This article by me appeared in the Toronto Star, where I was food editor/columnist from 1989 to 2007, shortly after Bourdain’s bestselling book “Kitchen Confidential” was published in 2000. He has then gone on to be a star of several TV food-themed travel shows and other food-themed books. I made the beef stew included in this the other day – it is delicious.
Click on this – my podcast chat with domestic goddess Nigella Lawson recorded in Toronto in late 2015 – and you’ll hear her say that we are “kitchen cousins”: http://www.marionkane.com/podcast/chat-nigella-kitchen-cousin
She’s referring to several important things we have in common: A willingness to freely improvise when cooking; an acceptance of failure in the kitchen as a necessary path to learning, and a penchant for eating her dish of Squid and Orzo Pasta cold for breakfast.
“Bland, intractably beige, and (most unforgivably of all) suspended in jelly, the bottled version seemed to have been fashioned, golem-like, from a combination of packing material and crushed hope.” From an article about gefilte fish by Rebecca Flint Marx in The New Yorker (October, 2016)
The above is eloquent testimony to the bad reputation of gefilte fish – a downhome, humble staple at the Jewish holiday table.
Julia Child’s great-nephew Alex Prud’homme with his new book
Julia Child often said: “I was born hungry!” She had an appetite for life and sharing a love of good food was her consuming passion. She was North America’s first TV celebrity chef and her great-nephew Alex Prud’homme had a front-row seat.
Grilled zucchini with the Dirt Candy cookbook’s Yellow Tomato Coconut Curry Sauce
Amanda Cohen was born and raised in Canada. Some years ago, she went to study in New York and has made that city her home ever since. These days, she has good reason to stay; her famous Dirt Candy eatery – what she calls a “vegetable restaurant” – located on the Lower East Side, is a huge hit.
I have it in front of me: The original Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins first published by Workman in 1979.
You know that often mis-quoted saying: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” (Misquote: The proof is in the pudding.)
Well, in the case of the new “Epicurious Cookbook,” the proof is also in the making of said pudding – or Miniature Gougeres, Red Wine-Braised Duck Legs, Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad, Bourbon Chicken Liver Pate and Cranberry White Chocolate Biscotti.
I’ll begin this blog post by serving up a link to an excellent piece of writing by a young fellow from the U.K. who was sitting next to me during one of the lively panels at the excellent two-day Roger Smith Cookbook Conference I attended recently in New York.
It’s that blah mid-winter time of year and, for me, a bumpy patch on the meandering path of discovery.
The obvious antidote: cooking up a storm in my compact Kensington Market kitchen.
Much of this culinary cure for whatever ails my troubled soul is inspired by recipes from cookbooks and food magazines, both of which are on-and-off addictions.
It all began about a year ago when I gave two people I had no reason to distrust full access to my large, fully-furnished house while I was away.
All went well for several months during which time I would visit the place occasionally to pick up mail and move items to my new place – mostly clothes, work-related stuff and some important papers.
