A couple of weeks ago I gave a talk at the University of Washington as part of the Pacific Chef Net Conference, which convened college and university chefs based at schools from Vancouver, British Columbia to San Diego. My subject was Distinctive Food Traditions of the Northwest, an hour and a half that [...]
It must be a sign of the times (one of many) that I flipped through my morning Wall Street Journal yesterday to find an item about new advertising efforts by the Velveeta folks "designed to appeal to budget-conscious consumers." They're taking advantage of this weekend's Super Bowl snack-o-rama for some targeted (Internet-savvy [...]
It was already pretty wonderful just to be in France at all for those nearly three years I spent (mostly) working and studying at La Varenne. But on occasion a really magnificent, unexpected, enchanting experienced came along to make the stay even more magical. This was one of those occasions: [...]
Still making it through that too-big pile of papers that accumulated through last year....and found more New York notes that I haven't yet dealt with from my summer trip. I can't recall what the ultimate destination was for the evening, but for starters we gathered at Blue Ribbon Downing Street [...]
I don't recall the exact moment that I was first introduced to vanilla sugar, though it certainly was in France. May have been during my study-abroad time in Dijon, seeing my host family using those little envelopes of sucre vanillé in a recipe. And it certainly came up a number [...]
The Puget Sound Business Journal featured an item recently about a new kind of cultivation coming on the scene: that of the truffle. It's no easy feat to cultivate truffles, they're still going to have some unpredictable, wild tendencies and take their time to (hopefully) flourish. But at least one 2-acre plot of [...]
I really have a thing for vermouth. And it's not ALL about the cocktails. I use it loads in cooking too -- last night to deglaze a skillet after pan-frying steaks, sometimes splashed in a pan of braising greens, and I pour a swig or two into the roasting pan about halfway [...]
And no, to answer your first question: a bathtub was not involved. Having written and spoken as much as I have about gin over the years, it seems somewhat sacrilegious to suggest that I "made" gin. I've been to too many distilleries, sampled too many quality gins, and studied too much the art and [...]
This past week has served up some serious Winter Wonderland material. Not only is our West Seattle home nestled in a good foot or so of snow, but we were in Vegas for its newsworthy snowfall last week. The green glow the snow took on in the lights of MGM [...]
A few days ago it was Just One Of Those Days. Never catching a break, feeling always behind the 8-ball, a sense that if I just grasp my head firmly enough alongside each ear I can hopefully keep my head from exploding. You know those days, right? Couldn't even muster [...]