For a guy whose life was wrapped in the fiction of bachelorhood and whose death proved so deeply lonely, Craig Claiborne managed to father a hell of a lot of children. Not actual kids (Claiborne was gay, at a time when a whole generation of unmarried homosexual men were winkingly tagged “bachelors”), but—as Thomas McNamee shows in his absorbing bio, The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat—as New York Times food editor, writer, and restaurant critic for a couple of decades starting in the 1950s. Claiborne, who died in 2000, had enormous influence. He still does—even if nobody reads him anymore.
As McNamee shows, Claiborne managed to create the template for food writers that survives today: applying the rules of journalism—objectivity, transparency, professionalism—not only to trend pieces and chef profiles, but also to recipe writing, even restaurant criticism (Claiborne pioneered the anonymous review, and introduced the star rating system to the U.S.). More important than all of that, though, was Claiborne’s knack (under Times managing editor Arthur Gelb) for attaching food and cooking to the notion of “lifestyle.” Whether you actually roasted that baby goat—in your Scarsdale backyard—the way Claiborne described seeing it done in New Mexico, you aspired to. READ MORE
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on Friday, June 29th, 2012
Somebody mentions Beaujolais and you might think of that pink juice-box stuff that hits the market every year at Thanksgiving. But that’s Beaujolais Nouveau, which is to regular Beaujolais what Charlie’s Angels the movie is to Charlie’s Angels the TV series: uninspired, ultimately forgettable, the $4.99 DVD in the supermarket clearance bin.
The good kind of Beaujolais comes from the southern end of France’s Burgundy region, and the fanciest ones are from the 10 so-called Cru Beaujolais. They’re made from mostly Gamay grapes grown on different geographic patches (Brouilly, Morgon, Fleurie, and so on), each with slightly different soils. The youngest of those areas—named in 1988, birth year for both Rihanna and the guy who played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies—is called Régnié. And to make a long story short, this is the wine I lost my heart to last weekend. READ MORE
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on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012
Before summer technically even began, I had conflicted feelings about my liquid propane grill. It’s handy, but only an imperfect substitute for high-temperature grilling over real charcoal. READ MORE
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on Friday, June 22nd, 2012
CHOW is excited to announce our first-ever Pinterest sweepstakes! We're giving away a $100 Visa gift card and three $50 gift cards to four lucky winners. We want to see your dream barbecue including food, decorations, guests, and more! Just be sure to include five of your favorite CHOW recipes and follow the instructions on the graphic below to enter. Don't forget to read the official rules, share the contest with your friends, and have fun!
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to legal residents of the U.S., 18 & older, and a Registered User of Pinterest and Facebook or Twitter. Void where prohibited. Ends 7/13/12. See rules at http://www.chow.com/pinterest-bbq-contest-rules.
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on Friday, June 22nd, 2012
Grilled fruit is great for
making desserts and serving alongside
main dishes at barbecues, but we never thought about using it in cocktails until we spotted the trend popping up on menus at restaurants like Austin's
La Condesa. The CHOW Test Kitchen took three classic fruit-based cocktails and made them with grilled fruit for an added layer of complexity. These recipes are batched to serve a bunch of friends, so before you throw the burgers or chicken on the grates, grill a few cocktails to kick off your summertime party.
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on Thursday, June 21st, 2012
One thing California is not these days is laid-back. The foie gras ban that legislators passed in 2004 takes effect on July 1, and for the past few months activists on both sides have unleashed an endless summer of strife on the Golden State. Is force-feeding ducks (a process called gavage) to produce the swollen livers elevated as foie gras an act of animal cruelty? Or are ducks genetically programmed to gorge? Vegan picket lines, chefs packing heat: It hasn't been pretty.
One strong piece of evidence to suggest that American foie gras is humane: Sarah DiGregorio’s 2009 Village Voice article “Live and Let Liver” (online it's titled “Is Foie Gras Torture?”). DiGregorio was a staff writer and restaurant critic at the Voice; she described a five-hour visit to Hudson Valley Foie Gras in Ferndale, New York, where she'd gone to see for herself if the production process looked anything like cruelty. It’s a beautifully straightforward piece of journalism that became a finalist for both James Beard and IACP awards. READ MORE
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on Thursday, June 21st, 2012
Was it in the 1990s—on a flight I otherwise can’t remember—when I first cracked the opaque plastic wrapper on the pair of thin cookies? They looked as drab as infant teething biscuits, but tasted like some stored cultural memory of Mittel-European glory, all caramelized sugar and cinnamon.
Turns out they were speculoos, the spiced brown sugar cookies (and Dutch or Belgian, not Central European) labeled Biscoff. It also turns out that the company that made them—Lotus Bakeries North America—was gearing up for a big U.S. presence, including a retail shop in the tourist throng zone near Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco (home of Biscoff's parent company, Lotus Bakeries North America). READ MORE
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on Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
As if to advertise summer itself, supermarkets all over America flaunt pool-size cardboard watermelon bins out front. Sure the fruit they’re heaped with is an emblem of summer picnicking, but how often are those melons good? Picked underripe or stored too long, watermelons can be bland and mealy. But grow your own, or buy from a farmer who knows their fruit, and you end up with watermelons totally deserving of their summer icon status. READ MORE
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on Monday, June 18th, 2012
Could Elixir Végétal be America's next great cult cocktail ingredient?
It tastes like—well, let’s say a scrubby sub-Alpine hillside; comes in a bottle small enough to sit on a shelf in your medicine cabinet; and, for some Chowhounds, has the mystique of the hard-to-find. But despite being an off-menu attraction in at least one stylish LA cocktail bar, Elixir Végétal—it’s illegal.
Well, technically, it’s only illegal to sell Élixir Végétal, formally known in Frenglish as the Herbal Elixir de la Grand-Chartreuse. A SWAT team won’t drag you out of your condo for the mere possession of that little bottle you bought in Paris. You just can’t bring home a case to sell on eBay. READ MORE
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on Friday, June 15th, 2012
The beauty of summer produce is that unlike, say, a funky winter turnip that's been hanging out in the root cellar, you don't have to do much to make these ingredients taste great. At the CHOW Test Kitchen, we usually stick to using them in classic dishes and adding a little flair without doing anything too tricky.
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on Thursday, June 14th, 2012
Easiest Way Sautéed Zucchini
Food Writing's Founding Father
Epic 4th of July Dessert Roundup
Play Our BBQ Pin & Win Contest!
Supertaster: BK's BBQ Sandwiches
Make-and-Take Potluck Dishes
