It seems the media has a hard time talking about any subject in non-hysterical terms, and bananas are no different. Every so often you see a story pop up in the food press about the imminent “extinction” of the banana. What’s the real story here? Well my friends, I’m about to tell you. What food […]
READ ONMy usual long morning post went by the wayside this morning, as I spent the dawn hours at a taping of a new Food Network show, Culinary Claim to Fame. It’s something of an odd concept, whereby offbeat professionals and/or gifted amateurs are given what amounts to their own single-episode cooking show. In today’s case […]
READ ONSeems the chocolate industry has some rather interesting things in mind for us this next year or so.
READ ONIf I see one more recipe that suggests subsituting a tuna can for a pastry or muffin ring, why I’ll… Maybe ten or fifteen years ago you could have done it: cut the bottom out of a can to make a cheap and easy mold. But not anymore. No, packaging designers have seen to that. […]
READ ONLittle Josephine pastry is happily chewing away on a fresh English muffin even as we speak, er…you know what I mean. The recipe came out well, though not nearly as well as it might have done save for three things. One, the fact that I didn’t have an ice cream scoop of the right size. […]
READ ONHow it enriches our lives. (Thanks to Sally at Tip of the Iceberg. Nice Impala!)
READ ONThough it’s not exactly baking and pastry-related, I can’t let the news of recent 1976 “Judgement of Paris” rematch pass without comment. The original event, now commemorated in a terrific book by George Taber, started out as just a bit of harmless fun to celebrate America’s bicentennial: an American vs. French wine tasting. Yet it […]
READ ONDon’t forget that anytime you’re fiddling with chocolate, you always want to let it firm up at room temperature. Putting ganache in the refrigerator prevents the cocoa butter that’s in it from crystallizing, and the end result, when it’s returned to room temperature, is greasy, filmy goo.
READ ONIf you had a look at the chocolatier competition story down below and saw that the theme was tea, you might be wondering how the heck you get tea flavor into a firm substance like chocolate. Grind up the leaves and add them to melted chocolate bars? Nope, too grainy. Add a little very strong […]
READ ONThe winners of the 2nd annual Next Generation Chocolatier Competition have been announced. Congratulations to Jin Patisserie in Venice, California! (And nice going on a very cool web site).
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