My senior year of college, my favorite professor, Rick Rambuss, invited four of his favorite students to dinner, one night, at his house. When one of them died unexpectedly, I was called in as a replacement. It was a key moment in my culinary genesis: the meal was brilliantly prepared by his partner, Chuck. There…

This morning, the starter was completely separated: one layer of doughy-floury-gook and one layer of purplish-clear liquid. This afternoon, though, everything seemed to be united and little bubbles were forming. This is how it is now. Those bubbles, methinks, are CO2. That can only mean one thing: (cue lightning) (cue Frankenstein music) IT’S ALIVE! IT’S…

I give you: Save Martha!

I am a food magazine impulse shopper. So much so, in fact, that two weeks ago I threw away a stack of food magazines that stacked up taller than me–and I was wearing heels!Among my guilty food magazine pleasures are: 1) Cook’s Illustrated; 2) Bon Apetit; and 3) Saveur. (I subscribe to Gourmet, otherwise it…

As you may recall, I spent a good amount of time a few weeks ago reading all about bread in my birthday present of a book “Nancy Silverton’s Breads From The La Brea Bakery.” The idea of starting a starter–that strange combination of flour, water, and grapes that is the lifeblood of good bread–seemed a…

Now I can load the site, but apparently many people can’t. Among those who can’t are:1) My mother;2) Two friends.How can this be? Oh, the humanity!

Glitches and travel aside, I have composed and recorded a swishy song commemorating all the meals consumed over Spring Break. I give you: The Break That Was Spring! (Apologies to Rogers, Hammerstein, and especially Julie Andrews).Download file

First of all, today has been a frustrating day for The Amateur Gourmet. I spent like 8 hours on the phone with godaddy.com trying to figure out why the site wouldn’t load, and then–after two unhelpful phone conversations–it came to my attention that the problem was with Typepad. In a flash of good luck, the…

A good history of pizza at NYC Eats. (Lombardi’s is where Lisa, Ricky and I ate at in our Eating the Lower East Side video).