Frequent DP commenter drobviousso (corrected! Sorry, Doc!) emailed me last weekend with a good idea for this weekend’s thread; favorite foodie mags and books. I’ll expand on that and include foodie TV.
Interestingly enough, I was just informed today that a magazine devoted to living in the South is going to be taking over the Inn on Wednesday for a photo shoot. Seems their people were in last week, incognito like, and decided that we would look good for their December issue. Well, alright. Time to pull out the real nice china and silver for culinary closeups; always a fun thing, especially right in the middle of lunch service.
But that’s ok. We’ll make it look good as usual. And with the added bonus of a new range and exhaust hood being installed on Sunday, we’ll be looking extra spiffy. I’m really looking forward to playing with new equipment on Monday.
As far as foodie magazines go, I’m partial to Saveur, Bon Apetit, Food Arts, Gastronomy, The Art of Eating and Meatpaper. Of course, I rarely turn down the chance to flip through any food magazine. They all have their strengths, but the ones I tend to gravitate towards have an emphasis on food culture, a subject that has long fascinated me.
So what or where do you turn to for your food inspiration? I think I’ll try over the weekend to talk about a few recent books that I’ve read as well. TV has not been holding me in it’s trall where food is concerned. Of late, I mostly try to catch No Reservations on the Travel Channel. The Food Network has been a bit mind numbing of late, and I’m not quite sure I like the direction it’s taking. Any thoughts?
UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers! Pull up a chair and sample the fare…
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Heh Chef, I actually like the “magazine devoted to living in the South” recipes. I’m looking forward to that issue. But, December? 2008 December is a ways off, so please remind us at that time.
Cook’s Illustrated. The nerd-porn of food.
Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations Blog, only updated every few weeks, but a good read none the less.
I’ve been without cable for the last… 5 years or so, and haven’t watched much food tv since then. I had a few days of RnR at my mom’s over Xmas, and was really not thrilled with what the Food TV was showing. Mind numbing is a good term for it.
Barry, I’ll post a reminder. We’ll see how it turns out. In my experience, they tend to really talk up a story. Then we go balls out to please them. Followed by something, shall we say, not quite to our expectations. I’ll be interested to see what sort of recipes they request. More than likely, the crab cakes, which I suspect they had while incognito.
Donut, Cooks Illustrated is a classic. They’re now offering podcasts. Check them out. It’s funny, though. I don’t have a subscription, but my mother-in-law collects them for me. Once a year, I get a pile of CI to peruse. It’s always fun.
I still watch Iron Chef and Bravo’s Top Chef, and the PBS repeats of Julia Child and Jacques Pepin. I tend to get intimidated by the recipes in the foodie mags, tho - without the hands-on of TV. I miss The Kitchener Gardener (out of print, but back issues are available), emphasizing simple recipes using all the fresh stuff from my home garden. Since its demise, I console myself with this CookBook.
Lately, as I have a three-year-old in the house, I’ve found Ratatouille motivates me to cook.
We haven’t had anything beyond basic cable for awhile, so no Food TV. Over the holidays, though, I did catch the last 5-6 episodes of the Next Food Network Star show that ran on New Year’s Eve. It was strangely addictive (I’ve never gotten into any other shows of that type). That, at least, has pushed me to memorize some basic “starter” recipes, so I can look in the fridge and the pantry, and have some idea what I can do with what I find.
Beyond that, if I need inspiration, I just start thumbing through my cookbooks.
Ray, there’s a show that ran in Canada call Jamie at Home where he pulled stuff out of his garden, walked into the kitchen, an cooked it. According to wikipedia, it started in the US in January. You should check it out.
Thanks, Doc Ob. I just googled the show and it looks intriguing. And it’s the Naked Chef guy. Used to catch that while channel surfing. Loved the title, too, but it lied …
When people ask how I am I typically answer “Alive and Well, Fat and Sassy.” That is especially true these days. A year ago sometime, I got a recipe from one of the cooking shows for Ceviche. Since tonight I’m celebrating 2 years of being Cancer free, it seemed like a great dish to fix so I fixed up 8 pounds. Yum!
Dudes, if you want technique, not a lot of fluff and articles on “Sun Dried Tomatoes and You,” go Cooks Illustrated. Its the real man’s food mag…..
Soory, I meant Fine Cooking, Cooks Illustrated is for dweebs.
The best cooking show continues to be Molto Mario, even as the Food Network has relegated it to Mondays at 10 AM Eastern. The guy will teach you to cook specific dishes, and by hammering home certain techniques over and over (e.g. his habit of adding a touch of one or two cooked ingredients raw, at the end), he’ll give you guidelines that will improve anything you happen to dream up yourself. The show has improved my own cooking enormously.
My wife liked the Two Fat Ladies while they were still on. Currently her favorite is a gentleman named Gordon Ramsey.
I’ve been getting Fine Cooking for years and love it. Good recipes that aren’t so “out there” that a normal person can’t see themselves trying it. It seems that every issue has at least two or three recipes I use.
Cooks Illustrated wins hands down. Fine Cooking is okay but they follow trends a bit much. I don’t know if I will still be cooking these recipes after trying them.
Non-regular visitors interested in this topic might want to click on the Cooking category to see more of Chef Mojo’s offerings.
(Irregular visitors might want to check out the Home Remedies section. Daily Pundit doesn’t have one, but search engines to the rescue.)
I get a kick out of Jamie at Home, too, not that I understand half of what he explains. Grams of flour instead of cups? What??? But I agree with the good doctor, Chef. Check it out.
As for reading material, after buying a present from me TO me for Christmas (a dehydrator), I subsequently bought and have since had my nose buried in Mary Bell’s Complete Dehydrator Cookbook. I recommend it highly to anyone who already has a dehydrator, and even moreso to anyone even thinking of buying one. The book is that good.
I love the Food Network but it’s changed a lot in the last couple of years. The “home cooking” style has completely taken over and the “cooks” now seem to outnumber the professional chefs.
I like Ina Garten and Barefoot Contessa. Everyday Italian is fun to watch. Giada gives a lot of instruction and her love of food comes through. I miss Sara Moulton. I used to watch Cooking Live every night at 7PM. It was pretty amazing to consider she hosted that show almost every night for years without a sink. They finally gave her a new kitchen set and then cancelled it not too long after that.
I haven’t seen Mario on anything but Iron Chef in a long time. As much as I liked the Japanese version, and Alton Brown, I just can’t stand Iron Chef America.
The worst: Rachel Ray. Somebody should give her a valium or something. She is very annoying.