Cooking tips, tricks, and advice from professional kitchens
Cooking Books and Magazines
30 Second Review: The Reach of a Chef Beyond the Kitchen by Michael Ruhlman
Aug 25th
30 Second Review: The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen by Michael Ruhlman
If you’re a fan of Anthony Bourdain, you will probably like Michael Ruhlman too. This book is a follow up to The Soul of a Chef/Making of a Chef, and in it Ruhlman revisits the people and places of his past. The other books aren’t prerequisites though.
I would say this book and Bourdain’s latest, Medium Raw, make good companions with similar topics and stories: chef branding and ever expanding empires, and the rise of celebrity chefs.
The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen is probably the closest many of us will get to being able to sit down with some of the CIAs chefs, Grant Achatz, and Thomas Keller and for that reason alone I think it’s worth a read.
Cooking podcasts for the visually impaired
May 30th
I’ve written about podcasts before, when I shared Crimes Against Food, but now I’d like to mention two niche specific audio programs that I think may appeal to a wider audience. I am visually impaired, and if I’m reading on paper for more than a few minutes suffer from intense eye strain. That said, I find Voiceprint to be a great resource. For those non-Canadians out there, Voiceprint is a ‘radio station’ staffed by volunteers that read various newspapers and magazines. It is available as a streaming audio broadcast, and as a S.A.P. broadcast on a few Canadian cable/satellite stations.
The two food related programs I check out regularly are:
Bon Appetit, which features general cooking articles, write ups about restaurants and chefs. Click here to visit the archives of past episodes.
Dining Out – From the website ‘Hear the latest trends in dining out. Discover the hot places. Listen to news and insider tips on where to eat well – and where to be seen.‘ Visit the Dining Out archives to download previous episodes.
Iron Chef UK – Irredeemably awful
May 2nd
Iron Chef UK takes the familiar Iron Chef formula, replaces the head on head aspect with a team, makes the competition a week long, and adds a £1000 prize for the winning chef. What Iron Chef UK doesn’t do is make any of this entertaining.
4 challengers compete against a chairman-chosen Iron Chef, either Martin Blunos, Judy Joo, Sanjay Dwivedi and Tom Aikens. On the ‘Friday Final’, the weeks top contestants face off against the week’s top Chefs. Each team member cooks up one component of the meal, whereas the Iron Chef and his crew cook up four.
The host Olly Smith is irritating, and his puns are terrible. They were delivered with such sincerity that it pained me. His lines are all delivered with the tone of comedian David Mitchell doing his ‘Football’ skit. David Mitchell is far more entertaining than Iron Chef UK, so here’s the skit:
The Japanese Iron Chef had a great thing going with the story at the beginning of each episode. Sure, it may have been a load of scripted crap, but it was an entertaining narrative for those of us that tuned into Iron Chef weekly. This UK spin off does away with it completely, and worst of all does away with the challenger choosing which Iron Chef they want to compete against.
The host irritatingly darts around and interviews each competitor and banters with the other commentator on camera, taking the focus away from the food.
And on this first episode, the secret ingredient is … beef? Really?
It’s still not as bad as Chef VS City, and I’d rather watch Mario Batali sweat into his food whilst wearing silly shoes and shorts.
Iron Chef UK can be seen on the UK’s Channel 4.
The Herb Companion Magazine
Mar 1st
I just got a chance to take a look at an issue of The Herb Companion. No, it’s not the sister publication to High Times. The Herb Companion is a magazine about cooking with, growing, and the (alleged) medicinal benefits of herbs. If you saw my posts a few months ago about the Aerogarden, you may have gathered that I have a thing for fresh herbs.
Half of the publication seems to be comprised of ads for natural remedies and herb growing videos/kits/seeds. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if those products target you. but I quickly flipped by them. A good portion of the articles in the magazine were dedicated to growing medicinal herbs, and in the January 2010 issue, there was a great writeup on planning a low-water garden – their monthly “Design Challenge”/”Garden Spaces” would help those like me who are completely oblivious as to how best to optimize garden space.
The food related articles were really where my interest in The Herb Companion lay. The January issue had a writeup on Chai Tea (a happy coincidence considering one of the latest Culinary Tips posts), herb infusions, and herb butters. Basic techniques, yes, but the articles were clear, well written pieces with easy to follow instructions.
I enjoyed flipping through The Herb Companion. It is very heavy on herbal healing and gardening, with a dusting of food/cooking articles, but it was nice to let my mind wander to non-food related places for a while. Maybe I’ll even plan a ‘Exotic Herb Spa Day’ myself – might take a few more issues though. If you’re not up for a subscription, request it at your local library. It’s a tough time for paper publications these days, and even though a lot of information is available online, magazines provide professionally written, well researched articles, so support your oldschool pulp and paper media.
Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets on BBC2
Feb 28th
Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets is a cookery program which premiered February 15 2010 and airs on BBC2 in the UK. The show features Michelin Starred chef Raymond Blanc showing off some of his favorite recipes relating to the episode’s given theme.
The premiere episode, Chocolate, featured four tantalizing recipes: simple mousse, chocolate delice, chocolate and caramel fondant, and a really neat cafe creme in an edible chocolate cup and saucer.
Now, I must say the show was quite ‘cheffy’. This isn’t Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meals. Raymond Blanc doesn’t talk down to his viewers, expecting a certain level of ability to listen to instructions and repeat them. The show was also filmed in his Oxfordshire restaurant kitchen, not a studio, which is a nice change for a food program.
If you watch carefully, and appreciate kitchen torment, you’ll get a few laughs as chef Blanc scolds his sous chef (or commis?) Adam.
This show is definitely worth watching if you’re interested in professional cooking tips – there is a lot to learn from this program, and I’ll definitely be following it.
Update: Raymond Blanc’s website RaymondBlanc.com has the recipes for the show in PDF format. Currently up are: Chocolate Mousse , Délice de Chocolat, Chocolate Fondant with Salty Caramel, Café Creme, Fillet of Mackerel with Fennel & Rocket Salad and a Soy & Lime Dressing, Fillet of Pollock Grenobloise with Pommes Purées
, and Braised Fillet of Turbot with Scallops and Cucumber . Fish Soup, and Braised Fillet of Turbot with Scallops and Cucumber.
Martha Stewart Hors d’oeuvres Handbook.
Dec 3rd
I love the Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook. Whatever you may think about Martha Stewart as a person, you’re probably right, but her brand is excellent. I have a few Martha books, and I’ve found all the recipes well tested with good descriptions and not overloaded with crazy ingredients (meyer lemons, or certain weird types of specialty cheeses…). Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook is no exception.
The first quarter of the book is all glossy photos, some of which have aged better than others (the book is from 1999 and plays up crudites with spreads piped onto them), but 95%+ of the recipes and ideas are still relevant today. The other three quarters is all the recipes with the usual amount of detail and instruction. What I found made this book far and away the best hors d’oeuvre book I’ve found to date is the sheer scope. For each idea, for example stuffed boiled eggs or mini pizzas, there are numerous variations on the theme. There is also a large section at the beginning devoted to the building blocks of canapes which is helpful if you want to mix and match ideas from various places in the book. There aren’t too many sweet canpes, but they are quite rare to find anywhere. There are also a few pages dedicated to theme parties such as cheese night or Spanish tapas which can help with party planning.
If you’re looking for one book about canapes and hors d’oeuvres to buy this entertaining season, make it the Martha Stewart Hors D’oeurvre Handbook.
