• Two Meals, Two Loaves

    As those of us who read our Bible and listen to our “Jesus Christ Superstar” know, Jesus took a loaf of bread and a fish and fed millions of people. Despite all the messianic implications, I took two loaves of bread and fed myself twice.Last night, there was salad, soup and bread. Pictured you will…

  • NYC Eats Does The NYT

    NYC Eats has taken the NYT Quick Guide List for NYC restaurants and added links to the reviews and videos. It’s organized by stars; so you can get tours of NYC’s top dining spots. My favorites were Alain Ducasse and Daniel. You can also tour two places my parents ate at on their anniversary trip,…

  • The Ugh Department, The Aw Department

    Service matters. You can have the best food in the world, but if it’s presented in a dry, humorless style (ahem, Charlie Trotter’s) your meal loses lustre.Good service is a complicated matter. A good server is a chameleon: if one table wants professional courtesy and another table wants to yuk it up, you have to…

  • Project Sourdough

    Ladies and Gentlemen,I present to you my greatest culinary achievement. Two weeks in the making, this bread is the pinnacle of my young gourmet life. Here it is in its final form:To be honest, its beauty is still a bit staggering. Isn’t it gorgeous?Here’s how it looks on the inside:How amazing that flour, water and…

  • T-Minus One Hour

    The oven is preheating to 500 degrees. The baking stone is in place. The bread is doing it’s final rise. The band is playing “We Will Rock You.” Lauren is purchasing soup and salad from Whole Foods. [What’s funny is as I wrote that, she called my cell to say: “Creole Seafood Gumbo?” I gave…

  • To Your Vast Amusement

    I have restrained myself thus far from revealing a family secret. But now the time has come, and here it is: my parents are celebrity hounds. Their affinity for a restaurant is based on the likelihood that they will see a celebrity there. Nevermind good food, give them:Sarah Jessica ParkerOr, Billy Joel (with my brother)Or,…

  • You Will (Maybe) Make This Strawberry-Rhubarb Cobbler

    If there was no Lauren there’d be no Maybe.She felt that the rhubarb was too prominent, that the fruit wasn’t cooked enough. But tell me this doesn’t look delicious:Here’s a good tip for all you aspiring gourmets out there: when you’re at the supermarket, pay attention to what’s in the produce section. Recently at Whole…

  • My New Addiction

    You tell me what chip you eat, I’ll tell you who you are.Sour Cream and Onion? You ate paste as a child. You wear lots of flannel.BBQ? You drive an SUV and love the WWF.Salt and Vinegar?Well here we hit a wall. To me there was no one more exotic, no one more outside the…

  • The Return to the Gym

    I had good excuses. My most recent one was this:I was in the locker room, all ready to work out, ready to change into my workout clothes when I suddenly blanked on my locker combination. Figuring it would come back to me if I locked the lock, I locked the lock before locking it on…

  • Breadmaking: The Afternoon Session

    “Bitter was my cupBut no more will I be the mournerFor I’ve certainly turned the cornerOh things are looking upSince [bread] looked up at me!”– From “Things Are Looking Up” by George and Ira Gershwin“But she lost control I wouln’t take the bait.I said chill baby baby chill baby baby wait.”– From “Things That Make…