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Peanut butter is a staple on my breakfast table, but I’ve long been frustrated by the standard array of options. Specifically, there seem to be two types of peanut butter that exist: processed (which is a complex blend of peanuts, oils from various sources, sugar, salt, and stabilizers) and all-natural (which contains nothing but peanuts, [...]

When my PolyScience Sous Vide Professional arrived on Friday, I had to decide what to cook in it first. It ended up being an easy decision. Eggs are such a primal food, and so delicious. Also, I had them on hand, which was useful since the immersion circulator arrived more than a week earlier than [...]

If it’s true of Alex and Aki, it’s even more true of me: Anything I might have had to say today takes a back seat to what Wylie Dufresne, chef of wd~50, has to say in this video. It’s not short, but it’s one of the most interesting videos I’ve seen on avant-garde cuisine in [...]

After I posted on Friday about quick infusion of spirits in a whipped cream siphon, I came across Martin’s excellent post on the subject on his blog, Khymos. I encourage everyone to read it, if you haven’t already. In the post, he mentions a couple of other non-traditional uses for whipped cream siphons. The first [...]

This is one of my favourite treats to make when I have leftover risotto. I just put the leftovers into a mold (usually a square or rectangular plastic sandwich keeper) and refrigerate them. Once they’re thoroughly chilled, usually by the next day, I unmold, cut to shape, bread, and shallow-fry until golden on the outside [...]

The key to mastering hollandaise sauce is understanding emulsification. As you whisk the sauce, you’re separating the butterfat into very, very small droplets (called the “dispersed phase”), and spreading them out through a certain amount of water (called the “continuous phase”) so they can’t recombine. It’s the same thing you do when making mayonnaise, or [...]

Two cool videos to share with you today. First up, John “Docsconz” Sconzo has a video of Town House sous-chef Matt Edwards preparing the orange shells for the dish “The Orange from Valencia.” John writes: This won’t be freeze the eyes to the screen of anyone already solidly grounded in techniques using liquid nitrogen, but [...]

This picture shows the tomato plants in my garden back when they were still healthy. Unfortunately, they’ve since succumbed to a fungal infection (fusarium wilt has been implicated) so we had to pull them all out. Which is sad not just because it means I don’t get to eat the tomatoes, but also because I’d [...]

In my last tech rundown, I talked about ingredients that avant-garde restaurants use for some of their tricks that are just as easy for home cooks to find and use. This time, I want to show you the Antigriddle, a piece of equipment that’s probably out of reach for most home cooks. (Though that hasn’t [...]

Here’s a recent video of a menu development meeting with the staff at Alinea. It’s an interesting inside look at how Chef Grant Achatz and his team take on the challenge of staying constantly at the forefront of modern cuisine. In particular, Achatz talks about how easy it is to identify certain plating styles with [...]