As this weekend's weather proves, things are already starting to get unbearably hot. With the summer season come roughly 1,000 reading lists, including several focused on cookbooks.According to both NPR and the New York Time's list, the majority of cookbooks this summer will focus on basics, comfort food and growing your own food. Gone are the hedonistic days of celebrity chefs and expensive ingredients. Bang for your buck is in.Take Preserved, which focuses on the old-fashioned art of preserves
So 2008 you've been fun. We've had good times. But now you're leaving and there's some of the worst of 2008 to kick to the curb with you. The words "delish" and "foodie": I have a visceral nails-on-a-chalkboard reaction to these words. Delish is a cop-out. If something is truly delicious, show some proper gratitude and take the time to say the entire word. It's not fair for some chef to spend four hours making one dish but you can't be bothered to say the last syllable. Not going through the eff
The right anterior cerebral hemisphere, probably thinking about foie gras or something else delicious. Unless you're a neurosurgeon, chances are you don't mention the right anterior cerebral hemisphere very much in daily conversation. Yet, if you love food, especially fine food, that part of the brain holds the key. This according to two scientists from a university hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, who completed a paper showing people who suffer lesions in this part of the brain become obse
Flickr: FuzuokoThere are a couple easy ways to get a food-industry worker's blood boiling. The easiest is to talk about stingy tippers. The second, nearly as effective route, is to casually mention that Rachael Ray is a great chef. What Billy Joel is to other musicians, what Dane Cook is to other comedians, Rachel Ray is to real chefs.
Just last week, I was semi-defending Rachael Ray against the charges of being Rachael Ray. This week, a press release inadvertently caused me to check out her magazine-cum-Web site Every Day With Rachael Ray.It has an extensive section called "Mapped Out," which features the "tastiest spots" in 40 states and 100-plus cities -- including such thriving metropolises as Bisbee, Oskaloosa and Berea (populations approximately 6,000, 10,000 and 9,500, respectively). Just try naming the states they're i
FlickrL Rakka
Ever since Julia Child began cooking in front of TV cameras in 1962, the American public has developed a hearty appetite -- almost insatiable, in fact -- for celebrity chefs. Graham Kerr, the Frugal Gourmet, Lidia Bastianich, Rachael Ray...over the last four decades, TV chefs have become a cottage industry.
But in this excellent piece , "TV Cooking Versus Real Cooking," by New York Times food blogger Mark Bitten proves that in the world of TV cooks, sometimes there's less tha
While fame seemed to come accidentally to Julia Child and Jeff Smith, today's celebrity chefs court it relentlessly which is why I distrust most of them. The magazine Smart Money does too, and has put together a list of things these star "chefs" don't want you to know.Many of these personalities are not in fact chefs. Rachael Ray makes no bones about this but neither is Nigella Lawson, Paula Deen or Dave Lieberman.Instead, many personalities are chosen based on their sex-appeal. This isn't a sur
