A piece in the New York Times today states the obvious: Upscale food magazines are reacting to the economic downturn by focusing on recipes and stories about meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, and burgers instead of missives on the joys of foie gras, caviar, and Kobe beef. The cover from the various March issues tell all: Bon Appétit: "Comfort Food Now" is a coverline; the photo is shephard's pieFood & Wine: Root vegetable gratin, a fancy-pants casserole, is the coverGourmet: Grilled ham and cheese sandwich on the cover Interestingly, the story barely mentions the web at all, which is kind of strange when you think about it....
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Words by Michele Humes | This week's Cook the Book selection, Fast Easy Fresh, is the easygoing follow-up to The Bon Appétit Cookbook, with equally delicious recipes but greatly streamlined procedures. With a little creativity, the book urges, you can eat well and soon—without recourse to convenience foods. How? Keep the ingredients list short but high-impact, and add depth to relatively basic dishes with the spices and aromatics of East Asian, North African, and Latin cuisines. The Bon Appétit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook offers 1,100 recipes along these lines, complete with a shopping guide and a wealth of tips. Each day this week, we'll be posting a recipe for a passed hors d'oeuvre that will dazzle the guest but spare...
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It's summertime and serious barbecue is having a moment in the sun. It makes sense that July's Bon Appétit is devoted to barbecue. Good 'cue requires zesty sauce to smother the meat and to lick off your fingers. But consensus ends there. Some like their sauce watery, others prefer it thick. There are tomato-base believers, and those who adhere faithfully to the vinegar-based doctrine. Bon Appétit names five barbecue sauce champions, all made by seasoned barbecue competitors....
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I spoke to
Bon Appétit editor in chief
Barbara Fairchild a few days ago about the magazine's Thanksgiving issue. What did I learn? Don't mess with her octogenarian mother's pumpkin pie, which is still as good as pumpkin pie gets.
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Whenever I take someone out to dinner for soup dumplings who's never had them before, they can never understand why I'm so excited: "Uh, it's just dumplings in soup. Big deal?" But it is a big deal! They are wrong! The dumplings are not in the soup, the soup is in the dumplings! They've got lovely pork fillings inside them, sometimes crab too, but the star attraction is the hot, savoury broth that you suck out through a hole you've delicately nibbled. I live within walking distance of my favorite places to get these wonders of deliciousness, but for those of you who didn't plan your habitats so strategically, this month's issue of Bon Appétit has a short piece...
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I love the year-end roundups in the food magazines and the food sections of the major daily newspapers. The batch from 2006 was particularly entertaining, informative, and mouthwatering.
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