What does a longstanding (meaning B.R., Before Reality TV) fine dining chef specializing in French cuisine like Josiah Citrin — actually his wife, Diane, a former pastry chef — cook up on that one coveted night off with the kids? Comfort food with culinary roots closer to home, just like the rest of us.
Often on Monday nights this time of year in the Citrine’s California kitchen you’ll find Diane’s modern riff on posole, the Pre-Columbian hominy stew, bubbling on the stove.
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Because food history doesn’t have to be boring…. a few of this week’s fun food history news bytes. Fine. At least they’re more interesting than most.
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What happens when a longstanding (and influential) California winemaker like Joel Peterson reflects on (his) wine life history? A conversation that bounces — quite logically, actually — from atomic bombs and a prized Chateau D’Yquem scored for $3.40 (granted, it was 1952) to Elizabeth David and Alice Waters. And sure, Thanksgiving wines make a brief appearance, too.
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There is an excellent summary by Allison Aubrey of a new Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior report over at NPR this week: “‘Teachers and principals are seeing how the classroom cooking experience helps support critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills,’ says study author Leslie Cunningham-Sabo, a nutrition researcher at Colorado State University.” Hot damn! Any positive press about teaching kids to cook like their grandmothers once did (Or actually, let’s go a little farther back, to the pre-boxed cake mix era, shall we?) gets a major thumbs up in today’s let’s-harp-on-the-negative-calorie-side of food world.
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Ah, the good old local deli. Where else can you find a great (hopefully) pastrami and corned beef sandwich, plenty of (well-worn, all the better) booth seating and waitresses who single you out as the “sweetheart” in the sea of geriatric “Where’s-my-tuna-sandwich?!” scowls (regardless of your age) presumably because you have strawberry-blonde hair and freckles.
And, if you’re lucky, that neighborhood deli is still the sort of place that requires you pay at the counter, a counter loaded with a hodgepodge of idiosyncratic candies, gum and mints (Though Mentos always seems to be among them, don’t they?). Candies like Joyva Halvah.
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05 Nov 2011, Posted by admin in MEET, 1 Comments
What to say about the passing of the notoriously cranky, opinionated (and entertaining) Andy Rooney?
For some of us, with all the 60 Minutes dish washing-hour (Wash your mouth with dish soap?) memories growing up, it’s impossible not *think* when thinking of Rooney. Agree or disagree with those ornery Irish eyebrows (purely American eyebrows of Irish descent, he would be quick to clarify), and suddenly you were wearing a smirky grin by the time his rantings had wrapped – or at least those of us well versed in cranky-but-beloved grandfather types (and, unwieldy eyebrows) in real life.
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There is a saying in the newspaper business… the more famous the chef, the less likely you are to get an honest answer. Full Disclosure: I completely made that up. But in my experience, when I’m dealing with the little guy (candy makers, picklers and the like) I tend to get gushing responses in all of five minutes. The more famous the chef, the more time it often takes to get there (and if a publicist is in the room, good luck getting anywhere with all the wink, wink, winking going on). Hence the reason I tend to stick to the little guy. But hey, it’s understandable, as chefs have a lot more riding on what goes in print interviews and on television than most incognito artisans selling $3 jars of sauerkraut (namely, whether customers will want to pony up $200 a head for dinner ever again).
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For some of us, those one-stop grocery shopping days we grew up with are thankfully over (Walmart and Target diehards notwithstanding), and we have more roasted beet salad and Coho salmon dinner quality to show for it. Of course, the concept of shopping at specialty retailers was a lot easier back in the day when going to both the butcher and seafood market meant a fifteen minute small town jaunt.
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Alton Brown’s just-released Good Eats 3: The Later Years is, as we are told on the front jacket flap, The End. Per Brown: “Everyone knows that part three is the end (unless, of course, you’re Bond or Potter), and expectations run high.” Yes, after ten years of watching Brown investigate everything from the humble cracker (p. 174) to oeufs à la niege (poached egg-shaped meringues floating in crème anglaise, p. 376), expectations for this cookbook are high.
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My how far American craft beer has come in the past few years. Locally, nationally, and even globally, cask-conditioned ales are no longer cult sightings, women brewers are taking back their historical “brewster” (female brewers in Medieval England) roots, and even rice is making a valiant effort to be taken seriously as a craft beer ingredient again (And why not?). Even globally, the changes have been astounding for such a brief period of time. With the first American craft brewery abroad in the works this year, and the surge of the black market — A black market! There is perhaps no better compliment, from a popularity standpoint — craft beer has clearly gone big time. No wonder corporate breweries are now marketing a line of pseudo “craft” beers as well.
I have covered each of those topics for the Los Angeles Times over the past few years. And to be honest, I’ve largely forgotten about most of those stories.
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