For some veggies, we use the phrase roasting as a general term for cooking a vegetable whole to get after the tender flesh, like peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant. For eggplant, we scoop the velvety cooked flesh from the skin of the eggplant. This can be done in the oven (actual […]
It feels like La Croix has somehow become more popular than beer. And while it seems to be available everywhere you go, those of us participating in the great seltzer resurgence of 2019 are from time to time faced with beverages without bubbles. But you don’t have to be part of […]
Grading student journals and project assignments isn’t a favorite pastime, but if you are the adjunct instructor of College Writing at The Culinary Institute of America, ya gotta. More correctly stated, I gotta. The semester usually starts with the same complaints: You want me to read HOW MANY PAGES? I […]
Caviar is the salted roe of fish, traditionally sturgeon, which is prized for its briny delicate flavor. Due to overfishing, politics, and pollution, the supplies have dwindled and the price has increased, leading to a flood of alternative varieties from many sources. The delicate berries of true caviar come from […]
Any country that is shaped like a running chicken must be a great destination for food enthusiasts. Slovenia, with a rich and complicated past—often in the shadow of powerful empires—along with its dramatically varied geography and climatic patterns, makes it a great study for food historians. My area of research […]
Churned frozen desserts like ice cream, sherbet, and sorbet get their soft, spoonable texture from being stirred with a paddle (known as a dasher) while they are cooled to below the freezing point in an ice-cream maker. The stirring action ensures that the ice crystals remain tiny and introduces enough […]
Owing to its place in the calendar, Father’s Day has evolved into a major grilling holiday. That means dads all over the country are celebrated with steaks, when maybe some dads really want something a little sweet for their special day. If you have that kind of dad in your […]
Whether it’s for long-term storage, sweet treats, or prep for a long hike, drying foods is a great way of not just preserving food by extending its shelf life, but also reducing their size and weight for efficient storage or carrying. There are multiple techniques for drying and dehydrating foods. […]
Like a lot of my fellow chef instructors here at the CIA, food is my life, but it is not my whole story. Before I was a chef, I was a professional jai alai player both in my home country of France and here in the United States. Jai alai […]
In baking, every step matters—from mixing to baking, but just as importantly, cooling! While we often romanticize baked goods fresh from the oven, most baked items like cakes (and yes, breads!) are best once cooled. Baking is a series of chemical and physical reactions spurred by the heat of the […]
An herbalist friend of mine once told me that most people experience the natural world as a “wall of green.” It’s pretty, there are lots of different shades and textures, it makes us feel good, and we can appreciate our experience within it. But it is not until we start […]
Early in the semester, CIA students in my Food Writing course read “On Chicken Tenders,” by Helen Rosner, published in 2015 in Guernica. In this amusing but sincere defense of a derided, children’s menu staple, Rosner effectively argues against those who look down on ordering, eating, and celebrating the “perfect” […]