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Jacques Pepin: How following a recipe can lead to disaster

I recently came acrossย this spot-onย video by chef Jacques Pรฉpin, which hit the nail squarely on the head regarding cooking and following recipes. I was particularly impressed by how he was able to explain what can go wrong when you do so. Most peopleย who write recipes for a livingย spend a lot of time writing themย as clearly and accurately as possible. Still, even the best recipe isn’t…

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Warm Chartreuse Souffle with Chocolate Sauce

I’ve had a long love affair with Chartreuseย liqueur, even before I visited the monastery back in the 1990’s. We were led through a somewhat terrifyingย display of hooded monks (not real ones, fortunately, but long-face replicas), the kind you see in historical or agricultural museums in France that are meant to depict a historical representationย of something, even drying prunes – likely for educational purposes, but always…

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Some Thoughts on French Cuisine

French cuisine is, once again, a popular topic of discussion these days. Actually, anything controversial about France seems to foster a lot of heated debates. On one side are the folks decrying French-bashing, complaining that the French are unfairly picked on. Then there are the others who eat up books about how superior the French are, because they are better at parenting, they miraculously stay…

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How to Prepare and Cook Artichokes

It’s fresh artichoke season and I’m finding them piled up at my local market, practically tumbling off the stands. Last week, I stood there, putting one after the other in my market basket, where I took them home to admire the beauties on my kitchen counter. But they’re not just pretty to look at; artichokes are great in salads, risotto, pastas, and even on open-face…

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Masterpieces of French Cuisine

When I moved to France a number of years ago, the hardest things to part with were my cookbooks. (And San Francisco burritos.) Some I shipped ahead – which, as readers of my Paris book know, I’m still waiting for today. Some got boxed and put in storage, and the rest were sold or given away. One of my favorite books of all time was…

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“Green” Nonstick Cookware

One of the great joys about having a blog is that your Inbox fills up daily with pitches for everything from chocolate shows in Pennsylvania (hello? I live in France…) to Superbowl Sunday and Forth of July article ideas (hello? I live in France…) There are quite a few products that I would laugh at if they weren’t so silly, and to be honest, my…

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My Mortar and Pestle

A long, long time ago, I remember an article in a food magazine where they asked a bunch of chefs and cookbook authors what their favorite piece of cookware was. But no one asked me*. In those days, when those kinds of articles were written, there were all sorts ofย smiling faces of happy cooks and writers, presumably whisking things up in their kitchens, chopping away…

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8 Tips for Choosing and Using Olive Oil

A recent post on Marinated Feta elicited some interesting comments and questions about olive oil. Here are a few tips that I follow when buying, using, and storing oil: 1. Keep olive oil out of the light. You may haveย spent a lot of money on your oil and you want to look at those pretty labels lined up on your countertop. But light destroys olive…

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