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Spring is synonym with a lot of great produce like peas, asparagus and morels but let’s not forget the tender stalks of rhubarb that are at their best right now. Here’s a variation on Bouchon bakery rhubarb bars, they are essentially sugar & grenadine-cured rhubarb stalks baked in a brown butter filling on top of [...]
The Liège waffle (or gaufre as we call them in Europe) is made with a yeast dough instead of batter and is dotted with bits of caramelized sugar, and is not, under any circumstance to be confused with Belgian waffles. Never, ever. That would make a whole lot of people angry. Everyone agrees they are [...]
Hello friends and happy new year! To jump start the year here’s a recipe using the best-of-the-season. Yup. Every element in this fresh, clean-tasting, cool weather salad are at their best right now. From the bottom-up you’ve got fresh stone crab tossed with olive oil and lemon juice, celery rémoulade enlivened with capers, cornichons and [...]
This is a variation on the Tuna Pizza I made a while ago and it was inspired by my old favorite dish at Nobu restaurant, the Hamachi-Jalapeño sashimi. Your Italian grandma’ will strongly disagree with the “pizza” part and might even slap you for it, but it’s worth the risk. It’s a disk of flour [...]
If you believe the Mayan calendar, the end of the world is near. In about three weeks… err. Okay.. What I’m getting at is that you’ll need all the excuses you can find to make this chocolate cake. Most importantly you need to embrace that “who cares about the calories anyway!” attitude. It’s outrageous, delicious [...]
This simple Ligurian lemon cake with a light olive taste and a soft texture is a favorite of mine. I love it even more topped with a toasted Swiss meringue which I changed from the original Pierre Hermé recipe because it’s more stable than a regular meringue (in case you want to leave the cake out [...]
The old-fashioned quiche has been a bit forgotten. Not that it really ever went out of style in France, and home cooks still do make them there but it’s regarded as rather ordinary. The one I love the most is the high-crusted quiche with slightly crinkly top you buy by the slice in good bakeries. [...]
Pfeww. What a week this has been. I will spare you the details but while hurricane Sandy was raging outside I took the time to organize food photos I’ve taken over the past year or so. At least that’s what I did until we lost power but that’s another story. I came across this dish [...]
Takoyaki is a ball-shaped Japanese dumpling so good a planet was even named after it. I wanted to recreate this popular street snack ever since I visited Osaka and Kyoto, where it’s originally from. I’ve never forgot about it. I have a lousy memory except for tasty foods to the point I’m able to forget [...]
With temperatures cooling and days getting shorter, the fall season is upon us. People are enjoying the crisp days of autumn but also spending more time in the warmth of the kitchen. With all this coziness in the air one might be inclined to procrastinate but I remembered what Master Yoda once said: “brush up [...]
This dish was inspired by a photo Wandering Eater took a few month back at a cooking demo by Paul Liebrandt. New Yorkers know him as a culinary wunderkind for his unique but precise style of cooking at Corton. The dish in question was a sous-vide egg with a white asparagus velouté and crispy parmesan. [...]
I’m baaack and let me begin this post by saying that if you want to make this recipe you must be a little mad. This popular cake at Momofuku Milk Bar is so labor intensive that even they stopped selling it by the slice. Yes, the Milk Bar banana cake is delicious and it lives up [...]
Zucchini blossoms, the golden flowers on the end of baby zucchini are one of the nicest things about summer. So bright yellow they almost look orange, they are nearly irresistible to farmers market shoppers. Yet it seems many people don’t know what to do with them once they’ve bought them. They’re great simply coated with [...]
This is an interesting and delicious variation on cheesecake, a recipe by pastry wiz Pierre Hermé in his latest book “Pastries”. The base is made with a sweet pastry dough turned into a powder and used like the Graham crackers crumbs of New York cheesecake, it’s topped with a pistachio cheesecake layer which is baked [...]
After a weeklong fight against a bad cold I’m beginning to feel human again. I followed the instructions from my doctor and took antibiotics but ultimately I think that it’s this large bowl of Vietnamese beef pho’ that did more for my well-being than any prescription drugs. Maybe I have too much imagination but I [...]
The apricot experience starts in late May and ends in July and anyone trying to find them when they are neither too hard nor too soft – but just right – may have trouble. It’s the familiar story of fruit that is at its best when tree ripened but which rarely comes to market in [...]
This is a popular dessert in Hong-Kong that consists of a chilled mango-coconut soup filled with tapioca pearls and topped with shards of pomelo and chunks of fresh sweet mango. I added my own little twist by flavoring the mango-coconut soup with Kaffir lime leaves (mango plays well with lime) and added cubes of sweet [...]
I blogged about pea pancakes in the past but this is a different recipe that I like even better. These little green giants are really delicious. You can top them with smoked salmon and sunny side-up eggs and you’ll have a fine brunch dish, a miniature version with quail egg makes an impressive amuse-bouche, or [...]
In Emilia Romagna and Tuscany, lasagna is comfort food, made with layers upon layers of pasta, Ragù alla Bolognese and béchamel sauce, and an abundant dusting of grated cheese before it goes into the oven. So whenever there’s a desperate need for comfort food that calls for a drastic remedy, well, there you have it. [...]
White asparagus is simply good old green asparagus that has been covered with soil to keep sunlight (and green chlorophyll-producing photosynthesis) away from the ripening spears. It’s in the ground they develop their unique delicate flavor. The spears are then harvested before their tips break through the surface. The farmers must keep a close watch [...]
If this pizza looks familiar it’s because it was made from leftovers from my last post. My point? You can put anything on a pizza. Let me repeat that. You can put anything on a pizza. How dare he put anything on a pizza!? The pizza police might issue a warrant for my arrest but in [...]
Last week I was at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia and came across some beautiful farm eggs at an Amish farmer stand. Of course I couldn’t resist buying a dozen because common sense tells me to always trust a white-bearded farmer wearing hat and suspenders. The thing is, with good eggs, there’s not too [...]
One word. Butter. And lots of it. One of the thing I miss the most about living in Paris is the smell of freshly baked breads and pastries coming out of bakeries early in the morning. For a long time the smell of toasted butter from the boulangerie downstairs was my alarm clock right around [...]
Confit preparations originated as a means of preserving meats without the use of refrigeration. The centuries-old process of making duck confit hasn’t evolved much for the simple reason that our ancestors realized it would be dumb to try to improve upon something that’s already perfect. And dumb it would have been. The biggest improvement is [...]
I’ve always been a big fan of octopus “a la plancha” with smoked paprika served in tapas bar across Spain. I also had my fair share of bad octopus experiences in the past but to be honest octopus can be a real pain in the [insert body part] to cook. I had good luck cooking [...]
It could be that ripe mangoes are the perfect fruit but it rarely crosses my mind to enjoy them any other way than with bare hands. I do like a good mango lassi on occasions but there are so many other possibilities from compote and chutneys to more savory preparations. Today I used them in [...]
I was left with only scraps from the truffle I used for this over-the-top sponge cake and those luxurious scallops in puff pastry so what better use for those precious bits than a truffled mac & cheese? Building this simple and gratifying dish on dried pasta is fine, but please don’t let the cheese be [...]
I often find myself daydreaming about coconut trees and white sand beaches so when the thought of Ile Flottante came up it’s no surprise I couldn’t resist giving it a tropical facelift. I’m usually not a fan of microwave ovens but I’ll do an exception today. I’ll show you a great way to make perfect [...]
The best sea scallops are on the markets roughly at the same time with black truffles so it only makes sense that they appear together in the same dish. Scallops in black tie – a clever combination of scallops, black truffles, spinach and puff pastry – was made famous by my old boss Daniel Boulud [...]
It’s hard to find a chef more accomplished than Eric Ripert. His restaurant Le Bernardin has received four stars from The New York Times, three stars from the Michelin Guide and ranks 18 on the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. You can also find him on his TV show “Avec Eric”, on numerous [...]
A few weeks ago, Tina of Wandering Eater talked about an advanced copy of Pierre Hermé new book “Pastries” she received. I didn’t even know that Pierre Hermé was coming out with a new book so, my curiosity spiked, I begged to get a glimpse of it. After failing to get a preview copy from [...]
If you think you’ve seen this before, you’re absolutely right. I originally posted this recipe in 2008 and the old photo is still in regular rotation in the banner. I’m re-posting this recipe today to talk about a little technical issue. Ready? I deleted by mistake a whole bunch of photos that were hosted on [...]
Iconic restaurants never die. One of them is Jamin, which I had the chance to visit while I was attending cooking school in Paris. At the time, Joel Robuchon’s Jamin was recognized as one of the best restaurant in the world, and one of the most feared kitchen to enter. I remember some dishes from [...]
Like many chefs, what I crave on a day off is the comfort of a simple roast chicken. However, in this blog you probably noticed we aren’t in the business of keeping it that simple, are we? Stuffing it under the skin is a great way to infuse more flavor into a chicken while keeping [...]
I had the nice surprise to be selected for the ‘Site we Love’ feature of SAVEUR magazine this month. Amazing! You can read my interview here. Thank you all for all your good words. I was going to post a different recipe today but I figured we need to celebrate with something sweet that everybody [...]
I was cleaning up some old photos on my hard drive when I realized I posted this scallop crudo a while ago as part of project food blog but I never wrote a recipe for it. Crudo in general don’t need recipe since it consists of the freshest seafood money can buy with a squeeze [...]
When Pierre Hermé calls a recipe “Nutella tart” you can assume it’s a little bit more involved than just scooping Nutella out of a jar and into a tart crust. His version consists of a layer of Nutella topped with a chocolate ganache and toasted hazelnuts in a rich tart shell, the tart is then [...]
I wanted to take a “Modernist” approach to short ribs but while keeping the robust flavors of a traditional braisé. So this recipe is a mix of Nathan Myrhvold 72 hours sous-vide short ribs and my own concoction. I normally would soak the short ribs overnight in a mixture of aromatic vegetables, herbs and red [...]
Does the world really need another food gallery site? The answer is YES! of course. If you’re a regular visitor of this site you probably noticed a little icon on the top left corner that says “Check Out Zenspotting”. I decided to create Zenspotting because I thought it would be interesting to have a space [...]
This is where Thai curry meets chicken pot pie to create one of my most favorite comfort food. I always thought of the flavor combination of lemongrass, galangal and Kaffir lime – the building blocks of Thai cooking- as a concoction made in heaven. It’s simply and utterly perfect. When you add chicken to it [...]
Don’t you love to find leftovers in the refrigerator and turn them into tasty little morsels? That’s what happened a few days after I made the sous-vide pork belly. There was a nice chunk of it I forgot all about hidden between a quart of milk, a head of lettuce and some brioche dough from [...]
You absolutely read the title of this post right. It’s not a crêpe, it’s not a soufflé – it’s a combination of the two. And this might be the best dessert you’ll have all year. This fantastic recipe came all the way from Claude Troisgros restaurant in Rio de Janeiro (the son of the famed [...]
Northern Italians traditionally eat this rich and delicious garlic sausage with lentils for New Year’s Eve dinner to bring prosperity and luck. The lentils represent the coins soon to befall all who consume the dish within an hour of midnight, so it’s with this in mind that I would like to wish you all a [...]
This is a little experiment I did at home the other day. There has been a lot of chatter among chefs on which temperature and how long to cook pork belly to get the ultimate texture. Heston Blumenthal recommends cooking it sous-vide for 36-hours at a temperature of 144′F (62′C) while Nathan Myrvhold in Modernist [...]
I had a piece of Alaskan King salmon belly left from the salmon tartare cornets I made the other day, so I placed it in a mixture of maple syrup and dark soy sauce and left it to cure for 24 hours. The next day I cooked it sous-vide at 50′ C for 15 minutes [...]
I think I could live on bite-sized food alone. I don’t know if it’s because you can enjoy a wide variety of food without the formality of a sit down dinner or the fact you can have your own portable feast while hiding in a corner, but something makes amuse-bouche really appealing to me. These [...]
Back in 2006 I was partner in an avant-garde dessert bar called “Room 4 Dessert” in New York. It was a molecular think-tank for people with a sweet tooth and while it didn’t always run smoothly it was a very interesting experience for all of us involved. We didn’t have what it took to turn [...]
I recently received an email from someone who had almost a nervous breakdown from having to make a simple lasagna for a family gathering. There was nail bitting and tears which is exactly the opposite of what I’m trying to teach on this blog. It made me realize that simple recipes that I take for [...]
I haven’t been to Morimoto in a while but I remember one of the best appetizers I tried was a “tuna pizza” with tuna sashimi, jalapeño, red onion, olives and an anchovy aioli atop a crisp, thin flour tortilla. Rather to go back and pay the hefty price I figured out how to make it [...]
I can’t think of a name for this dessert so I need you to imagine a finely broken-up caramelized gaufrette fan wafer sandwiched between a luscious gianduja mousse, a chocolate brownie and cocoa powder. Does it sound delicious enough? Feuilletine are flakes of Brittany lace crepes that are commonly used is chocolate and hazelnut desserts in [...]
