Free “Baker’s Helper” conversion charts available for download

April 13, 2021 by
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Update: Rick has revised his conversion charts. Head over to Rick's site to download the new version. Rick has also scheduled his first set of classes which we have added to our calendar. Be sure to check out all the amazing desserts he will be featuring. We will be sure to keep our calendar updated as well when new classes… read more

Ramadan recipes at the ready

April 12, 2021 by
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Tonight marks the start of Ramadan, which runs through May 12 this year. During this month of spiritual reflection and self-improvement, Muslims will abstain from both food and drink from dawn to sunset. As with most religious holidays, traditional foods play an important role, both for pre-dawn meal (suhoor) and the meal consumed after sunset (iftar). There are a variety… read more

Food news antipasto

April 11, 2021 by
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For the past few months, Jay Rayner has been focusing on classic cookbooks that have had a significant and lasting impact on the way he cooks. For his last column in the series, instead of focusing on a cookbook, he turns his attention to a collection most of us have tucked away somewhere: a binder or scrapbook filled with clippings… read more

Giving up on “the one”

April 10, 2021 by
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If offered a tray of bars and cookies with one choice being a brownie, it's a safe bet to assume that is what I will choose to eat. My preference is for a fudgy brownie as opposed to a cakey one, but I am not a snob and will eat whichever is available. For years I have tried brownie recipes… read more

An unsung culinary influencer

April 8, 2021 by
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Craig Claiborne's legacy will not soon be forgotten: he has earned a spot in the food writer hall of fame. The long-time NYT food editor is perhaps best known for 1961's The New York Times Cook Book. No one writes a book like that alone, and as the old saying goes, 'behind every successful man there is a strong woman.'… read more

Are we primed for a return of the automat?

April 7, 2021 by
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You might expect that the intersection of contactless delivery, cutting-edge technology, and food occurred in the age of COVID-19, but instead this combination dates all the way back to 1895 when the automat concept was invented in Berlin. Automats quickly made their way to North America thanks to Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart, who opened their first such outlet in… read more

Older generations view cooking with a different perspective

April 5, 2021 by
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While late Boomers, GenX, and Millenials have picked up cooking as a passionate hobby, for many people in earlier generations cooking is viewed as a chore or a duty, or as a way to give pleasure to others and not necessarily to oneself. When lockdowns began over a year ago, millions of elderly people - many of them living alone… read more

Food news antipasto

April 4, 2021 by
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carton of eggs
Are you the type of person who eats their chocolate Easter bunny ears first or tail first? Whichever way you do it, you are participating in the biggest US chocolate holiday by far: Easter dwarfs Valentine's Day and Christmas in terms of chocolates sold. To keep you in the chocolate mood without adding any calories, The Guardian's Annalisa Barbieri investigates… read more

Small cakes make a big impression

April 3, 2021 by
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I'm known as the office baker, and pre-pandemic I would bring in a cake, cookies, and other treats on a weekly basis. Having dozens of eager recipients helped me maintain my waistline while still indulging in my favorite hobby. For the past year, however, visits to the office have been few and far between as we have been fortunate enough… read more

Tips for a spring (or fall) pantry cleaning

April 3, 2021 by
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Most of us have been cooking more at home for the better part of a year now, and as a result our pantry might be looking a little rough. The change of season beckons us to do a thorough cleaning, but what's the best way to go about it? The Guardian's Felicity Cloake and others answer the question with tips… read more

‘Fooling’ around with food

April 1, 2021 by
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Normally we would feature a blog post for April Fools' Day that shared the funniest or most clever pranks that food websites or celebrities pulled on their fans. It seems that there are far fewer of these in 2021, perhaps because it seems wrong to try to fool us after everything we have been through in the past year. Instead,… read more

In defense of chocolate chips

March 31, 2021 by
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Chocolate chunks have been replacing chocolate chips in cookie recipes over the past few years. There are several reasons for this, but chief among them is that chocolate chunks allow the cookies to become flatter and therefore more Instagram-able. In defense of this theory, I submit as Exhibit No. 1 Sarah Kieffer's infamous (and fantastic) pan-banging Chocolate chip cookies, which set… read more

Free cookbook for those who have COVID-related smell and taste issues

March 29, 2021 by
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Millions of people around the world have reported that losing their sense of smell and taste was the first sign they noticed of a COVID-19 infection. For a large percentage of those people, the damage to their gustatory system was persistent, lasting for weeks or even months. Some have yet to recover their sense of taste. This loss can be… read more

Food news antipasto

March 28, 2021 by
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Jenny does a masterful job of keeping us all up to date on the newest cookbook releases, offering her unique takes on the cookbooks and diligently tracking publication dates, which are in a state of flux due to coronavirus-related issues. That said, we do like to provide additional perspective, so today we're linking to a recent Eater article on what… read more

Women who shaped how we cook

March 26, 2021 by
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For centuries, women have been the primary cooks in households worldwide. Despite this, until fairly recently most fine dining restaurant chefs were men, and the implication being that while women could cook well enough for their families, only a man could be an exceptional chef. Of course we know better now and women are finally gaining ground in top restaurant… read more

Baking maven Beth Hensperger has died

March 25, 2021 by
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We learned through cookbook author Rick Rodgers that acclaimed San Francisco Bay Area-based food writer, cooking instructor, and bread baking maven Beth Hensperger has died after years of declining health. An editor who worked with Hensperger confirmed her passing although there has not yet been an official announcement. Hensperger's long and varied writing career started in March 1985, when she… read more

Art of Eating announces 2020 longlist

March 24, 2021 by
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The Art of Eating magazine first appeared in 1986 in the form of an eight-page black-and-white newsletter written by Edward Behr. After three decades in print, it transformed into a digital, advertising-free magazine with subscribers and contributors around the world. The magazine is about the best food and wine – what they are, how they are produced, where to find them (the… read more

A cocktail fairy godmother

March 22, 2021 by
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During the pandemic, a few of my friends and I started exchanging old-fashioned handwritten letters. It was such a joy to spy an envelope in the mailbox bearing familiar handwriting. In her most recent letter, one friend lamented that while she had enjoyed learning about cocktails before lockdown began, it was difficult for her to continue this quest since she… read more

Food news antipasto

March 21, 2021 by
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Unfortunately we start the week with news of the passing of two influential culinary stars. The first is Laura Mason, a food historian who composed a detailed compendium of the traditional foods of Britain. Mason worked as research assistant to Alan Davidson, where she wrote scores of articles for the Oxford Companion to Food. The second passing of note is… read more

The therapeutic effects of baking

March 20, 2021 by
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Even before the pandemic, I was keenly aware of how baking can help buoy your mental health and can also relieve stress, and how the act of baking for others can likewise be good for you. Since lockdowns began over a year ago, this act of self-care has proved even more important, and I am far from the only person… read more

Foods to celebrate Nowruz

March 18, 2021 by
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March 20 marks the beginning of Nowruz, the traditional Persian New Year festival celebrated in Iran, Afghanistan, and the Kurdish regions of Iraq, Turkey and Syria, throughout Central Asia, and by members of the diaspora worldwide. Coinciding with the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, Nowruz is a two-week celebration that centers on visiting relatives, picnicking, travelling, and eating traditional… read more

What’s wrong with following a recipe?

March 17, 2021 by
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Last week I wrote about Sam Sifton's The New York Times Cooking: No-Recipe Recipes, which has a lofty goal of freeing people from the drudgery of relying on recipes to get dinner on the table. While I understand Sifton's arguments for the idea of no-recipe cooking, I noted that I would not be buying this book. Today I found an… read more

Ottolenghi finally embraces shortcuts

March 15, 2021 by
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In 2019, Yotam Ottolenghi pared down his notoriously long ingredient lists to write Ottolenghi Simple, and it seems like the chef is further embracing this relaxed, 'less-is-more' philosophy. In his latest NY Times article, Ottolenghi admits that he is embracing all sorts of ingredient shortcuts, an admission that seemed impossible just a few years ago. Part of his new found… read more

Food news antipasto

March 15, 2021 by
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We have sad news to report this week: Sydney chef and restaurateur Amy Chanta has died at age 63 following a two-year battle with cancer. Chanta built an empire of Thai restaurants that shaped the city's love and understanding of Thai food. She opened her first Chat Thai restaurant in 1989, to be followed by more locations and other outposts… read more

Pi(e) Day is almost here

March 13, 2021 by
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March 14 (3.14 if you use the month-first convention as we do in the US) is the perfect day for bakers to celebrate both pi (the mathematical constant) and pie (the tasty food with endless variation) because of the natural synergy between the two. Bakers use pi when scaling recipes to determine the proper pan size, and of course bakers… read more
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