I'm not sure why, but it wasn't until last week when my mom handed me a fresh copy of Heat , that I realized I had forgotten to read it. I'd read another Bill Buford book, his manic and terribly disturbing Among the Thugs , along with his New Yorker profile on Batali and a narrative on his experience slaughtering animals in Tuscany, the latter two of which are included in some form in...
As you might imagine, I read a lot about food. I have the Omnivores Dilemma , The United States of Arugula , Julie and Julia , Garlic and Sapphires , In Search of Perfection , Real Food , and I'm Just Here For the Food , not even counting regular old cookbooks, and the four or five wine and spirit guides. While I enjoy some of the gossip of the food world, I get...
Let's say you're just not feeling the joy you need to properly celebrate a festive party. It's the holiday season, and you need a slightly alcoholic milk product to help you reach that next level of cheer. The store-bought stuff? Gluey and tasting of artificial thickeners. You need some true, homemade eggnog--that's been established. Perhaps you prepared for this situation and made t...
By Blake Royer 
It's difficult, sometimes, to make Brunch plans. They usually happen in a haze at 1:30 in the morning, when everyone's hungry, a bit tired, and getting very sentimental. "Oh, let's all wake up and have a big intimate meal together tomorrow!" It's a way of ensuring, in hopeful and vague way, that the night never has to end--just after a short nap, we'll all get togeth...
Happy Mother's Day, Mom. We know we might not be lawyers, stock brokers, or those people that have "money" or whatever that's called. But we can cook. And had we been able to be with you today, and, had we awoken (most likely by you) at the absolutely absurd hour that you rise, this is what we would have done. So, please. Stay in bed, read some of that paper and enjoy a full menu dedi...
Step 1: Find a Spanish Man.
Step 2: Find a Spanish Ham.
Preferably, a wildly handsome Spanish friend with a hunk of Spanish ham that his mother sent him. Jorge had looks. And he had the ham. What follows is an evening of many, many stages that included overcoming fears of anchovies, quail eggs, and two romantic party members who ate their share, doted on each other, and c...
Though egg mayonnaise is essentially the same thing as American egg salad, it doesn't taste like your average pitch-in. The mayonnaise was creamy but it had a lightness to it, which probably has something to do with the proportion of ingredients. Instead of deli-style New York sandwiches where a literal pound of meat is thrown on each sandwich--"It's like a cow with a cracker on either side,...
When I can’t decide what I feel like cooking, I’ll often visit epicurious.com and bum around until an ingredient that sounds great pops up--then I’ll start searching for that ingredient and I always find something that sounds tasty. In this case, my ingredient was goat cheese. I was doing a few searches at www.jamieoliver.com --we basically follow him and his British humor around with to...
The Paupered Chef ransack their local butcher in search of the fresh meat to one of France's most risky dishes. Will they have time to cook it?
The Paupered Chefs ransack their local butcher in search of fresh meat for one of France's most risky dishes. Will they have time to cook their steak tartare? We did our research, spared no expense, and faced the terrors of salmonella. We sur...
Pasta Carbonara
Serves 4.
Recipe adapted from Cucina Rustica
Get a huge pot of salted water boiling...