Food Books
The latest food books and food buzz!
The Doughnut Factor and Olive Kitteridge
By Marsha Fottler. In Elizabeth Strout’s 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning novel called Olive Kitteridge and composed of 13 interrelated short stories, the words ‘doughnut’ or ‘Dunkin Donuts’ are used no fewer than 35 times in this book of 270 pages (paperback edition). The doughnut references begin on page 67 and continue to drop enticing crumbs […]
Gardening as a Contact Sport
By Herb Gardener. My neighbor’s domesticated rabbits, sprung from their hutch and loose in my yard, bounded for the parsley. Like a pair of animated bedroom slippers these impossibly cute critters transformed into terrorists threatening my container garden’s herbal order. The accidental invasion proved surprisingly upsetting. I thought of the incident as I read “The […]
A Yummy Mystery
By Marsha Fottler. I’m reading every one of Diane Mott Davidson’s books because for a food writer there is nothing more agreeable than climbing into bed on a rainy night with a beverage and a dish of trail mix and reading an absorbing mystery, unless that mystery book also includes recipes you want to get […]
Great Gift for Grill-Loving Dad
By Herb Gardener. My first encounter with grill guru Steven Raichlen came one Saturday afternoon several years ago when I caught an episode of his Public Broadcasting Service TV program, BBQ University(r). A dry rubbed pork loin wrapped in bacon, basted with a viscous butter, bourbon, mustard and brown sugar glaze, emerged from his grill […]
Armchair Cooks Will Love It
By Anna Dantoni. Correspondent For the dad who would rather read about cooks than be one, you can’t do better than Michael Symons’s well illustrated and somewhat scholarly paperback book called “A History of Cooks and Cooking,” (University of Illinois Press.) It’s a neat piece of culinary historical reporting that turns up all sorts of […]
Brunch is Back
By Marsha Fottler – When I ask chefs what is their favorite meal to prepare for themselves and family, they most often answer breakfast. Simple fresh ingredients, uncomplicated recipes, great color and it’s all comfort food. And who doesn’t appreciate a big leisurely breakfast with both sweet and savory selections. When I ask chefs about […]
Flavors Inspire Harmony at a Quarrelsome Table
By Marsha Fottler – In preparation for an upcoming trip to Israel that will focus on ways that social harmony might be achieved through a celebration of the many wonderful elements that make up the food culture of the region, I’ve been reading the illuminating and optimistic cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. […]
Food and Kitchen Trends – What’s Hot and What’s Not
By Marsha Fottler – It’s a new year and tastes change. Nowhere is that more evident than in the world of food – supermarket shelves, cookbooks, restaurants, your dinner table and your kitchen. Everything, everybody and everywhere gets affected by the fickleness of taste buds, by rising food costs and by what celebrity chefs have […]
The re-branding of dining
Recently, I received a notice about a culinary conference in Sweden that was judiciously tracing the history of culinary trends, 1950 to present to 50 years hence. And yet, while Americans’ dining trends may be quite different than Nordic diets, there is some valuable, overlapping practices. Diners, everywhere, are all but demanding to be more […]