Entertaining: More

Articles

Book Review: Parker’s Wine Bargains: The World’s Best Wine Values Under $25.00

Shopping for Entertaining

Dressing Desserts in Belgian Lace

 

Articles

Sharon Kapnick, Languedoc: This big wine-producing region in southern France offers many big bargains — Languedoc has become known for good-value, popular international varietals, as well as wines using indigenous grapes that offer distinctive new flavors and personality

Roberta McReynolds, Just the Icing on the Cake, Part Two: I felt the premature thrill of success; a moment later the sculpted flower slid off my fingers on its little wax paper toboggan, smashing upside down on the floor. I don’t recall what I uttered, but it wasn’t anything they taught in Home Ec

Roberta McReynolds takes us on another of her adventures, Just Icing on the Cake, Part One: I allowed the cake to cool and readied myself for the process of turning my cake into two even layers. It seemed that the cake didn’t understand its role. The pieces falling off the sides of the cake as I attempted to side the wire through reminded me of icebergs calving off glaciers

Margaret Cullison, Frosted Cakes: Seven-Minute Frosting, 1234 Cake, Pound Cake Torte and Carrot Cake: I suffered from cake envy after attending a friend’s birthday party. Her cake that year looked like a lamb with white frosting and coconut curled fur. The cake completely enchanted me

Sharon Kapnick's Reviews Wine Books for Gifting: On Inexpensive Wines, Must-Try Wines, Politics, Seasons, Corks and Beaujolais — Among them books that advise what to sip for each season; How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink; 1,001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die and To Cork or Not To Cork

 

Sundry Good and Needfull Ordinances: Food & Drink in the Law Library

The Harvard Law Library's Sundry Good and Needfull Ordinances exhibit displayed "a sampling of books, manuscripts and photographs from the Law Library's Special Collections, covering the period from the thirteenth through the early twentieth centuries. All the materials deal in some way with food and drink, though not always strictly with the law."

Some examples:

The introduction to this work reiterates the basic standards for measuring grain; for example, thirty-two "cornes of wheete" from the middle of the ear as equal to the weight of an English "rounde peny sterling" and eight pounds of wheat as equal in weight to a gallon of wine. Bakers were to mark bread with their own sign — helpful in determining breakers of the assize — and only bakers or their servants only were allowed to sell the bread. The text also notes certain standards for bread baking, differences between the breads of London and Stratford, and outlines punishments for violations of the assize. For the first three offences, a baker was fined; after a fourth offense he received the "judgement of the pillory." If a baker persisted in charging too much, he could be forced to leave the town. Confiscated loaves were given to the poor.

(See illustration 1)

Bakers were prohibited from selling spice cakes, buns and biscuits except for burials, and on the Friday before Easter and Christmas. If a baker raised his bread prices above a certain level, he was pilloried even for a first offense, "without any redemption, either by gold or silver."

(See illustration 2)

In an effort to standardize the size of vessels for beer put up for sale, and to protect the "mistery or crafte of coupers," this statute forbids brewers from making their own barrels. (Kilderkins were casks of 18 gallons, and firkins, 9 gallons.) The statute further states that the cooper should make all the vessels "of good and seasonable woode, and putte his propre marke upon everye of them," and that brewers were allowed to keep in their house one or two servants of the coopers' trade to repair casks, but not to make them.

Grant by John de Brittewell to Geoffrey de Langley.
ca. 1236, 20 Henry III.

The value of spices is not to be underestimated. This grant of land stipulates that the yearly rent was a pair of spurs, a pair of gloves and a pound of cumin, or the equivalent value in cash. There is evidence that many spices were used much more liberally in the medieval period than they are today, so a pound of cumin was not necessarily an impractically large amount of this spice to have on hand.

Finish the description of the exhibit at the Sundry Good and Needfull Ordinances site

Articles

Sharon Kapnick, Food Friendly Wines, Part Six, Pinot Noir: While Burgundian Pinot Noirs have been revered for centuries, all Pinot Noir wines have been gaining popularity in the US since 2004, when the movie Sideways demonized Merlot and glorified Pinot Noir

Sharon Kapnick, Food Friendly Wines, Part Five: Beaujolais — These fruity, juicy, soft, smooth, light-to-medium body wines pair well with, well, almost everything

Sharon Kapnick, Food Friendly Wines, Part Four, Rosés: Some rosés are simple, eminently quaffable wines, others sophisticated gems. They’re all refreshing and meant to be drunk young, within a year or two of the vintage

Sharon Kapnick, Croft Pink Port — Perfect for the Patio or the Porch: A light ruby that combines white port technology and red port grapes

Sharon Kapnick, Food Friendly Wines, Part Three: Riesling — Many wine lovers consider Riesling to be the most important white wine grape. It used to receive the respect it deserved

Margaret Cullison, My Mother's Cookbook Quick Bakes: Cayenne Cheese Wafers, Coffee Cake, Meemock’s Nut Bread and Hannah’s Raisin Bread — For home chefs who have complicated schedules, quick bakes that don’t require rising and kneading time lend a flair to what might seem like an ordinary social occasion

Sharon Kapnick, Food Friendly Wines, Part 2; Sauvignon Blanc: While it’s easy to like Sauvignon Blanc, it’s a difficult wine to get to know well. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, you’ll happen upon a version that tastes quite different

Sharon Kapnick, Food-Friendly Wines; Part One: Sparkling Wines — Sparkling wines offer a great way to make every day special. And no wine is a better all-purpose match for food

Margaret Cullison's My Mother's Cookbook, Old-Fashioned Recipes: Rice and Lima Bean Casseroles, Buddy’s Baked Beans, Aunt Rickie’s New Year’s Cakes — Despite the variety of esoteric flavors that might cross our palates in trendy restaurants or the tasty but calorie-laden fast food we consume, nothing quite beats the simple flavors of these slow-cooked, time-tested meals

Sharon Kapnick, How Sweet It Is: Dessert wines for all budgets — There’s something sure to please every palate and every pocketbook, something appropriate to end a special meal or suit a special friend

Margaret Cullison's Recipes from Relatives: Buddy’s Oatmeal Cookies, Nadine’s Buttermilk Waffles and Date Pudding, Marcia’s Marshmallow Frosting — A bride moving into a home where her mother-in-law still lives can create a situation ripe for combat but perhaps that mother-in-law remembered when she married her deceased sister’s husband with a household that included her new husband, teenage stepson and two orphaned nephews

Rose Mula asks "Why do I keep buying things I probably won’t eat? Because they’re good for me, and I know I should eat them. Instead, however, I usually pop a big greasy hamburger on the grill; but I do put ketchup on it, and eat chips with it — don’t they count as two veggies?" The Attack of the Vengeful Veggies

Gourmet's TV Show

We've looked at a number of the instructional cooking programs over the years guided by our favorite stars, some of whom have faded or moved on. But we've thoroughly enjoyed Gourmet Magazine's Diary of a Foodie program now on PBS in most areas.

Here are bits from several episodes we've seen. The introductions will give you an idea of the variety and quality of this series:

Episode 17
Raising the Bar
What does it take to turn a run of the mill beverage into an exceptional drink? In this episode we'll see how some foodies turn alcoholic drinks into a singular experience in their own right. We'll sample cocktail artist Scott Beattie's daring signature drink menu at Cyprus Restaurant in Healdsburg, California, learn the process of crafting Peruvian Pisco brandy at the Tres Generaciones distillery, and explore the American micro-brewing movement with New York pioneer Garrett Oliver, creator of Brooklyn Lager. We'll observe these quality crafters across the globe as they elevate wine, beer, and spirits into delectable libations as sophisticated as a fine meal.

(See our own Sharon Kapnick's articles for her picks of a drink of choice)

Episode 18
Contraband Cuisine
Different countries have different standards to determine the safety of foods. Most government health organizations quickly ban foods that pose potential health risks. But there is an entirely separate category of cuisine that falls into the "gray zone," not necessarily dangerous, but banned for a variety of other reasons. Often, with this controversial fare, what ends up being legal in one country is considered contraband in another. From the reemergence of mind-altering Absinthe in France to gourmet uses of the coca leaf, from Ireland's potent Poitin liquor to a luxurious Foie Gras update to the Chicago-style hot dog, come see how some enticing foods are a lightning rod to both the connoisseurs who savor them and those who feel compelled to protest.

Episode 4
H₂O

Water — an essential element of life that has influenced cuisines around the world. From the oyster-rich shores of Seattle's Puget Sound to a specialty shop serving hundreds of imported mineral waters in Rome's railway station, see how this versatile ingredient has evolved into so much more than a thirst quencher. Dive in and discover how chefs think about the use of water, and the ways in which it sustains, enhances, and sometimes even transforms their recipes.


Exclusive
Think You Know H₂O?
So you think you know how to boil water. You may be surprised by these words of water wisdom from Harold McGee.

Episode 3
Italy

Italy has always been considered one of the world's top food destinations, famous for the incredibly vibrant, inviting cuisine that is enormously significant within the country's culture. This reputation, upheld by generation after generation, is fueling a popular new trend where visitors can experience the hospitality and tastes of Italy first hand by dining with locals in private residences. From the urban, fast-paced sprawl of Rome to the sleepy, picturesque villages of the countryside, see how hungry travelers are treated to the authentic, delicious, and fulfilling tastes of traditional Italian homes.

Exclusive
Mario Makes His Italy Hit List
Pack Up Batali's Best Bets

Check the local listings for the PBS station near you.

Articles

Sharon Kapnick, Hot Diggity, Dog Diggity: What Wine to Drink with Hot Dogs — Yes, Hot Dogs! They say what grows together goes together. In Alsace that would be the delicious sausages and wonderful wines the Alsatians produce. The best-known Alsatian dish is choucroute garnie, sauerkraut with sausage and other meats

Margaret Cullison continues series of recipes from her mother's midwestern cookbook. This time it includes her aunts' contributions: Louise’s Chewy Brownies; Virginia’s Chili, Orange Bread and Cheese Cake

Sharon Kapnick, Beyond Beer: The Best Wines to Accompany Chinese Food: Food and wine should complement, rather than overpower, each other. As wine importer Rudi Wiest likes to say, "Whatever’s on the plate is already dead. You don’t have to kill it again.” You don’t want a wine that will overwhelm a dish; you want one that will stand up to it

Julia Sneden, A Spoonful of History: By the time I came along, however, my ancestors had moved up a few notches to coin silver. As a result, and as my mother’s only daughter, I inherited an odd lot of coin silver teaspoons. No forks or knives or pickle servers or soup spoons came with them, but as long as I stuck with tea, I could set a lovely table.

When my great grandmother was a girl, it was fashionable to give a silver spoon to mark just about any occasion. In 1856, when she married my great grandfather, someone gave her a silver teaspoon marked with a “B” for her new last name. It is so much heavier than other coin silver spoons that the family has always called it "the iron spoon,” although the back of the handle is plainly stamped: “pure coin."

Book Review

Sharon Kapnick reviews The Oxford Companion to American Food & Drink which starts with A&W root beer stands and ends with zombie, the dynamite rum cocktail. In between, it serves up everything you wanted to know about a subject as well as everything you didn’t know you wanted to know

Comfort Food

Margaret Cullison's latest installment of recipes from her mother's cookbook: Comfort Foods: Chicken Pie, Baking Powder Biscuits, Dumplings and Boiled Dinner.. The task of preparing a hot and hearty meal every night for a family of six was more difficult for small town housewives in the 1940s. Fast food didn’t exist, and there weren’t many restaurants to go out to and even fewer good ones

Guides for Wine Lovers

Sharon Kapnick, Shopping Guides for Italian and French Wines: A couple of shopping guides for Italian and French wines have recently been published. Although quite different, they’re both a great help in getting a handle on these very important regions

 

Feeding Desire

The Cooper Hewitt's exhibit, Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500-2005, is a "journey through the evolution of Western dining from the Renaissance to the present" featuring objects from the CH's collections. "The exhibition will address the development of utensil forms, innovations in production and materials, etiquette, and flatware as social commentary."

While you're pursuing the exhibit, don't overlook the Design de Jour quiz. One of the questions: If you could host a dinner party using place settings from one of the following eras, which era would you choose? The choices are: 18th or 19th century France, 18th century England, 1950s Scandinavia.

Article

Sommelier Sharon Kapnick advises Make Every Day Special: These Reasonably Priced European Sparkling Wines Are Great for Parties, Office “Pours,” Everyday Celebrations and Just Plain Old Every Day

Excerpt

From an excerpt from Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine

Babette's Feast: A Fable for Culinary France by Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson

Among the many films that center on food at the end of the twentieth century, Babette's Feast (Babettes Gaestebud) stands out for its reach and for the subtlety of its sensuality. For this film depicts far more than food and foodways; it shows more than the sensuality of food in our lives. Paradoxically, this Danish film tells an exemplary tale of French cuisine. Its portrayal of a French cook far from France evokes the French culinary landscape even more than the Danish countryside where it is set.

Surely it is appropriate that the cinema supply the iconic culinary text of the twentieth century. Film captures, as a photograph cannot, the interactive process that culinary art requires. More immediately than print and like cuisine itself, film conveys a sensory awareness that embraces the viewer as the more intellectual medium cannot. Just as the written recipe can only suggest the sensory, so words inevitably fail to convey the comprehensive, all-enveloping sensuality of taste. The immediacy achieved by the moving narrative raises Babette's Feast to iconic status well above the short story by Isak Dinesen from which it is drawn. Through its exploitation of the sensory, the film transforms a "story from the human heart," as Dinesen puts it in the narrative frame of the original story, into an emblem of French culinary culture.

.....

Just as the meal in the film effaces the discord among the disciples, so, too, Babette's Feast uses the senses to illuminate and transcend the everyday. The film mutes the political because it takes us beyond conflict. We see not only the effects of consumption but also, and most importantly for my fable of French cuisine, the care of preparation. Babette's Feast is a food film because it follows the meal from beginning to end, from the trip to procure foodstuffs through the multiple activities of cooking and serving and the pleasures of dining. Consistent with the emphasis on the construction of beauty, the film glosses over the less appealing, destructive aspects of preparation. There is no hint of how the turtle actually ends up as soup. The closest we come to slaughter is a shot of the quail carcasses in a basket being taken to the garbage. Instead, the film focuses on preparation. The camera closes in on Babette's hands as she cuts the rounds of puff pastry dough, adds caviar and creme fraiche to the blinis, stuffs the quail with foie gras, and assembles it, with the head in place, on its pastry coffin. Walnuts are added to the endive salad, big rounds of hard cheese are cut into serving portions; the Nesselrode pudding is finished with whipped cream, glazed chestnuts, and chocolate sauce. We are almost at table level as each wine is poured into glasses that sparkle like a stained-glass window on a sunny day.

Read the rest of the excerpt at the University of Chicago Press site.

Barbara Kafka

I love Barbara Kafka's Microwave Gourmet. The cookbook not only contains an alphabetical listing of different foods and how to cook them but many recipes. The book can be found in paperback editions.

Recently, NPR did an interview with Ms. Kafka about her new cookbook. The network includes recipes that she worked on during the show: Fiddlehead and Chanterelle Risotto and Lemon-Light Carrots, Carrot Sorbet and Carrot-Honey Ice Cream. The recorded interview at the NPR site.

A LOC Webcast: A History of Barbecue

Only the Library of Congress could come up with such varied subjects of webcasts, such as Barbecue: A History of the World's Oldest Culinary Art delivered by cookbook author, Steve Raichlen.

A 70 minute webcast (using WebPlayer) ensues which is informative, fun and a travelogue in itself, following the fire and the barbecue trail of fifteen countries and 500 recipes. Raichlen begins his odyssey in the Caribbean and South America and continues to Asia to nations known for their grilling skills.

He also includes tips in the lecture for sucessful direct grilling, such as dipping your brush in salt water. Other tidbits are little known facts such as Americans are just about the only people who use white meat chicken for grilling; the dark meat is most prized in most of the world.

Four nations are known for their women "grill jockeys": Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Mexico. That's because women in those countries who want to start a business in cooking can begin on the street with a simple grilling setup.

The webcast is available at the LOC site

New Links

JoanneHudson.com - One of the dinnerware styles is derived from the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi; another, ASA, with French and Asian influences. There's a Bridgewater Pottery flower baker dish, baby mug and milk bottle vase. Signature striped bowls are on the site as well as utensils, tea towels,

Domus - A nut twister, a tomato holder, a terra cotta garlic baker, a rosette/timbale set, an edge wedger, a burger press, a dual sided tart and tamper set ... all intriguing objects from the gadget section of this site. There's a cherry colander that could serve as a decorative object in itself and a 'perfect beaker' that measures all in one- tablespoons, teaspoons, ounces, cups, pints, ml/j Wind chimes, 'singing bowls, ' an ice-cream cone shaped dessert glass, suction soap holster and other off-beat and quite different items for home and entertaining are here.

Excerpt

Garlic and Sapphires; The Secret Life of a Critic

“I’m a restaurant critic,” I told the woman in the wig shop, “and I need a disguise that will keep me from being recognized.”

“That’s a new one on me,” she said. “Do you have a special restaurant you’re working on at the moment?”

“Yes,” I said, remembering the fragrant aroma of the soup I had eaten on my last visit to Lespinasse. When I dipped my spoon into the broth shimeji mushrooms went sliding sensuously across my tongue with the lush texture of custard. I tasted lemongrass, kaffir lime, mushroom and something else, something that hovered at the edge of my mind, familiar but elusive. I took another taste and it was there again, that sweetness, hiding just behind the citrus. It came whirling into my consciousness and then slid maddeningly away before I could identify it.

“The food was wonderful,” I told her, “but I think they made me. Everything’s been just a little too perfect. So I want a foolproof disguise.”

“Try this,” she said, opening a drawer and pulling out a cascade of hair the color of Dom Perignon. As the wig caught the light the color changed from pearl to buttercup."

Read the rest of the excerpt from Garlic and Sapphires; The Secret Life of a Critic by Ruth Reichl

And while we're on the subject of Ruth Reichl, do read her interview at Epicurious about the condensing of Gourmet Magazine's recipes down to a five-and-a-half-pound book, The Gourmet Cookbook.

To the question from Epicurious, Do you have any new additions to your Monday to Friday quickie repertoire from the book? she answered:

There's a beef brisket I started making that you cook in beer. It's sort of like a carbonade but it's done with one piece of brisket, and it takes about ten minutes. You sauté a lot of onions, you brown the brisket and cover it with all the onions and some beer, and you throw it in the oven and cook it at a low temperature for a long time. And it's better two days later. This is, in my family, happiness for a week. My family would happily eat this every night. Just the notion that it's there in the refrigerator is very comforting.

There's a wonderful warm chocolate raspberry pudding cake that is so fabulous and makes its own icing. Also there's a jeweled rice dish that's very easy. It's like a version of a Persian dish. It's good cold, it's good hot, it makes your house smell great. And definitely this dried-apricot soufflé. I just love it.

We'll be trying all three of these dishes; we bought multiple copies to give away last Christmas at Costco.

The Battlefield of Competitive Cooking

Fair competitions have been with us since the founding of this country. "Cook-offs, bake-offs, and similar competitions seem to have evolved with agricultural fairs and harvest festivals, which, in turn, are descended from the farmer's markets of the Old World," says Gary Allen, author of The Resource Guide for Food Writers (Routledge, 1999). "As farms grew in size, and the distances between neighbors increased, functions like agricultural fairs became important social outlets."

Over the years, these fairs and their contests have developed stringent sets of rules. Architectural desserts are not welcome. Classic fare is what counts, and judges look for nothing short of archetypal excellence. With pens drawn, they nibble and scribble all afternoon, searching for the lightest angel food cake, the flakiest pie crust, the snappiest gingersnap cookie. And despite the occasional need to surreptitiously swig Pepto-Bismol, they dutifully award blue, red, and yellow ribbons, along with nominal cash prizes. (Six dollars for first prize is the going rate at some fairs.) And for another year, at least, the reputations of a few are defended, while the resentment of countless others festers.

It isn't just the contesters who sling midsummer mud at these fairs. The judges also get into action. "The problem is every judge has an opinion," says Laura Thomas (not her real name), a multiple contest winner as well as a judge at the Bethlehem Fair in Bethlehem, Connecticut. Speaking of one baking-goods judge in particular, Thomas says, "Oh, she annoys me. If there's a cake that one of the other four of us likes, she just has to trash it. She always thinks her opinions are right. And every year it's the same thing. We argue a lot, but, in the end, the majority rules."

Read the entire article, With Knives Drawn; The Competition of Competitive Cooking by David Leite at Leite's Culinaria.

Chocolate and Confession

We decided to sign up for a newsletter from a wonderful confection site, one we had visited in San Francisco. Here's the confession entitled He's Not That Into You we found in the October Newsletter of Recchiuti Confections, accompanied by a marvelous recipe for Apple-Tarragon Fritters:

There are guys you have as friends and guys you have as boyfriends. And then … there are the guys that don’t fit either description. These are the ones who can get away with calling late Friday afternoon with the question, “Got plans tonight?” You’re a speed-dial away from canceling on the girls. “Nothing firm. Why? What’s up?” This is the guy your friends groan at the mention of. When asked what you did last night, you say you stayed at home and caught up on Sex in the City, rather than admit that you saw this guy. He is fun. He is sweet. He just isn’t that into you. Still, you never say no when he calls. When he comes to your house, he’s a spoon-wielding vision with a pint Haagen-Dazs and an excellent knack for personal grooming. This particular night, he places himself on the sofa, being ever so careful not to wrinkle his Prada pants. You come back from the kitchen with THE world’s best chocolate sauce, dim the lights and plaintively yield the remote control. He leans back, licks the spoon clean and cues the machine. As Carrie, Amanda, Miranda and Charlotte flicker to life, you sigh “What a perfect evening.” If only he were into you. Were you hoping for something more? Well, maybe. Were you just as satisfied? Almost.

From the newsletter, we learned about Fleur de Sel, as well as a recipe for Banshee Balls (Irish Whiskey Truffles):

(Flower of Salt)
Exotic and rare, Fleur de Sel is one of the newest trends in both savory foods and sweets. These wonderfully flavorful salt crystals derive their name from the delicate violet scent that develops as the salt dries. Recchiuti Confections favorite brand uses only premium, top layers of the salt bed, hand-raked and harvested in France. Each container is sealed with a cork top and signed by the Salt Raker who harvested it.

Beautiful pink and grey hues distinguish the moist, flaky texture of Fleur de Sel crystals, while the marvelous flavor reflects a delicate balance of the numerous salts, minerals, and micronutrients. The taste is completely unlike the processed table salts most of us are used to.

Truly the finest salt available, Fleur de Sel is a revelation in food seasoning. It’s unique characteristics and qualities are best showcased by sprinkling over foods just before serving. The salt draws out the full flavor of the other ingredients and is a natural inspiration for Michael Recchiuti. He has outdone himself by prominently featuring this culinary jewel in traditional favorites like caramels and peanut butter cups. These newest confections are a great introduction and exploration into Fleur de Sel.

And, yes, there is a shop on site, but just reading the entries can induce calorie acquisition as well as great happiness. Oeuf de Pâques? You'll have to go to the April '04 issue. Subscribe to the newsletter? Yes, I'd heartily (or is that sweetly?) recommend it.

Julia Child

One way to celebrate Julia Child's career is to try some of the recipes that are available at the PBS site complete with steaming video. It's possible to use the fully searchable database for the type of recipe you'd like to view and try out in your kitchen.

Julia Child's Lessons With Master Chefs

Excerpt

Paris, 6 July 1829, early evening
A hired barouche rattles up the Champs-Elysées. Inside: a noblewoman so tiny her close-cropped wig is barely visible through the carriage's open window. Lady Morgan, travel writer, Irish radical and wit, is reflecting upon her dinner invitation, and upon food. 'You are going to dine at the first table in France — in Europe!' she had been told. 'You are going to judge, and taste for yourself, the genius!'

An invitation from the Rothschilds had incited both jealousy and awe at Lady Morgan's Paris lodgings, and not just because James and Betty de Rothschild were the richest couple in France. Their chef, known to everyone, was Antonin Carême. And all Paris, including Lady Morgan, wanted to eat À la Carême. She already knew all about him: the wedding cake he had made for Napoleon and his empress, the gargantuan banquets he had cooked for the Tsar, the elaborate patas he had created for the Prince Regent in London (which she remembered being sold illicitly from the palace kitchens at exorbitant prices). She had even read Carême's books, his descriptions of life 'below-stairs' in Paris, St Petersburg and the Brighton Pavilion, and she knew the rags-to-riches tale of his life; of how an abandoned orphan of the French Revolution rose to become the chef of kings and king of chefs. Lady Morgan was in Paris researching the sequel to her 'best-seller', France in 1818, which would be titled, prosaically enough, France in 1829, and her subject that hot July evening was Carême, and a novel French cult: gastronomy. Apple Charlotte, Turbot à la Hollandaise, Potage à la Ràgence, Salmon à la Rothschild: Carême's recipes were on everybody's lips because food was the thing to talk about in France in 1829. This was the first age of gastronomy — when for the first time a chef became a celebrity.

6 July 1829, 12 hours earlier
A slight, ashen-faced man, looking older than his 45 years, breathed with difficulty in the early-morning Paris fug; he was slowly dying from the poisonous fumes of a lifetime of cooking over charcoal. With his weakening left arm, Antonin pulled himself into his carriage, which then followed the same route that Lady Morgan's would take later that day to the Rothschilds' chateau in Boulogne-sur-Seine. For a man who had once fed 10,000 on the Champs-Elysées, this was small potatoes. Even so, work had begun the day before. Crayfish and brill, eel, cod and sea-bass, quails, chickens, rabbits, pigeons, beef and lamb had been ordered from Paris markets, along with specified offals: calves' udders, cock's-combs and testicles, and the best Mocha coffee and truffles. Isinglass (fish gelatine) and veal stocks had been prepared, cream supplied locally, and the chateau's ice-house restocked. The vegetables and fruit for the menu would come from the Rothschild gardens. Antonin had also already begun work, with his young assistant, Monsieur Jay, on the sugar-paste foundations of a table-length 'extraordinaire' in the form of a Grecian temple, the Sultane À la Colonne. Paris, Left Bank slums, 45 years earlier Antonin Carême was born in 1783. He seems to have been the sixteenth child and may have had 24 siblings. The last months of 1792 in Paris stand out for their horrors and turmoil. There were massacres — even of children — and heads and body parts were paraded on spikes through the streets. Crowds gathered daily at La Guillotine; thousands were arrested or displaced. Antonin's father took young Carême to the busy Maine gate of Paris and abandoned him with these words: 'Nowadays you need only the spirit to make your fortune to make one, and you have that spirit. Va petit! — with what God has given you.' Antonin was taken in by a busy cook who offered him bed and board in exchange for skivvying. It was the start of his career.

Read the full excerpt at The Observer from Ian Kelly's book, Cooking for Kings

Links

• Bella Cucina Artful Food - All seasons are the perfect season for making hot chocolate and other treats chocolate. Death by Chocolate Cookies: dried cherry and almond biscotti, preserved lemon cream, and recipes that accompany some of these foods: baked brie with Bella's Cranberry Conserve in puff pastry, Sweet Pepper Pesto with Italian sausage and fennel over rosemary polenta. There are pastas (Sundried Tomato, Corn and Cilantro Porcini Mushroom & Sage), vinegars, sun-dried tomatoes and balsamic mustard, gift baskets and soaps. And more recipes, all beautifully photographed and easy to navigate. Online ordering isn't possible as yet but use the 800 number.

• BridgeKitchenware - A well known classic kitchen supply store in New York City,  whether it be for trays to carry out oysters, or a variety of grinders, slicers, basters, mandolins, hockey stick spatulas, ramekins and creme brulee dishes. Copper polish, pastry and cutting boards, pepper mills, coffee pots and accessories are some of the other offerings. 

• ChefShop.Com - A site recommended by The New York Times for gift baskets of food: English Biscuit Sampler, June Taylor's Mostly Marmalade Basket, Peanut Sauce Basket and LuLu's Gift Basket receive high marks. We've decided in recent years that a gift of good food was the easiest and best way to gift relatives.  There are recipes on the site and interesting 'food bites' to add to culinary knowledge. 

• Chefwear - You definitely don't have to be a chef to wear these great jackets and pants. The clothing is very well-made and cut to be flattering and comfortable. Best of all, they're extremely reasonable in price considering the quality of the clothing. There's a variety of styles, colors, patterns and accessories to be ordered as well as a children's line and such items as timers, cut-resistant gloves, thermometers and knives.

• Complements to the Chef is a cookware and more shop located in Asheville, NC that we've used. We were on a hunt for a large carafe that held more than the usual number of ounces (or whatever the metric equivalent is). This was the only site that carried that model.

• Cooking.com - A large culinary resource that offers bakeware, cutlery, tableware and cookbooks along with helpful cooking tips and recipes. Glossaries of cooking terms and techniques are part of the site as well as a search engine that performs according to product category, manufacturer and price range.

• Cook'sNook - Gourmet foods, cookware and specialty items for your kitchen. If you have a coffee addict in the family (we do!), this is an excellent site to come to for coffee related gifts such as grinders, roasters and thermoses. In addition, the selection of kitchen products are colorful and good looking although the brands are not, in some cases, familiar names.

• Cowgirl Creamery - Probably one of the best known of all the artisanal cheese companies in the US. They serve artisan and farmstead cheeses from Point Reyes Station, California, and from other corners of North America and Europe along with links to cheese clubs and a library link with information about other domestic and international cheeses.

• Dean & DeLuca - The well known specialty foods retailer has a very appealing site with recipes, articles by well known chefs, and products that vary in price but quite complete in range: preserves, vinegars, charcuterie, grains, cheeses, magazines, their own coffees and teas well as other brands along with monthly collections and gift baskets. 

• Epicurious Food - A venerable site in net terms, adequately filling some of your food fantasies with a recipe search facility, cookbook reviews and articles from Gourmet and Bon Appetite Magazines.

• Fante's Kitchen Wares Shop - This Philadelphia firm has been in business since the turn of the century and we found items here that we haven't seen elsewhere: an avocado separator, a gas tank (for barbecuing) level indicator and all sorts of esoteric implements with great imagination and range. We found them because we wanted a certain egg cooker that could be used in the microwave; Fante's had it.

• Farmers Markets - The USDA has compiled a listing, by state, of farmer's markets, some seasonal, some year round. 

• GlobalTable - A site with a well edited selection of tableware, decorative accessories and glassware. There is a pineapple vase seen in House & Garden; utensils that feature twig shaped servers, rosewood, silver plated and coral branched servers; trays in the current popular striped theme as well as lacquered and with other finishes. Urchin votives are quite marvelous and the cups reasonable and colorful. The products GlobalTable are representing have a fresh quality, pure in design and in the choice of materials and colors. Make sure to use the tiny arrows to go to other choices or click on the squares on the checkerboard to the left. Oh, and look for the boxer!

• House on the Hill - Whether you're cooking for yourself, with a partner or with a grandchild, baking is an enjoyable activity. Even the disasters taste good. This Elmhurst IL site specializes in baking molds hand cast and hand finished. They're made of a composite of powdered wood and resin stained to look like wood, and mounted with a hanging ring. They are replicas of historic European molds and presses not only for cookies but also for marzipan and tragant. The site even carries something called Creative Paperclay, a product of volcanic ash from Japan for making Christmas ornaments, wedding favors and place tags. There are faith cookie molds, including a prosphoron, from the Greek word meaning 'that which is offered.' Prosphoron bread is stamped with a four-point cross. There are molds called speculaas, nautical and fishing, military and patriotic themed molds and babycakes molds including two themed where babies come from: They're fished with nets from the water by angels, of course! A pair of lovers from 16th or 17th century origins are part of the wedding and courtship selection. Baking supplies available at the site as well as a recipe for Perfection Springerle Cookies.

• Jessica's Biscuit - An on-line cookbook store that reportedly has the largest inventory of cookbooks available as well as the reprinting of classic cookbooks. 

• King Arthur's Baker's Camelot - Offers tips, recipes and baking "classes" illustrated with a series of photographs.

• IGourmet - Products are pictured with a descriptive story about its history, taste and usage. Specialty foods, imported cheeses, sauces, toppings, oils, vinegars, desserts, meats, expresso, teas and more are available for shipping.

• KitchenAccessories.com - In looking for recycling bins for our kitchen renovation project, I happened upon this site. Not only do they have storage solutions (chrome pullout pantry units that can be customized), there are sections on backsplash accessories, appliance decorator panels, range hoods, chairs, sinks, stools, pot racks, faucet sets, ironing storage, wall shelves, wine racks etc. Most of their prices are discounted and they do carry those hard-to-find items you need to reorganize the kitchen.

• MarieBelle.com specializes in these products including Croquette au Chocolat and Marzipan made with Turkish pistachios and Spanish almonds. Apricot & Almond and Dark Chocolate & Orange Confitures are available as are Love's Labour Lychee Tea, among other teas. If wedding favors are needed, they also supply those.

• Peapod - Shop for groceries online and have them delivered to your door in certain metropolitan areas. Browse Aisles to view produce, meat, snacks, dairy products and frozen foods. Your shopping list is saved for future visits.

• Rogers International - One of Rogers' Mediterranean products, the tapenade, was praised in Gourmet magazine in addition to their pâté and olives. Meats, cheeses, vinegars, condiments and gift ideas round out this Maine-based site intended for both consumer and professional. In some instances, you can buy by the case, which is fine if you have a big storage area or order with friends.

• The Science of Cooking - A feature of this website is Ask the Inquisitive Cooks (Anne Gardiner and Sue Wilson) who answer questions such as “How can you tell when a steak is done,” "Does a green potato=poison" and "How do Baking powder and baking soda work?"

• Set Your Table - This site is a directory of dealers who replace discontinued and hard-to-find dinnerware, glassware and flatware settings.  A guide offered for sale presents possibilities for selling your own collection and there's an article with expert tips  identifying and placing a value on china, crystal, and sterling pieces. Even more useful is the listing of companies that restore and repair.

• SplendidPalate - What's unique about this site is that beyond the eggplant caviar (a great spread we've made for entertaining for decades), foie gras, olive tapenade and smoked salmon, the inclusion of loose lavender buds, adorable beaded heart purses filled with French dragee mints, blue gingham pouches with packets of hot chocolate and spa-related gifts such as Gardenia Bath & Body To-Go make the selections much more varied. '

• Stonewall Kitchen - An excellent line of products we've enjoyed for years: jellies, jams, mustards, salad dressings and vinaigrettes, sauces, chutneys, crackers, vinegars, oils and spices, baking kits, and  a selection of cookbooks. The catalog also includes kitchen items which appear well-chosen. My husband has repeatedly used the collection of products as business gifts for the holidays.

• Sur La Table - We've been to a couple of the bricks and mortar locations of this online store and the inventory is broad and of high quality.

• Tabletools.com - A Hamden, CT site with European influence in choice of table, kitchen and barware. Mesû stacking bowls, Kay Dee linen placemats, Luigi Bormioli Michelangelo party bowls and champagne flutes, Rosendahl Design Collection trivets, Metrokane Polar Ice Glass, a Rogar Wood/Copper pot rack and to go with Sharon Kapnick's wine reviews, a Cooper Cooler Rapid Beverage Chiller are some of the choices at the site. The Metric Napkin Holder is much more reasonable than many I've seen of this type.

• Wine.com - Food, wine and gift selections are offered at their on-line shops with some lighthearted text. Recipe instruction, cooking accessory information, specialty foods, wine recommendations and entertaining questions are answered. 

• Willow River Farms -Our favorite cookie, made by a Texas group to benefit the mentally disabled and at Barbara Bush's suggestion. Their other product is fruitcakes.

• See Travel for a link to Zagat Guide.

• Zingerman's - A wonderful store based in Ann Arbor that is the Midwest equivalent of New York's Zabars--when one of our daughters went to the University of Michigan for graduate school, we haunted Zingerman's.