Chris Amirault

Thanks, Sara, for the kind words -- and the refreshing honesty about times. Of course, Pierre wasn't always clocking in at 58 minutes. Not that there's anything wrong with recipes using canned mushroom soup....

Any foods that they refuse to eat, Timh?

Doc-G, so many questions! I'll start small: how do you maintain the low temps with all that grinding and mixing?

Thanks, memesuze. Do you really use those two stools there?

Great work! Is the milk/water ratio 1:1?

Yes -- stick to the ribs -- that's what I think of when I think of wholesome. Bring a few pasties, Zuke!

Go for it! I just had the chorizo from that book tonight for an early supper, and it's fantastic. The Italian sausage is good, too. If my sick daughter can get to bed in time, I'm hoping to finally get to the merguez tonight.

OnigirFB, you're great, but this wholesome day's food -- -- um... blech. Give me my Cornish pasties and a couple of pints!

Ahem. Ok, lest we stray into the (off-)topic of Yoko Ono's ass, let me try again. What foods would be considered "wholesome"? There are obvious ones (chicken soup comes to mind), but what about less likely candidates? Roast beef? A BLT? What makes something wholesome? What makes something not wholesome? Are mashed potatoes wholesome, but fries not?

Kristin, those look great (and great photos, too). It looks like you ground the meat very fine, yes?

Shameless plug: There is much good cassoulet over here at the cassoulet cook-off. No excuses now!

While I was reading this Cornish pasties thread, I saw this quotation from the Independent article: "[F]eelgood," I got. But "wholesome"? I was surprised to see that, and wondered what it meant in that context (or in the context of Cornish miners heading off to work). Then I started wondering what "wholesome" would mean around here. It seems a different word than, say, "healthy" or "hearty." Is it a little bit of both?

Blog on, John! Very eager to read the rest of the blog. Do be sure to provide lots of sausage closeups! Meanwhile, "Honey - no stay still! - have we ever spoken about bean casseroles..?" ← There's a joke here about bean surprises while making love, but I'm not gonna make it.

Ben, if you gave us some sense of the direction you want to take this library, that'd help. You're clearly giving preference to recent haute cuisine, oui? Where else do you wanna go? I'll hold on recommendations until then!

Can you say more about that? There are of course different kinds of organization (and of intelligence ). The organization required by academic work is not the same one required by line cooking, but success in either requires organization. My limited experience in and knowledge of professional kitchens suggests that the right sort of organizational skill is mandatory. To take one little example: the ability to attend to the crucial details of mise en place have been mastered, and even championed, by chefs who have also detailed their mediocre-to-poor school careers.

This is very useful, BeeZee. I have worried about precisely your first point here: a poorly planned space can make two (not just the one) rooms feel oddly constrained. It would be as if we're trying too hard, you know? (Here's the wall that would have the hole, btw; it'd be over by the white pantry door to the left of the white shelf.)

What's a beef fondue, Marlene?

Thanks for the responses. kiliki, this is very interesting: That's 6 1/2 feet wide? Wow... it's a lot bigger than I would have expected. That's very useful. Thanks!

We are starting to noodle with the idea of renovating our kitchen, and while I have about four dozen questions, the primary design issue at the moment involves the following. In an ideal world, we'd like to obliterate the wall between our kitchen and dining room, so that we could open up those two busy spaces and allow me to interact with people while I cook. Unfortunately, there is a chimney and heating duct smack dab in the middle of the wall. As a result, we believe that we will be able to open up a space that is 4 1/2 to 6 feet wide, and it would be Our contractor friend has indicated that this space is simply too small to provide anything that will feel remotely "open." We're not quite giving up, though, and I thought I'd ask you for help. Do you have any spaces between your kitchen and dining room -- or, frankly, between any two rooms -- that are only about this wide? How do they work (or not)? What function do they provide, and what can't they provide? I've thought about lazy susans, dumb waiters, sculpted arches, and so on, but it's very hard for me to visualize anything. I'd thus especially be grateful for any photos you might be willing to share.

These parenthetical exceptions seem to demonstrate the weakness of the resolution, dude. ← A bigmac I can live without but a dog with ketchup and onions...that would have been asking too much! ← I feel you, man. You'll note, of course, that I've not made a single damned resolution in this thread (or elsewhere, I'll add).

These parenthetical exceptions seem to demonstrate the weakness of the resolution, dude.

George, do you have any additional information about the program besides that which can be found at the link that Mel provided above?

JLam and I have been chatting on PM, and he wrote up this paean to East Providence; when I asked him if I could share it with y'all, he concurred:

Made chorizo and potato filling for corn tortillas tonight using Diana Kennedy's recipe as a rough guide. I boiled some yukon golds and diced them thickly and roughly; meanwhile, I fried the chorizo meat (peeled off the casings), then removed it to fry some diced onion in the fat. Added a bit of cumin, some chopped chipotles en adobo, a bit more lard, and then the cooked potatoes and sausage. Excellent with some cilantro, cheese, lime, and plain yogurt (didn't have tomatillos for the traditional sauce). I've got lamb defrosting for merguez sausages tomorrow.

I am absolutely riveted by this thread. I have a terrifically gauche question to ask: what are the salary and benefits like? How did you set them up: negotiating directly with the family or through some other agency/service?