When I first studied French cooking one of the most memorable – and simplest — soups I learned to make was this one. At the time, I was studying with one of my culinary mentors, the late Richard Olney, in James Beard’s kitchen where he was teaching a week-long class.
I was the sub-assistant who grabbed [...]

Last winter, my friend Liza, who lives in Chicago, sent me her beef stew recipe. She had made it for a dinner party and, she confided, “they licked the bowls.” I tried it immediately and her stew was super-delicious. We so enjoyed having big helpings of it in my rimmed soup bowls with thick slices [...]

My youngest brother knows how much I love coffee. It’s definitely one of my major food groups. So he sent me a series of photos yesterday of what he called Mona Lisa Latte.
It took a minute to realize what I was looking at: a 20-by-13-foot likeness of da Vinci’s masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, created on [...]

Let me begin with an admission: I’m not a huge cookie baker. I’m going to blame my Mom who always bought cookies so we could spend our time wrapping presents! Over the years, though, I have collected a few cookie recipes I’d call quality basics — 2 of them can be found below. The photo [...]

Crème brulée – silky chilled custard beneath a warm sugar glaze – is one of the simplest and most delicious desserts to prepare in individual portions, which are perfect for festive holiday dinners. While it has blissfully few ingredient and is not difficult to do, the hot/cold, fire-and-ice quality when it’s served often gets a [...]

Thanksgiving always reminds me of my Grandma Rose. She was a character with a life of her own, not a warm and fuzzy Grandma at all. She could cook a small range of things really well though she was much more interested in playing cards.
Twice a year, she focused on family dinners and went all [...]