Seduction on a Plate: Fraises a l’Aziz

Inspiration for a new dish often strikes me in odd moments.
Some flavor combinations come to me in dreams, if you can believe that.
Others lay in wait in my subconscious mind and pop out in the midst of a conversation about an unrelated topic.
The kernel of the idea for this appetizer, which consists […]

Affordable Luxury: Cream of Asparagus Soup With Cardamom and Chives

There are few foods more luxurious than a velvety cream soup. The cream not only gives the soup its incredible mouthfeel, which is decadently intense bordering upon sinful, but it also boosts the flavors of the main ingredients because, as we should all know by now, fat carries flavor.
When your soup is based upon […]

Green Salad with Chevre, Black Walnuts, Apples and Pomegranate Vinaigrette

This very picturesque salad was a collaborative effort between Morganna and I, and it typifies all that I believe a salad should be–a beautiful combination of flavors, color, textures and aromas which beguile the senses while retaining an essential simplicity of presentation which is still lyrically aesthetic.
I made the dressing, and came up with […]

A Basic Saucemaker’s Skill: Making A Roux

Before I ever went to culinary school, I knew how to make a roux.
I didn’t learn it at my mother’s knee, or at my grandmother’s stove; rather I learned it from Julia Child, but I learned it, and learned it well, nonetheless, such that folks always wondered why my gravies, pan sauces and stews […]

Early Autumn Soups for Baby and Everyone Else

Now that Kat is a year old, she is eating less and less “baby food,” and pretty much eats either a ground up or minced or chopped up version of what we are eating, particularly for dinner. Her breakfast is still oatmeal with fruit and yogurt, and for lunch she tends to have some of […]