My Take On The Toque

You know, I am going to own up to something right here and right now: I utterly loathe and despise the toque, which is the proper name of the classic chef’s hat. Whether it is tall and straight sided with a bazillion pleats which mythically refer to the number of ways a proper chef knows […]

What’s So Special About Dinner Specials?

One of the best parts of working as a chef is coming up with dinner specials.
It can also be one of the worst parts of being a chef.
On the one hand, it is a creative process, and that is always a good thing. Chefs like to flex their culinary imaginations, they like to […]

Singapore Rice Noodles: Noodles+Curry+Wok=Delicious

These noodles did not originate in Singapore.
Or, at least, that is what I am told. They are Cantonese in origin, possibly from Hong Kong, and they were first very popular in European Chinese restaurants. They made it to the US sometime in the 1980’s and spread through the Chinese-American restaurants to the point where […]

My Pet Peeve: Picky People

So, I had a few extra moments to myself today–a rare commodity these days–and decided to try and catch up on what’s happening in foodblogland. I only got to look at a couple of my favorite blogs, but one entry at one blog jumped out at me and made me want to jump up and […]

Making Stock: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Warning!
This post contains photographs of a graphic nature. If you are too squeamish to want to look at where your food comes from, if you cannot abide meat that looks like it came from an animal, then stop reading, move along and don’t look any further, because some of these photographs depict in graphic […]