Chef tricks

Chefs cook faster and more efficient than the rest of us–because they need to. Here, a few ideas gleaned from their expertise.

Pasta Postcards from San Francisco

22 August 2011

Anyone who’s tried to get in touch with me this year knows that it’s been a precarious task. What city am I in? What country am I in?  Where am I going next? There have been a few times that I’ve woken up and had to ask myself these questions. Being nomadic has its advantages. [...]

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Giving Poached Eggs Another Whirl

7 June 2011

Poaching an egg takes nerve. The first time I attempted it, I thought I was following all the rules: I had an egg and a pot of boiling water spiked with vinegar. But after sliding the egg into the water, I watched, horrified, as the whites dissolved in a web of veins, leaving the yolk [...]

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Fresh Pasta Primer: Tips on Making Dough

23 May 2011

Last week I talked about finessing a pasta recipe that had failed the first round of testing for the SPQR Cookbook. Then I received a nice comment from Patricia. She asked for tips on making better pasta dough. It’s a good question. Making pasta is as much about practice and feel for the dough as [...]

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Ramp Spaghetti: adventures in recipe testing

16 May 2011

Fresh pasta recipes are not easy to write. In cookbooks, they demand a lot of real estate. There needs to be explanation on how to mix the dough, how to roll the dough into silky sheets, how to cut the sheets into fettuccine or shape them into agnolotti. Even with all of that information spelled [...]

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Vie Cookbook: The Progress Report

18 January 2011

We’re nearly finished testing recipes for the Vie preserving cookbook. We’ve sampled pickles, jams, marmalade, sauerkraut, and sweet-sour condiments, like mostarda. Equally important to me was ensuring that these preserves fit into meals. They do, quite easily. It can be simple, brushing chicken with kumquat marmalade, for instance. Or more complicated, like glazing beef cheeks [...]

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Caramelized Cauliflower

29 November 2010

When cauliflower hits hot oil, it takes on a sweetness that is entirely at odds with its less-inspired boiled self. Instead of emitting a cabbage-like aroma, the cauliflower smells like popcorn. It tastes similarly addictive. It’s crispy. For me, cauliflower seared in a pan with plenty of olive oil has been nothing short of a [...]

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How to Clean a Leek

12 October 2010

When I sit down to write recipes, I often don’t know how far to take the instructions. For instance, is it enough to say “bell peppers, sliced,” and assume a reader will discard the stem and seeds, or do I need to write “bell peppers, cored, seeded, and sliced” to be absolutely clear? I typically [...]

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Trade Secrets

23 August 2010

Just yesterday, I fell down a path of indulgent nostalgia. I was digging through some old files  and pulled out a notebook filled with recipes, instructions, and general kitchen information that I had taken down when I was a line cook at Terra. It’s black and faded, with a few splatters of might have been [...]

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Bacon Beyond… Bacon? Curing beef, lamb, and goat bellies

18 August 2010

In the last few years, bacon has been just about everywhere. In BLTs, sure, but also in chocolate, in ice cream, and even set adrift atop martinis. But just as I thought we had eaten our fill, the market indicated otherwise: commodity prices for pork bellies–essentially, bacon in the raw—are up 57% compared with last [...]

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Mise en Place

16 June 2010

Anticipating a meal can be  floaty and flowery and nebulous. You know, that sort of Frances Mayes Under-the-Tuscan-Sun type of thing. But it also can come down to pure practicality. To put food together, you first have to prep. I’m an advocate of mise en place. It’s not a new idea, and I’m assuredly not [...]

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