wingding

At this time of the year,polenta with some sort of game ragu is the ticket for me;Wild boar,venison,rabbit.Braised bitter greens and squash would be good as well...fyi,check out Paula Wolferts' oven baked method for cooking polenta in 'Mediterranean Grains and Greens'-it's easy and delicious.

Steve,It's Alvar Aalto,and and early Swedish contemporary furniture is quite valued these days.The designs were very influential in 20th century design.Exact $ value isn't everything-walk down lower Broadway in N.Y.,and you will see antique stores full of heavy,hideous,expensive baroque furniture.Who cares how much it sells for...

Argan oil is an example of trendy marketing in the food business;Ask people who have lived and cooked in Morocco ,and they will roll their eyes,and tell you that the fruit of the argan tree is usually treasured by goats.It's ok to use as a skin moisturizer,and has been trotted out as a new obscure ingredient,but remember the words of P.T.Barnum-"there's a sucker born every minute".

Please strike me Off the guest list-I'm leaving for Italy that week[looking for culinary relevance].Bon appetit,y'all....

A feeling of indifference about any and all things-sometimes I can feel that attitude pretty quickly,and I will turn around and walk out,before I waste my time and money.

Another yea for 'Simply French' by Wells and Rebuchon,Roger Verges'Vegetables in the French Style',and for traditional desserts'Desserts Traditionnels de France',by Gaston LeNotre.

It this is an evening meal,I'd like to attend....any night but Sunday.

I've only been the occasional visitor,but miss Tiny Naylor's,and hope that DuPar,in Burbank ,is still there...

Some of my favorite books with pictures covering technique are the Time Life Good Cook series from the late 1970s'.There are a number covering baking and pastry;'Classic Desserts','Cakes','Cookies and Crackers','Pies and Pastries',and my two favorites'Candy',and'Preserving".A lot of talented people worked on this series-you can find them second hand for less than $10 apiece,if you are lucky...

Statistics from cooking schools,unfortunately will bear with my statement;I work in the profession[pastry] in N.Y.,and have a dialogue with counselors and teachers at the local schools.A lot of people who love to bake brownies and decorate cakes at home go through professional cooking courses,thinking to change careers.They often have no real idea of what the behind the scene workings of a busy restaurant are like,and when they do their internships,they are in for a lot of surprises.The starting pay is very difficult for someone with grown-up financial commitments to survive on.The hours are long.The enviornment is often hot,crowded,and high pressure,making focusing on the work difficult.You've got to really love it,and bear with the conditions.

Follow their careers after they finish school,and see how many people actually enter the profession,especially restaurants....

Finally made it to Cones,and tried the hazelnut gelato,which was tasty and stretchy,pretty damn good.I think that it's probably made with hazelnut praline-which is certainly a consistent way to get a good product.I still was put off by screaming green mint and pistachio gelati,but I'll give them credit for decent product...transcendent?no.Also waddled over to Il Laboratorio for coffee gelato,which had good flavor,and a nice chewy consitency,but not particularily gelato-like.I don't think that there is a 'best' in N.Y.,at this point in time...

If you can get a hold of the French Laundry Cookbook,there is an exhaustive,wonderful,recipe for braised ribs.-a good lesson in technique...tastes good too.

Gangbusters;How A Street Tough Elite Homicide Unit Took Down New Yorks Most Dangerous Gang-Michael Stone[Ah,the crack years] .... The Valley of the Assasins,and Other Persian Travels-Freya Stark..... Mes Confitures;The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber-Christine Ferber

I wrote 'pat answer' 'cause it seems so obvious.You gotta learn to crawl before you can walk,and then run.One of the things that have gone awry in cooking today is the belief of many people that recipes,not technique,are the basis of cooking.It's an easy trap to fall into...

The pat answer is that a chef should have a thorough working knowledge of classic techniques and a well educated pallette,before attempting to break new ground.That being said,some people have come in from left field-self educated and thinking different,and make fresh tasting,seemingly new food.There's a lot of horrid,pretentious dross too...Other innovations have come from mistakes made in executing a classic dish,which ended up tasting good...I admit to looking through a lot of modernist cookery books,and after initially being wowed,wondering how good the dishes really taste.Successful,innovative cooking filters down,bringing new techniques and flavor combinations to the restaurant biz,and to the home cook.I'm not going to get into arguments about what good and successful are,thank you....that's for greater minds here

Well,I got it in the mail yesterday;went through it last night,and tried again today-there isn't much there there,considering the weight of the damn thing.Guess I can't go to their celebration party this Tuesday...

In general,I've found the new restaurant issue to be a big nothing,with too many fat adverts to wade through,and not much to read.The problem that I have with advertisement heavy magazines is that the graphics and visuals of the ads overwhelm the articles,and make it hard to really train my attention on them.I don't give much of a damn about lists,and the 100 whatever they were weren't of much interest...

Pearl is my favorite lunch place in N.Y., bar none,and I usually go for the Lobster roll,a glass of white wine,and the atmosphere....it is consistent,and always wonderful.

The companies that make the bases also sell a lot of flavored pastes,crunchy stuff,etc.-there is room for customization,and the utilization of real fruit,nuts,etc.

I admit it,I haven't;I saw that their pistachio was a screaming green color,which indicates either lots of paste,or food coloring,and I distrusted their product immediately.Real pistachio is a light brown color.I will stop in soon,I promise.

Il Bussola-no.They are using the same bases as Il Gelatone,and they are good,but not memorable.Once again,real artisinal gelati are impossible to find here,and are becoming ever more scarce in Italy as well.

The cleanest infusion for coffee ice cream is to crush A LOT of well roasted beans into a hot base to infuse.I strain it,then add a little white chocolate after doing the anglaise to smooth out the flavor a bit.There's no powdery mouth feel from grounds in the finished product.For the best cinammon,roast a LOT of cinammon sticks,and infuse into a hot base-no powdery finish,and lots of flavor....

It's difficult to brown butter in small amounts-it can go to black butter very quickly...If you can do a pound,you can chill and reserve the butter,and slowly melt it when you need more.For extra flavor,add some vanila bean and star anise to the pot.Brown butter will smell wonderful when it is cooked to the right point..

It can be difficult to grind nuts with home machines without releasing too much oil,which can make a sticky mess.If you grind nuts with some of the other dry ingredients in a recipe,you will do better.Good financiers are made with brown butter.I have a good chocolate/nut financier recipe somewhere,if you want it...