huître au « miso »
miso-cured oyster
My history with oysters is rather brief. By the time I was 35, in the mid‑1980s, I had had just a few encounters. All with cooked oysters. All in the South. My first encounter was Oysters Bienville and Oysters Rockefeller at the lobby bar of the Hotel Saint Louis in New Orleans. My boss, the host of the evening although the bill probably wound up on my expense account so he could sign off on it without oversight from above, did the ordering. more »
tarte chocolat-noix de pécan
chocolate-pecan tart
Sometimes a new dish lays at the end of a single line of thought and other times it’s at the intersection of many. In the case of tarte chocolat‑noix de pécan, the lines of thought converged without quite crossing. One of the standard items on the mignardises plate at La Folie in San Francisco is a sort of soft, crunchy, chocolate‑toffee base with an equally thick layer of ganache on the top. more »
choucroute d’oignons
fermented onions
I wonder what went through the heads of a mid‑18th‑century, Bavarian nobleman’s children when they recited their catechism and came to the parts about sauerkraut, or what went through the minds of British sailors later in the century when they were told that they would eat sauerkraut to help combat scurvy. more »
salade des échalotes et fraises
shallot-strawberry salad
Other than maybe when I was a teenager and eagerly followed the misadventures of Little Annie Fanny, I’ve never been a fan of comic books or graphic novels. Likewise, I’ve never liked Australian aboriginal art or certain works by Jackson Pollack. What’s my problem? I like white space. White space is sometimes referred to as negative space, a term I don’t like because it sounds so … negative. more »
biscuits d’anis
anise cookies
As a cooking teacher “for hire,” I now find myself often teaching someone else’s recipes or curriculum rather than my own. When I started at the cookware store years ago, the classes I taught were based on my recipes. In these classes I could choose recipes that allowed me to sneak in lots of technique. more »
