Carrot Top

Bravo.... to your answer, Rogov. There is much to chew on here. And to muse on in between in order to taste what has been chewed. Will be back for more after this is digested....

This subject is so multi-layered that even in the initial attempts to sort it out, my brain feels like a Salman Rushdie novel (but without the sense of coherent organization that would hold the layers together). One thought comes to mind, though...as a start. This is a subject that will be difficult for many people to approach and discuss without risking offense to someone else unless the words are chosen incredibly carefully if one wishes to go beyond discussing it even superficially. And it seems to me....that for the most part, when presented with this question of "Why are so few women great chefs?"...many people would shrug their shoulders and say...."Who cares? It's not my problem..." What is it that makes you raise this question and subsequently in your reasoned argument, seemingly support and encourage the idea of more great women chefs, Rogov? Is it a simple question of fairness? Is it that you believe the existing system and what it offers would be enhanced by the addition of more women in these positions? If so, do you think they offer the same thing as men chefs or do you feel their offerings have a different sense or savor? Or is it something personal that you have seen or felt.... I am asking these questions to find the nugget of "Why should I care..." for those who might ask the question and then walk away...and also out of pure curiosity. It is unusual for a male person to be interested in the development of the female person in this particular way.

Rogov, I'm curious as to what you can tell us about the world of women chefs in Israel....your writings were initiated with 'France' in mind (unless I did not read closely enough which is always possible). Where does Israel stand both culturally and with actual perceived opportunities in this whole thing?

Did we finally agree on coffee or strong spirits, Lalitha? (You have given me a smile with imagining your totally imaginary piteous state...)

Why why why...GG? Why do you have to get us all going again... I have been really trying to not respond to this but you are making it impossible. ( ) To reduce the inane fervor that undoubtedly will ensue in my writing if I have to start, I'll limit my response initially to two questions. What parameters are we using here to define 'great chef'? Chef in a bistro? Chef in a temple of gastronomy? Is it neccesarily in Europe? Do we have the same sort of categories of chefs here in the States as holds in the more traditional Europe? Working chef? Executive chef? Chef-owner? That was question number one, by the way. Question number two. Who would you say America's most accomplished woman chef is? How many do we have? Who else is there on the list of known media chefs that is female? What percentage do these women comprise of all the 'great chefs' that are on the list, male and female? Is their number approximately equal to the same number of top successful women in other professions? That was question number two. At least here is a starting point. Something real and solid to work with and start the discussion. Please note that from my viewpoint, I don't care to be quoted academic studies nor journalistic ones. Of course other people may feel differently, but I would be more interested to hear what you all have seen and experienced with your own eyes, in your own life. Do I have a viewpoint as a female chef that left the business? (Not as a 'great' one mind you, but a successful one anyway). Sure. But it will be more interesting to hear the world of ideas on it all...

Shall we start the Dinosaur Club? I stay home to raise my children, too. Just me, one parent. Would not trade it for all the tea in China. Imagine, a gathering of Dinosaurs. We might actually manage to look impressive to onlookers....all standing together. Nothing like a group of determined mothers to make for a fearsome sight, huh?

Just might do that...it would replace in my mind the lost tripe sandwich which might not be available... Then I could return home with a new recipe to try on the kids!

All manufacturers of electric stoves should be not only jailed but tortured by being forced to cook for the entire jail population on their own stoves.

Me too. Wandering all over the place in search of...what??? I had an idea (which is mesmerizingly un-doable) of writing a thriller...there would be a first-person protagonist who throughout the narrative would be making ongoing attempts to kill in a number of novel ways...but the subject to be killed would be unnamed till the end. Who did the subject turn out to be? It turned out to be the extra pounds that make my tummy round rather than totally flat. Impossible premise in the first place, after the age of nineteen... but still I long to find a way to commit that murder....

These are marvellous descriptions of bounteous delicious food! Has the cuisine always been so abundant? I would have thought that the troubles within the country would have diminished both the availability and quality of food... It might be a difficult question to answer without wandering into the proscripted eGullet areas of politics and religion, but I hope you will try... Or of course, a simple yes or no would be an answer too! P.S. Everyone remembers that the great Nero Wolfe hails from that area...yes?

This photo is just plain too gorgeous. I want to lie in the field next to that beautiful thing...do let us know if the persimmon fudge recipe turns out good...that sounds like a bit of heaven....!

You are both brave and lucky, yum!

An ancient relation of mine used to keep ferrets in England. You might do better with them as pets...they bring back fat rabbits....

A beautiful and hungry-making first post, ojbowl!

Actually, I'd like to propose a new category. (Please imagine me now enunciating vigorously in French as I wave my arms in the air...thank you) Demi-Haute.

"Haute" in either fashion or food has always held one demand, one implication: Quality, simplicity (in a studied way, not a 'quick' way), beauty, and creative finesse. That it is becoming more and more 'branded' in the way of becoming multinational corporations whose intent is to simply make a better bottom line for the next annual report to shareholders is an amusing thought, for the original intention of creating either haute cuisine or haute couture is that of making something very fine, superior to the run of the mill, and different...touched with the eye and hand of fine artists, doing their work in 'ateliers' with the interest of the wealthy who appreciate it and who provide financial support. And while fashion changes more quickly, and what is popular is dependant upon what 'shows' best in Paris, Milan, New York each season....this happens in restaurants, too. There are new fashionable restaurants each year or two... depending on certain styles and critical and popular support of those that follow the haute scene. This article that you posted sounds more like a businesspersons marketing scheme to manipulate the public into buying, at greater ticket price, something that smells and looks 'haute'. They are playing with business model applications within the companies for the purpose of making more money...and that is sort of (to me) the opposite intent of where a true purveyor of anything 'haute' starts. They start with a creative internal idea...not a business plan. It still could produce some 'fun' stuff, yes. But there's always the question of where 'haute' stops being 'haute' and becomes a simple publicity game.

Academic studies can be found to support almost anything. But as I look at life around me and how it has changed from when I was a child...there are basic differences. There are very few people left who do the job of 'home-maker'. Woman or man. It is no longer considered to be a truly feasible job for many reasons...both economic and sociologic. So there is really nobody in the kitchen (and home) doing the work that used to be done, unless one hires a cleaning service or housekeeper. Everyone that cooks knows how long grocery shopping, organization, meal planning, food preparation and cooking take. This used to be done (along with the laundry and keeping a house that people would say "You can eat off her floor"...this is a slightly separate issue...but one that goes, again, to show how times have changed...because now the saying is "There are more important things to do than clean the house.") by the mother of the family, where such a stable situation existed. There are still only 24 hours in a day, but the way people spend that time is different now. Corporations and manufacturers and service suppliers alike have now taken with a vengeance to increasing production and becoming lean and mean. In the 1970's and 1980's you would see people's lives being disrupted by their employers 'transferring' them here and there...disrupting what used to be stable communities with family ties and knowledge of common culture. That declined due to the high cost of the transfers...then came the late 1980's and the crunch to perform. At every level of the workforce, things were looked at with hawk's eyes to try to find the least bit of fat. Then after that fat was cut, the new management philosophy came in that 'If they can do this much, they can do more' and the idea of management by pressurized reduction of hours and employee cuts began. What this translates to in real life is people working outside the home much more than what used to be a forty-hour workweek. It is translated differently. Sometimes you will see a blue-collar employee who works two twenty-hour jobs which have been set up that way so that the employer can avoid paying costly health insurance. The 'shift' hours are totally ridiculous. They start early, end late, have no respect for a person's 'family life'. Then there are the white collar employees, the supervisors or mangement who do not get paid by the hour so are expected to work at least fifty hours a week..sixty to be considered 'good'. In reality, I see less people in the kitchen. They are working terrible hours...the children are in before and after-school care and then need shuttling to sports and dance and whatever activities...because there are no longer many 'neighborhoods' where the Moms were in the house sort of watching over everyone...as the children ran here and there outside and played. I see tired people with undone laundry and unvaccuumed homes who are happy for convenience foods, happy for family restaurants, but who are also happy to have a kitchen for the rare times they can find to sit in it and maybe dream of having the time for cooking. There are the wealthy with the fancy kitchens which are put in the home to keep the value up to par. If they don't have children, they have a chance to use them, maybe. Who cares? Again, the point is that it is not about money. It is about having a place to feel that you COULD make yourself a meal if you wanted to. Lots of people want to. What's next to do a cost/benefit analysis on, the bathroom?!

Actually I use clarified butter quite often. The process used to make clarified butter is the same one that you describe for making ghee...but the butter is not allowed to brown at all. The purpose of making clarified butter is to remove the milksolids from the butter so that a pure fat is created, allowing for higher temperatures to be used when browning meats (or whatever else) without the burnt taste of unclarified butter but with the taste of butter rather than oil. I have seen ghee for sale in Indian foodshops but have never purchased it. Is ghee often made from goats milk in India?

This definitely should go in the Time Capsule....it's a beaut!

The good thought to hold in your head is that there are many New Yorkers who would die of jealousy to have a kitchen that large.... But having had various experiences myself in moving from a kitchen one was happy with to a kitchen one was not (and sometimes not having the option of renovation) all I can say is, if worst comes to worst, well..."close your eyes and think of England". It might be helpful to list which (of all these things that need changing), is the most important to you. What bothers you the most? If you have a prioritized list, you can get some things 'just right' at the moment, and make do with the other stuff till later...

Could it be that ghee is more expensive than oil, Geetha? And of course it is not widely available in American supermarkets... And although preparing ghee at home is not difficult, it does require attention during the process...and people have less time to do this sort of thing, it seems. What do you think? Do you make ghee at home or buy it readymade...

There is an extensive thread on the subject...just search for "larb' and you will discover everything about it!

Rodin. In a small museum. I might need to move into the place. If I go there it will have to be after the Rocky thing...for Rodin makes one soft and melty....

I'll meet you there, Holly. Please bring your camera for documentation of how I smacked down that side of beef into total submission (let us be sure at first that it is PRIME beef and well-aged at the proper temperature) and a propane grill for steaks afterwards.

Thank you, robyn. I try to jump up and down and act like Rocky wherever I go...but since I am a 5'2 redheaded freckled person who smiles a lot, people don't usually make the connection. Here at least I can do it in the Right Place and get some Cultchuh at the same time. Really great idea. I had not thought of that museum. It is, as you say, world class.