marlena spieler

Ah, yes, thank you. Yummy. happy with my choices. maybe i should have added west, in vancouver, david hawksworth's place. i should have included that though not sure which of the list would have to have vacated to make room. marlena ps i'd like to see an awards night for like, cheap places, hideaways, tapas bars in la boqueria market, taquerias of divine-deliciousness, bhel puri houses of crisp-salt-crunch-sourness, turkish kebabs of perfection. you know, awards like this. well i like both: upmarket perfection and funky perfection.

i didn't see it in the magazine, had no idea it was there. was there a photo of me too? i wasn't at the awards. i did scribble out a list of my five faves, and it would have been if i remember correctly, (you'll know cause you have the mag) something like, probably l'arpege.....mmmmm i'm going blank about the others. i might have included slanted door, and maybe... well, i would have meant whatever it was on my list at the time i submitted them. so its not that i don't like those awards or other awards, and in fact i like the magazine very much, but like all awards there is good and bad to them, and points that dirk wheelan brings up that are so refreshing and worth thinking about. i like the fact that he is not afraid to speak his mind, and being very intelligent, his mind has something good to offer, things for me to think about. back to the awards, and perhaps one of the things i may have sounded tetchy about: the whole london versus paris restaurant thing for instance. i'll take paris any day. and get my skin ripped off for saying it if i'm in a gathering of british foodies. its just that its a completely different heritage and i think it will take britain awhile to settle into comfort at the dining table. ditto for the usa. france has been sitting at the table, enjoying the multi-coarsed sensuality of eating and drinking for so long, its part of their dna. italy too. so i prefer that. but this is a bit of a holdback, though, as it is harder for them to break with traditions and know which traditions to break with and which to stick with. i think this is the hardest thing for french and italian restaurants to do well. anyhow, awards, all awards are basically a popularity contest and usually quite flawed whether it is for restaurants, radio or television or books....... big self congratulatory party with lots of canapes and drinks, well i love the canapes and drinks part any way. otherwise.... marlena

El quim de la boqueria is another fabulous tapas bar in the market, too. it serves things like baby fish and teeny baby squid, sauteed with garlic, and served over eggs, sort of like a fish huevos ranchers. wonderful fried artichokes. tomato bread. eggplant/aubergine tortiilla. all vegetable tortillas. x marlena

Yes, but then it's not called 'Favourite Restaurants of the World". I realize, as has been pointed out, that these kind of things are "a bit of fun", but even so they must mean something to somebody in order to attract some of the big names present last night. Surely, Shaun, 'free wine' wasn't the only reason you were there? My own take on this list is that while it includes some very good places to eat, their order and the many anomalies (the Gallery at Sketch ) render it useless. I'm sure eGullet, with its international membership profile could do much better job of coming up with a realistic and far more meaningful list. Should I start a thread on it? ← Dirk, you are such a breath of fresh air! sensibility and clear thinking.

i did audition for this show, but felt that my---shall we say exhuberant original personality--was not what they were looking for. looking at the website i'm sooooooo glad that i wasn't chosen. ick. but the contestants all look happy, so i hope they have a fun time. gary rhodes and jean-christophe novelli just look silly. hey, i'm about food (okay, and lots of jokes) not about forumula, the website resembles the big brother website. pop idol. i will give the audition team this though: they laughed at my jokes. they laughed so hard they fell off their chairs (ooops, or was that me?) and tears were flowing down cheeks. and after all, an audience is an audience, even if its only 4 people, and only for 15 minutes. x marlena

so true. how many times have i spoken with british restaurant critics/foodies and had them rant and rave against restaurants in france, esp paris (not always of course, but i'm no longer surprised any longer when it happens). its happened many times. so no wonder the list is brit-centric. but the interesting thing is that france and esp paris has had a tradition of culinary excellence for a long time. now maybe they are not the cutting edge any more, maybe we have taken for granted exactly how much they have contributed to dining excellence, maybe dining is just so ethnically focused that we have a hard time accepting other peoples cuisines. i think that parallel universe is an excellent description, Dirk.

i've written a number of cookbooks, and have had different experiences with all of the publishers. flat fee is evil, the publishers generally do that when they know they will be selling gazillions of books and that is usually the way it works out. also, when you write a book for flat fee, they generally keep the copyright as well, and you may well end up finging your book being cannibalized into books, books, books, all over the world, sold for a bargain, piled up on the table as bargain books, books that you worked very hard to create well and are seeing no renumeration past the initial fee. sometimes they even take your name off of it, so its as if they were stealing your work, though they could argue that they have purchased it. this is important when its writing that has meaning to you, and when it is recipes that are original, well thought through, special. an agent is important, i have had several not very good agents. my last agent was also jamie olivers agent, guess who got short shrift in the deal? the agent before didn't really have the same vision for my work that i did. not having an agent on the same wave length is my loss, as Paula Wolfert says, they know everyone in the bizz and can get your ideas looked at quicker, and with more seriousness. i'm sure that my agent situation has been a big hurdle. living abroad and working in different countries is part of the problem, the antagonism of each country against the other, or at least one against the other, in my case. i've had a number one best seller in britain, i've had books that don't earn back their advances, i've had books that were serialized in mags, and books that were published to a resounding silence. one of the books--the first one--i even illustrated. i've had books that were shortlisted for james beard and other awards, books that won world gourmand awards, and books that drove me nuts. books with typos that i couldn't rectify (usually the flat fee) and on and on. perhaps i should have done something else with my life, something more practical, certainly something more renumerative. but here is the thing: i LOVE writing cookbooks. i love writing, i love telling stories, i love feeding people, i love giving people recipes so that they can feed themselves something that i think is just so delicious i have to share it! i love writing cookbooks because the research process is fascinating. the travel that goes on in the research introduces me to people and places i might not have met. it is a reason to go and do things, learn languages, poke around in peoples kitchens (well, my column spurs me on, too). cookbooks make people happy, they tell a story, and my god i hope i can continue to do it forever. its like having a huge dinner party and setting out on the table the most delicious things you can think of, and then giving readers the ability to make it themselves. so. why do i write cookbooks? i think i am addicted to the process. and i love hearing someone say that they made my recipe for this or that and it was so delicious and the whole family/dinner party/etc loved it. but i think i do need a new agent. good luck, marlena oh, and iheartoffal, your cookbook sounds so deliciously sincere, it warms my heart.

today is my birthday and i am in waterlooville, hampshire. ain't no place to eat, and without a car i am loathe to go too far in a cab to have a meal that i don't think will dazzle me. any chance of being dazzled tonight in hampshire? after all you only turn 21 once. or twice, or 20 or so times....... or should i just head up the hill to the discounting hour at waitrose, and go for the discounted fruit and veg. sounds good to me.....though i do have a longing for vietnamese food. carpaccio with chillies and thai basil. lime. ah well......... x m

DEAR CHARDGIRL, I LOVE YOUR GOAT! marlena

thanks daniel, for all the delicious looking goat recipes and explanations of when in the life of the goat to eat it, etc. we're invited to greek easter on the island of zakynthos: our friends keep telling us that the goat is already picked out, we just need to buy our air tickets! and also the curry recipe looks so yummy that i am reminded of a sign i once saw (in a cookery book about jamaica): "any goat entering these premises will be curried" x marlena ps have you ever eaten an african dish of goat in peanut sauce? we ate it once in an african hole in the wall in london which is long gone. we've been longing to eat it again, but i'm just not sure where to begin. perhaps when i get to zakythos we will have so much goat, i'll be able to experiment with leftovers at least.......

I am SOOOOOOO interested in the synchronized swimming. meanwhile, i think you should choreograph a swim number based on......how about tony bourdains books/telly series? i'm very proud of my eccentric synchronized swimming pageants but i can't get anyone to either swim them or even watch them. i think its because i sing in them (and my singing makes even the cat howl). i've been partial to broadway musical swims lately, and also food subjects (don't even ask). seriously, big congrats on beard nomination, have just read and loved soul of a chef, the latter part of the book about Thomas Keller was very touching and real and revealing, of many things. wonderful. haven't seen bouchon yet because i live in the middle of the english countryside and they don't have things like that out here. will get one next time i'm in s.f. ca. marlena

just had a lovely basket of veggies as part of a pinzimono-ish starter in umbria. the celery was a real revelation as it was sooooooo delicious. the fennel was the other revelation. its always dissappointing when i eat it in britain, and the us, but in italy, i remember exactly why i fell in love with it. i'm usually part of the root and leaf brigade of celery, the root for french style goodies, the leaf for greek cooking, and the stalk only interested me for peanut butter. but then this glorious celery, in umbria, with olive oil, salt and pepper for dipping. so crisp and juicy and earthy rather than kinda metalic, watery and salty which is the way celery usually tastes to me. it was so good i had to stop myself from scarfing the whole basket full. partially out of good manners and thoughts for the others at the table, and partially cause i knew that truffled bruschetta was the next course. so yeah, i'm on the trail of delicious celery myself. at this very minute. i have no idea where i'll start. i may have to emmigrate. x m

Oh Rachel Rachel Rachel, it sounds so divine, so delicious, I am so jealous just thinking (here in my hampshire, uk, garden) (where nothing delicious to eat exists with the exception of good bacon) thinking: of the complexity and simplicity all together, oh to be near a nopale and someone who knows their way around it. thanks for sharing, its sooooooooo wonderful. if i don't make my way to your neck of the woods soon i think i'll die of a broken heart. x marlena

I adore the way the Spanish combine sheep, goat and cows milks into one cheese; i can taste the qualities of each animals milk in every bite. and isn't it amazing how such a thing as milk, pure and simple, becomes the huge variety of cheeses when simply cultured and ripened. i'm in awe of the cheesemakers. and love the taste of terroir, the flavour of the place, when i taste a cheese. bah humbug to the makers who aim for industrialization and consistency. cheese is alive! oh yes, and a nice slab of membrillo--quince paste-- next to any spanish cheese, divine!

well, mule salami last week in umbria, two different kinds, both delicious, and while i don't think it too weird, someone else might. the weirdest thing i ate was sheeps head soup in greece, though, mostly because i got the bowl with the eye! (soup was delicious!). (eye, I"ve blocked out all memory of eating). i can't bring myself to the worms cheese, and also the blood pancakes, call me a wimp. i'm still on a cloud of truffles and lenticche, umbria's delicious contribution to gastonomy as far as i'm concerned. and the strangozzi. x m

This is an enchanting thread. I have been wracking my brain to make a contribution, but i keep coming up with the worst meal--not counting my mothers many--being my very own. one of the first things i tried to make was a soupe de poisson as i had eaten it in nice, cote d'azur. i found a recipe, and when it came to the shells, and pressing them through a sieve etc i decided to just skip over that step and puree the shells instead. i didn't even strain it. i thought the texture was interesting,but even now, several decades later, my guest will mention it every so often as the vilest thing she was ever served. (i've made up for it since, though). then there was the apricot ice cream in which i kept adding gelatiin in the misguided notion that more would be better and make the ice cream ready sooner. we called it rubber tire ice cream it was so chewy. and i was requested to never, ever, go near the gelatin again unless accompanied by a third party who could talk some sense into my head in case i started getting creative. x m

I've always just made these myself (adore poilane bread, adore montgomery cheddar, can never have enough spring onions or shallots) . so when i get to borough market i have the chorizo with rocket sandwich instead. x marlena

I just shared a vacherin mont d'or with a friend who is a cheese importer. from the first bite we could tell by the sweetness in the milk and the complexity on the tongue that it was made from raw unpasturized milk. it was so alive it practically walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table with us! more praise singing: it was soooooo delicious, and soooooo delicate without the slightly bitter edge or unpleasant aromatic undertone, or any chalkiness, it was simply the most delicious vacherin mont d'or. i wish everyone i love could have had some. but never mind getting it (or a cheese like it) to daughter in new york city, or friends in san francisco, with eu regulations, such raw cheeses are a rarity here in europe too and i wouldn't risk smuggling it into the us. from what i've read, though, and been told by cheesemakers, raw milk cheeses need more in the way of hygenic care, which in fact makes them a more cared for and cleanly produced cheese. so i'm on the side of the inspectors and inspections, and on the side of the raw milk cheese producers making cheese the old fashioned way, and that includes using straw matts to rest the cheeses on (which has been outlawed by the eu). i'm sure it imparts a delicate quality to the cheeses resting on them.

I'm sure you are not an old hag, and sometimes its good to be cynical............ I'm trying to remember what we had available when I was in school. I'm 28 now, so this is 80's through mid 90's. Elementary school was pretty balanced, though disgusting. Its no joke when he gives those dinner ladies shit for overcooking everything. I shuddered at the memory. Junior High was spent abroad in Germany. I was at an American school, and I remember the food being passable for school food. There were school groups who had BBQ grills set up for burgers, chicken and wursts, and the bread was always fresh from the local bakery. I usually went home for lunch, but damn, I remember those wursts being a good treat. Pretty ok salad bar. Highschool was back in the states, and almost as bad as what is portrayed on the show. Lots of nasty burgers, fries, hot dogs, pretzels, etc. The alternatives were overcooked, salty and swimming in grease under heat lamps. There WAS a salad bar at least, and lots of kids DID actually use it. Soda machines everywhere, afterschool groups selling candy all hours of the day. Classes were just a market place for the Snickers and Kitkat trade. I brought my lunch most of the time. Two years before I got there, there was a SMOKING QUAD at school (if you were an 18 year old senior, all you had to do was bring a note from your parents, and you could light up in between classes with the faculty!) .......... Didn't Supersize Me say that lots of schools were 'sponsored' by McD's and Taco Bell? ← Schools being sponsored by McD's and Taco Bell is a shame on society. (and don't some hospitals have mdD's doing their cafeterias?) smoking quad: what was the school thinking? But the good news is that from what I"ve been reading, school lunches are getting better, at least in the s.f. area. i recently tapped into the country day schools throughout northern california to see what the various lunches were and it was fascinating the difference. i like your idea of sharing our school lunch experiences. when the cafeteria came to our school with its school lunches we all tried them out for a few of our formative years; when we hit junior high school lunch bags were the trendy thing, none of this "baby" balanced meal crap. what i remember most was the trays with its indentations for different foods. and how the food was very different from anything we ate at home. no fried stuff or burgers though. and we always had something crunchy like carrot sticks, and also half a butter sandwich, white bread on one side, whole wheat on the other, cut on the diagonal. we had lets see, spanish rice, pizza on french bread, fish sticks every two weeks (i didn't like them), mashed potato with meatloaf-y stuff, and what i really did love, very sticky rice served in scoops (!) with a ladle of ground meat sauce on top. thinking about it makes me shudder today, but still there was something about the stickiness of the rice, so comforting, and the meaty sauce that made it my favourite of anything they served. i think there were tacos sometimes too but they weren't as good as those at home, or at the local taqueria. i think that peas and corn were a common accompaniment. i don't remember fresh vegetables besides the raw crunchies but they must have been there in one guise or another. i mean the meals were kinda weird but also very interesting in that even as a small child i thought: ah, this is the way other americans eat? and we did NOT have machines selling soft drinks and chocolate bars, though when you reached junior high you could go to the snack shack and buy these things, as well as crispy salted snacks such as crisps. (i confess to buying my share of cheese-puffs). on the other hand, when my daughter went to pre school in san fran (Phoebe Hearst Center for Learning) they had the most wonderful school lunch experience. Each class of about 8 to 10 children sat down at a little table together, with the teacher, and ate family style. Each child was only required to take a taste, a teeny taste, and after that they could then have as much as they wanted of whatever they liked. I credit this approach for my daughter's open minded pleasures of eating. (the only bad moments were when they had tuna with noodles, i think she still shudders at having to taste that!) a lot of the thing about school lunches pertains to culture as well as nutrition. in addition to getting the food to a more healthy level, we need to think about the statements that the food we're sending out says and how the children relate to it. x marlena

????? how do you title a critic anti american? if anyone is biased whether a critic or not, or says things without substantiating them, well they are anti or pro whatever... ..american or whatever the subject is. to just throw out a "he did "bad stuff" accusation is not very "critical". and one can easily be anti american having lived in america previously, I know many who fit into this category. and in fact, many americans are anti-american, so it doesn't hold water, as they say. one thing i do agree with you however, is this: back to the thread.

is this really the place for your political beliefs? or as an excuse to bash americans, "my lovely vue de cuisine?" i felt sick reading your response, partially because of its ignorance and partially because it was gratuitously anti american. as for the inspiration that started j.o. on his crusade to help children eat better, all one needed was to see the way children eat/ate lunches at school either school lunch or packed lunch. as much as you may wish to condemn american foodie habits for all the ills in the world (many do). the fact is that i never EVER EVER saw such lunches in america as i saw when i took my daughter to live in britain: the standard lunch was: crisps. choc bar, fizzy drink. mothers gave this to their children! the crusade for good food for children is long over due, both here and in america where its been undersway for a while......such as the from farm to school program of the san francisco unified school district, or alice waters program in berkely, or the jewish high school in san francisco whose food is really good, vegetarian and healthy too! but sorry, when i saw j.o. dishing out salmon risotto i just wanted to scream along with the kids: hey, where are the chips? but the chicken that the dinner lady made looked marvelous.

hiya dani, no i'm sure not everyone knew about his post procedural diet, but i'm sure that his "people" would have noted menus etc as being within what he was able to eat. I don't think they would have just sprung it all at the last minute, as in: here we are at a dinner party, and i can't eat anything on the menu! j.o. did say that his people looked at the menu and approved it, so........i'm sure that they would have approved it dependant on what his requirements were. i just think that the hissy fit he threw telling the student that all the food he made specially would now just get thrown out, and then refuse to meet with clinton when the latter wanted to say hello.......it all just doesn't ring true to me. for some reason. but again, mybe i'm a cynical old hag. (hope not, but sometimes)....... x m

I"m so glad that i joined this thread: i felt depressed when i started reading, and now, filled with the flavours of chermoula i feel happy again. and also I have been wondering what to make for favourite friend coming to visit from Greece: now i know: paula's eggplant and chermoula! chermoula, chermoula, chermoula, even the name sounds delicious! marlena

see, i don't quite buy that clinton didn't tell them he was on his diet, because in reports about his procedure last week it was reported that he had been on that diet since his operation last year or whenever it was. so i have this feeling that if he had been, his people wouldn't have "approved" jamies menu as he said on telly, and would have mentioned his dietary needs, anyhow the south beach diet (or as oliver said: the san francisco diet) i think you just order fish or meat, salads that sort of thing? anyhow, i think it was kinda a set up? made for tv moment of "our hero" taking on the big guy......but maybe thats just cynical me. anyhow you can't eat at home when you're on the road like that, you have to eat at restaurants so thats not an option. usually eating fish, meat, salads is easy (though boring).

i've always loved ayran, and raitas, and salty spicy lassis just because their flavours and spiciness appealed to me, but one summer in turkey during a heatwave (!) with temps in the 40s © suddenly ayran was like a total healing balm. the only thing that made me feel better and revived me for any significant period of time was ayran! oh that first cool sip, close the eyes and feel it replenish........ after that i became a devotee of a very simple ayran: just yogurt, salt and water, though sometimes sparkling water. it all depends on the quality of the yogurt. x m