What do you feel like doing today? If I was deeply and importantly bored for the rest of April and had a glass elevator that could take me anywhere at any moment, these would be appropriate diversions: The World Gourmet Summit in Singapore April 10-28 Forget the exotic locale and international chef sightings, I’d go … Read more
I remember my first baseball hot dog like it was yesterday. Sitting under the bright sun with the perfectly green field stretched out in front of me, I gently held the plump pink dawg, dressed only with the vivid yellow mustard of ballparks and hockey rinks. Amidst peanut shells crackling underfoot, I took that first … Read more
Dahling, those pants are simply divoon! The Challenge There is a gaggle of women coming to my house for dinner Saturday night. Women and food. This is a complicated arena in which to perform. The last time we all got together, there was (in my opinion) too much talk about who was too fat and … Read more
It’s time to light the fires. It’s above 45 degrees, it’s time to reclaim cooking outside. Nothing is more significant to a warm April evening than the smell of a freshly ignited grill wafting through the neighborhood. I guarantee that campus kids all over town will be huddled around their mini-Webbers, grilling up burgers and … Read more
of livestock and mold Starting in the upper left and moving clockwise. French Brin D’Amour The “sprig of love” is a cheese made from Corsican sheep. The rind is encrusted in the aromatic herbs with which it spends three months curing. The juniper berries and rosemary give its pale ivory paste a floral flavor. It’s … Read more
Reuters recently reported that a mysterious woman has perfected the dine-and-dash in many of Rome’s best restaurants. The alleged “gourmet food junkie” has been known to dine fabulously on fine wines and exquisite fare, simply to find when the bill arrives (ooops) her wallet has been left in another purse. Revealed only as DN of … Read more
What, a student asked the other day, was the last place to be ruled by the Romans? Nowhere in Italy, that’s for certain; the last Roman emperor I know to have set foot on mainland Italy with the purpose of exercising political power was Constans II in 662. The Holy Roman Empire, begun by Charlemagne … Read more
As with others who work in the food business, I—and especially my chef husband—have had new friends express their reservations about cooking for us. (Usually this comes out over a few glasses of wine at our house.) But in truth, the only real differences between a home cook and a food pro are time and … Read more
In Chicago to open a restaurant, I was invited to dinner with my friend Elizabeth and her parents. Elizabeth’s father, Dr. Pepper (no lie), had just completed a crazy-difficult robotic arm techno-surgery. He hurriedly gave us some scant details before turning to me and asking how the restaurant opening was going. The robotic arm story … Read more
When I was home in England over Christmas, I caught a liver specialist from (appropriately enough) Liverpool being interviewed on the wireless. He was talking about cirrhosis, that very nasty condition in which the liver turns into little yellowish granules, and eventually packs up completely. When he began in the liver business years ago, he … Read more