October 2007 archives

1. I just learned that you can receive updates to my blog via email. Simply go to Feedblitz and do it.

It’s super-simple and you don’t have to create a password or sign up for anything.

Who knew?

2. If you have some time to waste or need a good laugh, these are hilarious.

I mean, really hilarious.

3. And if you’re in Paris this Sunday, don’t forget to stop by the Richard Lenoir market in the Bastille to say hi and get your book signed.

I can’t promise I’ll be as hilarious. But I’ll give it a shot.

There’s a pretty lively debate over at Amateur Gourmet about the recent appearance of Alice Waters on The View. I’m not going to attempt to put words into anyone’s mouth, but there seems to be a lot of mis-information about the message that Alice is trying to bring across.

Alice is an idealist, which is someone who imagines things that are…’ideal‘. We need people like that. If no one imagined anything but what already existed, or nixed any new ideas, we wouldn’t have telephones, electricity, flour, tires, espresso makers, and the Spice Girls reunion.

When I started at Chez Panisse back in 1983, few people knew what mesclun, goat cheese, or blood oranges were. Now they’re common in many supermarkets like Safeway, and sold at reasonable prices. I recently paid $5.99 for a box of Rice Krispies in New York, so I don’t buy the argument that convenience foods are cheaper than ‘healthy’ foods. Quaker Oats are about half the price, although you can’t make Rice Krispie Squares out of them.

Continue Reading My View…

I’ve had a hankering to try Heidi‘s recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies with her secret ingredient—mesquite flour—for the longest time. But although the mesquite flour I eventually found encompasses several continents, like I do, it’s not available in the one I live in. So when I went to Texas, which I figured would be the epicenter of mesquite last June, I wandered the well-stocked aisles at Central Market in search of it. And lo and behold, there is was.

Looking at the label, I was surprised to find that it was imported…from Argentina. By a California company. And there I was, in a supermarket in Texas, buying it. Which I then brought back to France.

Continue Reading A Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, with Two Secrets…

This upcoming weekend I’ll be signing copies my books, The Perfect Scoop and The Great Book of Chocolate here in Paris!

I’ll be at the Richard Lenoir market in the Bastille at the booth of Régis Dion, who carries the most fabulous fleur de sel you’ll ever taste, hand-harvested by his family in the Guérande, which will be available to sample.

His booth is located near the center of the market and I’ll be there Sunday, October 21, from 10:30am-11:30am.

Hope to see you there!

Feel free to bring your own books, and brand-new copies will be available for purchase: The Perfect Scoop (20€) and The Great Book of Chocolate (12€)…or both for only 30€.

If you’re planning to come, you’re welcome to reserve copies by email so we can plan on having sufficient books on hand.

For those of you who live elsewhere, you can now order fleur de sel and sea salt directly from Régis via his website: Traditions Guérande (In French). He ships internationally and his prices are very reasonable.

(If you don’t speak French, Freetranslation.com will do it for you.)

I have a knife block on my counter armed with a sharp, ever-ready arsenal of knives for almost all kitchen purposes. There’s a nice, long bread knife, several fancy Japanese knives, a terrific 3-inch paring knife I bought in 1983 at Columbus Cutlery in San Francisco that I lost my first week at Chez Panisse and found it ten years later sitting in a silverware bin, a jumbo Martin Yan Chinese cleaver, and a flexible boning knife, which we used to simply call a ‘boner’ in the restaurant.

(Which we did simply because in our juvenile fashion, we got a kick out of asking our fellow cooks, “Can I use your boner?“)

But the one knife I reach for 97% of the time in my 4½-inch Wüsthof serrated knife. I bought mine at a cookware shop in Ohio that I was teaching at. And when I saw them at Zabar’s in New York last week for only $7.99, I started thinking what a fabulous little knife this baby is and how dependent I am on mine.

Dirt cheap, I’ve had my handy little knife for about six years and it’s still as sharp as the day I bought it. (Actually, it seems to get sharper and sharper. Either that, or my other knives are getting duller and duller.) I use mine for everything: slicing crusty baguettes, tomatoes, perfectly-diced beets, cutting up fruit, and a gazillion other things. It does every job with the greatest of ease and its small size also makes it fabulous for space-challenged cooks.

Update: After decades of great service, mine finally bit the dust as it was no match for a large block of well-aged slab of cheese. This particular knife has been discontinued but happily, Wusthof has replaced the knife with the Silverpoint “Brunch” knife.

Related Links and Posts

How to Take Care of Your Knives

Inside the KitchenAid Factory

Mini-Tongs

Scissors

Buying an Ice Cream Maker

Kitchen Cutlery (Amazon)

I think I need to move to New York City for a whole year to eat at all the places that were on my list to try. Although, honestly…I could certainly just go to Zabar’s everyday and die a happy man. And for all the scoffing that Whole Foods gets, I’d be thrilled to have a store with the range of fine products that they do. Sure it’s not all local, or organic. But it’s nice to find a major supermarket chain carrying healthy foods, unscented products (which I stocked up on), a huge selection of local cheeses, plus chocolates from all over the place, near and far.

And for anyone that wants to complain about ‘Whole Paycheck’, go out and pick a basket of raspberries in the blazing-hot sun…then figure out how much it’s worth if you were to sell it?

So I came back cranky, probably because I had to suffer the indignity of the flight attendants physically unhooking my fingers from the outside of the airplane door at JFK Airport so we could leave. Luckily I brought an extra empty suitcase and stocked it up with maple syrup, dried California apricots and sour cherries, and a few other odds and ends as souvenirs. But while in New York, I had plenty of delicious moments…

If I had to name one of my Top Ten foods of all-time, it would be the Black & White Cookie. Although it’s getting harder to find freshly-made ones that aren’t shrink-wrapped, in New York. But good things come to those who search…

I once made them (from a recipe in here), and realized it was a dangerous proposition. The good thing about making them yourself is that you can make them slightly smaller than the jumbo 7-inch disks you normally find.

And speaking of abnormally-sized Black & Whites…holy mother-of-Black & Whites!…

It’s a Black & White Cake!

Continue Reading New York Noshing, Part 2…

Who says New Yorkers are pushy?

Although I couldn’t convince him to cut in line, watch me teach Adam Roberts how to Shop Like A Parisian in New York City.

(And yes, the camera does add 10 pounds…either that, or I seem to be sporting a Pinkberry-Belly.)

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