A Great Cookbook Survives

 Many think that Julia Child brought French cooking to the American table.She did but it was a Frenchman who broke the recipes to make them easier to understand.The Frenchman was the great chef Jacques Pepin and his books La Methode and complete Techniques. is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in print.

Regular contributor and Times Food critic Pete Wells wrote about this great chef and the book in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section.The books were unusual for the time,giving exact step by step instructions with pictures to show what to do in every stage. The books may not be for some who just want to cookComplete Techniques  has seven hundred pages but only one hundred and sixty recipes. There is a lot of attention to making butterflies out for carrots and swans out of apples.These were already on their way out of the culinary scene in 1976. Some of the pictures are horrorfically graphic.He de=fleeces a dead baby lamb and then severing its' knee joint and also packing its' shoulder joint with mushrooms, herbs and mushrooms. (it must have been awful for his then nine year old daughter Claudine who brought him  thecooler with the little lamb) The picture taking was also a bit gruesome for the photographers. They had to climb above Chef Pepin and photograph every step,

Th ebook was reflective of the times. Fifty years ago there was a DIY movement in publishing from Our Bodies Our selves  and The Whole Earth Catalogs. Therese were books with tons of drawings and how tos. Even Chef Pepin did this .,building his own kitchen , from the marble countertops to painting fish and radishes on the kitchen tiles to star in the many pictures through out the books.. Family and friends were roped in to help with the bare bones of cooking. There was a lot of chopping,slicing and cooking for the whole year the book was being written.The techniques were broken down into manageable blocks to read alongside the pictures.It proved to be a boon to a young chef like Tom Collicchio who had ADHD .Chef Pepin;ss tyle appealed t him and eh could easily read the recipes.The same for another chef Chris Cosentino who also had ADHD as well as dyslexia. Regular cookbooks were not for him. These were different and easy to follow. The recipes still hold up. Mr. Wells includes a banana flambe recipe.This is cooking roasted bananas in a brown sugar ,butter and rum sauce and igniting them, much like Crepes Suzetttes/ It's is an impressive dish for ending a meal.

Chef Pepin's books are still going strong after half a century. They are easy to follow.Modern chefs can learn a lot from them

Good Bye TO An Era Donahue's Closing

 Restaurants lasting almost eight decades in New York City is a rarity.Yet Doanue's managed just that until recently. This classic Manhattan eater y is shutting it's kitchen and closing it's dining room. Despite this , it gave thousands upon thousands of New Yorkers and tourists great food and drink.

Regular contributor and the paper's restaurant critic Pete Wells, wrote about this sad occurrence in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section. The eatery started in 1950 when Irirsh immigrant Martin Donahue born in Country Galway built four restaurants for each of his four sons. Only one, run by his son Martin until he died in 2000, and now his granddaughter Maureen Donahue-Peters. ran it.However the city was not as it once was. it has become too crowded and noisy and Ms. Donahue -Peters would rather be at her second home in Westhampton.  Still he has kept all the charming touches that were with the eatery during it;s first year. There is still the original early 1950's phone on the wall along with the checkerboard floor and blue glass engraving behind the bar of an elephant looming over a cocktail as if it were a mouse. Orders are still written up by hand. There is nothing electronic like what modern restaurants have. Even the menu is pure Americana. Yes there is steak and filet mignon but there is also Maryland turkey and gravy along with BOston scrod and Hawaiian ham steal.Hot turkey and roast beef sandwiches were also popular,.

Seventy-five years brought the famed and the regular tooIt was the hangout of such famed CBS journalists Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather as well as NBC's Matt Lauer . Former mayor Michael Bloomburg often dined at Donahue's as did Cardinal Timothy DOlan.Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy was a regular in the old fashioned black vinyl booths.  It even brought in such famous writers as the famed Tennessee Williams and Gay Talese. Even the infamous con man Bernie Madoff spent a few meals there. Yet it was also a neighborhood place. Diners like Brooke Emmerich has been coming to the eatery since childhood. She and her family lived around the corner and ate there every Thursday always enjoying Donahue; famed corned beef and cabbage.It never took long for non famous regulars t be treated like stars.Bartenders and servers knew their drink and meal preferences down pat.Unfortunately Donahi=ue'sw ontl be picked up by a new owner. Another type of restaurant will probably be moving in and with it a raise in rent. Not to worry though, Ms. Donahue=Peter has opened up a Donahues in Westhampton.The menu is more or less the same. There are chicken pot pies and steak dinners but also trendy salads to fit the diets of the posh East End/

Every good thing must come to an end. Sadly this is the case with Donahue's. It will live on in history and people's beloved memories of the place.

Rethinking Eating

 Can people rethink the way they eat? Can those good fruits and veggies be treated the same way as potato chips and candy? Surprisingly the answer is yes.It starts with both adults and kids and it leads to a healthier life overall.

Regular contributor Pete Wells, who also struggles with weight problems wrote this fascinating piece in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Humans ave a tendency to eat foods that give them a dopamine or "happy feeling hit".It's called hedonic hunger where the tastiest and often bad ,over processed foods are craved and eaten.Yet the same theories can be applied to healthy eating too. Neuroscientist Dana Small , one of the world's top neuroscientists of food decisions learned that er own choices led her to almost developing Type Two Diabetes.Not wanting to become a diabetic she went on a diet.It wasn;t a good experience for her.All the diets she had been on were nothing more than joyless deprivation. She had to rethink eating which  she did. She looked for the sweetest priest raspberries which are low glycemic and rich in fiber.  She applied hedonic eating to healthy eating and it paid off. She followed the Raspberry Principle and made foods that she'd be excited to cook and eat. There were chicken and tofu stir fries, generously spiced with turmeric coriander ,cumin and garlic.

Anybody can be retrained to think how to eat. In England, British food journalist, Bee Wilson, founded TastEd,a non-profit group, dedicated to training teachers to show students to sniff, poke prod and ogle fresh fruits and veggies along with the all important tasting them.Ms. Wilson says "Kids have never been taught that broccoli, apples or lettuce is something they might enjoy."They've been told to eat five a day and that was it.That doesn't;t make a child want to pick up any produce and eat it. Nutrition campaigns show these good foods as chaste and the campaigns haven't changed since the 1950's.It's changing .Dr. Emmaue J. Ezekial an oncologist and bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania suggest healthy eating and the occasional scoop of ice cream. It;s showing that moderation is they key to healthy eating.He nixes soda yet promotes alcohol, saying that three to four drinks a week are fine. Doing this can reduce stress, anxiety and depression.There is also mindful eating or analyzing what you eat.The secret tot his is eating slowly and concentrating on the taste and texture of the food being eaten jam Chozen Bays who has written two books a bout it suggests eating slowly, fully chewing and savoring before taking another bite. It turns out that after the third bite a tasty food like chocolate loses its' appeal.

People CNA be taught to eat right.It just takes a shift in mindset to do so.Healthy eating is within the human range .It's just up to the eater to follow this.

Eat Like A Critic

 Imagine the life of a restaurant critic. Yes, its full of good food and trendy eateries but there is a down side.It's being overweight with all sorts of health issues thanks to rich meals and richer desserts that follow. However one critic was able to break this cycle by switching his habits. It lead to a better life and improved health.

The critic is Pete Wells who has been restaurant critic for The New York Times Food section for thirteen years. He wrote about his journey from being unhealthy to being healthy in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday section. It is tough to be a food critic, especially in Manhattan and its' boroughs (he also reviewed restaurants ion other cities throughout the country too)A blood test revealed pre diabetes as well as high cholesterol. The pre diabetes scared him the most. It was time to change his diet.He didn't count calories as so many dieters do. He did change the way he ate and what he ate.He had to rethink his relationship with food and how he ate at home. Surprisingly , he didn't;t worry about his sodium and potassium intakes Those , he felt, would be more important to someone who has kidney disease. He had a general assumption, like with anyone  about what was right to eat and what was wrong. He found that the behavioral approach has become a dominant school of thought in mainstream nutrition,

One key factor was to break up with sugar. Most Americans go   mad for it, He looked to simple carbohydrates to help him with this however its the sugars in these that drive the need for eating. He reset his sugar cravings . Gone were the mounds of white rice along with breakfasts with the base of some baked good ,from an English fun to taste  and topped with everything from honey butter to plum jam. Five months into his reformation he received good news from his doctor. He was no longer prediabetic.He also replaced refined grains with whole ones.Another interesting thing happened. His strong desires for sweets decreased. He had more clarity in his thinking.Fruits and veggies were more in his diet and their sugars and don;t increase the glucose. He gives a sweet potato recipe with chermoula,a vibrant North African relish.It calls for sweet potatoes sliced in half and then boiled in salt water for fifteen to twenty minutes. The chermoula is a blend of cilantro,parsley and Serrano Chiles. Flavoring also comes from garlic,paprika cumin and cayenne. There is also lemon juice for zing and the sweet potatoes are topped with roasted chickpeas for crunch. It makes for a nice weekend lunch or easy weeknight dinner.

Eat like a food critic. It worked for Pete Wells with his decrease in sugar and watching his calorie intake.It proved to be a better, healthier life for him.

The Lure of Lobster Rolls

 Everyone who loves lobsters and summers' loves a good lobster roll. This quintessential American sandwich is now popular the world over. why is this? There are so many reasons?

Regular contributor and restaurant critic for The New York Times delved into this in todays' Wednesday;'s food section of the paper. Thanks to various platforms lobster rolls have become international sensations. One "lobster shack"  Luke's Lobsters sell them in  even in Singapore and Japan along with selling them in twelve states, Why is this taste of summer on the rise.It could be due to lobsters' lower wholesale price which is perfect for a large profit margin. Most sandwiches sell for a whopping twenty-eight dollars. way above the average burger or hot dogs that these places also sell. Years ago , even as recently as 2012 lobster rolls sales were not so high and the sandwich was not a popular as it is now.Nowadays that's changed McLoons Lobster Shack of south Thomaston ,Maine sells a whopping five hundred a day.Manager Bree Birms at first worked alone but now has a staff of ten full time workers and sixteen part time ones to keep up with the demand. LUke's sells over a million lobster rolls a year throughout the US. For some foodies it's the ultimate stop. Years ago it was go on vacation get a lobster before going home. Now it;s eat a lobster roll and talked a pic of it for social media.

The sandwich may be easy to make and certainly eat, but catching the lobsters is entirely different . Blair Drinkwater is one of the dozen lobster men who catch the sea creatures out on his boat Good Scout. It's about one of the dozen who supply lobsters to Mc Loons. Being a lobsterman is an inherited business, going back generations.There are also restrictions as well as discouraging newcomers from entering the trade.Heading into another fisherman's family waters can result in a dispute , usually settled on the water. However there are times when the disputes have to be settled on land in a courthouse. The breeding grounds are changing with the crustaceans heading to deeper waters. The boats have been following them, setting their taps far from land. This means longer trips, rougher waters and more diesel used to power the boats. The lobsters are lured with salted pig hide ,surprisingly. Once caught they're sold for the surprisingly low $5.50 a pound for the newly molted ones. The ones with older shells go for $6.50 a pound. They're then cracked open, cleaned and portioned out to shacks. Here they're put on buttered, toasted and mayo slicked buns to be served to hungry crowds.

Lobster rolls are a big thing not just for summer but for year round eating. There is a lot of work , form catching to preparing. They are worth every buttery, briny bite.

Honoring Marcella

 Marcella Hazan changed the way Americans thought of Italian cooking. She opened American's eyes to sophistication and subtleness of  Northern Italian cuisine with her cookbook.Now there';s a new documentary out about her that;s enchanting a new generation of chefs.

Regular contributar and restaurant critic Pete Wells, wrote about Ms Hazan , her influence and her documentary in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section.Mr Wells saw Marcella back in Aprim where it was down at the Smithsonian Institute where some of her cooking implements are. .On display outside the theater  was here square cornered lasagna pan, her garganelli comb used to make the traditional lines in garganelli pasta.  her linen apron painted with grapevines and her risotto spoon. (Julia Child who was influenced  by her has her entire kitchen reconstructed in the museum's basement) > So many people were influenced by her work. She introduced Americans to a rethought Italian cuisine, one that explored different regions in both the North and south of the republic , and showed home chefs how to use the ingredients these regions were famous for. Before her, most Americans  lived on the cuisine that people from Calabria , Campania and Sicily .Most fled the brutal and feudal tenant farms  bringing with them recipes that relied heavily on sauces and pastas/Some immigrants were tradespeople bringing their businesses of selling olive oil and sausages to America.

Yet there was another cuisine - the  more varied cuisine of Northern and Central Italy. .Both Marcella and her husband were from Emilia Romagna The Hazans were Sephardic Jews with a thriving fun industry when they left Italy  - not because of poverty but because of rising Fascism.Ms. Hazan herself had two degrees in biology from the University of Padua and the University of Bologna. She taught herself how to cook in order to feed her energetic and hungry husband. She used the flavors and ingredients she was familiar with. As Americans embraced ultra sophisticated  Italian films , cars and fashion so did they embraced ultra sophisticated food. She told home chefs to cook vegetables in cold water for half an hour to remove grit. They should be cooked until tender but not mushy. She introduced Americans to balsamic vinegar, a move she later regretted because everyone from chefs to home chefs overused it.Foods didn't;t have to be fried in olive oil. She recommended the Northern Italian way of using butter with the American invention vegetable oil for a lighter taste. She showed a country what Italian food  had always been - art.

Marcella Hazan may be gone but her influence lives on . Restaurants and home kitchens have her to thank for bringing in the subtle sophistication of true Italian cooking. That is a legacy  that should always be treasured.

The US Truffle Capital

 Mention truffle capitol and most people will automatically think of Torino where truffles are found along the city'ss outskirts and neighboring woods. Yet the US has its own truffle capital- Eugene Oregon. Will America truffles catch on? Possibly.

Regular  contributor and restaurant critic Pete Wells stepped out of his comfort zone to head to Oregon and write about these gems in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section.It seems the woodlands outside Eugene make for excellent truffle grounds however truffles have been found as north as Vancouver Island in British Columbia and as south as Port Reyes, California just north of San Francisco. There are two varieties that grown here - white and black. The ideam land is former grassland now planted with Douglas first. A truffle hunter like Charles Lefebrve knows this land although it does help to use Google Earth to track down exact locations. He also used two trained dogs, Dante and Luca. Their breed is Lagooto Romagnolos ,a breed particularly raised to sniff out truffles, originating in the PO Valley. However other dogs throughout the Eugene area can be trained to hunt for truffles, no matter the breed. 

What are the truffles used for? Pacific Northwest ones seem to be used only by chefs in the region. East Coast chefs have rarely heard of them (although that could be about to changes thanks to this article). They are not the same as their Northern Italian cousins however. This proved to be the case for Elias Cairo, owner of Olympia Provisions in Portland,.He found they have their own flavor profile that represents "this really cool forest" in the United States. Luckily there is the Oregon Truffle Festival.It;s focused on helping chefs understand the fungi. Mr Cairo cures salame next to the white truffles so the meat can soak up the aroma, usually a aromatic blend of nutmeg, allspice and cloves. They also emit a gamy musk that reminds him of wild boar. Chef Deb Meyer of Choux Pastries has infused that aroma into goat cheese filling for her macarons. The blacks themselves are usually milder except when they are at the smelliest. They can still turn heads. However unlike the European variety they can be used in desserts. A chocolatier  in Eugene makes a truffle truffle, glossy domes of white chocolate filled with truffle infused creme fraiche. There;'s also n ice cream infused with black truffles too.

Piedmontese truffles are the creme de la creme of eating. Yet the Oregonian ones are gaining in strength and popularity. It may be that Oregon may beat Northern Italy as the world's truffle capital-.

Passion And Talent Equals Chef Kwame Owuachi

 More and more chefs are becoming celebrities yet only one who has heart.That's Kwame Onuwachi, the newest star in the American kitchen. His rise is metioric. His food is stellar. Chef Onuwachi will be a bright light that will never burn out.

Regular contributor Pete Wells got t interview this phenom in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. He is not your ordinary rising culinary star. He;s like the Teflon chef. Unlike Tom Colicchio who took flak for his Diet COke commercial and Rick Bayless  was deemed for a pimp for the Evil EMpire when he promoted the Whopper for Burger King. Chef Onuwachi sailed through his Diet COke commercial without any problems along with working with McDonald;s  at their marketing event.He also has a charisma that spreads into his two restaurants Tatiana and Dogon's . When Snoop Dogg's song "Beautiful" played he and his clientele started singing the opening words "Oh,Oh, Oh." He dances with is customers and hugs then, an experience always seen at Black restaurants. He's also a go getter. His foray into the industry was Gorsha, a kind of "Ethiopian Chipotle" in Washington DC'

His food represents the NIgerian Diaspora.He wanted to to open a place that highlighted his mother's apartment in the Bronx, his father's family compound in NIgeria and the tenements of San Juan Hill, the area torn down to make way for Lincoln Center. Dogon's menu represents a fusion of African and Jamaican dishes. For new Yorkers he has Tatiana at Lincoln Center. His dishes can be shared. as they come in small and large shares. There are curried goat patties and shawarma roasted chicken.he also represents Manhattan desserts from bodegas.Fans enjoy his Bodega special, a cosmic brownie with powdered sugar donut ice cream and sorrel. He also has an Icee cart that features three flavors of ices and the Harlem CHocolate Factory white chocolate cheesecake.It  just pays to visit for these alone.he wants to open more restaurants but not a chain of Tatiana's. The'll be more reflective of the Black experience and culinary contributions.

Chef Onuwachi is a star, He will rise as will his recipes. His restaurants are worth visiting.

CHicken Tenders An American Classic Explained

 CHicken tenders are ubiquitous in the American diet. They are everywhere from , dine in move theaters to school cafeterias. Yet how did they become into being and what makes them so popular? How did this simple chicken dish become a national treasure.

Regular contributor and Food section superstar Pete Wells wrote about this tasty treat in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. It is their  fiftieth anniversary and according to legend they were created in Manchester, New Hampshire in the Southern part of the state.There probably were dishes that featured this part of the chicken breast but it was a Greek family living in Manchester that turned it into a delicious dinner and snack.The children of one of the owners of PUritan Candy store Arthur Pappas (the either was co owner LOuis Canotas) took this little used part and turned it into something indescribable.It'ss basically the tenderloin of the chicken which came loose when the breast was being sliced .It wasn't;t a muscle used by the bird like the wing or the thigh, hence the tenderness.Charlie Pappas saw that this piece was often separating from the rest of the cut and that struck him with an idea. The rest is history.It was not what a typical Greek restaurant would serve.It was siaked in a kind of duck sauce and then coked. It soon became a popular item on the Puritan menu.

It caught on. Burger King was one of the first restaurants to serve it in the 1980's/ It needed a good Chick'n snack to compete with McDOnald's chicken nuggets and hit upon the chicken tender. It was so popular that the fast food chain had to pull ads across the country when restaurants fan out of it. Other places also cashews din on its' popularity, Soon chicken tenders were at birthday parties, weddings and eve bar mitzphas. that the Puritian hosted. The restaurant stills sells them with super Sized buckets containing a whopping 150 pieces.On a typical week Arthur Papps fries up four tons (!) of them, on a super busy week he fries up five tons. It's funny how the strips became so popular. Without breading and sauces , they meat has little flavor..This is sio mild that it won;t offend anyone which may be a reason for its popularity. Yet there are now variations of it , from coconut crusted tenders to it being dredged in Ritz cracker crumbs and even Capt'n Crunch before frying.One brew pub offers them with different sauces like Western apricot and Korean barbecue.

No matter how you have them, chicken tenders are good. THey're here to stay.These strips of white meat are as classic as apple pie and roast turkey on the American table.

The Classic Patty Melt

 A diner classic is making a comback and in a big way.It's the patty melt and sudeenly New Yorkers are going wild for this vintage sandwich. To be nones tit';s a tasty departure from it's cousin the hamburger.

Pete Wells wrote about it in yesterday's New York Times  Wednesday Food section. He even included a recipe that's makes for an easy replica. MAny of the trenider eateries both in New York and on the West Coast in Malibu are making their versions of it. It's a classic beef patty(hoemamde  - not one of those frozen kinds), cooked and placed on butter  and fried rybread. Cheese is added along with carmelized onions. It's basically an old fashioned hot snadwich, soe =rto f like that other diner classic the tuna melt (this is tuna sald placed on toast then topped with cheese, usally American. It's then popped into the oven or broiler untile the cheese becomes all melty and bubbly). The famed Commerce Inn, a West Village restaurant that explores American farmhouse cuisine has added it to it's menu. S & P lunch, also in Manhattan gives it a bit fi Forties quaintess with a cherry lime rickey to drink.Revelie, alunceonette with French leanings serves their with a true New York classic - the egg cream. They also serve a vegan one too.

Mr. Wells gives the Commerce Inn's recipe which is probably the most authentic.You need good ground beef..It should be iberall salted and peppered on both sides  as you would do with a steak, Each patty should be bigger than the bread slice because the meat shrinks down when cooking. The onions should be thinly sliced and cooked with butter and rosemary. The bread should be  buttered and fried on the griddle. If you don't have a large enough griddle then use tow skillets instead.The cheese along with a mayo and Dijon . mustard mix should be spread on them. Smash the burgers with a spatula and then cover them with the onions Layer the meat and the onions onto the bread and then serve as hot sandwiches.  For a sub in  you can use sourdough which is what the first patty melts were served on . They were first created at Tiny's Waffle  Shop on Powell Street in San Francisco. Funny enough the sourdough wasn't popular and rye was put in in its' place.

Make a patty melt for a classic American taste. It's a gooey , tasty marriage of cheese and beef with onions and mayo. Nothing beats it.

Is Korean Cuisine The New french?

 For over eighty years French cuisine held court over new York fine dining. Now it's being challenged by a different kind of haute cuisine Korean. It combines the best of traditional Asian and European cooking and serving techniques

Regular contributor and famed restaurant critic Pete Wells explored this in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Fine dining may be dying down in other  big Americna cities however it's doing quite well in Manhattan. It's coming from a new breed of Korean restuarants where Korean -American chefs are cominging the best of their heritage with Gallic trchniques and practices. It  is topping a tradition that started with the famed Le Pavilion being transferred from the Queens 1939 world'd Fair to Manhattan.it lasted so long as to inspire other La and Le restuarantst to dot the city landscape. They brought Limoeges china, silver domes and white linen to the tables. These eateries are few and far between these days.It may give ideas of a higly contolled enviroment super attentive waitstaff and detail oriiented cooking. Mr. Wells suggests looking at it in a fresher way - as in a price bracket. The prices are high, beteeen 100 and 150 a person. These new Koren influenced ones appeal to a wide range of people, much like French cuisine. They also go beyond the restaurants seenn in middle class Korean enclaves like fort Lee New Jersey and Queens.

Of course there is also the halyu, the influx of Koren culture into America life . Arts, music and film can make a culture wanted accorodng to Jenny Kwak, chef and owner of Haenyeo ,a causal Koren restaurant with dishes starting at fortty two dollars." They demystify it," She can remember American chefs acknowledging Psy the singer behind 20212's popular song "Gangham style."  The pioneer to all of them ,Jungsik opened a year before his success.It features  expensive seafood dishes paired with top quality wines. Younger Korean chefs like Junghyun Park have opened up not one but two restaurants. He has  the vastly popular Atomix whuch strives for a modern vison of Korean cuisine and Naro, a more tradtional Korean menu. Another double restuarant owner, Hoyoung Kim has the popular Jua has a seven course tasting menu and Moono where a pot fo rice can cost as much as eigty-eight dollars. The most popular is Bom, where chef Brian Kim gives diner a totally immersive experience.It is expensive with meals starting at a whopping three hundred dollars.These restaurants do have French flourishes with caviar tarts and finishiung the meal with satiny chococlatr bonbons.

Fine dining is alive and well in New York City.I'ts not what most think.It has a decidedly Korean flavor to it.

Are You Looking For A Pizza Pop Up

 It was going to happen eventually  - the pop up pizzeria. The planet's trendiest food center New York City is where it's happening .What's best about them is that these pizzas are variations on the traditional pies. They're innovative as they are tasty.

Long time restaurant critic Pete Wells wrote about them in yesterday's New YorkTimes Food section.Pop ups across Manhattan and its' boroughs are not that unusual. There are tacorias and ice cream parlors along with pop up bakeries and coffee shops. Pizzerias are not that common though, especially ones that have unusual and new toppings. How is this phenomenon happening? It's due to the ovens .There is the electric Breville Pizzailo, a  small, portable brick oven and several models by Ooni. The last can be powered by wood pellets, carcoal and gas and cost between and  $299 and $1,000 These were made for home use but are quickly becoming popular with chefs who have to be on a budget.Most commerical deck ovens cost many times as much). These devices have allowed a batch of self taught makers to storm a traditional , family owned business, The most traditional ones are owned by men. Now thanks to the new pop up trade , two of the most avidly followed are run by women.

 How are the pizzas? They range from the unuusal to the traditional. Natalie De Sabato is leading this craze with her company Traze, She sells grandma (ones with thick crusts) to bars, breweries and other spots throughout the city.Her best known pie has crumbled fava bean squirted with halal-cart white sauce.I'ts put into into a counter top electric oven that's smaller than a microwave and baked.Mr. Wells declared it the best pizza he's ever had.Augie Russo of Tiny Pizza Kitchen creates a variety of traditional and different. He is known for his Margherita pizza with his black bubbles, airy interior and crusty rim. Then there's his Betty White which changes topping with the season.One night it had gooseberries, pomegranate seeds ,spiced butternut squash and sauteed leeks.It's decorated with edible flowers and herbs.His Farewell To Figs is redolent with the fruit.His pizza is tiopped with fresh  ones along with a spicy fig jam from a small batch reserve in California.salame ribbons, salted raw onions, charred cherry tomaotes and fice kinds of cheese top it.

Pop pizzareias are becoming more and more popular. They're a great outlet for creative chefs looking to break free from the traditional mold. They'll be around for a while.

A Legend Says Good Bye

 One of the most innovative restaurants in the last twenty  years is Noma in Copenhagen.Next year, 2024 is going is going to be it's last as a popular eatery.It will come back , with the same innovative food and original recipes. Yet it won't be the same.

The New York Times Food critic Pete Wells wrote about this legend of a restaurant in today's New York Times Food section. He was lucky to get reservations (although he had to piggy back his with a friend's) when he reviewed it in 2018.The top chef and owner Rene Redzepi took Nordic cooking and turned it on its' ear. It's a mix of new and old, with bringing in traditional ingredients and using them in different ways. He used the bright orange berries of the sea buckthorn and used them in all sorts fo recipes from jams to cocktails. Chef Redzepi and his assistants foraged wood sorrell and other plants , long used in Scandanavian cooking and made it a part of the new Nordic cooking manifesto. He used burning hay to perfume certain ingredients along with using parsnips instead of fruit in desserts(!) Noma made a big deal of serving  a variety of pickled foods as an appetizer. Even Chef Redzepi also renamed the appetizers, calling them snacks. 

Other restaurants like El Bulli in Spain and Chez Panisse have dozens of imitators and both eateries have given chefs inspiration with all sort of dishes. Yet it's Noma that all turn to for ideas. They can copy it's use of slates, rocks, seashells (!) longs and mismatched pieces of hand hewn pottery. There are influences from modern Scandanavian furtniture to not serving tomatoes in anything as Noma does. Yet as much as they copy  they cannot get it compeltely right. Mr. Werlls desctibes having a dish painted with edible paint in the shape of an iridescent starfish covered with the sparkling roe of Danish trout. Yet according to him its excellence may be inseparable from the culture of overkill. Maybe once Chef Redzepi gets rod of those "pesky diners" he can work on newer innovations and more original recipes that reflect the Nordic heritage. Or maybe he 'll be influenced by Asian cooking since Noma is now in Japan. He coud easily use sea weed in a new way or reinvent sushi or tempura,

Noma may only have a year but it will probably be a glorious one. Diners from all over th e world  still want to try its' innovative dishes. It still has spark and the ability to change the food world.

Corn One Of Our Native Best

 Corn or maize is as important to American history as any war or treaty. Its contribution was and still is vital for the American table.It  is the best example of Indigenous love of the land and the sense of community shared with the early European settlers.

Pete Wells who usually writes the restaurant review for the Wednesday New York Times Food section penned this thoughtful and informative piece for  today's section. Corn has been part of the North American diet for nine thousand years.It started in the Balsas River Valley south of Mexico City. It began as teosinte a kernal with a hard, inedible cover. Thanks to genetic mutations the kernels became softer and corn as we know it now was born. The plants traveled around the Western Hemisphere, even winding up in the Caribbean.The Hopi Indians of Arizona planted it a foot below the surface of high winter valleys in order to catch the meltwater , originally snow , that seeps into the ground. A fast growing grain was grown by the Mi'kmaq of Quebec and Maine.It was the Gaspe strain that ripens after only forty-five days of planting. Gaspe corn is still grown in Vermont with the help of Tony Van Winkle an anthropologist who teaches sustainable food systems in Greensboro North Carolina ans Vermont tribe Nulhegen band of the Coosuk Abenaki nation. 

Yet it is the Wampanoag nation of Massachusetts that has the most important connection to corn. They showed the Plymouth Colony settlers how to plant corn after their wheat crop failed. The Pilgrims were on the brink of starvation when they were introduced to the bright red kernels of a strain called King  Phillip's corn.It is still eaten today , although not as much as another heirloom strain called dent corn. Dent corn is still on our tables in the form of cornbread and muffins along with being crumbled in dressings and stuffings. It's steamed with molasses and eggs to create Indian pudding, a kind of custard first made by the colonists  who first called ground corn Indian meal. Some strains were lost as the Indigenous were either slaughtered or moved to different parts of the country. There is one strains that stayed, thanks to the Davis Farm in Stonington Connecticut.  The family obtained kernels in 1654 from a local tribe  when their chief Uncas gave the kernels to Hartford CT founder Thomas Stanton. A few Indigenous women are planting heirloom seeds as their ancestors have done, hoping to bring back the corn their ancestors ate.

Corn is one of the most vital crop in the history of North America.It sustained the Indigenous for millennia . It also was a life line for the early settlers of Plymouth. It was ans still is the backbone of American cooking.

Dining In The Covid Era

Everything has changed since the pandemic. How we work and go ro school were greatly affected. What was the most affected area? How we eat. Restaurants have forever changed. Like it or not they're the face of the new normal.

Most of the contributors to the New York Times Food section weighed in. Yes, protocol  has changed tremendously. Priya Krishna weighed in on drive throughs which have always been big on the American fast food scene.Even fine dining restaurants like Carlos in Seattle There may even be a way of scanning in a license plate and suggesting dishes based on the drivers' past orders. As for actually dining in, say goodbye to those pretty menus.Tejal Rao predicts we scan in the QR or bar code on our phones and have the menus pop up on them.Patricia Farrell has noticed more eateries are accepting solo diners. Pre-pandemic there was a certain snobbery regarding a person eating. Not anymore. The less people in a place the better. Yurts are becoming a thing too according to Pete Wells.It turns out they're better than indoor dining There's more privacy and better for larger parties. Florence Fabricant noticed that utensils now show up in rolled napkins.

Have the actual food and drink changed?Yes. The chicken sandwich, namely from Popeye's has topped the hamburger in popularity according to Kim Severson.It was at its height during the first half of 2020 and even influenced Manhattan eatery Please to create a fourteen dollar version with the addition of a salted egg yolk.Plant based dishes were also popular, eclipsing meat ones.Again Tejal Rao weighed in on this. She noticed chefs like Jocelyn Ramirez of the vegetarian Todo Verde created ceviche with fresh hearts of palm and mushroom mole tacos. She even spiked mac and cheese with poblano chiles. Also more people are eschewing meats for either health, environmental and ethical reasons. Plus plant based meats like Beyond Burger taste just as good as the real thing.There are even vegan barbecue trucks like LA'sMo Better Brews run by Courtney and Chastitie Lindsey.Robert Simonson has noticed that cocktails are being served not in glasses bu branded flasks , coffee cups and even juice pouches.

Yes, how we eat has changed. We've adapted to it quite well though. These new habits and protocols will stay l,ong after Covid has finally gone.

New York Is Back

 One of the cities that took a tremendous hit during the lock down is New York City. Manhattan and its' boroughs  have been struggling.One of the biggest hit was the restaurant industry. Good news!!! Eating out is coming back and with it a slew of must visit places. It's time to get dressed up and enjoy a meal out!!

The New York Times Food critic Pete Wells wrote about this renaissance of sorts in yesterday's New York Times Food section. This is not only great for the inhabitants of the five boroughs but also visitors from out of state and even out of country. Mr. Wells gives us seventeen eateries that have to be tried. They're not solely in Manhattan but scattered around the boroughs so they can be an easy drive from Long Island and New Jersey.Of course the city places have a certain air of excitement to them. Diners can try Blue WIllow, a new Hunanese restaurant in Midtown. Their  whole steamed sea bass is legendary while their longevity chicken soup with ginseng tastes like homemade. Tex-Mex lovers will go mad for Greenwich Village's Yellow Rose, a taqueria that offers chicken stewed so much in salsa verde that it's green and beef cheek barbacoa.A true fusion restaurant is The Migrant Kitchen located on William Street in the Financial District. The menu has carnitas going into a sharwarma sandwich and falafel being turned into a waffle. The hip St. Mark's Place has Mokyo, chef Kyungmin Hyun's second restaurant that features Korean cuisine but also has other Asian as well as Maine or Louisiana dishes. Thai Diner in Nolita offers diner classics like burger and fries but also fried rice with lump crab meat.

The boroughs don't disappoint either.For those who want a French seaside vibe head to Rockaway Beach's Bar Marseille.There is bouillabaisse and pastis scented mussels and olive tapenade. The Bronx gives us Empanology At Bronx Brewery where flaky palm sized empanadas are stuffed with everything from pizza to Bananas Foster. Then there is All Things Good in Brooklyn which features masa or ground corn meal recipes. They serve half moon quesadillas griddled or fried, and triangles of masa that look like mini volcanoes and filled with refried beans, salsa verde and melted Chihuahua cheese. Trendy Williamsburg has the even trendier Kokomo, a fun waterfront eatery that serves wings with a sweet gochujan glaze. There's also chicken and waffles with both whipped coconut cream and a Scotch bonnet hot sauce.  Another win for Brooklyn is Rangoon which serves mohinga,a fragrant fish soup with noodles. Another Thai restaurant is gracing Brooklyn too, It's Tong in the Bushwick section and it features kub klaem or whiskey snacks such as a spicy steak tartare and goong pai, tiny shrimp pancakes along with bite sizes sausages

New York is going to be hopping again with good eateries. Head to the city. See what's in your neighborhood for some tasty bites again.

The Baby Restaurant Boom

 Everyone thought there would be a Covid baby boom. That didn't happen but another baby boom of sorts did occur. It seems the pandemic allowed little eateries to sprout and even flourish during the past year.

Pete Wells, Food critic for the New York Times Food section wrote about this phenomena in today's section.It seems strange this happened since mostly everyone stayed home and cooked. Paradoxically the challenges that killed so many existing businesses fueled the fires for food trucks and pop up to flourish. There are advantages to opening up now, especially the agility to change with the times.They also may have lower overhead costs too which help.One restaurant, Kasama opened last March right around the time of the mass closings., Chef Genie Kwon and her husband Tim Flores adapted to this with an incredible flexibility. They offered breakfasts at their traditional Filipino restaurant. They made steaming lattes for customers who weren't away they were the restaurant's chefs.They postponed making lumpia and fried fish until they 're able to open their dining room. The couple turned to take out , offering duck dumplings like Chef Flores. mother made. These are in a mushroom broth that keeps them hot on the ride home.

Other eateries around the country also thrived and adapted to this new normal. Leah and Louise, a fancily redone juke joint in Charlotte North Carolina did just that. The restaurant's original theme was "small plates, Southern food by way of Mississippi River Valley" as per Chef Greg Collier. However that didn't fly. His chicken sandwiches did , however. It wasn't on his original menu yet he had to come up with something that was affordable to people now on budgets. He sold seven hundred the first month they were out. It kept the business above water. Yet it wasn't what he wanted.He wanted customers to savor his other dishes. He and his wife, Sabrina came up with another dish  a popular rice bowl with veggies. Yet it's the customer that now decides what a restaurant serves. Ni Hao in Baltimore offers meal sets that came about from what customers wanted. Comments were absorbed on the Chinese language app WE Chat. Dishes were tweaked to what they felt was acceptable. Some new restaurant owners like Andreas Koutsoudakis Junior, a hospitality lawyer inherited his from his father who unfortunately died from Covid 19. He redid the place and serves only dishes that customers can come to eat. There is little take out.

The baby restaurant boom is taking hold despite the pandemic. It's not luck but flexibility and good cooking that's making this happen. It's a good sign of life coming back.

Little Pop Ups Of Sweetness

 All it takes is creativity and flour. It seems out of work pastry chefs are making their dreams come true during these rough days by starting their own pop up bakeries. It's a great way not only to make money but get your product out to a sweet tooth hungry crowd.

Food section veteran Pete Wells wrote about this phenomena in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Pastry chefs have experienced hard times in the past few years. Restaurants have concentrated on serving a plethora of appetizers and main dishes on smaller plates. Diners are not enthusiastic when dessert comes, , ordering something simple like a shared panna cotta. It also doesn't help that these eateries are not creative or enthusiastic anymore either when it comes to desserts.Instagram is also to to blame here. It's lured talented pastry artists to create the next meme , like the Cronut. Yet there is still a need for pastry chefs and bakers to create interesting and delicious treats.Joy Cho realized this when a miniature Bundt cake pan caught her eye during a shopping trip with her mom to Williams -Sonoma. She bought it and the next day she was busy making up a sour cream batter . By February first she was taking orders for the mini Bundts. The initial batch of gem cakes sold out. People were picking them up at her home in Clinton Hill Brooklyn,

Other pop ups are arising.Kelly Miao who worked in the pastry departments at such top restaurants as Bar Boulud and Dominque Ansel Kitchen now gets creative. She bakes snack sized pound cake cubes called Kemi Cubes. These are about the size of an iced cube and are cloaked in vanilla and chocolate icings similar to black and white cookies. Boy Blue Coffee and Goods , run by Michael Davis offers mostly savory baked good like sourdough pretzels and everything but the bagel focaccia, which is a focaccis dotted with an everything bagel seasonings like poppy and sesame seeds , along with garlic and onion bits. He also sells sour dough bread kits with flour and starter included. Shuna Lydon runs Seabird bakery out of her Flatbush Brooklyn apartment. Here she creates kits of sourdough English muffins with preserves and salted butter. along with Rice Krispie treats made with browned butter and matcha powder . Two pastry chefs, Marissa Sanders and David Yang started Wrightwood and Sawyer give the element of surprise . Each week two boxes , one savory , one sweet and one mostly savory arrive with a dozen different treats. Every  pop up is legit thanks to a state licensing exemption that allows home processors to sell baked goods with minimal oversight. All they need is consumer grade ovens and fridges for storage, supplemented by a utility shelf and sawhorses to work.

Pop up bakeries may be a new facet of pandemic life. They'll introduce to the talents of many bakers and pastry chefs, allowing us to sample their creations. It's a way of becoming New York favorites.

Masking And Menus

Eating out is always a pleasure these days. It's a chance to get dressed up and sit down with friends. It's enjoying a lunch or dinner at a favorite eatery that hasn't been visited in months. There's only just one problem. Mask protocol. Do you wear it after you've been seated and order or take it off as soon as you sit?

That's the question New York Times restaurant critic, Pete Wells posed in his Critic's Notebook column in yesterday's Food section. He , himself, has an unusual one, homemade by a friend. It has shoelaces to hold it in place. This can get a bit too much as the laces have to be untied and tied every time it's worn. This can be disconcerting and uncomfortable, especially for a restaurant critic where the mask has to come off in the middle of a fine eatery..  Yet, it's what the New York Department of Health And Mental Hygiene recommends although the recommendation  doesn't have to be carried out. According to their guidelines " face coverings are not required when diners are seated but wearing a face covering as much as possible once at the table is the best way to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission for restaurant workers and dining companions." Mr. Wells has observed this has reached very few diners. Very few people keep their faces covered until the first plate of food or drink has arrived. Here in New Jersey, diners need only to wear a mask when going into an eatery's interior. Children under the age of two and those with medical problems (this could mean respiratory problems) don't have to wear any face coverings.

Are any of these OK? Many either take the masks off, stashing them in their pockets or wearing them around their necks like doctors. Some just push the masks down on their chin making them look like they've just seen a medieval dentist according to Mr. Wells. However restaurants sometimes give you your rolls and butter or oil before you even order. Yes, you could wait until after your ordered has been taken and the server gone, but who does? We arrive at restaurants hungry and a roll, even a slice of bread look downright good.Another thing is it is hard to talk with them on, and it is more freeing with having them off.  Afterwards, it's nice to just hang out and talk while waiting for coffee. Then there's the idea of masking up between courses.It is safer but for some an annoyance.Putting it on and off for at least three times during the meal can be irritating. Many forget, rapt in the meal or conversation.It is required and good manners to wear it if you have to use the restroom or entering or leaving the place. A better idea is taking diner's temperatures before they sit down although some can be asymptomatic.  Wearing your mask constantly could work if there are signs gently reminding people. It's hard to say how people will react however.

Should you wear your mask more at a restaurant? It does make sense and it is better for everyone. Yet will we? If we 're gently reminded , possibly

Stocking Like A Chef

Cooking and shopping these days are vastly different than what they were. Now home chefs have to think like the pros. That includes food shopping like a restaurant owner. It may not be what we're used to but it's actually the best way.

Pete Wells and Jennifer Steinhauser , both New York Times Food section veterans wrote about this new aspect of home cooking in yesterday's Food section. As home chefs have to plan for two weeks of cooking they have to shop for that amount too. It makes sense in a way to then shop at a restaurant supplier. Not only can you get large quantities of produce and meat but also items you wouldn't see in your local grocery store.Jessica Kramer found this out when she ordered from the poultry supplier D'Artagnan in her native Newport, Rhode Island. Her kitchen was filled with freshly slaughtered Rohan duck breasts squabs and baby poussins or chicks.  She has made notes for other purveyors that visit her house, much like that of a chef.Many other families are going to suppliers and buying such foodstuffs as wild morels, trays of sea urchins, along with bunches of foraged ramps. Restaurants are also cashing in on this. Several are also selling their most popular dishes like Shouk, an Israeli fast food place in Washington. Customers can buy the much loved hummus along with falafel kits. The owner, Ran Nussbacher, says that making falafel, especially grinding the chickpeas are hard. It needs to be down with an industrial one to get the right silky texture.

Farms are also following suit. Nat and Alison Bjerke-Harvey usually sell their microgreens and garden veggies to their Manhattan, Kansas to restaurants and farmers' markets. The Corona virus shut that down and now the couple sell directly to homes. Their Piccalilli Farms are now making up to two hundred deliveries with their sunflower and pea shoots being the most ordered. They have also delivered their French breakfast radishes, beets and green onions. On Tuesday mornings they watch their veggies sell out.Some restaurants are joining in as Dan Barber , chef at both Blue Hill and Blue Hills at Pocantico Hills, New York. To keep cash circulating to farmers, foragers and fishing crews, Mr. barber began to sell boxes of fish, meat and seasonal vegetables for curbside pickup. Customers get a grab bag of ingredients that are both well known as greenhouse cucumbers and lesser such as Purple sword celtuce stalks. Tucked into the boxes are recipes and backgrounds of the crops include beetle bitten brassicas, veggies that are loved by flea beetles. This expands home chefs knowledge and introduces them to new ingredients and recipes.

This may be the way to go if you're bored with what's in your grocery store.  It's a neat way to excite the home kitchen. It's also a great way to get fresh meats and veggies .