To preheat or not to preheat, that is the question

June 27, 2023 by
 |  7 Comments  |  Leave Comment
oven dial
Almost any baking recipe, savory or sweet, begins with instructions to preheat the oven. It's second nature for most cooks to turn on the oven before gathering ingredients or preparing baking pans. But is it really necessary to preheat? There's one school of thought that says it wastes time and electricity (or gas), and another that says you need to… read more

Food news antipasto

June 25, 2023 by
 |  Leave Comment
Consumers are one step closer to getting lab-grown meat, as US regulators approved two California companies to make chicken from cultivated cells. Upside Foods and Good Meat were both vying to be the first company to get the go-ahead for lab-grown meat products. “Instead of all of that land and all of that water that’s used to feed all of… read more

Iconic dishes, legendary restaurants

June 24, 2023 by
 |  3 Comments  |  Leave Comment
As a few readers noted in our post about the World's 50 Best Restaurants, the rankings reflect the views of the sponsor company as much as they do the judgment of experts. Well, I have another curated list for you, but this one is different. It's a list of the 150 most legendary restaurants and each one's iconic dish. You… read more

The intersection of food and disability

June 20, 2023 by
 |  4 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Disability advocates have long sought to bring visibility to the challenges faced by people who have physical or mental disabilities, highlighting these difficulties while simultaneously amplifying the accomplishments and contributions of disabled people. Culinary culture is catching up in this space, with increasing numbers of bloggers and food writers publishing cooking advice for people who face physical or mental limitations.… read more

Food news antipasto

June 18, 2023 by
 |  2 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Every chef has their own 'secret' ingredient, the one that they turn to time and again to add pizzazz to their dishes. For Mauritian chef Chaya Maya, that ingredient is tamarind. She adds it to soups and stews near the end of cooking, as a marinade for meats, and in desserts. Like other Maruritians, she even eats it straight out… read more

Forget farm to table – Netflix offers film to table

June 17, 2023 by
 |  Leave Comment
Watching cooking shows is both entertaining and frustrating because there is no way to taste the creation of the chefs or contestants. We are forced to use our imaginations or recreate the dish at home if a recipe is provided. Fans of cooking shows in Los Angeles, however, will get a little something extra at the end of the month,… read more

Instant Pot’s parent company files for bankruptcy

June 13, 2023 by
 |  3 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Instant Brands, the manufacturer of Instant Pot, CorningWare, and Pyrex, filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. and Canada this week. (Hat tip to EYB Member sir_ken_g for alerting us to this event.) In a statement, the Illinois-based company announced that it "initiated a voluntary court-supervised Chapter 11 process," blaming rising interest rates on its debt load. "Tightening of credit terms… read more

Kitchen trends that are falling out of favor

June 13, 2023 by
 |  16 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Remodeling a kitchen is something that most of us do infrequently, if at all. I've been fortunate enough to have done two full-on remodels, both DIY projects and both wildly different from one another. One house was a 1960s ranch-style home and the other a 1920s Craftsman-style bungalow, so the design choices were influenced by each home's respective era. Even… read more

Food news antipasto

June 11, 2023 by
 |  Leave Comment
Olivia Potts has judged food awards, including World’s Original Marmalade Awards and the Great Taste Awards, the "big kahuna of UK produce awards." While she thinks that there is merit highlighting small producers, Potts wonders if overall these food awards are worthwhile. "Taste doesn’t necessarily defy analysis, but that analysis is almost retrospective, a breaking down of why something is… read more

Finally some good news about food prices

June 8, 2023 by
 |  5 Comments  |  Leave Comment
As shoppers faced escalating prices for everything from butter to vegetables in the past couple of years, it felt like there was no end to the rising cost of groceries. It seems as though we may have turned a corner recently. Food prices have inched down in the last couple of months for many categories including dairy, fruits and vegetables,… read more

Changing old ways in the kitchen

June 7, 2023 by
 |  7 Comments  |  Leave Comment
I've been cooking for a long time, and many of the kitchen practices I employed at the beginning of my culinary journey have gone by the wayside. I no longer cook pork chops to well done, I stopped putting oil in my pasta boiling water, I don't use glass cutting boards anymore, the list goes on. In all cases, I… read more

Gardens are full of miracles and disappointments

June 6, 2023 by
 |  7 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Usually by now I would have posted my annual ode to rhubarb, one of the first items most gardeners can harvest each spring. This year the rhubarb was delayed due to a long, cool April, but in May it leapt out of the ground due to a burst of warm weather. The joke around here is that spring lasts roughly… read more

Food news antipasto

June 4, 2023 by
 |  Leave Comment
After 17 years, Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi announced that she was leaving the Bravo TV series. In a tweet, Padma said that "After much soul searching, I have made the difficult decision to leave Top Chef. Having completed a glorious 20th season as host and executive producer, I am extremely proud to have been part of building such a… read more

Are robots coming to a restaurant near you?

June 1, 2023 by
 |  3 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Recently one of my friends posted a photo of a robotic "waiter" at a restaurant where they were dining. It took their orders via touchscreen and it brought out the food on a tray when it was ready. With worker shortages ongoing, investing in technology seems like a logical move, although whether diners will appreciate this change remains to be… read more

Food news antipasto

May 28, 2023 by
 |  One Comment  |  Leave Comment
Does chef Jose Andres ever sleep? As if he isn't busy enough running restaurants, contributing to his nonprofit enterprise (World Central Kitchen), and giving talks around the world, he just announced a new partnership with George Washington University. They are forming The Global Food Institute, and its lofty aim is to "serve as a hub to develop evidence, partnerships, and… read more

Recipes to welcome summer

May 27, 2023 by
 |  2 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Our US members have a long weekend for the Memorial Day holiday. While the day itself is a time for somber appreciation for those who gave all in defense of our nation, the unofficial event that coincides with the holiday is the welcoming of summer. As I walked through my neighborhood today it seemed like every backyard contained a grill,… read more

Going bananas

May 25, 2023 by
 |  10 Comments  |  Leave Comment
If you are a certain age, you probably remember the scene from Raiders of the Lost Art (1981) when Harrison Ford's character says "Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?" I was reminded of that scene when I watched a recent episode of Chopped, where one of the contestants discovers that a particular fruit was in the mystery ingredient… read more

The ebb and flow of ingredients

May 23, 2023 by
 |  6 Comments  |  Leave Comment
If you looked into my refrigerator daily over the past 20 years, you would have been hard pressed to find a day where you did not see a container of yogurt prominently displayed. As a recent Food & Wine article noted, there are legions of dishes that start with or are finished by a dollop of the tangy dairy product.… read more

Food news antipasto

May 21, 2023 by
 |  4 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Most of us know that Betty Crocker isn't a real person; she was concocted by the marketing folks at the Washburn-Crosby Company (the precursor to General Mills) in 1921. However, another names that is displayed on boxes of cake mixes across the US is (or was) a real person: Duncan Hines. Southern Living explores the history of Mr. Hines, who… read more

What are your bad habits in the kitchen?

May 18, 2023 by
 |  11 Comments  |  Leave Comment
In a perfect food world, there would never be any cross contamination, surfaces would remain pristine, and everyone would religiously follow food safety rules. In the real world, however, nothing's perfect - including Jay Rayner. He confesses to some "unsavoury" habits in the kitchen, but he feels secure that he is in good company. Rayner shares that while filming a… read more

Food news antipasto

May 14, 2023 by
 |  Leave Comment
As we eagerly await the announcement of the winners of the 2023 James Beard Media Awards, yet another controversy is brewing around the James Beard Foundation. This time it comes from a couple of judges resigning and a former winner smashing his award with a brick. As Eater explains, "In the wake of disqualifying a Birmingham [Alabama] chef, two judges… read more

Alkalinity can work wonders with food

May 13, 2023 by
 |  One Comment  |  Leave Comment
The title to Samin Nosrat's excellent book indicates what she feels to be the most important elements in cooking - salt, fat, acid, heat. While acid plays an important role in cooking, it might be better to think about pH more broadly than just acid, as alkaline substances offer important benefits in the kitchen as well. Food writer Caroline Hatchett… read more

On recipe writing

May 10, 2023 by
 |  5 Comments  |  Leave Comment
"Jump to recipe." If seeing those words in a blog post to which you've navigated after seeing an image float across your social media feed makes you happy, this post may not be for you. The internet is rife with people joking about what they view as exaggerated prose that precedes the recipe in a food blog. "I just want… read more

Are home composting machines the answer to food waste?

May 9, 2023 by
 |  9 Comments  |  Leave Comment
Unless you live in a suburban or rural area and have a decent-sized yard, your food waste probably goes into the trash and eventually into a landfill. Food waste produces tremendous amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Municipalities have been slow to implement city-wide composting, so what's a consumer to do? Even the most conscientious… read more

Food news antipasto

May 8, 2023 by
 |  Leave Comment
Jamie Oliver is set to return to the London restaurant scene with his first new location since the 2019 collapse of his UK restaurant group. The chef will launch a site at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and the restaurant will feature a seasonal menu highlighting British produce. Oliver said: "I was devastated when I lost my UK restaurants. Without doubt,… read more
« Older posts
Newer posts »
Seen anything interesting? Let us know & we'll share it!

Categories

Archives