The New Rock Stars

Oh, this one isn't even a competition. Ever since I learned that I had been raised for the earliest parts of my life in Austria and Germany (and then later brought to the States), I embraced my Germanic bombasticity (is that a word?). Then, as a high school student looking for suitable expressions of my continued love of imagined country, I discovered Chef Tell.

Yes, I do a killer imitation of the accent (it's my first language, so I suppose I'm cheating?). I even cook. And there is nothing so satisfying as having friends over and putting on the Chef Tell show from my very own kitchen. Very nice, very zimple, very easy.

Indulge yourself:

http://www.mbctv.com/cheftell/show.html

This link actually works. Oops.

http://wfmz.com/view/?id=170308

Ah!  Here's a topic I can really sink my teeth into!  (Sorry, I couldn't resist... in fact, I hardly tried.)

I love to cook.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that I live in a New York City apartment that has no storage space and I never have any time.  Solution?  Keep it simple!  I love cooking simple stuff with minimalist ingredients and finding the way to let each individual ingredient speak for itself and make its flavor known.  My most indispensible cookbook is 500 3-Ingredient Recipes.  The complexities of flavor that can be had from so few ingredients are staggering.

Not that I ever stick to the recipe after the first time.  On a dish's maiden voyage in my kitchen, I adhere religiously to the book.  After that, I'm always tossing in one or two extra things (not too much, we don't want the flavors to muddle) and turning it into my own.  My mother-in-law is a notoriously finicky eater with the taste buds of an eight-year-old but I have never made a dinner she didn't like.  On the flip side, my wife shares my sense of gustatory adventure and I keep her pretty well pleased too.

And pleasing women in the kitchen is precisely why chefs are the new rock stars.  As the old saying goes, the way to the heart is through the stomach.  I am no exception when it comes to fans of the food network.  The celebrity chef whose cookbook(s) I own and whose recipes I actually make the most often is Giada De Laurentiis.  Today, the food speaks for itself but my reasons for first watching her show were entirely visual.  Ultimately, though, the proof is quite literally in the pudding.

I've cooked all my life, gathering recipes from relatives, magazines, cookbooks, friends, anywhere it looks like it might be good. My basic rule is that if I use ingredients that go together, in appropriate doses, and I like them all, then I'm probably going to be all right. DPR, I can't resist tweaking my recipes either-I always end up after a few tries with my own twist on the original. I must look into that 3-ingredient book-sounds GREAT!

I don't get the whole celebrity cook thing. Iron Chef is hilariously over the top, but most of what I've seen on TV is useless pop entertainment, and I'd rather be cooking than watching others do it. That goes for most TV. I'm always reminded of the wonderful t-shirt I saw at Whole Foods: Who's Creating Your Reality? My TV is for old movies, the occasional good new one, and the news and weather PRN. I'd rather be here than sitting there.

I made a pizza tonight that was to die for. Pesto, black and green olives, onions and garlic, fresh sliced tomatoes, raw spinach and feta on whole wheat, with a thick blanket of mozzarella/parmigiano. That with a cold cold pinot grigio and The Maltese Falcon was all about it.

I haven't wanted to be pleased in the kitchen for quite some time. I prefer to be comfortable. Not to get off topic...

After years of enduring/eating my cooking, my daughters now beg me NOT to cook - the youngest often whines about foods she was served as a child/teenager because that was in my no salt days.  The height of it all came when I discovered a new recipe for sweet potatoes with grapefruit - and delegated a former (and we're glad) spouse of a daughter to remove the white "stuff" from the grapefruit.  Well, he didn't/couldn't whatever - and when my aging mother tasted this delicacy, she was seen picking the grapefruit bitters from her teeth and the rest is history.  I am no longer allowed in the kitchen.

The answer who can cook our holiday dinners came when I then sent my eldest grandson to Culinary Arts/Le Cordon Bleu academy and he emerged as a bright star and he keeps us all enthralled and fat and happy with his dishes.  Actually, the family discovered his potential when I severely undercooked a nice leg of spring lamb, and he rescued the effort and everyone decided that should be his career.  (He's the one who is hunting in Alaska now, per an earlier post today)  He watches Iron Chef for his amusement and because it is on late at nite when he finishes work.

He watched Julia Child for a long time and can do a great mimic of her accent - in fact once billed himself as "Judy Childless" in one of his great comedy routines before he became a real chef.  And his holiday truffles are to die for!

In the past couple of years the best meal I ever ate was a heaping bowl of spaghetti with meat balls and sausage in a busy restaurant.  It was the best because my youngest brother and I had spent two days in the Oachita Mountains hiking in rain with the temperature in the high 30s.  I don't know how many calories we burnt climbing 800 root ranges or fording freezing cold streams, but wow, that spaghetti dinner was GOOD!  And then there was that time long ago when I spent my last two dollars (yeah it was a long time ago) on a loaf of bread and a can of tunafish -- my last food until payday.

I may be the only one here who was hired (as an act of mercy) to be a short order cook, and was soon fired (shortly after I asked 'What's a Western omlet?').  I learned that the memory and organizational skills needed to be a short order cook rival those of occupations considered 'high order', like being a physician in an ER.

My first exposure to 'commercial food preparation' was running that dang dishwashing machine with my deaf-mute partner John (we communicated with hand signals not because he couldn't hear, but because neither of us could hear over the roar of the machine).  I think I could still change out a filter if I were shoved back into that smelly environment of temperatures (both air and water) measured in the hundreds. 

One step down from the dishwashing machine was 'pots and pans', scrubbing the enormous cannibal pots encrusted in multiple layers of black and brown grease with a chemical compound I've fortunately never had to mess with ever again.   One step up from the dishwashing machine was 'getting something from the freezer', a quiet place I could linger in for a few minutes simply enjoying not only the sub-freezing temperature, but also the silence.  And then there was 'bussing tables'....  gross.  Especially the guys who would grind out their cigarettes in the mashed potatoes or create a green gunk by tossing them into their coffee cups.  Ah, my memories of commercial food prep... filth, horrible smells, fats, slippery floors, mops, heat, sweat, and --- folks who simply enjoyed their common misery with a big dollop of good humor, resignation, mutual support and compassion.  Even in that Dickensian world, friendship survived... no, thrived.

Last comment about food prep (and on a much lighter note): For years I 'did Thanksgiving', the one day a year when I was king of the home, since I was emperor for the day in the heart of the home: the kitchen.  Actually two days since prep began the day before Thanksgiving... making my great-grandmaother's bread recipe (wow!), making stuffing from scratch, ditto giblet gravy.  And all the pies: apple, mince, and a kinda-pumpkin pie known as 'mud pie' in our family.  (Mud pie undoubtedly has both a larger variety of and greater amounts of most known spices than any confectionary on the face of this planet... you smell it even more than you eat it!)  Oh, my gravy... I was finally banned from making my 'very stiff' gravy (if a teaspoon of cornstarch is good, then a tablespoon is better, right?).  Insensitive family members didn't agree with me that gravy should have the consistency of soft butter, unfortunately.  

I guess I could go on in this vein... but all good things end.  Now (having lost 30 pounds over the past year by mostly strict observance of Weight Watchers guidelines, I think of a good meal as one with 'few points'.  So we enter a new chapter in our relationship with the proteins, simple sugars, lipids, complex carbohydrates, etc, etc that we shove into our mouths in order to 'fuel the machine'.  Thank goodness for memories of mom in her kitchen many, many years ago (even the liver and 'fish on Friday', mom... really!)

Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is always entertaining.

Calvin Trillin, whom even The Food Channel can only make slightly  sexy, has written millions of appettite- whetting words on all manner of foods. Try Alice Let's Eat.

This guy will never make the bigtime, but he's awfully good...

Kristian Niemi, of Gervais and Vinem, in Columbia, SC

www.gervine.com  

Yes, that would be vine, no M at the end.

I enjoy Bourdain, and Alton Brown...but you can not go wrong with Martin Yan!!!

I am a big fan of Nigella Lawson. Love the recipes, love her view of life, and her cookbooks are just plain fun to read!

Yes, I can Cook! One of the best. I also love Calvin Trillin, and his forays into the local cuisine of the area. MFK Fisher is someone else that is must reading for any FOODIE. Her chaper: How to Cook a Wolf, quite hilarious.  Of course these aren't cookbooks, more food memory books. Craig Claibornes, "A feast made from laughter..and (Don't quite remember it) combined evocative memories, with some recipes. 

I loved Julia Child.  She awakened a passion for cooking and baking and savouring food in a child who was already a francophile. 

Thanks, Fauntleroy, for reminding me about Mr. Bourdain.  I have loved the essays I've seen from him.

For the most part though, I think the TV chef phenom has really jumped the shark.  There is a sameness about most of them that makes one yawn.  Getting into the kitchen with some yeast, flour, herbs de Provence, and great oil cured olives, and making bread for supper as I did yesterday...now there's the antidote to passive involvement in food.  (Lucky I work at home)

Celebrity chefs have nothing over on me!  I have been cooking the same recipes that these people are making millions from for many years.  They just were just fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time.  I have been to Paula Deen's, two of Emerils, and Bobby Flays's restaurants. I was sorely dissappointed each time.  There was nothing, or at least very little on their menus that I couldn't or haven't cooked.  From good old counrty cooking to the latest fad food fusion.  I pride myself, and yes brag too that I certainly could hold my own up against any one of the food network chefs.  My brother in law is a highly sought after Chef in Palm Beach/LA and he gets his ideas and inspiration from yours truly.  I only takes a sincere love of food and the desire to try new things to be a great cook.  I cater for friends mainly but have been told by many that I should pursue food professionally but I love to do it on a small scale and althogh the financial reasoning would be wonderful, I think it would become a giant responsibilty.  I will say that I do love to watch the tv chefs but more for their personalities than the food.  I made brownies last night and my co-workers have devoured every one of them.  I have met Emeril, Bobby Deen, and Alton Brown and they are all wonderful and amazing people.  They are very real and true to their tv personalities.  Very down to earth people.  Refreshing considering a lot of celebrities are not what they seem. 

Bon Appetite!   

Doc Nolan,

Thanks for the memories! I too am on a diet rich in memories but low on cholesterol. I still have "liver and onions with as much ketchup as I could get away with flashbacks" as well as broiled halibut, "just for the halibut" every Friday recall.

Celebrity Chefs. . . . I don't usually watch their shows, but when I do it is Nigella Lawson because there is something about her that could make a savage beast just purr with pleasure as she marinates, filets, and tenderizes it.

My favorite food show is "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives". Last week they did a barbecue tour from the East Coast though to the Southwest that still has me salivating. You can take a boy out of the Chicago Stockyards but you just can't take the Stockyards out of the boy.

Olivia,

I actually have a few cookbooks on the 3, 4, and 5 ingredient theme.  But the best of the bunch (and the one I cook from the most) is 500 3-Ingredient Recipes by Robert and Carol Hildebrand, ISBN: 1592330940.

"Pleasing women in the kitchen"?  I should have known you'd pick up on that.  On that note, let me recommend another of my favorites, Intercourses:  An Aphrodisiac Cookbook by Martha Hopkins and Randall Lockridge.  It is from that book that I make my baked, honey and basil glazed salmon.

I understand your not getting the celebrity chef craze.  I think what it boils down to is that talent is sexy.  Someone shows a tremendous talent doing something that pleases us gastronomically and we respond.

I'm not a fan of Iron Chef because there's very little I can learn from it.  I like Alton Brown, Giada De Laurentiis, and Rachel Ray because they make recipes I actually feel confident I can cook.  And, indeed, I have done so.  I definitely cook more of Giada's stuff than anyone else's though, as I mentioned earlier, that is more from her book than her show.  You are certainly right that the shows are no substitute for actually being in the kitchen and experimenting.  Your comment about the Food Network has been popularly applied to pornography:  Just because I like doing it myself doesn't mean I want to watch other people do it.

Now, about that pizza... When ya comin' over?  I have Double Indemnity on DVD.

The reason celebrity chef restaurants aren't any good is that they're too busy making cooking shows. Speaking of BBQ I seem to dimly recall (This to Peter Lake) saying that a famed Illinois BBQ restaurant ships ribs out? I could explore the archive, but that may be too dangerous around lunch.

Pierre Franey's 60 Minute Gourmet Cooking is excellent. And for fun, try to find a copy of Richard Gehman's, "The Haphazard Gourmet."

Gia,

It was Carson's, the place for ribs ... http://www.ribs.com/

Thanks Peter. And I forgot to mention "How to Cook a Rogue Elephant" in my cookbook list.

Many years ago, Craig Claiborne from the New York Times bid on (and won) an item offered by American Express at a Channel 13 (WNET) fund raising auction -- dinner for two at any restaurant in the world. I believe it was dinner only, and not transportation. He went on to design a multi-course meal fit for the most decadent of Roman orgies with the owner of a small and very expensive restaurant in Paris. The resulting repast totalled thousands of dollars, and his review, printed on the front page of the Times the next day was essentially, "it was okay, but..."

That same day, Russell Baker printed a comparative review of a meal he prepared at his home when he discovered his wife was out for the evening. It stands as one of the funniest pieces of print journalism ever written. I know that it was reproduced in one of the many volumes of "Craig Claiborne's Favorites" cookbooks, but don't know if it is available anywhere else. The cookbook is worth buying for Baker's article alone.

I grew up watching my Prussian Grandmother finesse her way around the kitchen, making everything from pot au feu to spaetzle to wedding cakes.  It was funny because she could make anything and make it taste delicious, but I was scared to eat at her house after finding a whole sheeps head in her fridge, now I have no problem with headcheese and sweetbreads and all the other "nasty bits".  She was a funny old broad because she wouldn't like to make soup or anything with ground beef for herself because "Thas iz poor peoples food", but she would make it for others.

As a child I would watch my grandma and my mom and my aunts make HUGE family meals, and as soon as I was old enough to help (8 years old) I was conscripted into service prepping with my sisters and cousins.  Learning by doing really is the best way.  I would spend Saturday mornings watching the great cooking shows on PBS, but the food I make most is still what I learned from mom.  I've been a line cook in 3 restaurants, my husband has cooked in two restaurants, but I still call my mom begging for advice "Now how exactly do you do this?".

Ok all that said, I still LOVE cookbooks and I have dozens that I refer to from time to time.  On of my new favorites is Anthony Bourdain's "Les Halles" Cookbook...it has just as many stains on it as my 2 Julia Child cookbooks but I've only had it for a year, it is as entertaining as it is informative.  He really brings great french cookery to the masses in a way that even the newest foodie on the block can understand.

Ok, what I want to know is what is everyone's top 5 cookbook favs?  And...what is your favorite recipe?

One of my favorite PBS series right now is New Scandinavian Cooking www.scandcook.com, especially the third season with Tina Nordstrom as host for Sweden.  Its a great way to learn about other cultures through their food.

My mother taught home ec. for 30 years or so.  I'd say I learned most of my cooking skills from her :)

I still haven't decided if I happen to like to cook or not. This is coming from someone who still cannot hard boil eggs, & has the philosphy that if it doesn't fit in a Crock Pot than its not worth cooking.

With that being said my Grandmothers were WONDERFUL Cooks one made Bread that would leave Parisian Breadmakers in tears, the other made Crescent & Sweet Rolls that would put the best bakery in the world out of business. To be honest I've tried I spent afternoons with my G-ma's trying to learn to make them of course the bread recipe only known to Grandma (who as Grandmas always do NEVER measured a thing & it was always perfectly made) I wrote down the recipe to best of my & her trying to measure ingrediants out ability. I may even try to make some loaves one of these days.

Truth be told I'm not that bad of a cook when I give it a the good 'ole college try & I do enjoy cooking at times. I grew up watching the Frugel Gourmet with my Grandma's which is where I did figure & learn to make an Apple Omelette & do the fold quite well as a teenager...

I happen to LOVE Alton Brown & I think his show (Admitting here that: I LOVE CAMPY Shows) has really taught to me enjoy cooking becuase I FINALLY am begining to understand the Why's & how's of it all.  

I like Anthony Bourdain A LOT also although he no longer works with the Food Network (I think there are some Bad feelings between him & Scripps Comapny judging by this http://anthony-bourdain-blog.travelchannel.com/2008/01/notes-from-the-road-hawaii.html ) I do catch the shows on the Travel Channel when I can. (Oops now the wandering question of the day for me has become  ~  Mr. Peterman why do you not have a show on the Travel Channel?)  

I have caught a few shows of the Scandinavian Cooking which interests me greatly as it is part of my culinary heritage & but the local PBS channel seems to have stopped scheduling them at this time.     

I know what you mean about PBS and the ScandCook show, I've written a letter.  Does it get any better than the cook/host skijoring with raindeer?  I submit that it does not!

I may be found wanting when it comes to cookbooks, but I more than compensate for this with my collection of take-out menus.  The thrill of the hunt!

I have take out menus too, I just don't have the budget to use them *sigh*.  I love to cook when I have the time, but working 50 hours a week and keeping house doesn't leave a lot of time or energy for cooking...so its mostly simple things like sausage and onions.

Having been born and raised in Britain and the U.S, I can say that in my younger life a hot dog was exotic foreign food at one time.

I like Nigella Lawson because she seems like a "real person", she's also married to one of the very wealthy Saatchi brothers. The Saatchi's are brilliant marketing and advertising specialists

I profess to a liking for Anthony Bourdain....brilliant chef and restauranter who does not  pretend to be a God among us mere cooking mortals. Maybe he's the J. Peterman of chefdom.

I like to cook myself....in my early 20's i took numerous cooking classes. All my friends thought I'd left masculinity behind for a different lifestyle. Quite the opposite. I don't think they realized at the time that the classes were 100 percent female students.  I learned to cook and always had a date on Friday night.

The meals I learned to cook were delicious, often exotic, and dessert.......well, I never had to prepare dessert...but dessert was the best part of the date ( I mean the meal)

As hokey as it is, I kind of miss Food Network, now that I don't have cable.  It was entertaining and occasionally I picked up some good ideas.  I also liked Top Chef on Bravo and Hell's Kitchen on Fox.  Speaking of Gordon Ramsey, the original British version of Kitchen Nightmares was one of my favorite BBC America shows.  I've got my husband hooked on the new American Version (new season starts this week!).

If you are feeling slightly embarassed about your cooking prowess, you should read "Don't Try this at Home: Culinary Catastrophes from the World's Greatest Chefs", it is a really fun read.

nachista,

Sausage and onions sounds wonderful.  Totally you enjoy your posts.  Really liked your "Grandmother" story.

Ta PeterLake, sausage and onions with garlic mashed potatoes...that was dinner last night.  If I don't kill myself with the mandolin slicer, I will kill myself with indigestion, but I'll got happy.

You couldn't make up my crazy Grandma Toni if you tried.  Good church going lady who taught me every German curse word in the book.  She moved to America between the World Wars and made a living in New York cooking for some Jewish lawyers who were originally from Germany and missed the food.  Even though they were the bosses, she told them what they should eat, because she didn't think their requests were healthy enough.  They wanted pastries with their meal so she bargained with them, they send her to school to become a pastry chef and she would cook every unhealthy dish they requested, they accepted and the rest is history.  She taught her daughters and step daughters how to make home made, hand dipped chocolates, chantilly style wedding cakes, napoleans, almond crescents, cannolis, eclairs, tarts, cream cakes, croissants, etc. 

And my mom wonders why we're all a little overweight!  Grandma Toni died when I was young, I wish she'd stuck around long enough for me to really pick her brain about food, but she passed enough of it on to her daughters.  I learned from my mom that food isn't just about eating.  Its about all the senses, its about emotions, its about catharsis.  Nothing feels better than taking your frustrations out while kneading dough.  Nothing makes a kid's bad day at school forgotten quicker than coming home to a house smelling like cookies.  And nothing makes a holiday a happy memory than a good meal with everyone helping and enjoying the food.

Any mix of noodles, olive oil, Italian seasoning, veggies (all manner of veggies), pinion pine nuts and sausage (optional), and more then more noodles will put a smile on my face.

Noodles and butter . . . .  OMG

Crunchy PB&J on crusty bread . . . .  words alone cannot describe. . .

I will admit I also enjoy watching Top Chef on Bravo. I think it's more the fact that I like reality shows that have contestants that have another skill other than looking good on camera.

As for my top 5 cookbooks I must buy them because I now I have 2 shelves full of them, (I must just collect them) but I as for favorites I would have to say hands down the local ones.  You know the ones that the local churches or non profit organizations put together about every 5 years or so.  I mean where else can you get 5 recipes for Monkey Bread & all 5 of them have different ways & amounts listed to make it?  

I have added Alton's & Bourdains to my Christmas lists for this year.  

Early this year I was in B&N in the CB section, a clerk asked me what I was looking for & I really was looking for a good Scandinavian cookbook for my collection ~ He hands me this oversized blue colored book & says this is all & the best that we have it was ~ Aquavit: And the New Scandinavian Cuisine by Marcus Samuelsson.  It was marked at $50.00, I was told its the best & the only Scandinavian CB we have in the store.  I stated that I was looking for more the traditional recipes & was totally met with a blank stare. When the clerk recovered from his shock he stated that traditional wasn't in but this is.  I'm sorry buddy but for $50.00 that's not in my budget for a CB I'd hardly use.   I find it funny that since I wasn't looking for a Rachel Ray or a Barefoot Contessa CB or sone other Celeb Chef that I was told not to think for myself & buy what everyone else is. 

I tend to find some of my favorite recipes are from the local cookbooks that I have collected over the years. Yet I am still trying to find a good Scandinavian one that has a recipe for Lutefisk, Jelly Rolls, Kringle, Rice Pudding, pickling herring (red prefered) & Lefsa (of course one would need the right tools to make it.)

LOL see simple is good! My mom makes and excellent Kugel and it has 5 ingredients and takes 10 minutes to make.

One of my favorite easy salads is this:  One head shredded cabbage, 2 packages raw crushed ramen noodles (throw away the season package), 2 handfuls slivered nuts (I like cashews but you can use anything), one handful sunflower seeds.  Toss that together and then serve with asian vinagrette (we make our own home made with 1/2 c red wine vinegar, 3/4 c oil, 1 t salt, 4 T sugar, 1 t pepper).  Its not summer if we don't have that salad every other week served with fresh corn on the cob and some fresh water melon.

September is my favorite time of year because my parents garden is ripe and we eat nothing but fresh fruits and veggies, prepared simply and enjoyed outside with a nice cool breeze and the warm sun.  October is wonderful too because then all their apples are ripes and we can make fresh apple spudnuts, apple crisp, baked apples, apple cider, etc.

I have to stop now because I'm very hungry.

Have been reading along, as promised, AND, am staying on task. Really.

Just had to pop in because. . .

ExPat mentioned the Saatchi bros, and I have just come from the site of their sister group, Publicis in the West, in Seattle, where I have applied for their intereractive copywriter position. (See how 'on task' I am? Actually surprising myself.)

The ad read:

"It’s one part Lewis and Clark. One part magical mystery tour. We are brave. We don’t drive 55. We don’t put it on cruise control. "

Thought you all would appreciate that. It's very 'Peterman bold.'

If anyone wants to write them a letter telling them how 'unlikely it is to find me driving 55,' please feel free. Smiling.

Post script.

Rachael Ray makes me nervous. I watch her the way I watch childrens' recitals— just waiting for her to fall or forget a line. Would someone take her espresso machine away? Or ration it? It's like Parker Posy without the poise.

Okay, really back on track now. Off to find more craZy coPy.

Rings, Grandma Tony used to make Swedish Spritzs at Christmas time, my mom still has all her cookie presses, but she thinks they are too much work so we haven't had them in years.

I can't even read one of my favorite cookbooks.  It actually belongs to my husband and it is a folder of hand written recipes from a woman he knew when he lived in Brazil, they are all in Portuguese.  Mike has translated all of them for me and I now use them all the time.

Top 5 cookbooks (no particular order):

Anothony Bourdains "Les Halles" Cookbook

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volumes 1 & 2

Ceclia's recipes (the Portugese/Brazilian cookbook)

My Mom's copy of Better Homes and Garden cookbook that she got as a high school graduation present

The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals (because as educated and lovely as my husband is, its like pulling teeth to get him to eat veggies, so I have resorted to hiding them)

Honorable mention in the cookbook area goes to Amy Sedaris for "I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence"  it is hilarious.

I would never suggest that I am on the par of MACDADDY1, but I too can cook fairly well.  My main forte is baking; all types of yeast breads, coissants, bagels, baking powder fruit breads, you name it.  I went back to work when our son was 12 and realized with a start that he had to get used to taking lunch sandwiches made with store-bought bread!  He had never had store-bought before!  So he got a quick lesson in reality.  

He was a swimmer and you will find that not only are swimmers decent cooks, but they are the first in their class to get their own car when they turn 16.  It is those 6AM workouts and afternoon snacks before afternoon workouts when Mom is at work that challenges them to either learn to cook or drown.  He went on to become a wonderful gourmet cook.  I remember the time in college that he called me and asked how to make a bearanaise (sp?) sauce.  I asked if he was trying to impress another girl.  He quietly said that yes, he was.. He is now so capable of going into a new restaurant, trying some new flavorful dish and then go home and duplicate it with all the herbal balances of the original.  Unbelievable!  He also tends to push the envelope and do new and different things.  I remember a couple of years ago when he did Thanksgiving.  He hollowed out a punpkin, half-way baked it, filled it with stuffing, and then baked it fully.  We had wonderfully flavored stuffing with punkpin scrapings from around the inside of the "bowl" along with it.  Not only tasty but a beautiful presentation as well.  

The first TV food program I watched was back in the 50's and our cousin had one of those 15 min. programs crammed in between the news and prime time (read: The Show of Shows, Ed Sullivan, etc.).  Her name was Camille Glenn and I remember one show in particular when she showed us how to plant our own shallots, pressing the dirt into the pot and then turning around and chopping some up, putting them into the skillet.. Even I, at 15, was somewhat taken aback.  But I guess she simply didn't have time to wash her hands with only 15 min to work.  She wrote many wonderful cookbooks, but the best, and still my "bible" is Heritage of Southern Cooking.  In it she has lots of wonderful old photos and stories, a number from our Gr-Grandfather's hotel in Dawson Springs, KY, where she began her culinary education, continuing on to the Cordon Bleu.  So I have a personal reason to prefer that one, but it it truely a wonderful, good ol' "Amerikun" cookbook.

Whenever my friends and myself are together long enough to resort to TV, the first thing we turn to is the food network.
For some reason watching other people cook in a group is less depressing than doing it by yourself.
Iron Chef at three AM is the most hilarious thing in the universe.
The group recently discovered Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis, who over-pronounces every word, repeats the phrases "light and delicious" way too much, has a rockin' body, and who's camera-man find it completely nessisary to zoom in whenever she washes her hands or grabs the extra virgin olive oil but not when she is actaully cooking.

For some reason when I'm at home alone watching the food network, I'm not laughing my head off, I just feel pathetic and a little hungry.

[once more, forgive the typos, school, homework, teenager angst]

Never watch food network or other cooking shows after dinner...I've made more late night bad fast food runs and guilty supermarket purchases because of that than I  care to admit.  Yes that was me in the Taco Bell drive thru at 3am, yes that was me at the supermarket self check out lane with the entemann's coffee cake and a gallon of chocolate milk.  If I'm this bad now, I can't imagine what it would be like if I was pregnant and having cravings.

I've waited tables at four different restaurants, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's to tread lightly, and quickly, through the kitchen.  Chefs deal with a level of stress I can't bear to even be around, let alone endure.  For that, I give them my utmost respect. 

But chefs tend to be pretty strong personalities.  (I guess that's why they've made such good celebrities...)  They're very proud, and in the event you or a customer questions their food, they often get very defensive. Sometimes they lose their cool. And when a chef boils over, you know someone's gonna get burned...

JillyBean I have more respect for front of house staff than the line in any kitchen.  I've worked both ends of the restaurant and I'd rather deal with a hot grill or fry station than the customers and managers AND kitchen staff.  Wait staff have a tough job and they don't get nearly enough respect.  Any idiot can cook (seriously, If I can, anyone can), and its a lot easier to cook in a pro kitchen where the night porters clean everything, and the prep cooks set up your station for you and you've got back up on the line.  Its much hard to cook at home.

We finally get a "Peterman Lite" topic and I gain ten pounds just reading all of your toothsome posts!

To: Missive,

You would be a perfect fit with "Publicis in the West", it's a great company......I trust you will be successful in your career search.

I'm starving and I still have an hour and a half left of work and its been one of those days where the last thing I want to do is cook.  This may be a 'stop and see mom on the way home and if she happens to offer dinner I take it no matter what it is' nights.  Other wise its me and my husband and canned soup, cause I just don't have the Rachael Ray attitude right now .  I am such a lazy mooch, knowing my luck my mom will be making soup for dinner anyway. *sigh*

Just a zimple zandwich and some zoup to dip it in. 

No Zoup for you!

Wow, what great carryon you all are making this day! I started reading this morning, and have had the divil's own time keeping up! I was compelled to stop in my favorite Indian restaurant for lunch, but thanks to Gustav, they had no power, so I went to my second-fave, same story. Finally I had to cross the river and settle for my neighborhood Mexican restaurant, where I'd cheerfully eat every day if I had a personal trainer and a home gym. It would be difficult reading this on an empty stomach...

Scotty, you referenced "francs and Beans", by Russell Baker? It's included in the new food anthology, American Food Writing by Molly O'Neill. Looks good, I want it. I can add it to my long list of book lust.

I already gave a favorite pizza recipe. DPR, I'll add whatever you need to it to make it right, fire up the DVD and we'll do Double Indemnity hurricane-style! You're right-talent IS sexy, and so is delicious food. Must look into your library sometime...

Now, favorite cookbooks? The Vegetarian Epicure (two volumes) by Anna Thomas, On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee (encyclopedic and so interesting), The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten (erudite and just amazing), Hotel Splendide by Ludwig Bemelman, Peter Mayle's Provence books, and fill in between with Cooking Light's yearly compilations, hardcover please. I could go on and on (Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell!), there's just too many!

The Bourdain guy is interesting, but I read an article of his on NPR about killing and eating a seal raw with Inuit on the side (?), sucking its eyeballs and stuff, just gratuitous grossout writing, and that put me off him. It was just shock for shock's sake. I like some of his other stuff, but that was SO over the top, and not in a good way.

The talk of gastronomical grannies reminds me of my dear Grandma Watson, who was actually a LaTour-her parents were of THAT famous Bordeaux Chateau, black sheep by family mythology. She kept pot-au-feu on the back of the stove at all times, cooked with divine inspiration, and made the fried pies that are undoubtedly consumed in Valhalla. She dipped snuff, taught me to drink coffee at the tender age of 6, and was just a constant source of wonder to this wee girl. Oh and she could cuss any sailor under the table, too-in French! I'm not a thing like her...

Peter, Doc, ExPat, Robert-all of you, in fact-would love to have you over for potluck and wassail. Sure, the craic would be ninety and no mistake! Somebody be sure and drag Missy with-no excuses.

Speaking of critics, and we weren't, the late Seymour Britchkey probably wrote the funniest reviews ever. He's out of print, but I'm sure you can still pick it up. As for food nostalgia books, I can't believe MFK Fisher isn't getting much love. Along with Calvin, she was the best. Ah, movies, a whole different category, Tampopo (The search for the perfect noodle) and La Grande Bouef come to mind. Yes, Babette's Feast.

I've got to run. There's some decent tennis on. 

Wow!  Yesterday, Olivia was worried about being misunderstood and now she begins a post by saying we're all making great carrion!!! (Okay, that one was on purpose.)

I have been so meaning to read Down and Out in Paris and London!  I've heard so many great quotes and passages from it but I've never actually read the damn thing.  I've got so much in front of it on my reading list but, hopefully, I can squeeze it in next year.  There's so much "important" fiction that I've never read and I've been trying to catch up with a serious literary commitment this year.  Having a ball but I'm well aware that I'm neglecting my old nonfiction habits.  Life's just too bloody short.

I'm all for a potluck with Peterman's People.  Our dear Missive (it was nice to see you today!) had seriously campaigned for a live get-together and the idea has some merit.  The question, of course, is where?  Patriotism inspires me to vote for New York (I would love to show you all around, gratis of course).  On the other hand, there are probably more of us in California and its environs.  If our host would like to be involved, we could all converge on Lexington, KY.  For the feast, I'll bring my famous black and white brownies!

In addition to the two aforementioned cookbooks, picking another three favorites is difficult.  The first cookbook I ever worked from was called To the King's Taste.  My family were all members of the Society for Creative Anachronism and we were creating a medieval feast.  To the King's Taste was a cookbook of recipes that had been deemed the favorites of King Richard II and I made a Brie Tart.  This began my lifelong love affair with interesting cheeses.

My philosophy about what cookbooks should aspire to is well represented in the recent The Opera Lover's Cookbook, which my wife gave me last Christmas.  My father always said there is a difference between a cookbook and merely a collection of recipes.  I agree.  A cookbook should approach its recipes from a sharply focused angle and The Opera Lover's Cookbook features an extremely charming example of what that can mean:  Each chapter is a full menu that is intended to enhance the experience of watching a particular opera or composer's work; tapas dinner with Carmen, dessert party with Mozart, English pub supper with Gilbert & Sullivan, etc.

As usual, picking number five is a toughie... give me time.

In 1962, Alan Koehler wrote THE MADISON AVENUE COOKBOOK ( For people who can't cook and don't want anyone to know).  On the one hand, it is a mighty cultural artifact- a monument to just how far we have come as a nation of cooks. On the other hand, it is an amazingly good little book of quick and inventive recipes, making use of guile, money, and prepared ingredients whenever possible.  Many of his puns are outdated or obscure ( Baked Beans Durstine and Osborn; Eggs Benedict  Arnold- as in Arnold English Muffins, that is) but the recipes are truly evergreen.

I give you two examples of his genius:

1) for any vegetable, he has a chart of secret enhancing ingredients. The ingredient is ALWAYS rosemary. 

2) He notes that you can serve a lot of garlic as long as everybody has it ( they won't smell it on others' breath.) And he suggests that you deny putting it in at all. 

 The whole thing is about 30 pages, complete with menus, music suggestions, and general hints ( Don't hire a serving person. Regardless of what the server says, guests will assume you actually paid them to do the cooking.)

Anyone who is looking for a good gift for a young and inexperienced cook might consider this one.  ABE has over 20 copies for under ten bucks each... 

Willie, that sounds worth checking out. I also can't believe we forgot MFK Fisher, and RUTH REICHL! Again, we are o'ermastered with an embarrassment of riches. I love the Lexington soiree idea. I'll bring my acclaimed Peckerwood Frittata-let's do it!

DPR, the SCA!? Why am I not surprised? I love that organization, and you know, I have just the gown for holding your lance, er...

Hey DPR, do your brownies have anything to do with another recent post?

We could go on all night about actual barbecue. Anybody see the movie BARBECUE IS A NOUN ?

Expat/ exiled  southerners are always tryng to cook things in NY the way they did at home- grits, oyster roasts, boiled peanuts, country ham... The Lee Brothers work this gig pretty hard.

And then there is John T Edge, one of the few professional southerners who still lives in the south ( Cf Roy Blount Jr., who lives in the Berkshires, I believe, but Roy is not strictly a food guy...)  

Willie,

Bite your tongue, sir!  My brownies do not need any such enhancements!

Olivia,

Alas, my dear, I never wielded a lance in the SCA.  I was a minstrel, not a fighter.  If we do meet in Lexington, I will recite for you my orignal, 200-line poem about the Battle of Hastings (takes about 15 minutes).

There is a reason Rachael Ray fans are referred to as Raytards.

I love the Food Network, but I am sometimes mystified by the people they select to host their programs.  In my dream kitchen, I would put Rachael Ray, Michael Chiarello, Giada De Laurentiis and Sandra Lee in a giant Cuisinart and hit purée.  These people aren't chefs, or even cooks; they are just marketing tools, not to mention tools in the more common sense.

And the biggest tool of them all is Rachael Ray.  She's the Paris Hilton of cooking - equally vacuous and lacking in talent.

Rachael Ray shills a multi-million dollar marketing campaign designed to raise brand awareness for Dunkin' Donuts.  Her grotesquely large face is all over TV as she cheerfully chirps nonsense about how Dunkin' Donuts can be a "healthful" addition to a balanced diet. 

Of course, this shouldn't be a surprise.  Cheap knives, bad food, pathetically under-tested cookbooks, crappy place settings - there is NOTHING she won't attach her ugly mug to. You can't even eat a Nabisco product without having to look at her.  Her face is on EVERY SIDE of a box of Saltines! And she would be on every side of the Triscuit box if it weren't for those pesky "nutrition facts" on one of the sides.   How inconsiderate of the government - don't they know that they are depriving us of the opportunity to see even more images of Rachael's face? Her phony persona is legendary.  She pretends that she's from Saratoga Springs, New York, when she isn't. She was born in Glens Falls (Saratoga's white trash neighbor), lived in Lake George, and she now has a house in Luzerne (another white trash neighbour of Saratoga Springs).

One food writer made a brilliant analysis of her whole E-V-O-O thing.  "That's what she actually calls it: "E-V-O-O, Extra Virgin Olive Oil". Note, I did NOT say she calls it "E-V-O-O." If she just stopped there, it would be merely stupid. But she goes all the way to the level of "taking the short bus to school" by using the acronym, and then spelling out what it means for us right after. WHY?!? What is the point of using an acronym if you are then going to say what it means right after it? Pick one or the other! I don't go around saying, "Yeah, I need some money from the ATM - automatic teller machine, but I can't remember my PIN - personal identification number, so I guess I can't check on the balance of my CD - certificate of deposit." I would sound like a retard, and thus, I guess be eligible for my own cooking show."

Her shameless self-promotion makes Oprah (the one who set the original standard for personal whoring) look introverted by comparison. She even has an Oprah-produced talk show now.  The crowd appears to be the same crowd from Emeril's show carted over to clap like circus seals for her. But for some reason, they only bring over the women. It's just as well since any guy in that audience either has been (or must instantly be) castrated. We have to keep the gene pool clean people!

Then there is her enormous mouth.  It is unreal. It literally stretches from one ear to the other. She looks like she could eat a banana sideways and still have room for pint of strawberries. Throw some yogurt in there, and she could make herself a smoothie without a mixer. If she ever wanted to dress up as a clown, it would take two tubes of lipstick to ring that giant wall of teeth she has.  Yet it obviously enjoys engulfing the culinary abortions she regularly produces.

Julia Child must be spinning in her grave.  That woman was a class act and a true professional.  In the course of her career, she was offered many opportunities to lend her name to products, and turned them all down.  You never saw her slapping her name on things for endorsements, no matter how much money she was offered.  She was proof that you can be a hugely (and financially) successful in your field and keep your credibility (not to mention dignity) without whoring yourself out as a shill.

Onc Doc,

At this point, Sigmund Freud would chime in, "You are obviously in love with her."

Dread,

Quite the contrary!  Given the impact of bad diet on the public health crisis in this nation, people like Ray, who will happily endorse bad eating, make my Top 10 hit list.  I would gladly serve her roasted with one of her beloved donuts stuffed in her mouth.  Bourdain would likely want a place at the table.

OD: Don't hold back, honey-tell us how you REALLY feel! You and DPR have me ROFLMAO, rolling on the floor laughing my arse off! But I do SO agree with you, as nutrition and proper care of the body, as in preventive medicine, is a soapbox of mine.

There is indeed a big difference between Ms Child and the lot of TV celeb chefs today. She was a wonderful, giddy, funny lady, and I loved to watch her. Dan Ackroyd's spoof of her on SNL was a hoot too, but the woman had class.

What a lovely day in the neighbourhood-thanks all!

Again, I'm reminded of the movie 'A Boy and His Dog'...why is that?

Or was it 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover'? Like an itch you can't scratch...

Not to mention "The Kitchen" a great play and movie by Arnold Wesker (I think). I also have a movie I can't quite remember the name, but Minnie Driver and the entire plot hinged on Louis Prima, of all people, coming to dinner. Help. I know it's late.

Just got back from the Sandwich (yes, that's really the name of the town) County Fair and glad to see you all are still cooking.  I passed on all the usual fairground delicacies such as "deep-fried twinkies", corn-dogs and elephant ears out of fear of being shunned by today's contributors.

So, like what do you guys think about Rachael Ray?

Peace out!

and let's not forget "Bella Martha"

Greetings:  Alas, I am late again.  Doc Nolan summed it right at the beginning of todays post concerning a commercial kitchen environment.  As I was moving around alot in my 20's and 30's and found work in lots of kitchens up and down the coast and in the Carribean.  In a production oriented kitchen (ie one that has lots of turnover ((tables)) food has to be produced quickly and consistantly,meal after meal, day after day.  Its hard work.  I once had a chef working for me that could really cook.  Everything she prepaired was delicious and had wonderful eye appeal.  The problem was she would make it a little different every time.  It was always great but never the same.  In a production kitchen/restaurant, this is a disaster.  MOST customers want the item to be the same every time-no surprises.

In every restaurant there are many "business" activities going on at the same time.  In the kitchen- Research and development, manufacturing and production, assembly.  In the dining room-retail sales and customer service, accounting and business management.  Also maintainence and repairs, inventory control, receiving.  The list goes on but I can't think clearly.  The weather channel is driving me crazy stories of three storms maybe coming my way.  I have spent the day getting ready to begin getting ready for storms. It's aggravating.  If you don't hear from me for a few days it's cause I'm busy dealing with this mess.

Anyway,  Alton Brown has a new show starting Sunday night called "Cooking on Waves" or something like that.  Its just like "Grilling on Asphalt" only it's Island oriented.  It should be great as it will show many of my old haunts. 

PeterLake, the movie you are thinking of is "Big Night" and I love it!  Other gorgeous food movies, Tortilla Soup and Chocolate.  And although I wasn't a huge fan of the movie, I did love the scene at the end in "No Reservations" where she has a jerk customer that keeps sending food back and she gives him 'rare'.

oops, it was Gia who asked about the movie, sorry.

My favorite cinematic food scene was Babette's Feast.

nachista,

"No Reservations" is the American version of "Bella Martha" / "Mostly Martha" and I too enjoyed her "rare" moment with the jerk customer.

My husbnad and I thoroughly enjoyed "Ratatouille", but my three year old niece was bored out of her skull.

I loved "Ratatouille", but far and away best food scene is in the old 'Like Water for Chocolate".  In fact almost any scene in that movie...pers favs are the rose petals and the matches.

Nachista,

You beat me to it.  I was just about to tell Gia it was The Big Night.  Great movie with great performances.  My daughter (just turned four) and I love watching Ratatouille together.  Wonderful, uplifting film about the art of food.

A lot of people didn't like No Reservations but I loved it and not just for that scene (though it's a beaut).  I haven't seen Mostly Martha so I can only critique the film on its own merits rather than those of its source material.  What the original undoubtedly didn't have that this movie does is a wonderful, positive, and spot-on portrait of Greenwich Village and the kind of obsessive focus on artistic creativity that makes that neighborhood what it is.  I also love the use of the operatic soundtrack as a reminder that opera (even more than food and, by extention, life) exists solely to be enjoyed.  I very much agree with Scott Holleran's review that this movie's target audience is "people who are inclined to relish the prospect of cooking dinner for an overextended mom".