The Chef at 15
Flynn McGarry designs eight-course tasting menus and interns in three-star kitchens. Now he wants to open the best restaurant in the world.
The Chef at 15
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The Chef at 15
I love all the new, exciting foods coming out of Iowa and our country overall. Amazing time to have a love affair with American food and the natural, healthy, organic American food business.
Some Prosciutto Fans Turn to Iowa
NORWALK, Iowa — The decision came down to this: Would people buy prosciutto from a guy named Herb from Iowa?
“It was a crazy idea, but we didn’t think it was a stupid idea,” says Herb Eckhouse, the Herb from Iowa who spent some anxious years weighing that question. Racks of raw pork rolling into the refrigerated chambers around him suggest the answer.
It is Wednesday, salting day, so Mr. Eckhouse is preoccupied with the central task of making his prosciutto: coating the carefully trimmed hind leg of a pig with sea salt. “This is kind of the key time, so we want to make sure it’s done right,” he says. READ MORE
Awhile back I posted another New York Times article about Carl Edgar Blake and his award-winning Iowan Swabian Hall Pig. He also showed up on the Colbert Report with a couple of his little piglets. Stephen Colbert holds a piglet and eats prosciutto at the same time!
This is a fascinating little piece in Eater about how restaurant critics go about trying to get a REAL interpretation of the food and service at a restaurant. It’s quite difficult when they know who you are!!
New York Times Critic, Pete Wells, Drops DANIEL to 3 Stars, Uses Decoy
In this week’s review, New York Times critic Pete Wells took a star away from chef Daniel Boulud’s 20 year old flagship restaurant, Daniel. (The last time Daniel was reviewed by the Times it got four stars from Frank Bruni back in 2009.) In his review, Wells finds fault with both the food and the service at the long-time four star restaurant. In a sneaky move, Wells — who’s not exactly anonymous — used a decoy. He dined 15 minutes apart from one of his more anonymous colleagues and compared his experience to that of a standard diner. His findings were informative. READ MORE
Paella Contest
Love this!!!!!!
Westport, Mass. — It all began innocently enough. “Valerie and her sister make the best paella ever,” my friend Ihsan Gurdal said. Even though Ihsan happens to be Valerie’s husband, no one who had ever tasted her paella had any reason to doubt him.
But our mutual friend (and my frequent collaborator) Chris Schlesinger was listening. And Chris has a well-demonstrated knack for turning what might be considered work into fun, very often by making it into a competition. READ MORE
By John Willoughby at the New York Times
Paella Contest
Love this!!!!!!
Westport, Mass. — It all began innocently enough. “Valerie and her sister make the best paella ever,” my friend Ihsan Gurdal said. Even though Ihsan happens to be Valerie’s husband, no one who had ever tasted her paella had any reason to doubt him.
But our mutual friend (and my frequent collaborator) Chris Schlesinger was listening. And Chris has a well-demonstrated knack for turning what might be considered work into fun, very often by making it into a competition. READ MORE
By John Willoughby at the New York Times
Fascinating little story in the NYTimes today about a boatload of wine that the owners’ can’t get their hands on after Hurricane Sandy.
More Than a Flooded Cellar. A Vintage Mystery.
Via New York Times By: Charles V. Bagli
WineCare marketed itself as a high-security cellar that stores, catalogs and cares for 27,000 cases of wine in the basement of a Manhattan warehouse, charging substantial fees to safeguard collections worth tens of millions of dollars.
But there was one problem: the cellar was just 100 yards from the Hudson River. And when Hurricane Sandy struck, the water came rushing in. READ MORE
Loving these little bits they have on summer concoctions!! Check it out.
Gin, Tonic and a Dash of Restraint
Sipping a good gin and tonic is like finding a 20th-century oxford shirt in the closet and realizing that you can still wear it downtown tonight without looking out of step with the century we’re stuck in.
Gulp
A week or so ago I posted an article by Mary Roach called the Marvels In Your Mouth about her trip to the Restaurant of the Future in Food Valley and how the mouth processes food. Well now she’s clearly on a press tour for her book Gulp and showed up on the Daily Show with John Stewart. Check it out - lots of discussion about cylindrical objects and how they work well for the body.
The Best Pig?
I posted a New York Times article a week or so ago about Carl Edgar Blake and his quest to make the perfect pig. He matched a Russian wild boar with a Chinese pig that he had read about on the interwebs - in 1821 King Wilhelm from Germany bred these two pigs and started winning contests with what was called a Swabian Hall pig. Now Carl is winning awards all over the country with his Iowan Swabian Hall pig.
Stephen Colbert holds an Iowan Swabian Hall piglet while eating prosciutto. Hysterical.
Gulp
A week or so ago I posted an article by Mary Roach called the Marvels In Your Mouth about her trip to the Restaurant of the Future in Food Valley and how the mouth processes food. Well now she’s clearly on a press tour for her book Gulp and showed up on the Daily Show with John Stewart. Check it out - lots of discussion about cylindrical objects and how they work well for the body.
(Source: http://media.mtvnservices.com/)
The Marvels in Your Mouth by Mary Roach
I love finding these random little articles about the process of eating. Maybe you will too. This article in the New York Times is all about the research being done at the Restaurant of the Future in Food Valley in Wageningen in the Netherlands where “15,000 scientists are dedicated to improving the quality of our meals.” READ MORE