NeroW

Fer-de-lance? Like the book?

Thank you Malawry. Also, thank you very much for your cooking school diary. I start in May at the Cordon Bleu and I am extremely nervous. Reading your adventures has made me feel much better! Thanks forever.

Here in Kalamazoo, MI we have our share of dive bars. An ex-boyfriend and I made a list and promised ourselves that we would explore them all. After several weekends of mastering such places as the "Ko-zee Inn" and the "Green Top," we discovered one next to the prison called the "Duck In Waddle Out." It's a cinderblock building with no windows. The sign is quite cute--a little duck with a top hat and cane. We walked in the door. My boyfriend took one look at the place, turned to me, and said: "this was a bad night for me to wear sandals." They wouldn't serve us. It may have been the sandals.

Thank God for this thread! I borrowed some pie plates from a friend of mine who is vegan. Strict. My mother told me it was rude and horrible to return food containers without food in them, so . . . I'd like to bake her pies, but how? How ? Anyone know any dairy-free pie crust recipes or have any experience with this? Can I substitute the soy spread product for cold butter? I would truly appreciate any tips, or if anyone knows any vegan baking books?

I do a pork tenderloin with roasted-like pears and a sauce that has Buttershots in it (among other things). My friends like any food that has booze in it, to them, this is novel--and they get to drink the rest of the bottle. I also do quite a lot of gravlax for the construction guys at work. They brought back several sides of salmon for me a few years ago after a fishing trip, and now I am inundated with the stuff.

I have read quite a bit of Gastronomica and I truly love it. I want to be a food writer and this is the magazine to read when I become discouraged with myself. If you like thought-provoking writing about food, Gastronomica is worth a shot.

This is my opinion, since we were asked. I frequent the website epicurious.com, an affiliate of Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines. Many of the forums and user reviews on that site lately have expressed disappointment with Gourmet magazine in particular--I believe there was an editorial change recently? Personally I subscribe to Food & Wine, Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Cook's Illustrated, and Gastronomica. I find myself more and more drawn away from Gourmet--it is ad-heavy, the recipes do not always make sense and the cost to the cook of preparation and time for some of their recipes is frankly astronomical. Food & Wine, in my opinion, has more for your money. Gourmet is a beautiful looking magazine, but I did not renew my subscription this year. Plus, you can get all the recipes for free on epicurious.com, often before you get the magazine in the mail. Why buy the cow?

This weekend I was beginning to freak out about the impending start of culinary school, so my boyfriend suggested that we page through my mother's Julia Child books to make myself feel better. In "The Way To Cook," he came upon a statement that he found hilarious. Julia writes that a child should learn to prepare and serve a whole fish, especially trout, as soon as the child takes to knife and fork, as this is a "fantastic way for them to begin to have pride in themselves and their abilities." I laughed out loud, and I did feel better . . . but not much Personally, when I first started cooking, I was recipe-driven, and afraid to deviate. I still browse recipes, but more for ideas than anything else. Rarely will I adhere to one, except for the ancient family preparations that I would be flayed for messing with--lutefisk comes to mind. I appreciate magazines such as "Cook's Illustrated" for deconstructing the more complicated preparations--Beef Wellington, boeuf bourguignon, and the like--as Chris Kimball and his staff do an excellent job of making their recipes fool-proof and accessible through what must be exhaustive testing.

Jonathan Day-- I would rather cook for myself almost all of the time. I am a control freak. I like to stick my face into the pan. I don't like to put anything in the oven, the microwave, or even into a covered pot; I have to sit on my hands to restrain myself from constant prodding and poking. I am 23 years old and almost flat broke. What money I have not already earmarked for culinary school, I spend on food. It is perhaps this that makes me prefer my own cooking, I can't afford to dine out, and here in Kalamazoo, MI, we don't have much going for us other than chain restaurants geared towards the large college population. Diners should be active. When I cook for people, which is as often as I can possibly afford to, 2-3 times a week, most of them are very interested in what I am doing and want to help. If I politely refuse their help, and try to shoo them out, they still linger in the (tiny apartment) kitchen, drinking too much wine and asking questions. Among my friends there are few cooks--indeed, most of us are college students who live on Ramen-noodle-budgets and none of us are anywhere near as erudite or knowledgable as the people who frequent this website. I feel outclassed posting here. I hope that starting culinary school in May will broaden my circle of friends, but as it stands, in the past year or so, there has been an informal group of us who eat together in my kitchen, drink wine together, and naturally, spend time talking about food. These are business and creative writing and television production students, rock musicians, graffiti artists, and substitute teachers. These are frat boys and barhoppers. These are most definitely not "foodies." Yet I've noticed they want to have a role in what they are eating. They want to chop, stir, and lately, they want to shop for ingredients. Something is rubbing off on them: I heard one boy correctly answer the following Trivial Pursuit question at a party--"what is the ingredient in hot peppers that packs the punch?" This is the same boy who has nothing in his cupboards but macaroni and barbecue chips.

Tenderloin, bearnaise, and "bistro" fries. And wine. And apple pie with cheddar cheese. Celebrating boyfriend's successful rock and roll gig and my acceptance to French culinary school. For breakfast, had tenderloin again. And Bloody Marys. And pie. Will sleep now.

Malawry (and others): My name is Liz and I am new to egullet, but can already see that I will spend too much time here. I am starting at a Le Cordon Bleu school in May of '03, after leaving what would be a perfectly sound career as an elementary school teacher. It is great to read your adventures in cooking school and it eases my mind about the major decision I am making. Thank you!