Gabrielle Hamilton: Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef

From The New York Times: Gabrielle Hamilton is the chef of the wildly popular and highly influential restaurant Prune on East First Street in Manhattan's East Village, where long lines are the norm, especially at brunch time. Ms. Hamilton opened Prune in 1999, she once said, "to cook for my neighbors." But her success attracted food lovers from all over the borough, the city and the state, as well as other chefs and food writers, "enchanted," as Frank Bruni wrote in The New York Times in 2005, "by the lack of pretense in Ms. Hamilton's preparations, by the simplicity and gusto of what she served: sardines on Triscuits, warm monkfish liver on toast, pâté sandwiches and deviled eggs." Prune, Mr. Bruni continued, "quickly morphed from adorable notion into formidable influence, a small restaurant with a large footprint. The proof was in the emulation, in the other restaurants that rightly began to accord homey cooking as much honor as haute cuisine: not a novel ethic, but one that Ms. Hamilton gave fresh currency."





Hamilton wrote "A Rogue Chef Tells All: Debunking the myths about life in a restaurant kitchen" for Food & Wine magazine, in which she laments: But I have seen chefs screaming in the kitchen, and I've even read that these fits, inordinately rageful and intent on humiliation, are all part of the great familial bond of life in a restaurant. When I hear about a chef reaming out his staff, I can only think that he could use a good day off. If his menu looks exactly like a dozen others in town, all $40 foie gras and wild baby whatever, and his tables are empty, he needs to get out and see the eager people queuing up for a Nathan's frank and let that spark his imagination. And his staff and his customers need to let him do this.

Harold McGee: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen

In December, 2010, the author was a guest on NPR program, Talk of the Nation. There, the author said this about corking champagne: Well, I was in another part of the experiment because Dick's French friends said that the best way to keep a semi-finished bottle of Champagne fresh was to put a silver spoon in the neck. And we thought that putting a cork in the neck would clearly do a much better job of keeping the carbon dioxide in the bottle. So we did a blind tasting. We got some friends together who were interested in this kind of science and did a blind tasting. Some bottles, we opened freshly. Some bottles, we left open overnight. Some bottles, we emptied partway and then put a cork in the neck and let that sit overnight. And we were surprised to find with American sparkling wines, anyway, that some of the bottles that were left open or with a spoon in the neck actually did taste better than bottles that had been recorked. The podcast of that Talk of the Nation episode is posted below.

Gary Taubes: Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It

In "Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy?", Gary Taubes wrote this, for the New York Times:

Once upon a time, women took estrogen only to relieve the hot flashes, sweating, vaginal dryness and the other discomforting symptoms of menopause. In the late 1960s, thanks in part to the efforts of Robert Wilson, a Brooklyn gynecologist, and his 1966 best seller, “Feminine Forever,” this began to change, and estrogen therapy evolved into a long-term remedy for the chronic ills of aging. Menopause, Wilson argued, was not a natural age-related condition; it was an illness, akin to diabetes or kidney failure, and one that could be treated by taking estrogen to replace the hormones that a woman’s ovaries secreted in ever diminishing amounts. With this argument estrogen evolved into hormone-replacement therapy, or H.R.T., as it came to be called, and became one of the most popular prescription drug treatments in America.

Read Taubes' NYT piece here. The author was also a guest of NPR's Talk of the Nation in 2007. The podcast of that show is posted/embedded below. See also: Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage), Nobel Dreams: Power, Deceit and the Ultimate Experiment, Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion, The Diet Delusion: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Loss and Disease.

Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food

For most cooks, food is a question of how. How many teaspoons? How many pounds? How many degrees? For geeks, food is fundamentally a question of why. Instead of "How do I brine a turkey?" it's "Why does osmosis push moisture back into the bird?" Instead of "How should I brown these potatoes?" it's "Why does a Maillard reaction make food tasty?" Food geek Jeff Porter delves into these questions and more in his book "Cooking for Geeks" (O'Reilly, $34.99), an excellent walk through the science of food and the basic techniques to turn that knowledge into flavor. Now, to be sure, Harold McGee (who appears in an interview in the book) traveled down the science portion of this path already in his seminal "On Food and Cooking." But Porter taps into the trend of food experimentation and gadgetry that has invaded our kitchens. "Overly intellectual. Obsessed with details. Going beyond the point where a mainstream user would stop," Porter writes. "A geek is anyone who dwells with some obsession on why something works and how to make that something better. And it's become a badge of honor to be a geek."

That's out of The Herald, in Monterey, California. You can find the rest of that article here.

'Jamie's America' Found Through Food And Families from NPR Podcast Talk of the Nation

When British chef Jamie Oliver took a road trip in search of quintessential American food, his biggest discovery was that there was no such thing. He visited American families to gather a diverse and delicious group of recipes that make up his new book, Jamie's America.

Download the podcast here. See also: Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals, Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life, Jamie's 30-Minute Meals

Chateauneuf-du-Pape from Lopate - Underreported by listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio)

Wine expert Harry Karis talks about the French wine region: Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The Chateauneuf-du-Pape Wine Book gives detailed information on over 200 winemakers, and an in-depth look at climate, soil, grapes, and winemaking.

Download the podcast here. See also: Exploring Wine: The Culinary Institute of America's Guide to Wines of the World, The Wine Bible, The Little Black Journal of Wine: A Wine Lover's Record Keeper (Little Black Books) (Guided Journal Series), Wine Tasting Notebook

Charlie Rose's Tuesday, June 22, 2010 greenroom conversation with Frank Bruni - Food, Books

You can view the full interview here. There isn't a transcript for this interview. Be sure to check these links out as well: Born Round: A Story of Family, Food and a Ferocious Appetite, Ambling Into History: The Unlikely Odyssey of George W. Bush, Born Round: A Story of Family, Food and a Ferocious Appetite, Italy: The Best Travel Writing from the New York Times, A Gospel of Shame: Children, Sexual Abuse, and the Catholic Church, Charlie Rose - Discussion about Obama's media strategy / Frank Bruni (September 18, 2009), Charlie Rose - Discussion about Obama's media strategy / Frank Bruni (September 18, 2009)

The Splendid Table for Saturday December 30, 2006 from APM: The Splendid Table

This week we talk to Paula Wolfert about the reissue of her classic The Cooking of Southwest France, The Sterns are eating Indian fry bread in Greybull, WY at Lisa's, bestselling author Peter Mayle has taken on French wine, French festivals and now he's taken on French bread in his new book Confessions of a French Baker, and we meet the woman and culture behind one of Portland, Oregon's best restaurants, Andina, sophisticated Peruvian cuisine.

Download the podcast here. See also: Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking: Traditional and Modern Recipes to Savor and Share, The Cooking of Southwest France : Recipes from France's Magnificent Rustic Cuisine, Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco

01-15-07: The Wine and Food Lover's Diet and Stuff On My Cat: The Book from Chronicle Books podcast

1-15-07 In this episode, we talk to Philip Tirman, M.D. about his new book, The Wine and Food Lover's Diet. Tirman, a sports doctor, turned his attention to nutrition when he was fighting his own battle to lose weight. He's written a diet that he says will appeal to foodies- and allows you to have a glass of wine with dinner. Our Worst-Case Scenario this week helps you deal with that nightmare customer, and finally we talk to Mario Garza about the Stuff on my Cat phenomenon.

Download the podcast here. See also: Exploring Wine: The Culinary Institute of America's Guide to Wines of the World, The Little Black Journal of Wine: A Wine Lover's Record Keeper (Little Black Books) (Guided Journal Series), World Atlas of Wine