Mark Bittman, food columnist for the New York Times and host of public television's The Best Recipes in the World, will be hosting a "Bittman on Bittman" live web cast Sunday, April 27 at 5:30 p.m. eastern time. He'll be answering viewers questions; go ahead and submit yours now via the website.... More
The Minimalist, Mark Bittman, and the Curious Cook, Harold McGee, pose all kinds of interesting questions and provide answers about the microwave oven, the kitchen appliance we all love to hate, in today's New York Times. Bittman's fundamental question: We all use a microwave, but can we make it cook? His conclusion, one he came to through trial and error and by interviewing Microwave Gourmet author Barbara Kafka, is that microwaves are great for steaming everything from vegetables to puddings both sweet and savory. What do Kafka and McGee have to say about microwaving?... More
New York Times food-related stories worth checking out if you have the time: A jazz musician dons a chef's toque to cook a Marcella Hazan-inspired Valentine's Day feast for his wife. A legitimately sweet Valentine's Day story. Peter Meehan checks out the latest soba noodle temple, Soba Totto. Some day I'd like to go on a soba noodle tour of New York. Where should I go? People with OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) battle powerful demons in restaurants. Mark Bittman cooks up shrimp with sun-dried tomatoes. Do the sun-dried tomatoes overwhelm the shrimp?... More
For someone who writes under the column title "The Minimalist," the New York Times food columnist, cookbook author, and television personality Mark Bittman sure seems to have set an expansive focus on his new New York Times blog Bitten. Besides the stripped-down easy-to-follow recipes he's known for: We’ll also bat around the big ideas that foodies sometimes ignore: how it gets produced and moved from one place to another, as well as who pays for it and profits from it.... What else? There will be other regular features as well — loads of new recipes; guest posters; Minimalist video clips...; reports from my (and your) food-related travels; and more.... More
Mark Bittman had a remarkable piece in the New York Times yesterday about the true costs associated with all the meat we consume. According to Bittman, growing more industrialized meat, growing the feed the associated animals eat, and eating the resulting animal flesh, are collectively having dire consequences on the environment and our health. Bittman's story even gave a passionate, enthusiastic carnivore like me pause, and that's saying something. Bittman makes a compelling case for eating less meat, which of course people like Michael Pollan have been advocating for some time now. I've been eating less meat on my diet, and I must admit I feel better. I don't miss the meat "hangover" that I used to get after polishing... More
The only thing better than reading Mark Bittman's Minimalist columns every Wednesday is watching his step-by-step video footage on the New York Times website. And the only thing better than watching from the computer is watching from the air. Yup, ever since Jet Blue and the New York Times shook hands in August, the airline has added a Times on Air station to those mini DirecTV screens. And it’s exactly what it sounds like—the paper (mostly the Arts and Style sections) in television form.... More
This week's installment of Cook the Book features Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. (We figured you could use a counterpoint to last week's selection.) Bittman is, of course, known for his Minimalist column in the New York Times dining section, for his popular How to Cook Everything series of cookbooks, and for his cooking show on PBS—all of which stress an informal style of cooking, as befits the Minimalist title. This book, obviously, puts Bittman's spin on vegetarian cooking. The first recipe we'll be highlighting from it will be along shortly, but, as always, let's take care of business. We've got five (5) of these to give away this week. Simply tell us in the comments: What's your... More
What do you grill? How do you grill it? And what do you serve alongside it? Ed Levine and the Serious Eats community discuss what makes a great grilled steak dinner. Essential reading for one of the last unofficial weekends of summer. More
I give myself notional hives whenever I think of upgrading my kitchen equipment—$200+ for a mixer?—so Mark Bittman's piece in the NYT this morning on how to properly outfit a kitchen for $300 was informative as well as calming. His secret? Forget all the branded stuff and visit a restaurant supply house: "The point is not so much that you can equip a real kitchen without much money, but that the fear of buying the wrong kind of equipment is unfounded. It needs only to be functional, not prestigious, lavish or expensive." I guess all the OXO stuff can wait till I win the lottery.... More
Alan Richman, one of the greatest food writers we have, and my occasional antagonist (he and I tangled over his New Orleans food piece in GQ), reviews Mark Bittman's The Best Recipes in the World PBS television series. It's a very funny piece of writing, but after reading it a couple of times, I'm still not sure if he liked the show or not. My favorite line: "Not only are the cooking segments rudimentary, they're not even particularly practical. That paella expert in Spain will teach you how to control a fire made from the wood of orange trees. I doubt that's of value unless you happen to live in central Florida." Photograph of Mark Bittman from markbittman.com... More
