When I told my wife I was writing a column about buying cheese, she said, “What’s to know? You just go out and buy it, right?” Unfortunately, the cheese explosion of the past decade or so has created the enviable dilemma of more cheese– in volume, variety and quality—than ever…
I think I may have mentioned a few dozen times that Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite meal to cook. It’s the ultimate comfort meal but still allows a great deal of creativity. Since my wife and I have no children and our siblings all live hundreds of miles away, gathering…
Ohio has been getting a lot of attention of late. As a pivotal swing state in the presidential election, both campaigns and a lot of press have been spending a great deal of time in the Buckeye State. Candidates eat hot dogs at fairs and drink beer at VFW halls.…
Busman’s holidays are common for chefs and often productive. Three years ago, while vacationing in Italy, Marc Vetri and his wife Megan “went nuts” over a celery and puntarella salad with anchovy dressing at a restaurant in Rome. Vetri decided that he had to duplicate it for Amis, one of…
If you have ever watched a Samurai epic, you know that Japanese warriors pay a great deal of attention to their swords. That same attention has gone into the making of Japanese kitchen knives. Sales of Japanese-made knives have “skyrocketed” in the past 10 to 15 years, according to Jeremy…
Of the 52 Italian cheeses listed on the web site of Cambridge, Mass retailer Formaggio Kitchen (www.formaggiokitchen.com), 23 are from Piedmont. “Every town produces the most amazing cheeses,” says owner Ihsan Gurdal, who describes Piedmont cheeses as “much more refined than any other area of Italy.” The cheeses may be…