Author: CuisineWriter
Frederik Henry Harvey
The Harvey House Concept Frederick Henry Harvey was appalled by the conditions travelers endured in the United States as compared to his home country, England, where there was a long tradition of hospitality on the roads. So, he developed a restaurant that would provide a respectable, comfortable place for travelers to enjoy their meals, and […]
The Very Basics of French Sauces
Photo by jules:stonesoup Sauces are, of course, a crucial element of French cuisine, and the French cook can recreate the canon of sauces from a limited set of techniques and ingredients. Here’s a quick run down of some very basic sauce-stuff: Basic French Sauce Descriptions Béarnaise: A relative of hollandaise, béarnaise is a reduction of […]
The Basics of French Regional Cooking
Photo by The British Library French cooking can be split and grouped along geographical lines. Each region of France has it’s own distinct style of cooking along with regional ingredient and recipes. Even the way a french meal is eaten and at what time can vary from place to place. Here is our fast guide […]
French Cuisine
Despite a common pan-gallic chauvinism, French cooking is not a monolith: it ranges from the olives and seafood of Provence to the butter and roasts of Tours, from the simple food of the bistro to the fanciful confections of the Tour d’Argent. However, it all shares a seriousness about food. Throughout the country, French cooking […]
On the Best Foie Gras
Photo by acme “We grade all foie gras in three groups,” said M. Barbuer. “Extra are the best one. They go into whole blocks of foie gras naturel, the finest, most expensive variety. People in your country always confuse it with Pâté de Foie Gras and Crème de Foie Gras, for which we sometimes use the […]
Coriander
The name coriander does not signify one thing — it represents a seed, a leaf and a powder used in Central America, South America, all of Asia, the Mediterranean basin, the Southwest of the United States, and in any menu that replicates the flavors of one or all of these regions. Coriander-the-leaf is also known as […]
The History of Chocolate
A Chocolate Timeline It’s almost impossible to believe it now, but for most of its very long history, chocolate was not something people ate. It was a beverage, and not only was that beverage rarely hot, it was usually not sweet. Once the Spanish arrived in the New World and began to survey the riches […]
The Wide World of Chiles
Chilli Pepper Photo by pixel2013 You could not count the number of chiles — fresh and dried, pickled and ground — that greet you when you enter a Mexican market center. The chile is ancient — evidence in Mexico traces it back to 3500 BCE. In the 16th century, the Portuguese explorers brought these fiery […]
Alfred Portale
The relationship between form and content is one that artists working in every medium must come to terms with, and cooking is no exception. Alfred Portale, once a jewelry designer, now an American uber-chef, completely revolutionized modern food presentation when he built a lettuce salad that literally towered above the rest. With each verdant leaf […]
Chef Gray Kunz
Subtle is not a word one would use to describe the menu at Lespinasse, Gray Kunz’s four-star restaurant in the St. Regis Hotel. With its seemingly flagrant use of Asian, Middle Eastern, and Indian ingredients (white beans, mung bean, pink lentil and spiced leek emulsion) and bizarre sounding juxtapositions (like watermelon and tomato fondue), outlandish […]