Serious Eats: billg's Profile

Top 10 Celebrity Chef Earners: Who Isn't on the List?

Television is about television, not cooking. The top earners on this list have leveraged the initial toehold of a cooking show into great wealth. People tune in to watch someone cook on TV because they're attracted to that personality,not particularly because they want a cooking lesson.

Ray was smart enough to understand that early on and began to build her brand apart from Food Network. Her fans would tune in to watch her scrub a sink.

billg at 10:09AM on 08/16/08

From Serious Eats

Virulent Anti-Vegans Troll 'New York Times' City Blog Post

Well, acroninj, if you visit a vegan or vegetarian friend for dinner, I don't think you'd failry expect them to cook up a roast just for you. And, vice versa.

One thing that muddies this issue is the notion that veganism and vegetarianism are necessarily belief systems. Obviously, they are for many people who believe that eating animals is morally offensive. However, many people become vegetarians (vegans, less so I suspect) for simply reasons of health and taste.

In any case, many people appear to take the presence of anyone who acts or thinks differerently to threaten the way they act and think.

billg at 12:39PM on 08/05/08

From Serious Eats

Virulent Anti-Vegans Troll 'New York Times' City Blog Post

You don't merit a break, Doctrine. I'm neither vegan or vegetarian. I'm just dismayed by people who believe that anyone doing something they don't do is motivated solely by a desire to feel superior. Why would anyone feel insulted by someone else's food choices? Paying attention to your diet is common sense. Failure to do is, in fact, an inferior choice.

I don't get the ideological fervor that seems to come with so many vegans, but it's the proselytizing, not the veganism, that annoys me.

billg at 11:02AM on 08/05/08

From Serious Eats

Virulent Anti-Vegans Troll 'New York Times' City Blog Post

You know, what's really depressing is the number of people who seem to think that anyone doing something out of the mainstream is uppity, arrogant, and preachy. It's as if they believe that anyone who fails to match their image of a "normal" person is a personal threat. I can only assume that they're the same folks who thought studying in school was only for people who were uppity, arrogant and preachy. Look where that got them.

billg at 8:42AM on 08/05/08

From Serious Eats

Virulent Anti-Vegans Troll 'New York Times' City Blog Post

Interesting as well as depressing that something that is no one else's business provokes so much anger.

Maybe it's all the meat those people are eating,.

billg at 7:05PM on 08/04/08

From Serious Eats

Full English Breakfast

Yes, the beans are missing, and so is the grease.

Personally, i hate the stuff, but, if you insist, it certainly is a great excuse for a London trip.

billg at 10:28AM on 06/26/08

From Serious Eats

May I Pour You Some Wine? A Server's Take on Wine Service

Uh... not dissing Hannah and her legions of fellow waitpeople. If she wants to refill my empty glass before I get around to it, good for her. I think about stuff like that when I calculate the tip.

billg at 7:14PM on 06/04/08

From Serious Eats

May I Pour You Some Wine? A Server's Take on Wine Service

This is a nonissue. if you are too damn lazy to pour some wine into your glass, I will suggest that you are dining in a restaurant not to enjoy the food and the company, but rather to wallow in the egocentric pleasure of being waited on. I.e., it's your chance to pretend your a medieval monarch.

billg at 7:11PM on 06/04/08

From Serious Eats

What Are Your Recipe Deal Breakers?

Good point, MarsBar. I cook for myself and shy away from things that inevitably result in a lot of veggies going to waste. Celery is a good example. If I buy a bunch of the stuff just to use one or stalks, then a week later I'm throwing the rest of it away,

Selling single portions of herbs, etc., ought to appeal to grocers, because their markup would be substantial.

billg at 6:13PM on 06/04/08

From Serious Eats

What Are Your Recipe Deal Breakers?

Those soup recipes that want me to take about half of the really hot brew and give it a whirl in a blender and then pour it back in. Not happening here. (For those who haven't tried this, you need to use repeated small amounts of the stuff and hold the blender lid on very carefully, 'cause hot soup seems to expand exponentially when it's blenderized. It's a great way to acquire some new burns.)

Baking is that thing that happens in the back of bakeries.

My $400 food processor hasn't made anything besides hummus for the last year or so.

billg at 4:27PM on 06/04/08

From Serious Eats

In Videos: Sneak Peek at Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow's Spanish Road Trip

Yeah, I saw this at Bittman's site. Man, some folks have tough jobs, eh?

I don't expect to see much substance, but I certainly expect to generate a lot of envy.

Must be a lot more fun for Batali than standing on a sound stage at Food Network explaining how to do a ribollita.

billg at 4:33PM on 05/16/08

From Serious Eats

Moo, Brittania: Oreos Make Splash in England

Good cookies are hard to find in the UK. Store shelves are lined with "digestive wafers", i.e., hard brown graham flour wafers. Too each their own.

Adam is right, though. Oreo's stopped tasting like chocolate a long time ago and the filling tastes like plain confectioners sugar.

billg at 10:20AM on 05/14/08

From Recipes

Kale: The Leafy Green Monster

Looks like lacinto in the photo. I bought some big honkin' lacinto last week for soup and it took forever to cook. Younger plants seems to be the way to go They cook down reasonably quickly, but don't shrink as much as spinach. Ditto green kale.

billg at 10:33AM on 02/27/08

From Talk

Question of the Day: What's your favorite candy bar?

Pretty much anything with good dark chocolate and almonds.

Used to really like what I've been told was the "old" Mars bar. Then I bought a Mars bar imported from the UK, after someone told me it was still the old style, and found it to be much like a 3 Musketeers.

Anyway, the Mars bar that I remember was chocolate, almonds, and caramel.

Am I remembering that right, or am I way off track? Did the Mars bar change?

billg at 1:00PM on 04/20/07

From Talk

What is the best pepper mill on the market?

I've got a large Magnum Plus mill from Unicorn, who also do the PepperGun. Works as advertised. Only problem I have is that the little door through which you feed the peppercorns can come open if I use my left had to turn the grinder.

billg at 9:11AM on 04/16/07

From Talk

Question of the Day: What's the 'J' on your PBJ?

Sometimes it's just honey.

billg at 10:33AM on 04/02/07

From Talk

Trader Joe's. What are your favorites from this store?

I haven't found TJ's food to be anything that noteworthy. They do carry products that you aren't likely to find elsewhere. It strikes me that much of their inventory is designed to provoke impulse buying.

I have a small range of things I regularly buy there, but I'd be very frustrated if it was the only grocery available to me.

billg at 3:30PM on 03/29/07

From Talk

Trader Joe's. What are your favorites from this store?

What's everyone's opinion of TJ's wines and coffees? Does filling the coffee containers with nitrogen really do anything? I mean, the air is 75 percent nitrogen, so is oxygen going to rot the beans?

billg at 3:06PM on 03/29/07

From Talk

Olive Oil!

I'm completely inconsistent. I don't splurge that often, so I buy something different each time, as the wallet permits.

I think the real trick for a lot of us in the hinterlands is to find a shop that moves enough oil to keep fresh stock on the shelf.

billg at 12:41PM on 03/23/07

From Talk

Olive Oil!

I tend to buy extra virgin Colavita for everyday. I only splurge when the olive oil itself is going to be a dominant taste component. If I'm cooking something with a lot of strong flavors, I can't taste the diffrence between cheap and expensive oils.

billg at 5:58PM on 03/22/07

From Talk

Seasoning enamel cookware?

If you're gonna season, just buy cast iron and save a lot of money.

Then, there are the stains. I picked up a few pieces at a legit Le Creuset outlet a few years ago. They're white, and they are stained. Nothing I've tried eliminates the stains, including Le Creuset's rather expensive cleaning liquid.

billg at 9:52AM on 03/14/07

From Talk

Have you tried this?

I bought an AeroPress, which is also a manual device that relies on muscle power to push water through the grounds. The handles might provide enough leverage to make this thing usable, but the AeroPress is not for the weak.

I'd rather spend the 60 quid on something else.

billg at 8:43PM on 03/03/07

From Talk

Question of the Day: What kitchen gadget needs to be invented?

A peelable cutting board.

You know, you use it once, then peel off and throw away the top layer, revealing a clean new surface, bereft of odor, ready for more cuttin', choppin', and slicin'.

billg at 10:45AM on 03/02/07

From Talk

Rachael Ray - love, hate, ignore, pity, envy?

Envy, 'cause she's got all that money.

Look, anyone who can cajole people into cooking at home instead of ordering a pizza, and anyone who shows travelers that they don't need to eat another mundane meal in a franchise joint, ought to be applauded.

Is she introducing people to the highest culinary standards? No. But, you can believe she's introducing most people to a higher culinary standard.

billg at 7:32PM on 02/18/07

From Talk