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Although I’m a firm believer in drinking champagne and other sparkling wines at any time, there’s no denying that they’re great for celebrating, too. And there are few better reasons to celebrate than ringing out the old year and ringing in the new. If you find yourself with some extra bubbly (or some leftover that’s [...]

At my mother’s request (after she read my last post), I baked up some mincemeat tarts. Merry Christmas!

The Christmas season is a time of tradition, whether our own family traditions or wider cultural traditions that connect us with our forebears. Foods and drinks that are otherwise defunct come out of hiding to adorn festive tables, and people nostalgically quaff eggnog while partaking of goose and chestnuts, fruitcakes and mincemeat pies. I’ve always [...]

One of the chapters in Ruhlman’s Twenty is devoted – rightly, in my opinion – to salt. If you want to be completely reductionist about it, you could say that all cooking ultimately comes down to understanding heat, water and salt. Proper use of salt is one of those things that separates restaurant cooking from [...]

Even after the meal was over and the positive reviews were in, my trouble with the Eleven Madison Park gougères continued to bother me. Gougères are just pâte à choux (similar to the pastry used for cream puffs and éclairs), with the addition of some grated cheese. I’ve made pâte à choux several times before; [...]

When I said I would be cooking out of the Eleven Madison Park cookbook “soon,” I neglected to mention that it would be as part of another “tribute” dinner, this time hosted by chef Murray Wilson of Atelier. Murray’s affinity for “EMP” dates back to 2008, when he dined there. That meal, and a subsequent [...]

No matter how many times I try, I can’t quite seem to get a handle on sherry. I know the fundamentals: that it’s a fortified wine made in certain regions of Spain, that it’s fermented by a film-forming yeast called flor, and that it’s aged in a fractional blending system called a solera. But once [...]