You Tube - Your Culinary Sanctuary

 Everyone is basically house bound with all these worldwide quarantines. It's a crazy time that may get crazier. The best way to alleviate the anxiety and boredom is looking at how  to videos. It's not only a great way to pass time but also learn hacks and lessons.

For true old school comfort check out any of the Julia Child videos.Her show ran on PBS from 1963 to 1972. She was a ground  breaker with being the first woman with an extensive cooking show as well as introducing Americans to the art of fine French cooking. You can learn everything from her, from the basics as making a good Gallic omelet to creating a flavorful onion soup. There's something soothing about her teacher's voice and the way she meticulously explains techniques. Later episodes have her working with another great chef, Jacques Pepin. Theirs is a harmony that's amazing.Again it's like taking a master class in cooking. There's also that famed Dan Ackroyd Saturday Night Live  darkly funny imitation that will make you laugh during these trying times. Other chef videos to look at are again, are Jacques Pepin, Lidia Bastianich, and Gordon Ramsey. If you like the older classics, then definitely watch The Two Fat Ladies and The Galloping Gourmet starring Graham Kerr for the camp and the valuable hints.

Some of my favorites are the cake decorating and the cooking and baking hacks. There are some truly amazing decorating videos out there. Some  show decorating as simple as just pressing a spoon against buttercream and then spinning the cake stand for smooth concentric circles. Others show you how to create everything from a bouquet of fondant  flowers to a cake topped with a white chocolate Mardi Gras mask complete with chocolate feathers. Be warned. You can be mesmerized by these for hours. The food hack ones are also interesting. Definitely tune into 5 Minute Hacks. This seems to come from Britain. Healthy foodies will be go made for the how to make your own pickle chips while egg enthusiasts will experiment with hard boiling their eggs with a lemon slice. Doing such softens the egg shells and makes for much easier peeling. There's one on fried avocado slices that looks interesting to try from their 35 Crazy Food Hacks video.

If you're bored or anxious then turn to You Tube. You'll enjoy the soothing tones of master chefs and go wild for the eye opening hints. It's what we need during these uncertain , crazy days,

Reopened With A Salute To A Master Chef

The pantry is opened - and I'll add reluctantly. We've lost one of the best master chefs  to ever live - my mother - Elizabeth Helble Roberts and it's tough to write this  - and continue on with the blog. Yet this is what she would have wanted for me.I can hear her now. "Why are you stopping for me? Don't be silly. Continue on with it.Don't disappoint your readers."

So, I will ,Ma,

My mother's background was fashion design yet she came from a family of phenomenal home chefs who in their own right, should have been teaching at culinary schools. She had an excellent background , thanks to a Piedmontese Italian mother and Swabian German father. They taught her the subtleties of good Northern Italian and Southern German cuisine. Her beloved paternal grandmother taught her the intricacies of baking which she excelled at.She aced Home Ec , loving the cooking section as much as she loved the sewing one. When she married my Dad, she got a crash course in Midwestern American cuisine from my great-granny Roberts. She could now expand her repertoire with Southern fried chicken, biscuits and crisps. Ma explored her French heritage too, and her love of Paris. We had restaurant style crepes and Bouef Bourgignon when the neighbors ate baloney sandwiches . She plunged into the Chinese cooking craze and was the only one on the block to cook with a wok. Nothing was too difficult or too exotic for her, She even could cook with whatever was in the fridge. Ma  left behind a true library of cookbooks, from La Gastronome La Rousse to Julia Childs.

Cooking and baking with her was like being with Jacques Pepin or Julia Child. It was a master class , in family recipes and international cuisine. To be honest, I was always nervous to  be in the kitchen with her. What if I failed? What would she say? I stayed out of the kitchen for a long time, letting her take the helm. I love to cook and bake but imagine doing both under the watchful eye of an Escoffier. This blog definitely benefitted from her advice. I was always asking her questions. - "How much egg should I put into a recipe?" "Can we vary the stock - switch chicken for veggie?" "How much garlic should go into the sauce?" She was incredibly inspiring and active  - even up to three weeks ago, before she fell victim to the insidious kidney cancer that destroyed her.

I will miss my Mom, Ma- as a mother and as a best friend, but I will always mourn the loss of a great master chef.

Elizabeth Helble Roberts July 18th 1922 - November 12, 2017 . 95 years of amazing good food , advice and cooking.

I know  you and your Grandma Helble are making the best Springele in Heaven right now!

No Joke The Best Kid's Cookbooks Ever!!

The best gift prents ca give their children is a knowledge and love of cooking. Once learned it can not be forgotten. ANother gift is the sense of adventure and trying new cuisines. Luckily there are some great new children's cookbooks that can aid home chefs in training their little sous chefs.

Quarry Publishing has put out three great cookbooks for the family. each one features a different cuisine, French, Italian and Spanish. They are written by experts in the field. The French was by Claudine Pepin, Jacques' daughter (Papa Pepin and her daughter , Shorey did the amazing illustrations for it), the Italian was written by  Anna Prandoni and the Spanish was penned by Gabriela Llamas .The last two authors are a cookbook writer and catering/culinary teacher respectively. All three cookbooks are bilingual so kids and parents can learn a new language or brush up on the ones they know. Every recipe comes with an explanation and they best represent the countries featured. All three books sing to the adventurous home chef in me but it's the Italian one that really impresses.It features some of the Piedmontese recipes that I ate growing up.Not too many cookbooks feature vitello e tonno, veal in tuna sauce , gnocchi and rice in parsley along with apple fritters, Ms. Pranodi comes from Piedmonte's neighbor, Lombardy , and both provinces have heavily influenced each other on a culinary level.

I love these books and wish they had been around when I was a kid.I love Ms. Pepin's recipes (and her dad and daughter's sweet illustrations) for the cherry rich dessert clafoutis and spinach with bechamel, a great dish to get the kids hooked on the green stuff. There is the super easy and super tasty croque Monsieur along with herb roasted potatoes and sauteed Swiss chard. Again the Italian cookbook has both Northern and Southern Italian cuisine. There is also homemade pizza, sure to be a family classic. Families will love making mozzarella in carrozza, breaded and fried mozzarella and for afterwards the all time favorite tiramisu. The Spanish family cookbook has such treats as the classic hot cocoa with churros , cinnamon fritters,a perfect marriage of Old and New World flavors. Both parents and kids will love the simple but flavorful bread with olive oil ,tomato and Iberian ham. Another fun recipe  - for the adults is the Amontillado sherry laced meatballs made of a mix of veal, breadcrumbs and carrots.There is also torrijas, Spanish French toast served with a honey sauce and apples in custard.  Bakers will enjoy making the Santiago Almond cake ,made in honor of the country's patron saint, James.

Parents should buy all three "Let's Cook" cookbooks, for both themselves and their children. It's never too early - or late to teach a little one about cooking and foreign cuisines. These books are a must in any home library!

Classy Chefs On PBS

Long before the Food Channel, there was PBS's line up of cooking shows.It started in the early Sixties with the famed ,great Julia Child and continues to today.They maybe quieter than the brighter, more in your face shows on other channels but their low key style speaks volumes.Watching them is like spending time ,learning from a master chef. One of the most famous is Jacques Pepin.Chef Pepin is the child of French restauranteurs.His background is distinguished,being one of French President's Charles DeGaulle's chef.He also helped revamped Howard Johnson's menu back in the Sixties.His shows have always been very quiet, yet informative.Even when he and his daughter,Claudine cohosted a cooking program together, it was never loud or sweetly cloying as some family centered cooking shows are.He shows home chefs not to have any fear with dealing with sometimes foreign or unfamiliar ingredients.The way he makes gnocchis and eggs are poetic, quietly going through the steps, acting much like a thoughtful professor.Another great master chef is Lidia Bastianich.Chef Bastianich is known for her amazing restaurants,Del Posto of New York City and Lidia's of Kansas City and Lidia's of Pittsburgh.Watching her explain the different steps along with her hints is quietly informative.There's no gimmicks, no bells and whistles.She is very good at explaining everything, from why a certain ingredient is used to what knives to employ when cutting meat.Her other show, Lidia Celebrates America is a great culinary travelogue where she explores different ethnic groups, enjoying their customs and show viewers, not only different cuisines but the different traditions and cultures that they've come from. One of the best PBS cooking show is America's Test Kitchen.This is a fun half hour,chock full of advice, hints and recipes.The host, Christopher Kimball is like your favorite professor.He is goofy at times, funny but vastly knowledgeable.He is helped by Bridget Lancaster, and Julia Colin Davison.These chefs create the different dishes while Kimball asks pertinent questions and helps out.There is also the very informative Tasting Lab segment where the audience blind taste tests different foods.This is a great way of finding out what canned and boxed foods are the best tasting. Another informative segment is the Adam Reid who handles the Equipment Corner.This is where he shows different gadgets from blenders to cookie presses and rating from best to worst. The show also centers around weekly themes, from pizzas to roast chicken to crumb cakes.While American's Test Kitchen is primarily American cuisine, PBS has some very good ethnic ones.There's Daisy Cooks with host chef Daisy Martinez who brings Spanish and Latino cuisine to viewers.Scandanavian cooking is shown in New Scandanavian Cooking, a rarity, because there has never been an interest in this ancient and varied cuisines along with shows solely featuring Thai and Jewish cooking. PBS may not have flashy food shows with personality super stars,but it does have quality cooking shows with great master chefs. Home chefs will learn as much as if they took a cooking course.There a&e Re lessons to be learned and great recipes to try.

Learning From The Masters

Yesterday's New York Times Dining section featured some of the greats. There was an article about the truly legendary French chef, Jacques Pepin along with a De Gustibus article by the equally legendary food critic Mimi Sheraton. Reading the two pieces was like taking a master class in cooking. There was so much knolwedge given out, definitely to be stored away for later use.

The first article was about Pepin and his new cookbook coming out this month. The interview, conducted by Dining regular, Jeff, Gordenier, tells of what's going to be in it as well as learning from the master.The articles even comes with how to pictures dealing with sharpening knives along with the proper way of separating a garlic clove . There is also a pictorial how to for making the perfect French omelet.. It is all about technique, how to crack the eggs, how to hold the pan. It's really turning the body into a machine to create the perfect dish. Pepin executes this as wonderfully as a ballet dancer. Even the way he sliced a simple baguette was insightful (slice on an angle facing outward. It keeps the air in the bread's middle fluffy. )

Mimi Sheraton, another master, is featured too. Her De Gustibus article is all about that little known cuisine Danish cooking. Ms. Sheraton has been a food critic for over fifty years and has eaten at some of the world's best restaurants.She explores the current trend of Nordic cooking; one that has actually been around for a long time. There is nothing new, she explains. The Scandinavians basically invented these now followed trends of foraging and locavore dining. It is big again though thanks to chef Rene Redzepi who will be demonstrating how to create the fare this Saturday in lower Manhattan.

Yesterday's Times dining section was a true salute to classic chefs and critics along with simple but elegant dining. In these celebrity chef laden tomes it's refreshing to return to the pros of the industry.Seek their advice.It's always the best.