Cooking Articles

School Jitters

I will never forget my first day of cooking school. I was an absolute nervous wreck. It was a very hot August morning as I made my way through the streets of SoHo dragging my big bag containing my uniform,...

BBQ From the Crockpot to the Grill

Inspired by a recent trip up to Harlem for some barbecue at a place called Dinosaur Barbecue, “a genuine honky tonk rib joint” (and also a new branch of the original renowned Syracuse location), I...

Noodles to Last a Lifetime

I was chatting with some friends the other day about what we would want to have if we were stuck on a desert island and could only eat a few foods for the rest of our lives. This all started when we were...

Jealousy gripped my stomach and took hold of my taste buds when my boyfriend told me he was headed to Wild Ginger this past week. Memories of my last meal at this highly regarded Seattle eatery flooded...

Lessons In Cooking, From My Grandmother

“You spend too much time thinking about food and wine.” This is what my grandmother said to me as she drove me to meet the Marin Airporter at the end of the summer I lived with her. I didn’t really...

Just back from an amazing two week trip to South Africa, I came home with a lot of extra stuff. Thanks in part to the unexpectedly fantastic food and an inability to go on five-mile runs when one is in...

Behind every great chef is usually a great woman. It can be no coincidence that when asked their inspiration for cooking, so many great male and female chefs will cite a mother or a grandmother. Stereotypical...

It was just a few days ago when my daughter was putting some dishes away after a small family get-together (and standing up on a stool putting away some rarely-used large platters and bowls), when she...

Time for the Wednesday Teen Gourmet again. The neat thing about this menu is that I’m the one who gets to decide what the teenage chef is going to be cooking. Just in time for Mother’s Day too. Not...

In some ways, everything I know about eating my mother taught me. Like most people, it was my mother who brought the first food to my mouth. She started with breast milk and as I grew, she slowly introduced...

Now that spring has truly sprung here in the northeast, my daughter joyously picks blooms and green sprigs, often surprising me with fistfuls of colorful wild-growing violets, dandelion and bittercress....

Spring is a lovely time of year for many reasons. One reason is that, unlike the “holiday season” where big events pile up back-to-back, post-Easter brings a bit of a lull in festivities until the...

Mother’s Day falls this Sunday and it’s time to honor the woman who raised you. If you are still puzzled over the best way to make your mom feel special and pampered on her day, then I have a couple...

I feel as though I am always writing about the importance of inspiration when deciding what to cook for dinner. Sometimes it is as simple as a vegetable on the verge of spoiling that demands to be cooked...

Mother’s Day is said to be the busiest day of the year for restaurants. Is taking Mom out your way to say “thank you” too? Yet is there a chance you—or she—would appreciate something different...

As a food writer, it is not uncommon for people to make requests of me for recipes. It is not often however, that I get the same request from different people within a matter of days as I did this past...