January 2008 Archive

January 31, 2008

Guimauve à la Rose et au Chocolat

[Rose and Chocolate Marshmallows] Guimauve is the stuff clouds are made of, it has the soft and cottony flavor of childhood, and resistance is futile when I spot the pretty pastel cubes in pastry shops. Rarely am I disappointed, but I do have to mention that one recent time when I bought an assortment from Pain de Sucre and got mostly weirdo f...

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January 25, 2008

Notes from the Molecular Gastronomy Conference

Earlier this week, I attended a two-day conference on molecular gastronomy -- sometimes refered to as the "science of deliciousness" -- and the relationship between technique, technology, and science. It was a free and public session, organized by the INRA, the French institute for agricultural research, and the engineering school AgroParisTech....

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January 18, 2008

Mignardises

While I busy myself drawing up the index of my upcoming Paris book -- a task that is in fact more rewarding that one might think, in a punctilious sort of way -- here are a few links for you to nibble on*. ~ Christophe Michalak, pastry chef at the Plaza Athénée and winner of the 2005 World Pastry Championship has a blog! It's in French, yes, but...

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January 15, 2008

Crumiri

[Italian Cornmeal Cookies] We all have our siren ingredients, those that call to us in voices of sugar from the printed page of a cookbook -- or the pixelated page of a food blog -- and charm us into dropping whatever we're doing to run to the kitchen and reenact the recipe. Cornmeal is one of my sirens, and I find it particularly beguiling in ...

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January 11, 2008

If There Could Only Be Five

If you keep an eye on my book list, you may have noticed I am currently reading Michael Ruhlman's recently published, orange book*. In The Elements of Cooking, he proposes to break down and discuss the building blocks of the cooking craft, like William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White did for writers in their classic little volume The Elements of Style, t...

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January 8, 2008

Soupe Poireaux Pommes de Terre

[Leek and Potato Soup] It has been far too long since last I wrote about soup. Have I stopped making soup? This is like asking if I've stopped breathing, and the answer -- as I type this, at least -- is no. The reason for this soup drought is that I've mostly been making variations of soups already featured on this blog, or über-simple combina...

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