ideefixe

I think Ruth is heavily influenced by Outside--hence the coffee grower story. Outside has a heavy influence within the mag., biz. I like most of the pieces, but I loathe the Sterns whose only interest seems to be big portions. But I was disgusted that in the "Salute to Italy" issue, the best home cook in Rome was some skinny American who paints precious little water colors. I'd say they have little to no newstand revenue. But their ad pages are decent, and that's what pays the bills.

The Getty has great food. At the Smithsonian, you want to eat at the members' dining room in the Castle.

I love the Trader Joe's imported Italian thin pizzas. The 4 cheese is better than the 3 cheese and I don't like the vegetable one as much as the others. But, they've got a good crisp crust, and the sauce and cheese are real.

When I was a bodybuilder I ate tons of Chunky, but only the health food store type. I can't bear Jif and Skippy. Icky. Now, I still eat Laura Scudder with jalapeno jelly, but I still won't eat the grocery store stuff. It's got other oils, corn syrup and probably soy.

Hre's why it shouldn't be fawning: Alice Waters started a food revolution amoung rich people in this country. Whenever she's tried to influence any other group, she hasn't made any impact. The ill-starred Oakland food program is a good example. While I don't expect PBS American Masters to be a hachet job, I think that proving balance and some explanations might be a good plan. Her relationships with growers is a good thing--but while France provides heavy government subsidies to small famers, in this country Agribusiness gets the breaks and many family farms go under. Never mind that most family farmers are sneered at by the PBS/Chez Panisse crowd (See Bob Kerry's ad for the New School that ran in an Omaha high school paper.) The snob factor was very high with this show. I loathe that same snobbism in the food community.

I though it was very well done, but definantly fawning. As her school lunch program in Oakland tanked, the producers must have finished before that happened. I thnk she's wonderful, but living a rarified life.

My 16 year old will eat anything now and feels he's on his way to becoming the World's Greatest Curry Expert, but for years and years, he ate only white food. Plain rice, plain pasta, oatmeal, bread, bananas and chicken. After a while, I stopped struggling, fixed him what he wanted while we ate real dinner, and surprse! He started trying more and more things and the rest is history. His little sister ate everyting since she started on solids. There's no positive point in getting emotionally invested in what a kid chooses to eat. And I love hot pepper jelly with peanut butter. Indian lime pickle is good with cottage cheese, too.

ANd white popcorn beats the yellow, to my mouth.

I think this has more to do with cinematic shorthand. Cartons of food can mean "late night, working session" or "urban gal or guy on the go, too busy to cook" or "harassed mom, too stressed to cook". Like full ashtrays next to a Remington typewriter used to be used to show a journalist on deadline. Dirty plates don't convey the same thing, nor do crumpled fast food wrappers (unless they're product placement).

LA Serenita di Garibaldi is heavy on Mexican seafood and the accompaning sauces. La Serenata de Garibaldi is at 1842 E. First St., (323) 265-2887. It's in Boyle Heights, and is moderately close to downtown. The food is great and it's not like anything back home.

But aren't there any number of "Father's Office" "The Library", Your Sister's Place joints? So you can truthfully say you were at the Library, when you get home late. And there's an Oarhouse in Bozeman. Montana, too.

And yet I love home cooks. My local paper, the LA Times, used to have a sporatic series on Great Home Cooks, but now the food section is really the Nancy Silverton tribute section.

To get back to the original poster, I think you also have to know your audince. I've made and given truffles for years, for Christmas, teacher gifts,etc. and I've found a goodly number of folks who really don't want their choccies to be as bittersweet and, uh, rich, as I like them. I prefer Valrhona but I've had great responses from people when I used the Guittard. I'm not trying to open up a snob war, but if "pearls before swine" is too harsh, at least some people just have a different taste in chocolate than I do.

I posted this before, but after my husband the chef saw Mostly Martha, he told me he felt like he's worked a double. Impaling the raw steak on the table was a dream come true for him, though. My personal favorite is Christmas in Connecticut.

ranitidine--People eat in Scorsese's movies--and his mom cooked her own food for the scene in Wiseguys, where the guys borrow the knife for the deer. Food's huge for Scorsese and he talks about it a great deal in a number of interviews. Eating is emotional in his films, but not always comedic. Although Jodie Foster's Iris and her sugar binge is pretty great. And after seeing Chocolat, I just had to make a whole bunch of chocolates. I had submitted a proposal to produce the DVD, and had included recipes, but I didn't get the gig, alas. My husband , after seeing Mostly Martha, an admitted chick-flick, he felt like he'd been at work.