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A Recipe for Time

Maybe it’s my age. Perhaps technology and rapid processors are to blame. But days–like slick egg whites passing through my fingers as I separate out the yolks—disappear now, leaving me with nothing but solid month markers to score their departure.  February, becomes March. April turns to May. May will soon be June.

Computers crunch information. Twitter feeds give news (and musings) the moment it happens. Google offers micro-second answers. Video chats replace old-fashioned phone calls and day trips. The library reduces hours and librarians sells old hard covers for pennies to pay the bills. Mom buys an organic frozen meal in the microwave and calls it dinner.

What’s happening to us?

I step into the kitchen and scan my shelves for answers. There’s a loaf of bread. A box of pasta. A bag of rice. The cooler holds radishes, kale, and slippery pods of fava beans. What’s for lunch? What do I have time to make?

Michael Ruhlman, a food-writing hero, recently hit the boiling point at the IACP conference after hearing one too many talking heads extol the virtues of cutting corners in the kitchen. Though I did not attend the Portland event, I was able to see the meltdown online via You Tube (see below). The panel’s talk turned to the need to make cooking easy for people and one speaker celebrated the idea that “pre-cooked” food items could get busy folk motivation to step up to the stove to cook.

Continue for more and a Simple Radish Recipe »

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Service 101: Where (Not) to Eat on Mother’s Day

Looking for a great place to eat out on Mother’s Day? Eat at home. Or, if you have your heart set on taking mom out for a nice meal, try something different and book a reservation at your favorite restaurant on the Friday or Saturday night BEFORE Mother’s Day. Please, for the sake of your family and your emotional well-being, do not take your mother out to a restaurant for Sunday Brunch on May 9th.

Because if you love your mom, you will want to stay as far away from Mother’s Day Brunch as possible.

I repeat, no matter how good any special, prix fixe menu may read, Mother’s Day brunch is a recipe for disaster.

I know there’s a lot of pressure to do something special on Mothers Day. Moms are, without a doubt, some of the most important people in the world. These influential women—the people that carried you in their womb and raised you—formed you into the person you are today, both literally and figuratively. But with the fact that everyone wants to take their mom out on the very same day at the very same part of the day sets everyone up for disappointment.

The Mother’s Day brunch guest is rarely happy

With three mothers (one mom, a step-mom, and a mom-in-law) and 15 plus years working in restaurants, I feel qualified to give you the advice to eat out the night before. Why? Because according to one poll of restaurants, Mother’s Day is the busiest day of their year. Remember the chaos of that Valentine’s Night reservation? Mother’s Day is worse.

Valentine’s Day (the second most busy day of the year), reservations are hard to come by and customers–pumped up by high expectations for a meal that will prove their love–are jammed into as many spots as possible. In addition to tight reservation times, restaurant kitchens and service staff are pushed to the limit. Unfortunately, with expectations this high, it’s easy to walk away from this important meal disappointed.

Continue Reading on What to Expect from Mother’s Day Brunch »

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Spiced Caramel Corn Recipe

I blame Michael Ruhlman for my caramel corn craving. Back in January– soon after we met at Club Med’s Food Blog Camp—Ruhlman started a flurry of debate on Twitter on the merits of cooking popcorn in cold oil. Though I have never before craved popcorn of all things, I realized that my rather serious longing for a spicy caramel corn was not going to go away until I made some for myself.

Let’s just say I’ve made a number of batches since January. Thanks, Ruhlman.

Turns out, caramel corn is a tricky thing. Some recipes I tried were too sugary and encased my delicate corn puffs in sugary straight jackets. Others varied widely, depending on the type of sugar I used. I have tried several batches (and dispatched the leftovers to loved ones across the state so that I wouldn’t eat the entire thing myself), and have finally discovered the best recipe to fullfill for my need for spiced (i.e. cinnamon and nutmeg spiced), caramel corn.

Continue For an Easy Spicy Caramel Corn Recipe »

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National Food Blogger Bake Sale

On Saturday, April 17th, hundreds of food bloggers from across our country will combine baking talents for the first annual National Food Bloggers Bake Sale. This first annual fundraiser–part of the Great American Bake Sale–will give food lovers from Massachusetts to California the chance to buy treats from their favorite blogs and rais money to support of Share Our Strength’s efforts to end childhood hunger in America.

The event is the result of private chef and food blogger, Gaby Dalkin of WhatsGabyCooking.com.  Thanks to her organizational skills and clever ideas, this year’s nation wide food blogging bake sale promises to raise thousands of dollars to feed our country’s hungry children. Nearly 17 million—almost one in four—children in America face hunger. Despite the good efforts of governments, private-sector institutions and everyday Americans, millions of our children still don’t have daily access to the nutritious meals they need to live active, healthy lives.

Here in Los Angeles, some 50 food bloggers will team up to put together a notable collection of sweets for the bake sale. Hosted by the generous people at Morel’s French Bistro (a former employer) at The Grove, my friends and fellow bloggers like Gaby, Matt from Matt Bites, Erika from In Erika’s Kitchen, Rachel La Fuji Mama, and Esi from Dishing Up Delights will be on hand to talk about their baked sweets and their love of food.

If you live in LA, I look forward to seeing you there! I’ll be bringing the spiced caramel corn. Recipe to come soon!

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Easy Late-Night Ramen Recipe

easy late night food recipe

When you work in a restaurant you must be fast thinking, quick on your feet, a skilled multi-tasker, and able to ignore hunger for long periods of time. As a waiter, it’s your job to serve food, not eat it.

Unlike a traditional day job that allows for 30 or 60 minutes for lunch, most restaurant workers don’t get meal breaks. Though there may be a staff meal–a pile of something that’s cheap and easy to make–at the beginning or end of their shift, most restaurant workers are required to work without stop from late afternoon until midnight (or later).  Stopping for a bite of bread in some restaurants is an offense worthy of termination.

So when I finish work and the grip of hunger is too strong to deny, I ignore my desire to indulge in delicious high-fat foods (a double double at In-N-Out or poutine at Animal) and head straight home for a satisfying cup of noodles.

Continue Reading for a Fast and Easy Ramen Noodle Recipe »

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Touchstone Cookbooks

Betty Crocker Cookbook, an influential cookbook to generations of food lovers

Maybe it’s because I’m approaching a somewhat noteworthy age, but I choose to believe that perhaps the most significant of all my birthdays was my fifth. Why? My fifth birthday marked the day that my obsession with food (and food as an artform) was born when my mother gave me my first cookbook.

I was in the kitchen, watching my mother fuss with something in a drawer, when she gave me a copy of Betty Crocker’s Cookbook for Boys and Girls.

“Go sit at the table and look through the pictures,” she said. “Figure out what kind of cake you want for your birthday. Draw it for me.” I took to the challenge right away. I sped to the kitchen table, grabbed paper and wax crayons, and went to work. In between pages of subtle advertising, black print, and Gloria Kamen’s clever illustrations, I found vibrant color photos of party foods and ornate party cakes.

Even then I was a fool for clever food styling.

“Extra Special Drinks” for kids from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook

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A Luddite Gets Over Fear of Technology (and Baking)

Nissu, Chai Tea, Cardamom, Saveur Magazine recipe

I shouldn’t be so surprised by my fear of advanced food technology in my home kitchen. I come from a long line of starving artists that have—for generations—spent their money to pursue their art, rather than feather their home with modern gear. My people—the poet, the angry writer, the famous illustrator and writer, the sculptor, the painter, the silversmith—weren’t interested in a gourmet life. They were artists that ate what they could afford and stocked their kitchens with simple items like rolling pins and cast iron skillets, jelly jar glasses and chipped china

And so it is with me. I’ve built my life around writing and food, and yet my kitchen lacks any sign of modern gourmet trends. I don’t own a microwave or a food processor. I hand whip my whipped cream, muddle herbs with a mortar and pestle, and generally do things the old fashioned way.

It wasn’t until I decided to face two fears at once—baking and technology–that I was able to attempt to make Saveur Magazine‘s recipe for a traditional Finnish sweet bread, called Pulla, with my brand new (and untouched) KitchenAid. Even though I’ll be working at the restaurant this Easter/Passover weekend, I thought I should do some culinary celebrating before hand.

It’s fitting that it took a recipe reminiscent of my grandmother’s signature Finnish sweet bread to get me over my fear of the KitchenAid and pastry making.  Like me, she was a hard working artist and Luddite. But rather than relishing in the joys of cooking savory, she loved creating Finnish pastry, flaky pies, and fruit cobblers–all from the belly of a four-footed kettle stove that ran on firewood.The promise of freshly ground cardamom and the scent of freshly baked bread was the thing I needed to motivate me to up my game, embrace the “on” switch, and start baking.

Continue for Finnish Pulla Bread Recipe »

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Service 101: Just Because You’ve Traveled Outside the US Doesn’t Mean You Are an Expert on Restaurants

In every business there are a buzzwords that alert the expert in their field to a minefield of potential problems. When a director steps on set to hear the new actress declare she’s “been thinking about the script,” they gird themselves for a calculated conversation about character development, plot, and close ups. The late afternoon call from a panicked client to a PR agent that begins with “this will take just a minute,” is a red flag phrase that points to a conversation that will result in an even longer day.

And so it is in restaurants. Whenever I hear the words “I’ve eaten in restaurants all over the world,” I prepare myself for a diner who does not understand the guiding principles of the restaurant business. I adjust my approach for the sort of person who prefers to wallow in a shallow pool of knowledge rather than jump at the chance to try something unfamiliar.

Bottom line, when I hear I’ve eaten in restaurants all over the world I know that the person saying it is someone who is extremely uncomfortable in their environment.

Continue To Find Out What Kind of Diner You Are »

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Service 101: Why Restaurants and Diners Need Restaurant Critics

Clearly, food is big business. More and more people—big corporations and media groups—want in on the current obsession with food. The Huffington Post has food coverage, the Food Network is looking to expand to a double network, and CNN just added a dedicated branch of its online division to culinary news.

But as the power of the food as entertainment grows, the force of the critic recedes. Yesterday on Time’s online magazine, Josh Ozersky wrote about the fleeting life cycle of newspaper critics and warned food lovers that web site forums like Urban Spoon and Yelp minimize the power of the newspaper critic and threaten to end the lifespan of the professional food criticism.

What’s in it for the restaurants and the diners?

Read More to Find Out Why Critics Are Important… »

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A Healthy Granola Recipe = A Virtual Hug

I’ve been thinking a lot about a very special person in my life that’s about three thousands miles away from a great big hug I desperately need to give her. Bleak hours are the time for embraces, warm cups of tea, soft blankets, silly smiles, and gentle kisses. But my beloved friend is back home on the east coast, in a difficult bog that is so deep and wide I can feel its ripples hit the Pacific.

Since my life is built around food and its comforting pleasures, the one thing I long to do is cook a warm and satisfying meal for her. No shipping container can hold the moment of making a meal together. But a well-made care package that’s filled with healthy and tasty treats may be just the thing that I can do to offer some much-needed sustenance. Perhaps just a handful of happiness.

In hopes of finding a healthy recipe for a mail-friendly package, I turned to one of my new favorite cookbooks: Lucid Food. The author, Louisa Shafia, is a chef and caterer based in New York City; her cookbook is filled with recipes that celebrate the seasons and the idea that food should be sustainable for the planet and our bodies.

Continue for The Best Granola Recipe Ever »

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Raw Fish Revolution: A Recipe

The Italians call raw fish crudo and the Japanese, sashimi; even the Spanish have a word for their citrus soaked raw fish preparation, ceviche. But what is the word for the dishes that American chefs create with uncooked fish? Naked fish? Raw appetizers?

Here in LA, a broad range of award-winning chefs serve raw fish on their menus every night. There’s a a raw fish trend spreading through fine dining American restaurants, Baltimore fish joints, Cal-Euro bistros, and even Cal-Mex-Spanish fusion eateries. What’s so appealing about eating a barely adorned piece of raw fish? Simple. The fresh flavors of the sea mixed with oil, citrus, herbs, or salt is a wonderful way to engage the palate and awaken the appetite.

Though one must be careful when consuming raw or undercooked fish, a thinly sliced piece of fresh-from-the-sea fish prepared with a handful of ingredients is—without a doubt—an understated show stopper. I’ve sampled Chef Quinn Hatfield’s of Hatfield’s Restaurant’s version of crudo: fresh fluke that’s marinated in beet juice and finished with sea salt, oil, and micro-greens. I’ve gorged on raw fish at Hungry Cat with Chef David Lentz’s raw snapper on a puree of edamame with blood orange supremes and shiso leaves. The flavors of raw fish mixed with citrus, flavored oil, and salt results in delicate, poetic starters that leave me hungry (and inspired) for more.

Continue For an Easy To Make Crudo Recipe »

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Cook Like a Chef, Even if You Don’t Know One

Knowing where to look for culinary answers is key to cooking a great meal

Not every food lover has the opportunity to turn to a celebrated chef for help whenever they have a food question. That’s why I treasure the fact that my job as a server and bartender puts me in the proximity of some of the most chefs in Los Angeles.

Though I may not cook like an award-winning chef, I certainly want to. For that reason alone, I never take the blur of activity in the restaurant’s kitchen for granted. As I pass by the busy stoves on my way to the dining room, I snatch mental snapshots of the day’s prep: the way a prep cook measures out a perfect portion of pasta with a scale, how another slides his sharp knife through the belly of a fish, and the way a pastry cook zests a lemon with confident strokes.

Whether or not the brigade in chefs’ whites is aware, these men and women are my culinary mentors. When a recipe stumps me or a particular ingredient poses too much of a challenge, I bring my culinary conundrums to the people I trust the most. Because chefs know how dough should feel, the way to combine simple flavors and make them sing, just which spice will make a dish come alive, or how to thicken a sauce so it clings to a protein like a mist rolling over a hill.

Unfortunately, it seems like the moments when I truly need a chef’s expertise is when I’m alone at my home stove or at the farmers’ market with a head full of uncertainties.  Though I work for Nancy Silverton, I’m not about to call the busy chef with a question about lamb shanks*. So how does a home cook find their way in the kitchen? Here are five simple ideas to get you closer to cooking like a chef.

Continue For Five Tips to Get You Cooking Like a Chef »

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Service 101: So You Think You’re a Foodie

F, the new scarlet letter (for Foodie)

Nowadays, it seems like everyone is obsessed with food.  But just because you own a micro planer, have eaten at Momofuku, sip cult Cabernets, vacationed in Paris and Tuscany one summer, and stock three kinds of salt in your larder, doesn’t mean you’re an expert. According to Bruni in the New York Times yesterday one commenting critic* on Grub Street NY , self-titled foodies wear a badge “of unsophisticated douchery.”

So what if you like being a foodie? Does that mean you have to put up with being called douche bag?

Not if you learn a few basic rules. It’s when self-proclaimed Foodies throw around their new found knowledge at the restaurants, bars, and gourmet stores they visit, that problems come up. Amateur gourmets just shouldn’t play in the same sandbox with professional chefs without knowing a few rules. Whether you like it or not, you’ll end up looking like a sand-throwing toddler next to the big kids in chefs whites.

Continue For Rules All Foodies Should Know Before Dining Out »

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Service 101: Why You Shouldn’t Eat Out on Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, New Years, and Christmas Eve are calendar dates that mark a time when many Americans believe they must experience something extraordinary and enjoy a high level of pleasure. These are the nights when many people wish that their lovers could be more generous, family members were less annoying, life’s pressures could be forgotten, and they could be appreciated for their good taste.  Consequently, there are few nights that book faster in a restaurant than on these high-pressure holidays. Despite these hard economic times, lots of people would rather spend half their paycheck on dinner than get yelled at for making a bland/overcooked/disgusting meal on such an important night.

But on these four holidays, flawless food and impeccable service is not enough.

Though I am a server–a person that makes a living off of the tips and hourly wages I collect–I do believe that these high expectation holidays require careful planning and realistic goals. For this reason, I suggest diners stay home on these high-pressure nights, take control of the situation, and cook for themselves.

Continue To Find Out How To Have a Great Valentine’s »

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Food Blog Ethics in Columbia Journalism Review

It’s been nine months since my writing partner, Leah Greenstein, and I created Food Ethics and our controversial Food Blog Code of Ethics. In those months, much has happened here in the world of online food writing and criticism. The Federal Trade Commission has made it punishable by law for big (and little) companies to give money and gifts to bloggers without being transparent about it. One blog offers badges to denote a commitment to honesty and integrity. Blogs that once skirted the issue of freebies and comps, now openly state their affiliations, biases, and disclose freebies.

But when Leah and I first decided to write our statement of purpose nine months ago—for the sake of being clear on what we stood for in online writing—the topic of ethics in the blogosphere was something that was whispered between online writers. Many had opinions, but few were willing to publish their thoughts on the matter. So, when Leah and I decided it was time we write out our five-point manifesto on food blog ethics, our words and point of view caused a lot of controversy. We were shocked at how many people got engaged (and enraged) and suddenly everyone was talking about ethics. In a time when most people were interested in new iPhone apps and the birth of Twitter, we were ecstatic that we were surrounded by people arguing about philosophy. Getting people to think about the effect of their words before they hit PUBLISH was our goal.

So it was with great pleasure that Leah and I discovered Food Ethics was mentioned by Robert Seitsema, the author and food critic for the Village Voice in his comprehensive Columbia Journalism Review article, “Everyone Eats…But that doesn’t make you a restaurant critic”. In it, he masterfully charts the history of restaurant reviewing in the United States since the 1970’s and the effect of a handful of people on food writing.

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Healthy Edamame Dip for Super Bowl Sunday

Forever Green Edamame Dip

Okay, so I’m not a sports fanatic. But count me in as a front row enthusiast if there’s a lot of great food involved. Take for example this healthy dip for Super Bowl Sunday. Throw a handful of fresh ingredients like garlic, parsley, and bright green edamame into the food processor and in just minutes you’ll have a fresh and easy dip that’s high in protein, big in flavor, and makes eating it a guilt-less pleasure. What a great change from the high fat onion dip of my past!

I grew up in Massachusetts eating chips and salsa, submarine sandwiches, and cherry-red chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday. My friend Jason Travi, the former chef of Fraiche and Riva, showed me that a Super Bowl party could be a culinary opportunity. This Massachusetts chef never even thought about serving popcorn and cheap beer, and instead offered us  caviar on blini, handmade meatball subs, champagne, and artisan beers. It was, by far, the most elegant spread I’d ever seen for a Pats game. I was a changed woman.

Continue to Snag this Great (and Healthy) Super Bowl Sunday Edamame Dip Recipe »

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Chef’s Eating Tour: Central Texas and Hill County Barbecue

Author’s Note: Today’s inaugural guest post is from Chef Erik Black, of Osteria Mozza. We look forward to sharing with you his five-day eating tour of BBQ through Central Texas and Hill County. So save your pennies and start working out, because this is one eating tour that you will most certainly want to commit your belly to. Completely.

Continue For Erik Black’s Complete Chef’s BBQ Eating Tour of Central Texas and Hill County Barbecue »

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Guest Post: Chef Erik Black of Osteria Mozza

I am very excited to announce the first-ever guest post here at Food Woolf. Next up, a Chef’s Eating Tour from Chef Erik Black of Osteria Mozza!

Chef Erik Black may call himself a humble student of meat, but as far as I’m concerned, the guy is a master. During his long days in the kitchen of Osteria Mozza, the former Massachusetts native coaxes subtle and robust flavors from diverse cuts of meat. He braises beef until it’s fall-off-the-bone tender and creates delicacies from a massive pig’s head or its much-neglected trotters. He cures sides of pork until it becomes silky and soft and tastes like a prayer. He slow cooks oxtail to the point that the chocolate brown meat becomes as soft as oatmeal and tastes of the earth. He crafts succulent sausages from rabbit loin and fresh herbs.

In my world, Erik is an authority. He is the one to talk to when making pork, testa, braised beef, short ribs, barbecue ribs, rabbit sausage, and smoked meats—because he knows how to celebrate the life of every animal he cooks. Erik is a soft-spoken master that rarely steps out of the kitchen. But come into Mozza on any given night, and you will see unmistakable signs of Erik’s talents—there’s his Copa, testa, mortadella, lardo, and barbeque ribs–peppered throughout the menu.

So when I heard Erik say he was planning to take a tour of Texas Barbeque joints, I made a point of asking for lots and lots of details.  Lucky for us, Erik went one step farther, and decided to give us a five-day guide for an ultimate Texas Barbeque Tour.

Coming soon, Chef Erik’s Eating Tour of Central Texas and Hill County!

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A Recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate with Rum


When you miss a place that’s far away, sometimes the easiest way to go back is to eat something that reminds you of that spot. But what if the taste you long for requires ingredients that are out of season or are impossible to locate in your hometown? A sensory craving that crescendo’s to the point of aching is all it takes to create a proxy recipe.

A proxy recipe—a term I’ve just made up to explain this odd phenomena–is one that recreates a sensory memory with disparate ingredients that have very little to do with the original moment that inspired it. Because when you’re desperate, substitutions are important. Ever since leaving Ixtapa Mexico, I’ve been craving grilled, handmade tortillas and fresh-from-the-tree guacamole drizzled with limes. Though avocados may be available here in Los Angeles, there’s a cold, hard rain that’s pounding our city and I don’t quite feel up to faking the warm weather of Mexico in this bone chilling weather. Those sun-kissed flavors just wouldn’t taste the same in the cold.

But as the rain-battered trees paw the panes of my windows, I consider other flavors that evoke sandy beaches and tropical markets. For me, that’s rum, chocolate, and sweet fruit. In a flash (of lightning, it turns out) inspiration strikes: my proxy recipe is born.

Continue for a Mexican Hot Chocolate with Rum Recipe »

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Service 101: Why Servers Don’t Get Any Respect

I respect restaurants. I respect people. So why is it that so many diners don’t respect me when I’m dressed in a waiter’s uniform?

The answer is simple: many customers don’t believe waiters to be professionals and therefore don’t merit their respect.

As a server and bartender, I am expected to be friendly, courteous, and skilled at my job–regardless of how poorly my diners treat me. If I greet a table with a smile and they glare at me with hate, I must pretend that their attitude doesn’t affect me. If a guest barks because they feel uncomfortable not understanding the menu, I am required to empathize and respond with kindness. If a patron interrupts me while I am helping another guest, I am obligated to defend the other diner’s right to service while maintaining good communication with the impatient one. If a dish comes out of the kitchen that a particular guest doesn’t like, I am expected to apologize and assuage their anger—regardless if I am accused of intentionally trying to ruin their big night out.

Fine. I’m a professional. I can handle big expectations. But what is expected of the guest? Surely human kindness should be on the list.

Continue to Find More on Why Servers Don’t Get Respect »