Clik here to view.
travel: paper coronation…
~ Europe: if it weren’t for your slow-speed (and often, non-existent) internet and lack of air-conditioning, I’d declare you the superior continent without reservation. But God bless, every time I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
kansas city: 2013 chefs classic…
The Chefs Classic, held in late June, raises money for Harvester’s, a food bank in the greater Kansas City area. I serve on the event’s planning committee. Every year, hosting chef Debbie Gold and I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
travel: one day more…
~ In January of 2011, I went to Lyon a spectator, expecting little more than a fun detour on a two-week break from life. It turned out to be the start of the most incredible adventure I’ve known yet....
View ArticleClik here to view.
travel: better late than never…
~ The last time I was in Copenhagen, I was eleven years-old. In the years since, the city has waxed into a culinary constellation that now attracts gastronauts from faraway places. Copenhagen’s rise...
View ArticleClik here to view.
travel: the well-preserved patina of yesterday…
~ You know those restaurants you’ve been meaning to visit for ten years? I have long lists of them. And none is longer or harder to maintain than my New York list. New York City is a high-volume...
View ArticleClik here to view.
travel: rediscovering coastal cuisine…
~ I’m not going to be shy: I’m very good with geography. I always have been. (I also have an unusually good sense of direction. My family calls me the walking GPS.) But, whereas I once associated...
View ArticleClik here to view.
rumination 28: what goes up, must come down…
We are on the eve of the annual announcement of the “World’s 50 Best Restaurants” list (published by the British magazine Restaurant and sponsored by San Pellegrino & Acqua Panna). As chefs from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
travel: second city…
~ When I left my twenties, I went to Chicago to mark the passing of that decade, and to welcome the next. In the five years since, I’ve kept the tradition, choosing a different city with each new...
View ArticleClik here to view.
2013 twelve days of christmas: save the dates…
~ For the past five years, Christopher Kostow, chef of the three Michelin-starred The Restaurant at Meadowood has hosted an extraordinary series of dinners known as the “Twelve Days of Christmas.”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
kansas city: save the date…
~ It is a new day at The American Restaurant in Kansas City. Debbie Gold, the former executive chef, has left (to open a new restaurant, The Red Door Grill), and Michael Corvino, formerly the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
travel: less twerk, more cook…
~ I have neglected my blog. And I am sorry for it. In the months since my trip to Chicago in March (the last, substantive post on this blog), I have seen spring, summer, and autumn happening in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
travel: raging case of gowanus…
~ My friend Adam wanted cake. Specifically, he wanted Frank Stitt’s seven-layer coconut cake, which he knows that I make upon request from time to time. So, he suggested that we spend two nights at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
travel: intercontinental… (chile; part i)
~ Chile, as we know it now, is a fairly young country. As recently as my childhood, which fell squarely in the Reagan years, the fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet terrorized the country with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
travel: intercontinental… (chile part ii)
~ In this second half of my report about my trip to Chile earlier this year (here’s the first half), I take you to some of the most beautiful destinations I’ve ever visited: three of Chile’s wine...
View ArticleClik here to view.
12 days: on the first day of christmas… (ricker)
~ At yesterday’s Twelve Days of Christmas at the Restaurant at Meadowood’s panel discussion at the CIA Greystone campus with chef Andy Ricker, Ricker referred to himself as a “food hack.” (I will be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
12 days: on the second day of christmas… (guzman)
~ Perhaps my favorite aspect of the Twelve Days of Christmas at The Restaurant at Meadowood is the “cross pollination” that takes place among the chefs and cooks here at Meadowood Napa Valley. There’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
12 days: on the third day of christmas… (mirarchi)
~ Much like his restaurants, Roberta’s and Blanca, which made Brooklyn’s otherwise quiet neighborhood of Bushwick a culinary destination, Carlo Mirarchi’s cooking teeters between the simple and the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
12 days: on the fourth day of christmas… (cushman)
~ Chef Tim Cushman brought with him to the Twelve Days of Christmas at The Restaurant at Meadowood a menagerie of chopstick holders (ranging from dogs and cats to red hot chili peppers and pigs flying...
View ArticleClik here to view.
12 days: on the fifth day of christmas… (christensen)
~ Last year, at the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi, I was sitting at lunch with Christopher Kostow when chef Ashley Christensen knocked our socks off with an unforgettable...
View ArticleClik here to view.
12 days: on the sixth day of christmas… (chang)
~ When David Chang can’t find the flavors he wants – like certain soy sauces from Japan – he makes them. Yesterday, he opened bottles and jars of what he calls “bonji” – fermented sauces – and “hozon”...
View Article