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Lovely appreciation from Laurie Ochoa, wife of the late Jonathan Gold: Appreciation: Mark Peel, ‘the LeBron James of the grill,’ an intellectually curious chef’s chef

Thanks, @&roid! I decided to pull the trigger and ordered the Koda 16. The website says 2-4 weeks before it ships. Might come back with more questions then.

He passed away yesterday at 66, just 9 days after being diagnosed with cancer. From the LA Times: Mark Peel, the Spago and Campanile chef who helped create California cuisine, dies and: Mark Peel helped codify the notion of American ‘urban rustic’ cooking From Eater: LA Chef Mark Peel, Co-Founder of Campanile, Has Died at the Age of 66

Sure. Not sure why it shouldn’t touch the plate but you could just take a small piece of sturdy cardboard and fold it in half into a little tent shape then cut a little rounded notch in the peak that the shaft can nestle into.

Similar here, but the cord won’t reach the sink so I lay it down with the end over a plate.

I always thought the oeufs et caviar presentation where warm, creamy scrambled eggs are served in their shells topped with a few chives, cream and a big dollop of caviar was quite perfect with champagne but after watching @AAQuesada's video of Jeremiah Tower piling the caviar on potato chips, I might have to change my mind! I also might need to go buy some caviar and make those eggs!

The camera I am using is just a point and shoot (9 year old Canon PowerShot G15) so pointing and shooting is pretty much the extent of my technique! At this time of year, I have nice indirect lighting from a south-facing window and I routinely underexpose by 1/3 stop to provide some wiggle room before I blow out the highlights. For this photo, I used the default f/5.6

@Kerry Beal, have you tried pita yet? Wondering if there is enough space for them to puff up without incinerating the top.

From the LA Times: Trader Joe wrote a memoir, and it’s just as much fun as you’d expect About founder Joe Coulombe's posthumously published memoir, Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). Excerpt from the LAT article: Edited to add that the book comes out on June 22

Either the oven or CSO toaster oven. 350°F for ~ 5 min or so.

Trader Joe's Organic Unsweetened Coconut Chips. They are a nice size and look pretty when toasted.

I made some roasted pineapple sauce for another purpose and turned the rest into popsicles with toasted coconut I prefer fresh pineapple instead of roasted for popsicles but these will serve the purpose of a cooling snack.

Tried a combination from Simply Julia: Yogurt with Roasted Pineapple Sauce + Toasted Coconut Added blueberries

I think that's putting a strain on workers in vacation/resort areas across the country. I recently read this article about the Lake Tahoe/Truckee area: No housing, no employees.

I'm waffling on The Nom Wah Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from 100 Years at New York City's Iconic Dim Sum Restaurant (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). I don't think I would cook from it but it looks like it would be a good read...at least until I can feel OK about actually going to a crowded dim sum place in person. The Kindle version is $3.99 on both Amazon.com and .ca

The Kindle version of Julia Turshen's recent book, Simply Julia (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), is currently $3.99 on Amazon.com and .ca It's marked as a deal of the day, so I don't expect the price to last. I've been cooking from it quite a bit as it's the book of the month in a Facebook cookbook group that I belong to and I've been kind of surprised how much I've been enjoying it. Every recipe has not been a hit but there are quite a few excellent ones, like the Kale & Mushroom Pot Pie that's topped with triangles of puff pastry that's both easy and fancy-looking. The subtitle is, "110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food," so it's not the book to take you on a culinary adventure but there are a lot of very easy, satisfying recipes. And with respect to the word Healthy in the subtitle, Julia seems to be approaching it in a spirit of attraction (meals that make you feel healthy) rather than restriction. It's not a diet book in any way. It is a very personal book. Lots of recipes are named for Julia's friends or family members and the header notes share their stories. Speaking of stories, there are a number of essays scattered through the book that I've enjoyed reading. Amazon's "Look Inside" feature has enough of a sample to see if her writing and the style of the book appeals to you. For more about the book, the various interviews of her virtual book tour are available as episodes of her podcast, Keep Calm and Cook On.

Yesterday, I made Jennie's Sorrel, from Simply Julia. This version of the hibiscus/jamaica/sorrel-infused beverage is from Julia's childhood babysitter, Jennie and has lots of fresh ginger and dried clove and is barely sweetened. I loved the ginger and tartness but the cloves were overpowering to me. However, used as a base for these Blackberry & Sorrel pops, I find the clove flavor interesting rather than offensive.

Made the egg in a cheese skirt again

Between January and April of this year, with fewer restaurant reviews, Jay wrote stand alone pieces on each of those books plus Marco Pierre White's White Heat. I guess the bad boy didn't make the top 10!

You're OK. They're your point of contact for the order and it certainly wasn't right. They can go after their shipper or not, as they choose. Probably not for that amount. The intended recipient of the metal parts is likely complaining to their vendor as well!

Anybody watching? I’m catching up. I think I’m up to episode 7 although I went ahead and watched to tofu episode because I heard it was good. It was as was the surf and turf challenge with local foods harvested by indigenous peoples of the area. Minimal silliness in the challenges, aside from having to do their prep work on tree stumps in one episode. The drive-in movie thing was close but quite timely given their pandemic popularity. No silly house drama since they are staying at a hotel.

TJ's is offering one of my favorite cheeses, Mobay, in 7 oz wedges for $6.99. The name is a play on the French Morbier although this stuff has separate layers of semi-soft sheep and goat cheeses separated by a layer of ash while Morbier is generally from one type of milk, most often cow. The TJ's label doesn't name the maker. I have only had the stuff made by Carr Valley Cheese in Wisconsin and they have a trademark on the name Mobay so I'd guess it's theirs unless they are leasing out the name to other makers.

Thank you so much for sharing, @shain, I am enjoying this immensely!

No, I have not. I just got the book recently and this is the first thing I’ve tried. Her videos seem to be extremely popular!

Soft and Crispy Focaccia from Claire Saffitz's Dessert Person I would have liked to have tried the overnight rise that she advocates for more flavor but no way does a half sheet pan fit in my side-by-side fridge. I'll stick with Ottolenghi's recipe as I know it adapts well to whole grain flours. https://youtu.be/NGnMrM9qDtE