Where Have All The Good Cooks Gone?
From the minute I walked into my first professional kitchen, I knew I was meant to be there. I loved everything about it. The pace, the intensity, all the insane foods that I’d only read about and the impossibly high standards set by a larger than life Parisian-born Chef. You did not question his methods, […]
Would You Like to See my Cleaver Collection?
We’re a peculiar lot. Professional cooks often have quirks and idiosyncrasies that most rational people would find perhaps, circumspect. Yet we earn those quirks sincerely. It comes with our territory. Long hours in a brutal environment, late night trips to the emergency room and looking at all those tattoos and piercings can make anyone a […]
A Rover for Rover
Christchurch, New Zealand Three dogs in New Zealand are being taught to drive in an effort to show how intelligent they are. The dogs were all rescued from a New Zealand animal shelter and have gone through a methodical eight-week training program that has enabled them to cautiously navigate a purpose built course in a […]
Thankful
For my beautiful wife of 25 years. For my two kids, even though they’re both presently teenagers and at times bear more resemblance to the Martian visitors in Mars Attacks! Both of them have the ability to be kind, understanding, courteous and thankful–just not on the same day. For my extended family. For my many […]
Breakfast Anyone?
Breakfast. I love cooking breakfast. Muffins, pancakes, waffles with Vermont maple syrup, quiches, yogurt and fresh fruit parfaits, freshly squeezed orange and apple juice, fruit smoothies, bacon and eggs, buttermilk biscuits, scrambled eggs with cheese and herbs; I could keep going but I think you get the idea. My kids used to happily sit […]
Coffee Cans and Bacon Fat
Paul Fehribach isn’t interested in coffee that comes in a can but he certainly knows how to use a coffee can. At Big Jones, his bustling Chicago homage to traditional Southern cuisine, he is recreating the type of homestead cooking that his great-grandmother pioneered at her family farmstead along the Buffalo Trace. “She used to […]
A Tour of Benton’s Smoky Mountain Ham
We spent this past weekend in Chattanooga, TN visiting a very good friend of Amy’s and on the way back we stopped at Benton’s Country Ham in Madisonville, TN. Benton’s is perhaps the most famous, most sought after bacon and country ham producer in the United States. Their pork is featured at the finest and […]