Jacques Pépin begins filming his last series

November 4, 2014 by
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In an age where nearly every cooking show focuses on conflict and outsized personality, Jacques Pépin stands out. For nearly 25 years, Pépin has starred in low-key, straightforward cooking shows through the public broadcasting station KQED in San Francisco. He says that his latest series, Jacques Pépin: Heart & Soul, will be his last. While Pépin doesn't rule out doing… read more

In defense of dessert

October 4, 2014 by
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Restaurant dessert menus have been on the decline for some time. Perhaps we can blame the trend on people cutting back on carbs or the demonizing of sugar. Or perhaps it is a by-product of the growing practice of restaurateurs eliminating pastry chefs and relying on a limited menu of pre-made desserts as a cost-saving measure. Chef Marco Canora is… read more

Chef Jason Atherton on cooking at home

September 30, 2014 by
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Jason Atherton's pedigree is impressive: Gordon Ramsay's Maze, El Bulli, his own London restaurants, and outposts in Hong Kong and Singapore. While these establishments feature complex foods, the Michelin-starred chef has a simple philosophy when it comes to cooking at home. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Chef Atherton describes his views on seasonal food, what he considers essential… read more

Literal chef’s plates

September 29, 2014 by
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Daniel Boulud's new Washington, DC restaurant, DBGB Kitchen and Bar, represents a homecoming of sorts. Boulud worked in DC when he first arrived in the U.S. thirty years ago. When it came time to decorate his new establishment, he enlisted his chef friends for an art project. Over 100 chefs from across the U.S. to painted small plates in a manner representing famous… read more

Complete Diana Henry recipe index

September 20, 2014 by
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Attention Diana Henry fans - we're excited to announce that we've just completed indexing all of her recipes, 2,851 in total! This includes all of Diana's cookbooks from Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons to A Change of Appetite, every recipe in her Sunday Telegraph columns, every magazine recipe, and recipes found on her website. The Sunday Telegraph recipes are indexed as… read more

Behind the scenes with a cookbook editor

September 16, 2014 by
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Have you ever come across a cookbook that made you think "wow, someone was brave to take a chance on this book"? Then you'll love reading about cookbook editor Rux Martin of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She specializes in cookbooks, narrative nonfiction on food, and diet books, and has worked with storied authors like Dorie Greenspan, Mollie Katzen, Jacques Pépin, and Ruth Reichl.… read more

Netflix announces The Chefs Table documentary series

September 15, 2014 by
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    Food lovers are eager to learn about their favorite chefs' opinions, techniques, and paths to culinary success. Even if we don't have the opportunity to eat at their restaurants, for some chefs we can catch a glimpse of them through their cookbook writing. Soon Netflix will make it easier to discover what makes world-famous chefs tick with a documentary series set to debut… read more

Groundbreaking women in food and drink

September 8, 2014 by
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The number of women helming food-related companies and otherwise influencing the food industry has been growing steadily over the past few decades. Fortune magazine (in partnership with Food & Wine) takes a fascinating look at top 25 innovative women in food and drink. While some of the women are well-known, others effect their influence from behind the scenes, like Liz Myslik, Executive VP… read more

Oseland leaves Saveur

August 22, 2014 by
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This week brings another shakeup in food journalism as longtime Saveur editor-in-chief James Oseland announced he is leaving the magazine to start a new publication with publisher Rodale. There Oseland "will start a new magazine brand, transforming the 62-year-old Organic Gardening magazine into Organic Life. The new magazine is expected to include coverage of "food, garden, home and well-being," a… read more

The Splendid Table turns 20

July 30, 2014 by
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While some cooking programs have turned to high drama to attract bigger ratings, one show has remained rock steady for 20 years: NPR's The Splendid Table. Host Lynne Rossetto Kasper reminisces with Eater about the show, recalling the early episodes which featured luminaries like chefs Danny Meyer and Michael Romano of The Union Square Cafe, food scientist and cookbook author Shirley Corriher, and Julia… read more

Jacques Pépin on “reality” cooking shows

July 25, 2014 by
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Turn on any televised cooking program and you are likely to hear yelling--a lot of yelling. The drama drives ratings, but how much is what we are seeing like a real restaurant kitchen? If you ask Jacques Pépin, the answer is "not much." In a recent Daily Meal article, Pépin blasts this negative depiction of professional kitchens. While he admits… read more

Chefs’ first food memories

June 2, 2014 by
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If you think that many chefs had poignant or powerful experiences with food when they were young that influenced their career path, you would be correct. Thanks to this short video from The Guardian, you can learn about the first food memories of some of the UK's best chefs, many of whom have cookbooks in the EYB Library. In the video, Ruth Rogers from… read more

The Fat Duck flies south

March 31, 2014 by
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Restaurants open, close, and change locations every day. Usually it's only noteworthy to the people in the local area. However, when the restaurant in question is Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck, and when the move is not across town but across the globe, people pay attention. As reported in The Guardian, the restaurant, including its staff, will travel to Melbourne this December… read more

Clarissa Dickson Wright dies at 66

March 17, 2014 by
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Clarissa Dickson Wright was someone who enjoyed life to the fullest.  Her career spanned being a barrister at Grey's Inn, to working in two cookbook stores, to cooking in a club and most famously, travelling around the UK in a motorcycle and sidecar with Jennifer Paterson, as The Two Fat Ladies. The Two Fat Ladies were unlikely TV stars -… read more

And the nominees are…

February 26, 2014 by
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It's the end of February, so it must be time for culinary award season to begin. We've already addressed Food52's The Piglet competition, which is in the quarterfinal round, the James Beard Foundation cookbook awards, which will be announced on March 18 (read about JBF restaurants and chef semifinalists), and the IACP nominees were also recently announced. Without further ado,… read more

A cover story

February 4, 2014 by
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Nigella Lawson recently announced the publication of "covetable new editions" of nine of her bestselling cookbooks. (You may have to scroll down the page a bit to view the announcement.) The first two books, Nigella Express and How To Be a Domestic Goddess, pictured above, have covers described on Nigella's website as "striking" and "witty." An April, 2014 release date is… read more

Per Deborah Madison, the word “veggies” should be banned

January 21, 2014 by
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There is a trend for certain food terms to become popular and then reviled. "Food porn" came in and went out pretty fast; "foodies" has lasted longer but there is now gradual consensus that it should be eliminated from polite conversation as a derogatory term. But "veggies"? According to Deborah Madison (The Greens Cookbook, Vegetable Literacy, and other numerous vegetarian books)… read more

Take 5 famous chefs and put them in office cubicles….

January 8, 2014 by
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We have to applaud Food & Wine's latest video, which Braiser is previewing. Narrated by their Editor-in-Chief, Dana Cowin, it follows five famous chefs - Mario Batali, Eric Ripert, David Chang, Hugh Acheson, and Grant Achatz - as they become chefs-in-residence at the F&W offices. It's only 5 minutes long, but if you've ever worked in an office or cubicle,… read more

Three cooking tips from Thomas Keller

December 29, 2013 by
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During a recent interview with world-famous chef Thomas Keller, The Splendid Table asked him how home cooks could improve their skills. He responded with three pieces of advice; here is a summary of the lengthier reply NPR printed in their article: Learn to salt properly: Among the other tips he gives about salting, we found his advice about salting technique… read more

A tribute to the late Judy Rodgers

December 3, 2013 by
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  For those who may not have heard, Judy Rodgers, who was  the chef-owner of Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, died last night of a long-standing cancer. Zuni Cafe won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant in America in 2003. In 2005, Judy Rodgers was named Outstanding Chef in America, beating out Mario Batali, Tom Colicchio, Alfred Portale and Nobu… read more

Ottolenghi & Tamimi on their most essential – and fun – ingredients

November 19, 2013 by
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It's a pretty safe bet that every one of our members has heard of Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi - their cookbook Jerusalem is, as we described it previously, the Harry Potter of the cookbook world. So we wanted to share this NPR interview with Ottolenghi & Tamimi who, at the very least, deserve kudos for earning their fame the old-fashioned… read more

Saying farewell to Charlie Trotter

November 5, 2013 by
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Charlie Trotter, who passed away today, was one of those chefs that everybody had on their bucket list. Those who ate what he cooked were lucky and could always recall their meal in detail; those who never had the opportunity regretted the lost opportunity. We're honoring his impact on the food world by noting two different items. First, his legacy,… read more

John Besh describes the unique touches in his 10 signature dishes

November 4, 2013 by
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We have a special soft spot in our culinary hearts for New Orleans cuisine - and we've found John Besh to be a worthy successor to such illustrious forces as Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse. So his essay from In First We Feast, The 10 Dishes That Made My Career, struck us as a worthy read. After all, there aren't many… read more

Martha and the bloggers

October 24, 2013 by
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There's been a lot of fuss in the food blogosphere recently which can be summed up as the story of Martha and the bloggers. It is not about a new singing group (though that is a great name) but about an interview Martha Stewart gave to Bloomberg TV in which she is quoted as saying about bloggers, ""They're not trained… read more

Paying tribute to Marcella Hazan

September 30, 2013 by
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We've been reading the tributes to Marcella Hazan that have been published since she passed away yesterday and were struck by some fascinating items about this preeminent teacher of Italian cuisine. First and foremost, she was as much a teacher as a chef - one of the most effective in preaching and spreading the gospel of authentic Italian cuisine. As… read more
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