PopSugar

Do You Know M.F.K Fisher?

partysugar — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:50:16 -0700

On today's date, June 22 in 1992, prolific food writer M.F.K Fisher died. While Fisher was a well-respected figure in the food industry, I don't know much about her. To learn more about her work and life, I thought it would be fun to put together a quiz that celebrates the author who enjoyed and practiced the art of simple eating.

How well do you know her? Find out now and take the quiz!

Source

Take the quiz

Guess Who?

partysugar — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:15:49 -0700

Can you guess which fashionable foodie was at the CDFA awards on Monday night?

Guess Who?

partysugar — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 07:00:44 -0700

Guess which celebrity chef got dressed up to attend the Gracie Awards in New York City?

Is There a Difference Between Male and Female Cooking?

partysugar — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:15:04 -0700

Food blog Eater recently featured an upcoming course at New York City's Astor Center. The class (which is really more of a social experiment) will examine the myths of gender in the restaurant kitchen. During the event, 10 chefs‚ including Alex Guarnaschelli and Johnny Iuzzini, will cook a five-course meal to be blind taste-tested by Grant Achatz and Gwen Hyman. The judges will try and discern which dishes are made by a man and which ones are made by a woman. While I find the concept behind the class fascinating and am curious to see the final results, I doubt there will be a notable difference between the way a male and female cook. What do you think?

Source

Traci Des Jardins on Being a More Savvy Home Cook

partysugar — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:15:59 -0700

I had the chance to speak with one of San Francisco's most prominent female chefs, Traci Des Jardins. You may be familiar with her, thanks to an appearance on the Food Network's Next Iron Chef competition. Now Des Jardins is happy to be out of the spotlight, "I don't like being that recognizable," and back in the kitchen. Her elegant eatery, Jardiniere, recently launched a Monday night themed price-fixe dinner and she's working on a signature restaurant at Tahoe's NorthStar resort, which will be mountainesque with a casual feel (think wood tables), great service, and sophisticated food.

Des Jardins believes the key to restaurant success during a tough economy is to "control costs and be really financially savvy." We talked about how this concept can translate to the everyday kitchen. To find out what she had to say and check out her advice for being a better home cook, read more.

According to Des Jardins, being a clever cook is not about having the latest gadgets. It's about properly stocking your kitchen with the components to make a meal. Items she recommends having on hand are salt, olive oil, capers, anchovies, and tomato sauce. Here are her tips for being a more practical home chef:

Go to smaller farmers markets and speak with the farmers. You don't always have to purchase organic to get fruit and vegetables that are pesticide free.
Go to the farmers market when it's closing down. You'll see more deals that way. None of the farmers want to carry their produce home with them, so they may be willing to bargain or cut costs.
Select lesser cuts of meat and consume less meat. In general, vegetarian cooking is cheaper.
Cook your kids' favorite foods in batches and freeze them.
Skip the boxed macaroni and cheese and Stove Top stuffing and stock your pantry instead, with the fixings for burritos (tortillas, canned beans, rice) and pasta.
Fill your freezer with ingredients that can be used to make quick meals like frozen peas and fresh bread.
If you are going to splurge on one cooking item, make it olive oil. Since it's the foundation of so many dishes, purchase a high-quality oil that will enhance and enrich the overall flavor of the dish.

What do you think of Des Jardins's tips?

Source

For Female Chefs, the Kitchen Still Feels Like a Man's World

YumSugar — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:30:12 -0800

With female personalities like Padma Lakshmi, Giada De Laurentiis, and Cat Cora in the media spotlight, one would think that sexism in the kitchen is a non-issue. However, a provocative article in Time Out magazine argues that even if sex discrimination isn't overt, it's still prevalent. While "Mad Men-style ass-pinching" is no longer de rigueur, Rebecca Flint Marx points out that sex discrimination is clear when you notice (or don't) the amount of recognition that women chefs receive in comparison to their male counterparts.

Only 10 percent of the nation's executive chefs are female, and men vastly outnumber women when it comes to receiving accolades, such as a nomination for Food & Wine's Best New Chef, or a James Beard Foundation Award.

Donatella Arpaia attributes the disparity in the kitchen to women not getting enough publicity. Others blame it on the fact that women tend to work for smaller restaurant groups. Prominent female chefs have certainly complained of getting "passed over and not let into the club."

Yet, many in the industry remain hopeful: In recent years, women have gained ground in sommelier and maître d' positions and resources such as the New York Women's Culinary Alliance and Women Chefs and Restaurateurs exist to promote the advancement of women in the food industry.

Are you surprised to learn that women are still hitting a glass ceiling in a place as merit-based as the kitchen?

Source

This Year's Best Food Reality Contestant

YumSugar — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:00:32 -0800

In our Best of 2008 coverage, we asked you who your favorite cheftestant was this year. Between Top Chef, Next Food Network Star, and Hell's Kitchen, there was plenty of heat in the kitchen, but the results were clear: Stephanie Izard, the winner of Top Chef 4, won 29 percent of the vote! Yum is right with you: Stephanie was our favorite this year, too.

From the start, we loved Stephanie for being a great chef who kept it real. Despite her modesty, as the show progressed, she blew us away with her stunning dishes. We were thrilled when she became Top Chef's first ever female winner!

What are your reasons for loving her?

Source

Biggest Headline of 2008: Top Chef's First Female Winner

partysugar — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:35:38 -0800

Since its debut in March 2006, the culinary reality competition Top Chef has taken the food industry by storm. It's widely respected as an informative and exciting television program. This year the fourth season really made headlines when the first female cheftestant, Stephanie Izard, was crowned Top Chef.

She blew the competitors away with her composure and culinary expertise. We knew Stephanie was a force to be reckoned with after the first episode. We had the pleasure of speaking with her before the competition and learned that although Izard was from Chicago, where the show was filmed, she didn't have an advantage. We admired her straightforward approach, nice girl persona, and get-the-job-done mentality. We even wanted to jump into our screens and devour her bite-sized banana bread. Obviously we weren't the only ones who enjoyed Izard: In the reunion special, she was declared the fan favorite.

After she was named Top Chef, Stephanie explained why she won, "I don’t have a big ego, and I have a way of earning the respect of my peers and my employees without screaming. Being a perfectionist, it’s my detriment that I’m just never happy with anything. But I'm always pushing myself to get better and better."

The chef is currently working on her next project: a gastropub-style restaurant set to launch next Spring in Chicago. Only time will tell if this establishment, which will have an open kitchen and her Top Chef friends as guest chefs, makes headlines in 2009.

Source

Getting to Know Anne Burrell

partysugar — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:00:08 -0700

Let me introduce you to Anne Burrell. Anne's a multi-tasker with many roles in the food industry. First and foremost, she's the executive chef of a restaurant, Centro Vinoteca, in New York City. She works at the restaurant six days a week and isn't much of a home cook. In her downtime Anne competes as Mario Batali's sous chef on Iron Chef America. However, her latest role is as a hostess of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, a new show on Food Network. This Sunday (at 9:30 a.m.) Anne's coming to a kitchen near you and she's teaching you how to cook like she does in her Centro Vinoteca. Earlier this week I chatted with the former Culinary Institute of America instructor, to see what she had to say, read more.

PartySugar: With your show, what are you hoping to teach the American people?
Anne Burrell: I want to help people understand that they can do restaurant food at home. I want to take the fear factor out of cooking. Cooking is such a daunting task to a lot of people and it doesn't have to be. It's not really rocket science. Once you know the techniques, like how to understand high heat, you can do it. When you cook, you have to be entirely comfortable. Cooking is like a dog when you're nervous, it knows your nervous. A lot of people think that cooking is genetic, and they say, oh I cook because my mom cooked. But cooking isn't genetic, you have to learn how to do it first before it becomes common sense. In the restaurant, we are always looking for ways to maximize flavor and minimize effort and that's what I'm going to teach you to do.
PS: Tell me about working with Mario Batali on Iron Chef.
AB: Well this season we are not doing it, due to conflicts in Mario's schedule during filming, but we are still very much a viable team. Being on Iron Chef is every bit as stressful as it seems. I just do my best and tell myself, I'm not going to be the reason Mario loses.

PS: What's your advice to the every day, home cook?
AB: My advice, sadly it doesn't seem that exciting, is to read the recipe! Read the recipe from start to finish before you begin to cook. When I was learning how to cook, I never wanted to read the recipe, but now I see how important it is because you can start doing what I call "crap detecting" where you filter out steps. Basically, you modify the recipe to get rid of the crap. Sometimes you'll read a recipe that says, saute the onions in one pan and the mushrooms in another and later you will combine the two in the same pan, so why not eliminate those first steps? Saute them both in the same pan, and save time while making the dish more flavorful.

PS: What's your favorite kitchen tip?
AB: Use salt! Generously use salt. Taste everything as you go along. Really sitting and tasting the food is something the home cook is reluctant to do. Food should taste good, you have to control that quality.

PS: What did you have for lunch today?
AB: I had a turkey sandwich on rye toast with mayo, lettuce, and potato chips. I always put potato chips in my sandwiches because I like that crunch.

Now that you know a little bit more about Anne, will you watch her show?

Source

2007's Favorite Female-Celebrity Chef Is...

partysugar — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 03:01:38 -0800

As part of our Best of 2007 coverage we asked you who your favorite female-celebrity chef was. Many of you had very strong feelings for or against Rachael Ray and Sandra Lee, but in the end Giada De Laurentiis was your favorite female chef.

While we have nothing but love for Giada, our favorite female-celebrity chef this year was Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa. Her recipes continue to be delicious, simple, and stunning. Her long-lasting love for her husband is inspirational. Plus, we got the chance to speak with her earlier this year. She gave us some wonderful tips and we learned first hand how fabulous she really is.

Source