringue Sticks

Cinnamon Marshmallows

Blue Hill at Stone Barns is located at 630, Bedford Road, Pocantico Hills, NY
For reservations, call 914.366.9600
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--Interview by Regina Varolli

Sprinkles in Beverly Hills – The Best Cupcakes I've Ever Bought

2009-03-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

On my recent trip to visit family and friends in Los Angeles, my sister and I took a day to go bakery hopping, to check out some of Los Angeles Magazine's Top 20 Bakeries. After hitting up about five bakeries on their list, and finding myself a bit under-whelmed, we headed to Beverly Hills and our last stop, Sprinkles Cupcakes.

The first thing we noticed about Sprinkles was the line out the door, a serious line stretching about a hundred feet. The second thing we noticed was that everyone in line seemed to be smiling and happy—not the usual case with long waits—but this was a Disneyesque line, Sprinkles seemed like the happiest place on Earth to everyone waiting.

After standing on the sidewalk for 50 minutes, we finally got inside and discovered the shop itself was tiny, it only fits about seven customers at one time. The cupcake case was smaller that I'd expected too, with only a dozen varieties on display. However, Sprinkles offers up their full line of 22 cupcakes from the back of the store, where they bake fresh cupcakes all day to refill their stock.

Huge cupcake fans, my sister and I couldn't wait to get these little beauties back to her house so we could devour and critique them. With my nieces—whose absolute favorite cupcake place is Yummy Cupcakes in Burbank (which are truly Yummy)—we gathered round the table and dug in to the five different varieties we'd chosen to buy. At $3.25 a pop, we expected to be WOWed.

Clockwise from the Top: Dark Chocolate, Chocolate Coconut, Black and White, Irish Cream, and Chocolate-Marshmallow (center)

We were. Sprinkles cupcakes are my nieces' new favorite—and mine and my sister's too. They weren't overly sweet (a flaw found with most American desserts), they didn't have way too much frosting (or not enough to satisfy my nieces' sweet teeth), and the cake—be it chocolate or vanilla—was the perfect consistency: soft, dense, and moist.

My only complaint was that they got my order wrong, they left out one of the cupcakes I'd chosen, a Chocolate-Marshmallow. But, had they not been so good (my sis gave me a bite of hers), I probably wouldn't have cared. Unfortunately for me, the Chocolate-Marshmallow was so heavenly, and the filling so smooth, billowy and perfectly sweetened, that I was rather annoyed to not have my own.

Having finished our Sprinkles Cupcakes tasting, my sis and I looked at each other, and at the empty cupcake platter, and concurred: Even if we had to wait an hour again, we'd still go back to Sprinkles—we'd just buy more cupcakes next time! Indeed, Sprinkles Cupcakes were so good that as I boarded my flight back to NYC a disquieting thought hit me—We have no Sprinkles in Manhattan yet! Now I'm left missing my family, my friends, the sun and surf... and the best damn cupcakes I've ever bought.

Sprinkles Cupcakes
Beverly Hills, CA
9635 Little Santa Monica Blvd.

Other locations:
Palo Alto, Newport Beach, Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix-Scottsdale

Coming Soon to:
New York City (WooHoo), DC, Boston, Miami, London, Vegas, Denver, Tokyo, San Diego, Charlotte, Seattle, Philly, Chicago, and more!
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Regina Varolli

The International Restaurant and Foodservice Show of New York

2009-03-03T10:19:00.000-08:00

Can I just say how stuffed I am? After sampling everything from Wagu Burgers to Oysters to Sushi to Cakes and Gelato, I could barely make it out of the Javits Convention Center on my own two feet. Although the International Restaurant and Foodservice Show of New York is an industry event designed to showcase wholesale items for industry buyers, there was no shortage of vendors accessible to those of us who shop for our home kitchens.

Having spent two glorious days wandering the visually stunning isles of sweet and savory samples, grabbing everything that wasn't clearly marked "For Display Only," I think I managed to down a taste of everything. The following are photos from some of the most impressive displays as well as some of my favorite brands. If you happened to miss the International Restaurant and Foodservice Show of New York this year, I hope these images will tempt you to come on out next year!

Gelati Flavors from Berzaci

Chocolates from Valrhona

Wagu Burgers! Only wished they were bigger!

The Japanese Food Festival of NYC

Real Kobe Beef from Japan! It's so marbled it looks like Toro!

Other Delectables

I hope you enjoyed the photos... now wipe the drool off your keyboard!
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Regina Varolli

Paris Gourmet's 20th Annual U.S. Pastry Competition

2009-03-01T17:55:00.000-08:00

When we arrived at the International Restaurant and Foodservice Show in NYC today, despite nearly 500 other distractions, we headed straight for the Dessert Pavilion, location of Paris Gourmet's 20th Annual U.S. Pastry Competition.

As the judging was underway, we got to peruse the isle of sugar and chocolate showpieces made by this year's competitors under the theme Give My Regards to Broadway. Having conducted our own little judging of all of the showpieces, I picked my personal favorite, then doubled back and asked the Chef Ajith Saputhanthri of Russo's on the Bay in Howard Beach, NY, if I could get a photograph of him and his Sous-Chef next to their showpiece—adding that I thought it decidedly the best, and that they would certainly win. They smiled and reacted most modestly. Nevertheless, when I heard Chef Saputhanthri's name announced as the winner, I wasn't at all surprised.

What I loved most about Chef Saputhanthri's showpiece, featured first in this article, was that the bulk of it amounted to one solid chunk of chocolate, carved by hand as if it were marble—what to me is the most artistic of chocolate techniques. Yet when I look at a showpiece, though I notice the varying degrees of difficulty, cross-skill sets and techniques, what always strikes me remains the beauty (or lack thereof). For me, a showpiece must above all else be aesthetically pleasing, Chef Ajith Saputhanthri's was stunning.

Enjoy the photos below, beginning and ending with this year's winner. After walking the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center all day, I'm exhausted. So I'll tell you all about those 500 other tempting distractions after I do it all again tomorrow.

Ajith Saputhanthri of Russo's on the Bay in Howard Beach, NY

Other Finalists Presenting Showpieces

Jerome Le Teuff of The Ritz Carlton, Palm Beach, FL

Salvatore Settepani of Pasticceria Bruno Bakery & Restaurant, Staten Island, NY

Julie Jangali of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Washington, D.C.

John Quinn of The Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa, Pasadena, CA

Andrew Chlebana of Joliet Junior College, Joliet, IL

Monica Ng, Professional Pastry Consultant, New York City

Thierry Aujard of Jummi Duffy's Catering, Berwyn, PA

Florian Belanger's Awards Ceremony Address

Ajith Saputhanthri Accepts His Prize

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Regina Varolli

Valentine's Cake, 2009

2009-02-18T09:11:00.000-08:00

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As I'd hoped, I got yet another decadent, heart-shaped cake from my Valentine this year!

The cake itself was comprised of a layer of crunchy chocolate biscuit, a salted caramel ganache center surrounded by a dark chocolate mousse and topped with a poured chocolate ganache. The decorations are piped white chocolate, gold leaf, and "bronze" chocolate covered raw cacao beans. The chocolate used is Michel Cluizel's Hacienda Vila Gracinda, 67% Cacao—an amazing single origin couverture from the Vila Gracinda plantation on the island of São Tomé.

Mixing Purpose with Pleasure at the Global Giving Circle's Chocolate Tasting Extravaganza

2009-02-18T08:49:00.000-08:00

On Valentine's Day, before my romantic dinner at home, I made my way to Side Bar in Union Square to attend the inaugural fundraiser for the Global Giving Circle, a Chocolate Tasting Extravaganza benefitting Project Hope & Fairness, which in turn works for fair trade in the cacao growing industry. A long-time supporter of fair trade coffee, I didn't hesitate at the invitation to attend this benefit for fair trade in yet another industry I couldn't live without, the cacao bean industry.

While just the first event for the Global Giving Circle, this new group of highly motivated philanthropists managed to secure donations of chocolates from NYC's top chocolatiers, including Jacques Torres, Marie Belle, and Vosges. What's more, the Global Giving Circle's Chocolate Tasting Extravaganza drew in a crowd that even the organizers couldn't have anticipated. I'd like to thank Shawna Dressler, Jill Bluming and Jennifer Kohanim for their evident hard work and tenacity in making the Global Giving Circle's premier event such a huge success. Not only were the myriad chocolates a crowd pleaser, but there was indeed a crowd to please!

Always one for mixing purpose with pleasure, I especially appreciated the Global Giving Circle's idea to host a chocolate-tasting fundraiser for the benefit of those who suffer for our chocolate enjoyment—the farmers who grow cacao beans for much less than a living wage. I believe that we can eat chocolate guilt-free, but my idea of guilt doesn't come from calories, it comes from knowing that fair trade is not industry standard. Kudos to the Global Giving Circle and Project Hope & Fairness for working to ensure that chocolate is as good for the growers as it is for us consumers.
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James Beard Awards, Semi-Finalists Announced

2009-02-18T07:34:00.000-08:00

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I'm proud to announce that my life-long best friend, Derek Emerson, Chef/Owner of Walker's Drive-In in Jackson, Mississippi has been named as a semi-finalist by the James Beard Foundation for the category of Best Chef in the South.

In the coming weeks I'll be doing an interview with Derek and will share it with my Sagacious readers. I hope that in the interim, we get news that Derek has made it to the next stage in the James Beard Awards process! Objectively speaking, he deserves it. I'm too critical of all things culinary to just support him because he's my bro—I support him because he's an excellent chef who changed this Yankee-So Cal-Big City gal's opinions about Southern cooking.
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A Valentine's Day Dinner Guide: My Stimulus Package for Romance

2009-02-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

I'm really looking forward to Valentine's Day this year, it'll be nice to think of something other than the economy and big bailouts when I hear the words 'stimulus' and 'package.' At least for one day, and night, stimulation will be aided by food and lead to the recovery of romance.

Although a romantic Valentine's dinner should always include one or two items deemed aphrodisiacs, to serve course after course of aphrodisiacs could send the wrong message—if you need all those special foods to get excited, what's that say about your date? Valentine's dinners, like Valentine's dates, should be a reflection of personal taste, not a reflection of what others say you should like, and they should always stimulate romance.

For these reasons, when I was thinking about a menu for Valentine's Day to share with my readers, it hit me that no one menu could possibly work for all the lovers out there. So instead, I've chosen to provide guidance rather than a strict menu, a stimulus package—so to speak--for a romantic evening.

Appetizer Course

Valentine's is a special occasion dinner, so don't skip the appetizer course. It takes a bit more effort, but isn't your honey worth it?

Besides the famed aphrodisiac oysters, other great foods for amorous appetizers are baked Brie, caviar, smoked salmon, Prosciutto, steamed artichokes, dips, olives and other similar savories that pair well with bread or crackers. The point being to eat your appetizer with your hands, thus inducing the need to lick your fingers with each bite. My advice for this course is to go with the bread / cracker accompaniments you both love, serve the course on the coffee-table and seat yourselves on the couch, then keep the flatware and napkins on hold.

First Course

Depending on the size of your appetite, you may choose to skip a first course and move straight from the appetizer to the main course. The advantage of adding a first course is that it gives you some extra wiggle room time-wise—and otherwise—in case you're delayed getting yourselves to the table.

For this reason, I like soup for a first course. Soup's a pretty independent food, you can make it days in advance, and it can sit and wait on your stove until you want to serve it—it won't get overcooked or cold waiting for you. Any soup you love enough to say "Mmmm" and "Ahhh" while you eat it will do the trick. To up the Valentine's factor, find some heart-shaped bowls or ramekins and serve the soup in them, or make heart-shaped croutons using a small cookie-cutter.

Main Course

For Valentine's dinner, you want something absolutely delicious and not normal weeknight fare, but maybe you don't want something too fussy or requiring too much work à la minute. In this case, a Braise is a perfect main. Braises cook slowly, don't need basting, and the longer they simmer in the oven, the better they get. While I love veal Osso Buco, there's hundreds of braises made with all kinds of meats (and vegetables), so just choose your favorite and let it take care of itself while you take care of your date.

Some couples truly enjoy cooking with each other, even on romantic occasions—perhaps especially on romantic occasions. If you're in this category, you may want to get yourselves in the kitchen together, wear sexy aprons (or scant little under your normal aprons), then make a mess and have some fun. In this case, just choose a main course you both love, one that evokes those Mmmms and Ahhhhs—sounds similar to those we make when... well, you know— then turn up the heat and get creative.

Dessert

There's no skipping dessert on Valentine's Day. As with everything else you choose to make, dessert ought to be something you both love. Perhaps one of the most romantic (and easy) desserts to share at home is a Chocolate Fondue, complete with a bowl of Chantilly (melted chocolate and whipped cream, you catch my drift). Chocolate is another famed aphrodisiac, and Fondue can be accompanied by long-stemmed strawberries, cherries, amoretti, biscotti, meringues, ice cream, and whatever else your hearts desire. You can make the accompaniments yourself in advance, or just buy them if you're short on time.

Me personally, I love cake, so of course my Valentine's dinners are followed by a heart-shaped cake made with love by my man. You can make almost any cake in advance, or simply go out and buy one from your favorite bakery or patisserie. I also want a box of chocolates at dessert, my favorites being Recchiuti Confections, La Maison du Chocolat and Jacques Torres Chocolates. My man and I also like to make our own confections, our favorite for this Valentine's Day being salted chocolate caramels.

Drinks

What would Valentine's Day be without Champagne? I don't remember, and I don't want to be reminded! As I recently wrote a feature on Champagne, I'll just refer you to this article for more on real French bubbly.

Valentine's Day coming in winter, I love to end the evening with a steamy cup of spiked hot chocolate. But my idea of hot chocolate doesn't involve powder, it involves real chocolate. It's simple enough, just heat your milk almost (but not all the way) to boiling, remove it from the heat, and drop your chopped chocolate straight into the milk. Wait a minute for it to melt a bit then whisk it, then add the liqueur of your choice. I use about 2oz of dark chocolate per 8oz of milk, my favorite being El Rey of Venezuela, followed by Scharffen Berger of Berkeley, California. Then, of course, I top the cup with fresh whipped cream and a sprinkle of cocoa powder or chocolate shavings (cut a heart shape out of some paper and sprinkle the cocoa/chocolate through it).

Whatever you choose to make for Valentine's Day, remember it's all about the love. Loving the person, loving the process of cooking and baking, and loving to eat. While aphrodisiacs have their place in a Valentine's dinner, they shouldn't be the only thing that stimulates romance, the entire evening, and every course served, should be planned and carried out with love in your heart, and lovin' on your mind.

All of the heart-shaped cakes featured in this article were made for me by Chef Patissier Damien Herrgott, Executive Pastry Chef at soon-to-open Bosie Tea Parlor. The pink cake is Pierre Hermé's famed Ispahan, which Damien fell in love with during his four years as Chef Adjoint at Pierre Hermé in Paris, the other two are his own creations.
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Quick and Juicy "Weeknight" Roast Chicken

2009-01-21T09:55:00.000-08:00

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It seems there are as many ways to roast a chicken as there are feathers on the same. Having spent a few years experimenting with myriad different methods, flavors and birds, I've finally settled on my favorite recipe. I call it my "weeknight" roast chicken, so dubbed for its ease and brevity of preparation, though I often serve it on weekends too.

After being asked by so many friends for this recipe, I've decided to share it with all of them, and with you, because really good recipes should never stay a secret.

The first thing I tell anyone wanting to reproduce my weeknight roast chicken is that they simply must start with a good bird. My favorite fowl comes from Bell & Evans, but if you can't find Bell & Evans (as I sometimes can't), then any free-range chicken raised organically--without animal-based feed, and without hormones/antibiotics—will do just fine. I insist on this for any meat I would actually eat, sticking to my philosophy that a happy animal in life is a tasty animal in death.

Another thing I tell my friends is that they must pull their bird out of the oven when it registers 160-165 degrees(F). All harmful bacteria dies at 160-165(F), so there's absolutely no need to cook the bird beyond that point, it will only serve to dry out the meat, not kill any bacteria. This is another reason why my roast chicken is so popular, I manage to keep it glisteningly moist firstly by not overcooking it. I go so far as to use two different meat thermometers when checking the temperature, to be sure they're still reading correctly. If I had only one thermometer, how would I know it was always precise?

Another important technique for keeping roast chicken moist is to baste it. After about 30 minutes in the oven without basting, you should start to baste it as often as is practical for you—but the more the better if you want not only a moist bird, but fabulously crispy skin.

Those important tips aside, here's a rough recipe for my weeknight roast chicken, au jus.

One Roasting Chicken
Fresh Rosemary and Thyme
3+ Shallots (depending on the size of the bird and its cavity)
Olive Oil
Coarse Kosher Salt, Freshly Ground Black Pepper, and Dried Parsley flakes.

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees(F). Rinse the Rosemary and Thyme and set aside. Skin and halve the shallots and set aside with the herbs.

Rinse chicken thoroughly, then move it to a plate lined with a bed of paper towels and dry the inside and outside of the bird completely with more paper towels (the drier the skin of the bird, the better—think Peking duck and the fanning method).

When the bird is bone dry, discard the paper towels and dress the bird on the same plate. If you're working alone, you will want to make sure your coarse salt and freshly ground pepper are at-the-ready. Don't use your raw chicken-covered hands to grab the salt or grind the pepper, have these set along side the herbs to avoid cross-contamination. If you're working with a helper in the kitchen, just have one of you hold the bird while the other uses their clean hands to dress it.

Start by salting and peppering the cavity. Don't hold back, a bird can take a lot of seasoning because it has little innate flavor. Next, fill the cavity with the herbs and shallots (you can vary the herbs or use different kinds of onions, I do when I'm out of my first choices, but shallots do have a more refined flavor than other onions). Finally, pour some olive oil directly on the outside of the bird and rub it all over the chicken. Then generously salt and pepper the bird. At this point, I also sprinkle on some dried parsley flakes—they add no flavor, but they help to crisp the skin and they add to the bird's aesthetic appeal. Rub the salt, pepper, and parsley evenly all over the bird.

A four pound chicken will take just over an hour in a 425 oven. I begin by setting my timer for 20 minutes, and I don't open the oven during this time (the high heat seals the bird and keeps its natural juices inside). After the first 20 minutes, I open the oven, turn the bird, and set my timer for another 20 minutes. Because I don't have a convection oven, I turn the bird several times during roasting, always at the 20 minute mark, to ensure it roasts evenly.

After about 30 minutes in the oven, start basting the bird. If you baste it before about 30 minutes, the salt, pepper and parsley aren't completely stuck to the skin yet and basting can rinse them completely off the bird, and we don't want that.

With a 4 pound chicken, I start taking the bird's temperature after an hour, and I test it frequently (the more cooked a chicken gets, the more quickly its temperature rises—it takes less time for a bird to go from 150-160 than it does for it to go from, say, 90-100).

When the bird reaches 160 to 165, take it out of the oven and move it, rack and all, to a resting plate, and let it rest while you do the quick pan sauce. I never tent a bird in aluminum foil, this creates steam, and steam kills crispy skin.

For the simple pan sauce, just put your roasting pan directly on a burner at high heat. Add a liquid to the pan to deglaze it, and, ideally using a wood spatula, scrape all the lovely brown goodness from the pan. I use my home-made chicken stock for the liquid, but you can use water, wine, port, cream, etc. Let the sauce boil for a minute or two, then pour it through a fine sieve. If you don't want too much oil, you can spoon a lot off the top of the sauce, or just use a fat separator.

You don't actually need the sauce, if you do things according to these tips, your bird won't be dependant on any sauce to hide its dryness. I just like the sauce for the potatoes I always eat with my roast chicken. Plus, this method can be used to make a quick, yummy sauce from any pan-cooked meats (whether on the stove or in the oven).

I can't go a full week without roasting a chicken this time of year. Not only do I love to eat it, but I adore making stock from it, as well as using any left-over meat for risotto, soup, crepes or sandwiches. So next time you find yourself singing "Baby It's Cold Outside," grab yourself a good chicken and warm up with some roasting. The prep time is minimal, the flavors are anything but.
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Champagne: A Few Facts on Real French Bubbly

2008-12-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

We all love Champagne this time of year, but nobody loves Champagne—anytime of year, in fact— like the French. My first holiday season with a French man brought this fact home, literally, with more Champagne than I could have imagined. With cousins visiting from France, cousins who produce Champagne for Moët et Chandon, there was an obscene amount of bubbly, most of it unlabeled, from the private family reserve.

It would be hard to describe with any clarity just what that first French-infused Christmas and New Year's Eve were like. After all, with so much Champagne flowing, that particular week from Christmas to New Year is pretty much one big, bubbly blur. Since that holiday, we haven't had his cousins to visit, but we still go for the Champagne big time, as you can see by my Fridge.

Shopping for Champagne

First things first, even if you already know this—I'm always surprised how many people don't know—Champagne comes from only one place in the world, the region of Champagne, France. Anything else must be labeled "Sparkling Wine" or "Champenoise." While there are a few Sparkling Wines out there that I have heard are pretty decent (mostly from California, Australia and New Zealand), I don't really drink the stuff. If it's not real Champagne, it's not usually on my table. The only sparkling wine I genuinely like is Lambrusco, a sparkling Rosé produced in my home town of Reggio nell'Emilia, Italy (Trader Joe's has a very nice one for a super bargain price).

If you're planning to drink a lot of Champagne in one night, and you don't have family bringing you cases from France, then you should consider buying a Magnum (= 2 bottles), a Jeroboam (= 4 bottles), a Rihoboam (= 6 bottles), or a Methuselah (=8 bottles). The sizes go all the way up to the ludicrously large Melchizedek, which holds 40 bottles. Thing is, you will save some dough by getting these larger bottles rather than buying their volume equivalent in normal, 750ml bottles. Plus, it is a fact that the Champagne in a Magnum and a Jeroboam actually taste better and are more bubbly than the standard size, and the Jeroboam is the best. But, this isn't the case as the bottles get larger than the Jeroboam.

Champagne Brands and Labels

While all real Champagne is better than Sparkling Wine, the best of the best are Louis Roederer's Cristal Champagne, Laurent-Perrier's Grand Siècle, Krug Cuvée, and any Moët et Chandon Vintage Dom Perignon. Of course Louis Roederer and Laurent-Perrier have other Champagnes that won't cost nearly as much and will be pretty darn fabulous even if they're not the top label. I never shell out the big bucks for a bottle (I let others do that for me), but if I stick to buying real Champagne—even a $40-$80 bottle like a Perrier-Jouët or Veuve-Cliquot—I'm never disappointed.

When it comes to reading labels, there's way more to know than I can tell you here, but I'll just give a few basics that will help you navigate. First, it's good to know that most all Champagnes are a blend of the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes. Any single grape Champagnes will be labeled "Blanc de Blanc" when it's pure Chardonnay, and "Blanc de Noir" when it's a pure Pinot Noir or Meunier.

The label designations that let you know how much alcohol is in the Champagne (it varies), are Extra Brut, Brut, Sec, Demi-Sec, Doux and Extra Doux, with Extra Brut being the most alcohol and Extra Doux being the least. You may be surprised to know that a Vintage or Reserve designation is actually given by the producer, according to what they deem is a particularly good year, but there are no regulations there to follow, it's basically just the producer's opinion. However, a Cuvée class Champagne does have regulatory standards to meet, so it's generally better than a Vintage or a Reserve. In any case, a Vintage, Reserve, or Cuvée are all best drunk about five-ten years from the year on the label.

Pouring and Preservation

My last tips are to always pour your Champagne against the side of a tilted flute, to control the bubble overflow. Also, pour Champagne into glasses that weren't washed in a dishwasher, but hand-washed. Even the slightest film left from a dishwasher isn't great when mixed with Champagne. If, for some unknown reason, you should have an unfinished bottle you want to save, get a proper Champagne stopper and it'll last one extra day. A wine stopper just doesn't work on Champagne.

While Champagne is never super cheap, really, who wants to drink something super cheap for a celebration? But, if you're on a tight budget, supplement just one bottle of Champagne with however many bottles of Lambrusco from Reggio nell'Emilia because it's a good, inexpensive companion.

As I gear up for that time of year when the Champagne flows freely, I can take comfort that one other wonderful thing about Champagne is the fact that the good stuff doesn't leave you with a terrible hang-over, however blurry your bubbly evening (or brunch) gets. When it comes to celebrations, I follow the French, and if you do too, your guests—not to mention your taste buds, head and tummy—will thank you.

The Vanilla Bean

2008-12-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

Most home cooks experience the flavor of vanilla through the commonly-found vanilla extract. While admittedly fresh vanilla beans aren't cheap, like with quality chocolate, they're worth the cost for better flavor. Having been lucky enough to order fresh, plump vanilla beans through restaurant distributors, I'm nevertheless aware that the vanilla beans you find in your market's spice or baking isle can be dried out and hard. Just shake the little glass bottle containing the vanilla bean and if you hear a clinking sound instead of a thudding sound, then that bean in the bottle has seen better days.

Though I find that Whole Foods 365-brand has consistently good vanilla beans, I appreciate we don't all live near a Whole Foods Market. So you may have to buy that dry bean and bring it home with you. But all hope isn't lost, just about 10 second in the microwave, wrapped in a damp paper towel, can refresh your dry vanilla bean, allowing you to scrape out the insides with ease.

My personal favorite vanilla beans are the rare Tahitians. But ample vanilla is grown in other Rainforest-rich countries like Mexico, Indonesia, Madagascar, and the Philippines. I once got hold of some premium Mexican vanilla beans, and although I still favor Tahitian, when I cut into one of these moist and plump pods, the scent of vanilla filled my entire apartment and the insides were so large and shiny that they resembled caviar.

Adding Vanilla Bean to Any Recipe

Whether your vanilla bean is a bit dry or whether it's sent to you fresh from friends living in Tahiti, it's never a bad idea to wrap the bean in a damp paper towel and pop it in the microwave for 3-5 seconds, up to 10 if your bean is dry.

When you pull your warm, wonderful bean from the microwave, you then slit the bean in two lengthwise with a small paring knife. Once the bean is split, you scrape the insides out with the back of your knife by opening the split bean, pressing your knife down to hold it open, and running the back of your knife all the way down the inside of the bean in one motion. If you had a dry bean to begin with, you can use the cutting-edge of your knife to scrape the insides.

You can add real vanilla bean to any recipe. If you're making a recipe that calls for you to cream the butter and sugar together, add the insides of the vanilla bean to the butter and sugar before creaming. For any recipe that calls for heated milk or cream, add the vanilla to the milk/cream before heating, and also toss in the hollowed out pod and keep it in the milk/cream while you heat it—this will add even more real vanilla flavor to your dessert. You can also add the vanilla to eggs in any recipe, whisking it into the eggs before adding the eggs to the rest of your batter or dough. For obvious reasons, never add vanilla to dry ingredients.

When you're done with your bean, don't throw it out! A scraped vanilla bean can be dried out overnight just by sitting on your counter, and then you can take that shell of a bean and stick it in your sugar jar where it will infuse your sugar with the rich scent and flavor of real vanilla. If you pulled your emptied bean out of heated milk or cream, just rinse it under water before drying it.

Like I said before, I love vanilla—it's my favorite flavor, but it's also an understated and often neglected flavor in its own right. Thing is, if you want to make anything where vanilla is the star, you basically have no option other than the real vanilla bean. With everything from cupcakes, ice cream, pastry cream, and sugar cookies, without those little specs of real vanilla in the mix, you just won't get the flavor of real vanilla in the end product—and that's where you're missing out. The lack of real vanilla beans in stores and the dawn of imitation vanilla extract hasn't helped the humble vanilla bean much, but the truth is there's nothing humble about a product that costs nearly $100 per pound, tastes like heaven, and is born of delicate Orchids.

Christmas Yule Log: How to Create A Beautiful Bûche de Noël

2008-12-15T11:30:00.000-08:00

Of all the goodies I bake for the holidays, I'd have to say that the most fun, and the one that gets the most "Oohs and Aahs" is the classic French Bûche de Noël, know here as a Christmas Yule Log. The cake is super simple, and all the real work goes into decorating. Call me silly, but I don't mind spending a couple of hours decorating a Christmas cake, it's what makes the holidays so special for me and my friends, who love to come over and help (yours will too).

I use a recipe from Jacques Pépin, for his Chocolate Roll. On his website he also has a recipe for a Bûche de Noël, but I've found that his Chocolate Roll is quicker, easier, and yummier, and the filling is a simple Chantilly (whipped heavy cream) to which you can add whatever flavoring agents you like (almond extract, Brandy, orange liquor, etc.).

Make the Cake

You'll find pretty much all of the information you need to make the chocolate roll at Jacques Pépin's website. But there's a few things I'd like to mention that aren't in his recipe. First, his "cake" is really a recipe for a chocolate soufflé, but spread into a jelly-roll pan (a cookie sheet with edges), instead of being baked in a ramekin. So while it's a quick batter, it's a very delicate one, so just go easy on it, and if you need further help, read my Baking Tips & Techniques article here at Rollick that explains the ins and outs of folding delicate batters.

When you've baked the cake, let it cool completely on a cooling rack out of the pan—in the pan the edges will continue to dry out, but leave the parchment (not waxed) paper, it's going to be important when it comes time to roll it. You can cover the sheet of cake in plastic wrap and refrigerate it overnight before filling and rolling. It should be cool or cold when you spread the Chantilly.

I actually whip the Chantilly just to the point at which it looks like I've gone a bit too far—it starts to get a tiny bit lumpy—then I stop. The reason I whip the cream this extra little bit is because it won't ooze out under the weight of the cake when you roll it, and it produces a Chantilly that is somewhat like a buttercream in that it's smooth and buttery. In Jacques Pépin's recipe, he uses confectioners sugar, vanilla extract and Kirsch, but like I said above, you can use whatever flavoring agents you like, but stick to confectioners sugar and his measurements.

Let it roll

For making the Bûche de Noël, once you've spread the cream evenly, roll—don't fold—the cake along its long side. Grab the parchment and use that as your rolling aid, removing it from the cake as you roll it by pulling it gently away with one hand while the other helps roll the cake. When it's rolled, you'll see that you can then, in the same movement, wrap the cake back into the parchment. Then wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap to chill.

You'll create the shape of the Bûche de Noël by cutting off small slices of the chocolate roll and placing them on and side-long to the main "trunk." That's why you roll it along the long edge so you get a long, thin log. But, if you want to just serve the chocolate roll as a dessert without decorating, you can roll the cake along the short side so you'll have a shorter, fatter log. This cake is so good that even without all the decorations you've got a fabulous dessert that lasts for 4 days in your fridge (well, if you don't gobble it up sooner).

Whether you turn the chocolate roll into a Bûche de Noël or serve it as is, you still need to refrigerate the completed roll overnight so it can set up well before decorating or serving.

The best part: Decorating!

A traditional Bûche de Noël is covered in a chocolate ganache, meringue mushrooms, and chocolate leaves. A thick, dark ganache, spread or poured over the log and "branches" covers everything and hides the messy "stumps" underneath. Then you just run a fork over it to make the ganache have the appearance of bark.

The mushrooms are made from a Swiss meringue, and get piped in two parts: the stem and the button top. First pipe the tops onto parchment, leaving space on the sheet pan. Bake just until they set, then pull them out of the oven and pipe the stems. Then carefully lift the tops, place them on the just-piped stems, and continue baking. I sprinkle some cocoa powder on them when cooled so they have a brown appearance. I also like to make meringue Christmas trees. With a star-shaped piping tip, pipe the meringue in the same manner as the mushrooms, starting with the smallest tree tier.

For the chocolate leaves, the easiest thing to do is to grab some Holly leaves, wash and dry them completely, and simply spread the melted white chocolate on the leaves in a (not too) thick layer and let them set in the fridge. Once the chocolate is set, you carefully peel away the leaf from the chocolate and you're left with a white chocolate leaf that has the shape, texture, and veins of the real Holly. You can always mix green food color into your melted white chocolate if you want green leaves.

When you've got your mushrooms and leaves (any maybe trees), then you just place them on and around the Bûche however you like. You can also use marzipan for mushrooms and red Holly berries, or just get creative and do your own thing!

When I do my Bûche de Noël, I never make it alone. Friends are always happy to help, and as you'll make way more mushrooms, trees and leaves than you can use on the Bûche, you all can nibble on them as you decorate. The holidays are all about getting together with the people we love, and for me, they're also about making the food I love. Having a Bûche decorating party is a unique way to bring people and food together for a holiday tradition that goes way beyond cookies.
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Fundamental Baking Techniques and Tips

2008-11-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

There's no two ways about it, during the holidays I step up the baking in a big way. Pies, cakes, tarts, cookies—baking just about anything feels festive—and is my favorite thing about the holiday season. There's just something special about a pie baked in November or a cookie baked in December that surpasses the pleasure of a pie in July or a cookie in September. I guess it's all that holiday magic.

Thing is, that holiday magic will won't make our goodies turn out as if we had a magic wand, and we don't want to dampen our spirits with fallen cakes or soggy pies. Thankfully, I've learned that baking blunders are easy to avoid with just a few techniques and tips that can be applied to pretty much all my favorite holiday recipes—and yours too. So here's a quick rundown of a few fundamental baking techniques and handy tips just in time for your holiday baking bonanza.

Rolling dough

The first thing to know about rolling is that your dough, and the room in which you're going to roll it, should be cold. So chill the dough in your fridge, turn off your heater and open a window. Then roll when the room feels chilly. You can also chill your work surface by loading ice into a jelly-roll pan and leaving it on your surface.

Now you just need to dust your work surface with flour. I love my little flour shaker for this task because it produces a fine, even layer of flour with no clumps. A fine-mesh shaker is also perfect for dusting finished desserts with confectioners sugar or cocoa powder.

So you're dusted, chilled, and ready to roll, now work fast and keep your dough moving. As you roll, roll from the center outward, and keep turning your dough clockwise to ensure it isn't sticking to your surface. A wonderful aid is a large metal spatula, it slides easily under your disk of dough to release it when it does stick. If it's sticking a lot, flip the dough over, redust the work surface, and continue rapidly rolling and rotating.

Now it's time to transfer your dough. You don't want to stretch or accidentally rip it in transit, so roll the dough up onto your rolling pin, then unroll it onto your baking tray or dish. It's also good to give the dough one last chill in the fridge before filling and baking, as butter-laden doughs should go into the oven cold.

Folding batters

The first time I ever folded two parts of a batter together for a soufflé, it didn't go too well. Then I learned a trick that's never failed me since: lightening the heavy batter by stirring in a small portion of the egg whites before folding the two batters together. Stirring some of the egg whites into the heavy batter lightens it up a lot, which means your two batters are now closer in consistency and much easier combine without over-folding. Over-folding can result in a batter that won't rise enough, or will collapse during cooling.

The whole idea behind folding is to combine batters in a delicate way that adds air instead of releasing it. So you want to fold using a large rubber spatula, cutting in around the edge and center of your bowl, and reaching down to scrape the bottom. When you lift your spatula, you want to fold the batter up and over the top, which allows more air into the batter by trapping it between folds. Just be sure you're really getting underneath your batter and lifting everything up from the bottom, and keep folding—without pause—until you've got one homogenous batter. When your batter goes into your prepared cake pan, spread it rather than banging the pan to even out the batter, literally knocking the air out of it. An off-set metal spatula is perfect for this.

Preparing baking pans

Regardless of what any recipe tells me, I always butter and flour my cake pans. It's a quick extra step that'll ensure your cakes always come out with ease. I just put a pat of butter in my pan first thing, then get to doing my mise-en-place. By the time I've weighed all my ingredients, the butter is soft enough to spread. Then I just put some flour in the pan and, holding it over the sink, I tap and tilt the pan to distribute the flour evenly on the bottom and sides, then I turn it upside-down and tap it a few times to remove the excess flour. When making a chocolate cake, always use cocoa powder instead of flour!

Even when butter-flouring a pan, a circle (or square) of parchment in the bottom is an extra layer of security—with it, you know nothing can stick. Butter your pan first, and then lay the parchment so it sticks in place. Then either just flip the parchment over so there's butter on both sides, or spread a bit more butter on top of the parchment, and then flour the pan.

Although these techniques don't cover every handy thing to know, they're holiday-centric stand-bys that virtually guarantee your festive treats will be consistently good if you follow them. These tips and techniques can ensure your rolled doughs don't rip or go soggy, your cakes and tarts won't stick to the pan, and your Chiffons always stand tall and proud for having so much air in them. So when your guests are oohing and aahing over your holiday desserts, you can stand tall and proud too, and not just because you're full of hot air.

Basic Baking Ingredients: Tips on Temperature and Treatment

2008-11-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

Recently a friend insisted that she couldn't bake a cookie to save her life—or to have fun with her kids. Every time her children asked, "Mommy, can we bake cookies?" she reached for the mix and watched the excitement in her children's eyes fade. Her kids want to bake cookies for the baking, not just the eating, and no mix will ever satisfy that craving.

So she told me all about it, and it turned out she'd been leaving the butter on her counter for way too long and over-mixing her dough. The result? A dough so warm and soft that it spread all over the sheet as it baked, turning into one giant cookie-ish crispy thing not suitable for eating—even by children.

Truth be told, I never bake from a mix, and over years of baking from scratch solo and with pros, I've learned a lot about ingredients. More to the point, I've learned how what you do with your ingredients will affect your goodies—for better or worse. So I'll share with you some of the basics I share with my friends when they call me with their baking blunders.

Temperature

When it comes to Butter, temperature matters. While lots of recipes call for room temperature butter, the temperature of your kitchen varies and butter can often get too soft. When a recipe says "room temp," it's calling for a softened butter that you can press your finger on—feeling some resistance—and make a slight impression without leaving your finger too greasy. Dough for puff pastry or biscuits needs cold butter, very cold. So it's best to cut your butter into the desired size cubes, then stick it back in the fridge until the second you'll use it. When I make a dough that requires very cold butter, I take the extra precaution of chilling everything—flour and bowl included—ensuring my butter won't soften or melt during mixing, kneading or folding, and rolling, thus destroying those flaky layers I'm trying to attain.

Eggs are another temperature-sensitive ingredient. If your using them in cookies, it's actually not that important they be room temperature. But, if you're doing a Chiffon, Angel Food cake or Meringues, they simply can't be cold. You'll never get cold egg-whites to reach a peak (I even know one pro who leaves his egg-whites out for 24 hours before making the perfect Macarons with them). If you're baking a cake, you also need room temperature eggs, a cold egg inhibits the chemical reaction of rising agents, and you could end up with a fallen cake.

Treatment

Granulated Sugar isn't usually something you need to sift, Confectioners' Sugar is. But this isn't a rule to blindly follow. Since moving to the East Coast, I've used Domino sugar. Unlike the C&H sugar I used on the West Coast, Domino has lots of lumps—likely from the humidity—so I always sift it. With Confectioners' sugar, also known as Powdered sugar, sifting is almost an imperative, especially if you're making frosting. Sifting not only removes clumps, it aerates the ingredient being sifted, resulting in a lighter and fluffier end product.

Flour follows almost the same logic as sugar. With cookies or biscuits using All-Purpose Flour, you rarely need to sift. With cakes using Cake Flour, sifting is standard and you shouldn't skip it. But there's one thing you can do with either flour when your recipe doesn't call for sifting, and that's whisking. Whether making cookies, pie dough or coffee cake, you measure all dry ingredients into one bowl (using a scale makes this a cinch)—but they need to be homogenized before combining them with the wet. Just stirring your bowl of dry ingredients with a whisk will ensure even distribution. It's also important to never over-combine your flour. Most recipes incorporate the flour last, and you should only mix until you can't see any pockets of flour—then stop, finishing up by hand instead of in a stand mixer. Over-working flour into your dough causes cakes to fall, cookies to spread, and biscuits to be tough.

Salt is important in baking, never nix it because it enhances the flavors of the other ingredients. But, if you don't want bursts of salt in your mouth when eating dessert, use Fine Salt and be sure it dissolves, something it just can't do in a bowl of dry ingredients. For this reason, many professionals have taken to adding the salt to wet ingredients like vanilla extract, stirring with a tiny whisk to ensure the salt dissolves. If you do want a salt burst in your mouth—say you're making Michael Recchiuti's Fleur de Sel Caramels—then don't dissolve it, and use Coarse Salt instead of fine (Fleur de Sel, Sel Gris, Trapani, Jurassic, and Kosher are some examples).

While this article is by no means exhaustive, it should get you on your way towards understanding ingredients, paying attention to the consequences of their temperature and treatment, and trouble-shooting when things go wrong. Thanks to this knowledge, I was able to tell my friend to just leave her butter cold and not over-work the flour into her dough, and now she can bake cookies with her kids. Kids are natural enthusiasts after all, they want to bake cookies from scratch because it's fun. Every baking enthusiast can learn a lesson from kids, and stop shorting our pleasure of the pursuit by reaching for the mix.

Kitchen Scales: The Tool Every Baking Enthusiast Needs, And Every Pastry Pro Has

2008-11-14T11:28:00.001-08:00

Why is it that in the United States we home cooks are forced to bake inaccurately, using cups and spoons even when we've been baking for years? As any professional (or genuine enthusiast) will tell you (and I'm telling you now), you just can't bake well without a kitchen scale. For while artistic in presentation, baking is a science, and you need precision in preparation. So when that "one cup" of flour in your recipe can weigh anywhere from 100-140 grams depending on how you fill the cup, it doesn't take a genius to recognize that's no way to be precise.

Lucky for me, long before I moved in with my Parisian Pastry Chef boyfriend I started using a kitchen scale—had I not, he would have mocked me into it. He just doesn't get how anyone can bake with confidence not knowing precisely how much flour, sugar, butter, etc., they're actually using. He scoffs at the idea, waves his hands in a dismissive gesture, and says, "zees littel cups and spoons, you never find zem in a professional kitchen becauze zey are uzeless."

The trouble for him—and for you and me—is that almost all recipes in America give measurements in cups and spoons, despite the fact that when developing those recipes the pros rely on scales. Then they translated their weight measurements to volume for us low-brow home cooks . Noted exceptions are Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie and Pastry Bible, and Jacques Torres' Dessert Circus.

How much does everything weigh?

If you're not baking from Beranbaum or Torres, how do you know how to translate those cups and spoons into weight? Well, it's rather simple actually.

Every ingredient you could possibly use has it's weight by volume on the package. If you look at the Nutritional Facts on your bag of flour, sugar, walnuts, whatever, it will tell you in Serving Size just how much it weighs. On a bag of King Arthur all-purpose flour it says "1/4 cup = 30g" (and 30g x 4 = 120g = 1 cup). I'll admit that in the beginning it can seem a bit of a pain to do this, but if you bake as much as I do (a lot, a lot), then you'll have these things memorized in no time.

Weigh your way to better baking!

The end result of anything you bake is largely dependant on the precision with which you measure your ingredients. Too much flour and your cake will be heavy, not enough sugar and it won't be sweet enough, too much baking soda and it can fall flat, and nobody wants that.

Or maybe this has happened to you: you want to bake, say, cupcakes, but you don't want the two dozen cupcakes your recipe will produce, you want to halve the recipe so you only get twelve. So what do you do if the recipe calls for 1/3 cup of packed dark brown sugar? I don't have a 1/6 cup measure, do you? Can you eyeball a sixth of a cup accurately? When you know that one cup of packed dark brown sugar weighs 240g, it's easy to calculate how much brown sugar you'll need for 1/6 cup.

I'm totally in the habit of penciling in weight measurements every time I translate a new recipe (or if I halve or double a recipe). This way the next time I make that recipe I already have the weight marked on the page. This habit will save you time for sure.

Is weighing worth the effort?

This may all sound like more trouble than its worth. It's not—even for a math dummy like me. Measuring in grams and fluid ounces is the difference between the seemingly perfect cakes and pastries you find at a good bakery vs. the ones that never seem to come out just right at home. It's the difference between knowing how to scale down, halve, or triple any recipe without worrying if you got the measurements right. And it will save you time in washing dishes too, because now you can measure all those dry ingredients into a single bowl atop your scale.

There's a reason why all of my friends always ask me to "bring the dessert"—even when my boyfriend isn't making it—it's because time after time my desserts come out consistently good. And the reason why they always come out the same is because I always use my scale. As your knowledge of weight grows, and you can rattle off the grams of ingredients as easily as you can the days of the week, it won't take a genius to recognize you're truly a baking enthusiast (and you'll get props from the pros too).

Home-Made Stock: Three Simple Steps from Bones to Broth

2008-11-14T11:16:00.000-08:00

I love roasting a whole chicken. I love the way it smells, I love the crispy skin, but most of all, I love roasting a chicken because I get to make a savory stock from the left-overs.

If there's one ingredient that sets the enthusiast apart from the casual cook, it's home-made stock. Nothing at the supermarket will ever match the richness, depth of flavor, purity and TLC of home-made stock. Thing is, while stock is super easy to make, it does take time. A poultry stock can simmer away on your stove for 2-3 hours. Beef or veal stock may take up to six hours, while a vegetable stock takes about 1 & ½. But the time your stock spends simmering is not all active time. After keeping a close watch in the beginning, you can just leave it on a low simmer and let it work its magic on its own, concentrating its flavor as it reduces to your desired strength.

Step One: Just Add Water

When making any stock, all you need are raw or roasted bones (or veges—whichever ones you like) and water. When I roast a chicken (or turkey, poussin, etc), I save the entire carcass. Within two days, I pull the carcass out of the fridge, break it down, and put the pieces straight into my heavy stock pot. If you're working with raw parts, roast poultry at 425, beef and veal bones at 435, and veges at 400, until they are golden brown. Roasting produces a "brown" stock, using raw ingredients produces a "white" stock.

When you've got your parts in the pot, add enough water to cover the contents completely. I use filtered or distilled water— it will be my stock—so I refrain from using tap water like I would when boiling pasta.

Never add salt when making stock! As your liquid reduces, the salt will become concentrated, and your stock will be much saltier than intended. With home-made stock, you just add salt to taste when you're using it.

Next, put the stock pot on the stove over medium-high heat, uncovered. You don't want your stock to come to a rolling boil, that's part of why you have to babysit it. The other reason is that as the liquid gets hotter, you have to skim the top.

Step Two: Skim the Brim

For a beautifully clear stock, you've got to skim the brim to remove all the foam that develops as the liquid heats. This foam is nothing more than fat and sinew released from the bones, which is why you have more skimming with a white stock than a brown one, much of the fat and sinew melts during the roasting process for a brown stock.

Just before your stock reaches a boil (you'll see a couple of large bubbles perk up, and a lot of steam), turn the heat down to medium and don't let it boil. No matter how much you've skimmed your stock, if you let it boil, the end result will be a murky liquid. That's no big deal if you plan to use it in a risotto, braise or Bolognese, but if you want to use it as broth for, say, chicken soup, then you'll want a crystal clear liquid—called a consommé.

Now that your stock has reached an almost-boil and you've turned the heat down to medium, stay put, and step up the skimming. At maximum heat level, the bones give off a continuous amount of muck. But you'll soon see there's nothing more to skim, and you can stop baby-sitting. Just turn the heat down to med-low, leave it uncovered, and let it simmer away on its own.

Step Three: Drain and Strain

When your stock is finished simmering, it's time to drain and strain. I drain the liquid first by pouring all the contents through a large sieve (like you would use to drain pasta). Then I take the just-drained liquid and strain it through a fine sieve lined with a paper towel. This straining will remove all the tiny bits that slipped through the large sieve, leaving you with a consommé.

I like some fat in my stock—fat is flavor after all. If you prefer none, you just need to refrigerate it overnight with a sheet of plastic wrap touching the liquid. When the stock cools, the fat solidifies and sticks to the plastic wrap. When the stock is cooled (and you've removed the fat if desired), pour it into ice cube trays or freezer-safe containers and freeze it.

Now you've got a stash of stock for use at a moment's notice. Risottos, á la minute pan sauces, soups, rice, braises, and stuffing are just a few things that need good stock and consommé. With the summer behind us, there's no better time to make your own stock. After all, so much of what we want to eat when it's cold—all that comfort food—will benefit beyond measure. Plus, making stock not only warms your home and fills it with wonderful scents, it warms your heart and fills it with a love of cooking.