April Fool’s Day food pranks

April 1, 2018 by
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  Did you fall for an April Fools' Day prank today? Social media was full of fake stories, including Google Israel launching a "Hummus API", Burger King's ad for a Chocolate Whopper, Siggi's debuting a fermented shark yogurt, and Heinz hawking chocolate mayo in the UK. You can see a huge listing of April Fool's pranks at The Washington Post. Digging… read more

The truth behind many family “heirloom” recipes

March 31, 2018 by
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  Everyone has cherished family recipes, handed down from mother (or father), who got it from her mother, who ostensibly received it from hers as well. An investigation by Atlas Obscura calls into question these "heirloom" recipes, and discovers that many of them were copied from cookbooks, food packages, and other locations.  The site asked Gastro Obscura readers to submit… read more

Indie magazines gain a foothold in the publishing industry

March 30, 2018 by
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  Food magazines have been falling like dominoes - Gourmet, Food Arts, Lucky Peach - these and many others have succumbed to the pressures of digital publications and sagging subscriptions. Just when it seemed like the industry was doomed, a handful of independent magazines show that the demise of food publications is not a certainty.  These new magazines are succeeding… read more

Today’s Google Doodle recognizes one of the first modern cookbook authors

March 28, 2018 by
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The Google Doodle often celebrates historical figures. Today's Doodle recognizes the 310th birthday of a woman considered one of the world's first modern cookbook authors, Hannah Glasse.  Glasse was born Hannah Allgood in 1708 in London. She married John Glasse in 1724 and together they had several children. In 1938, historian Madeline Hope Dodds discovered Hannah Glasse to be the author… read more

$250 egg spoons, $400 hair dryers, and sexism in food

March 27, 2018 by
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  To call our modern times fast-paced is a gross understatement, which is why recalling something that happened "all the way back" in 2009 seems like a Herculean endeavor. We need to travel back to that year, however, to find the beginnings of what is now called the "egg spoon controversy," because 2009 is when chef Alice Waters cooked an… read more

Epic vegetable rant on Twitter

March 26, 2018 by
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Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are filled with gorgeous food photos and people fawning over their favorite foods. In a twist on these typical positive posts, a recent Twitter thread gained a lot of attention for allowing people to rant about foods - vegetables, to be precise - that they hated.  It all began when legal analyst Imani Gandy posted a photo… read more

Cooking with cashews

March 25, 2018 by
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  Have you ever had an "aha" moment with an ingredient that made you want to want to try every recipe that used it? It's happened to me a few times, but none more memorable than when I made the Cashew chicken with a cilantro sauce (Dhania murghi) from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iver. I'd enjoyed eating cashews as a snack, but… read more

Retro cookbooks on the rise

March 24, 2018 by
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  Remember the old saying that 'there's nothing new under the sun'? That applies to just about every aspect of life, including, as it turns out, cookbooks. Perhaps it started with the classic cocktail revival or maybe they grew together, but whatever the reason, cookbooks that revisit classic recipes are on the rise.  Dishes that were popular as far back… read more

Joy of Cooking takes on a food scientist

March 22, 2018 by
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  New studies purporting links between food and illness come out with astonishing frequency, and the findings of what is "healthy" and what is not seem to swing back and forth like a pendulum. Usually this change is due to more complete studies or a better understanding of the science. Sometimes, however, the research is flawed.  The latter scenario cast… read more

Tips on choosing the right flour

March 21, 2018 by
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If you aren't already a dedicated baker, you may only have one or two types of flour in your pantry. When you do decide to dip your toe into the waters of breads, cakes, and pastries, the numbers of different flours can be overwhelming, and using the wrong flour can lead to lackluster results. To help you avoid baking disaster,… read more

Work begins on Modernist Pizza

March 20, 2018 by
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  It took six years for Nathan Myhrvold to follow up his groundbreaking world Modernist Cuisine with Modernist Bread, which was published last year. You might expect Myhrvold to rest for a bit, but he's already at work on another project titled Modernist Pizza.  In an announcement on the Modernist Cuisine website last Saturday, the team announced that Myhrvold and Francisco… read more

Who gets to tell the story?

March 19, 2018 by
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I've written many times about virtually traveling by means of cookbooks and food. If one cannot visit a land, what better way to get a taste of it than to, well, get a taste of it. While I still believe in this concept, I've come to think that some of the cookbooks that celebrate a culture don't adequately translate the flavors… read more

A can and a plan

March 18, 2018 by
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  While cooks eschew most canned vegetables and fruits, there is one canned item that should always have space in your pantry. Canned beans (aka pulses) like chickpeas, butterbeans, and pintos are versatile items that can help you get dinner on the table in no time flat. Even esteemed chef Yotam Ottolenghi is a fan of canned beans, and has… read more

A cook and a book

March 17, 2018 by
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  Members of cookbook clubs like the EYB Cookbook Club are used to working their way through cookbooks, asking others for advice, and offering their own. It's a great place learn how to decipher what a cookbook author means, or expound on changes that worked out better than the original text.  If there is anything better than learning from your… read more

A better way to temper your eggs

March 16, 2018 by
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  Many dishes both savory and sweet, ranging from silky custards to soothing soups, call for tempering egg yolks. The process can strike fear in the hearts of cooks because one misstep can lead to a clumpy, curdled disaster. Sometimes the technique is actually unnecessary, says Sohla El-Waylly, Assistant Culinary Editor at Serious Eats. She provides the when, why, and… read more

Cookware everywhere you turn

March 15, 2018 by
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  Scrolling through my social media feeds today, I admit I felt a bit overwhelmed with the volume of cookware-related tweets. Michael Symon was announcing his new line of branded pots and pans, Food52 was featuring a glass-lidded cast-iron brasier, and then I spied another post from Bon Appetit announcing Le Creuset's new tri-ply stainless steel cookware line.  Those are just… read more

JBF Cookbook Award nominees announced

March 14, 2018 by
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  Today the James Beard Foundation announced the nominees for its 2018 Cookbook Awards and other food writing/media awards. It is always interesting to compare the JBF list to the IACP list to see how many books overlap between them. If a book has made both lists, it has to be one of the best of the year. In 2018,… read more

Celebrate Pi(e) Day

March 13, 2018 by
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March 14 (3.14 if you use the month-first convention found in the US) is the perfect day for bakers to celebrate both pi (the mathematical constant) and pie (the tasty food with endless variants both savory and sweet) because of the natural synergy between the two. Bakers use pi when scaling pie and cake recipes to determine the proper pan… read more

David Chang announces new multimedia company

March 12, 2018 by
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Fresh off the success of his Netflix series "Ugly Delicious," restaurateur and chef David Chang has announced the creation of a new multimedia company called Majordomo Media. In a statement, Chang called the company a place to create content revolving around "food and culture in a way nobody has really ever tried" before.  Chang formed the new company along  with… read more

Ruth Rogers and Nigella Lawson keynote speakers at Cherry Bombe’s Jubilee

March 11, 2018 by
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  Cherry Bombe Magazine is hosting its sixth Jubilee conference next month. The keynote speakers at the conference are two culinary icons: Nigella Lawson and Ruth Rogers. "The two women are such a powerhouse duo, in terms of one representing the working chef and the other the home cook," says Cherry Bombe  co-founder Kerry Diamond.   The conference will be held April 14… read more

The man behind the Meyer lemon

March 10, 2018 by
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  When citrus season hits the US, one item you will find at supermarkets in most major cities (and even plenty of smaller ones) is the Meyer lemon. Sweeter than the common Eureka lemon, the Meyer lemon also contains a much thinner skin and a flowery aroma. The fruit is nearly synonymous with California, where the bulk of the US… read more

Fascinating list of the “100 most Jewish” foods

March 9, 2018 by
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  It's always a gamble to make a list of the "best" or "most popular" or even "most representative" foods for a particular country, culture, or group. Undoubtedly someone will feel that you included a food that didn't belong, that you overlooked an essential item, or find another to quibble about. Lucky for us, this didn't stop Tablet Magazine, which… read more

How to use the other side of your chef’s knife

March 7, 2018 by
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  We're all familiar with how to use the business-end of our chef's knives. But did you know that the back of the blade, also known as the spine, is also very useful? Joe Sevier at Epicurious does, and he tells us six ways to use the other side of a chef's knife. The blunt side of your knife is… read more

Dorie Greenspan’s ‘must read’ cookbooks

March 6, 2018 by
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  Other than Julia Child, probably no one has translated French cooking and baking better than Dorie Greenspan. Her cookbooks have legions of fans worldwide. This fall, she will be releasing Everyday Dorie: The Way I Cook. We can't wait to dive into the latest from Dorie, but until October, we'll have to make do with her list of 'must… read more

Toss the toothpick with smart bakeware

March 4, 2018 by
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  Anyone who has baked a cake has probably used a toothpick or cake tester to determine when the cake was ready. Doing so requires you to hover over the oven, checking the cake every few minutes until it's finally done. One company wants to make this hovering a thing of the past, by creating smart cookware that aims to take… read more
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