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The Ten Most Recent Comments By swillats

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'Think Like a Chef'

Pan roasting. It's relatively quick and you can make a great sauce in minutes.

From Required Eating

Seriously Delicious Holiday Food Giveaway: Russ & Daughters

Since I live in the midwest where bagels are different, I always try and get lox and bagels when I'm in New York.

Eggs benedict are hard to beat no matter where I am.

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'Crescent City Cooking'

Jambalaya all the way!

From Required Eating

Weekend Book Giveaway: The Oxford Companion to Italian Food

It's gotta be proscuitto

From Required Eating

Win Your Thanksgiving Turkey!

Turkey pot pie, but not in a healthy way, one with a great pastry crust.

From Required Eating

Weekend Book Giveaway: 'The Elements of Cooking'

It's gotta be seasoning. It can literally transform food from dull to sublime. Poor seasoning can kill a dish that's techiquely perfect in every other way.

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'How to Cook Everything Vegetarian' Book Giveaway

Today it's roasted cauliflower. Tomorrow it may be different.

From Required Eating

Weekend Book Giveaway: Judith Jones's 'The Tenth Muse'

Julia Child, for a whole host of reasons, clearly I think the collaboration between Judith and Julia took cookbooks to new heights.

From Eating Out

Houston's Doesn't Suck: What's Your Favorite Slightly Fancy Chain Restaurant?

My preferred chain is Il Fornio. What I look for in a good chain is evidence that there's someone in the kitchen who seems to really care about what good food tastes like. I work in advertising and marketing and have worked for chain restaurants and I think it's very clear when marketing is more important than the food. PF Changs is okay, but they also have a sister French concept called Salut which has serious problems with food and service.

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'Beyond Nose to Tail' Contest

We grew up on beef liver and tongue, never thought twice about it.

Responses to Comments by swillats

From Eating Out

Houston's Doesn't Suck: What's Your Favorite Slightly Fancy Chain Restaurant?

Hi Ed. I just found this post while trolling the web for Houston's Key Lime Pie recipe/ingredients. I waited tables in the Rockville, MD Houston's from 1993-1995. Having seen Houston's and more than a dozen independently-owned restaurants from the waiter's side of the table, I agree with everyone's positive comments about Houston's. It's one of my go-to spots when I want to treat myself (and I live in Manhattan).

Although more personal non-chain restaurants are great, only Houston's made me memorize each ingredient in every dish before letting me serve a customer. We had line-up every night where we were quizzed on the number of ounces in the coho salmon and the marinade for the Houston's Hawaiin ribeye. I learned how to give 110% to a job and what to expect as a guest in a restaurant.

From Eating Out

Houston's Doesn't Suck: What's Your Favorite Slightly Fancy Chain Restaurant?

I love Houston's. Plain and Simple. It's never disappointed and If I was forced to choose a place for my last meal, this would be it. Want to know why?

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'Think Like a Chef'

And we have our winners!

They are:
KIMBERLYMCK
JSALERN
KIMBERLY
KUHLIMUH
KIMBLYL

Someone from Serious Eats will be contacting you all shortly for shipping info.

Thanks to everyone who commented, and tune in again for next week's Cook the Book.

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'Think Like a Chef'

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'Think Like a Chef'

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'Think Like a Chef'

Roasting - particularly with vegetables

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'Think Like a Chef'

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'Think Like a Chef'

Slow cooking beans in my clay pot.

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'Think Like a Chef'

Wow! Almost any of the above could be mine, but to settle on one for the sake of the contest, here's my current favourite:
For roast potatoes, to be roasted in the pan with a chicken.
Peel the potatoes and slice into pieces somewhat larger than a single bite.
Boil 6-8 minutes; drain; shake the pot to 'scrunch up' the edges.
Place alongside a roasting chicken until done, in oil or goose fat if you have it; top with a little drizzle of oil and some rock salt.

So, the technique is the boil-scrunch-roast technique of what I call 'melting roast potatoes'.

From Required Eating

Cook the Book: 'Think Like a Chef'