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Contemporary Terroir
Interesting People

Mitch Bechard, Glenfiddich's Brand Amabassador West, shares the very best. Thank you, thank you!

Lamberto Frescobaldi has been appointed the new President of Marchesi de' Frescobaldi, Tuscany's legendary 700-year old winemaking group. Bravo!

Food Arts just awarded their July/August 2013 Silver Spoon Award to Seattle Chef Tom Douglas for sterling performance. Bravo, bravo, bravo!

Patrick Norquet, the Product Designer Bringing Style to McDonald's French Division 

Sylvia Woods, 1926-2012. Harlem's Queen of Soul Food Who Taught a Whole Nation to Appreciate Its Complete Culinary Heritage

Marion Cunningham, 1922-2012. Inspired Advocate of American Home Cooking, James Beard Colleague, Author and Esteemed Grand Dame d'Escoffier

 La Mancha Wine Ambassador Gregorio Martin-Zarco shares a true Spanish treasure with the world.

Naeem Khan, Style Setting Designer of Michelle Obama's WHCD Dress

Terron Schaefer, Sak's Senior Vice President of Creative Marketing - Co-Creator of The Snowflake and the Bubble 

Pete Wells, the NEW Restaurant Critic for the venerated New York Times - Enjoy the Feast! Ah Bon Appetit!

Garry Trudeau Who Transferred the Faces and Feelings of the 1968 Harvard - Yale Game into the Insightful Doonesbury Commentary Cartoons

Chef Patron Massimo Riccioli of London's Famed Massimo Restaurant and Oyster Bar - Celebrity Perfect 

Carl Warner, Creator of Food Landscapes, a Culinary Terrain Extraordinary

Howard Schiffer, Founder of Vitamin Angels, Giving Healthly Future to Millions of Children

Françoise Branget, French National Assembly Deputy AND editor of La Cuisine de la République, Cuisinez avec vos députés! (or The Cuisine of the Republic: Cook With Your Deputies!)

Professor Hanshan Dong, Developer of the New Antibacterial Stainless Steel - No More Kitchen Germs!

Frieda Caplan, Founder of Frieda's - Innovative Vendor Who Introduced New & Rare Produce to U.S. Well Done Frieda!

Adam D. Tihany, International Famed Hotel & Restaurant Designer To Be New CIA Art Director - FANTASTIC CHOICE!

George Lang, Founder of New York's Trend-Setting Café des Artistes sadly Passed Away Tuesday, July 5, 2011. Rest in Peace.  A Great Gentleman. 

Chef Pasquale Vari of ITHQ - Canada

Nach Waxman, Owner of the Legendary Kitchen Arts & Letters Culinary Bookstore, NYC

Chef Roberto Santibanez, Noted Master of the True Mexican Cuisine - Both Historic and Modern 

Jeremy Goring, the Fourth Goring to Direct the Legendary Goring Hotel, London

Elena Arzak, Master Chef of Arzak, Basque Restaurant in Spain

Yula Zubritsky, Photographer to the Culinary Greats including Chef Anne-Sophie Pic

Adam Rapoport, New Editor in Chief of Bon Appetit

Christine Muhlke, New Executive Editor of Bon Appetit, which recently relocated to New York City

Darren McGrady, Private Chef to the Beloved Princess Diana 

Master French Chef Paul Locuse, Esteemed Founder of the Bocuse d'Or Culinary Championship

Graydon Carter, Editor Extraordinaire and Host of the Most Elite of Post Oscar Parties, The Vanity Fair Gala

Cheryl Cecchetto, Event Designer for Oscar Governor's Ball 2011

Antonio Galloni, the New California Wine Reviewer at Wine Advocate

Tim Walker, Moet & Chandon's New Photographer Extraordinaire

John R. Hanny, White House Food Writer 

Nancy Verde Barr, Friend and Colleague of Julia Child

David Tanis, Co-Chef of Chez Panisse and Paris

Colman AndrewsAuthor of Ferran

Special Finds

Thanks to the IceBag, your Champagne will now always be chilled. Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!

Canada's Crystal Head Vodka, 2011 Double Gold Winner at San Francisco World Spirits Competition - Though Halloween Perfect It's So Much More Than a Pretty Bottle: Fastastic Taste 

Post It Paper Watchbands - How to Remember Anything in Unforgettable Style

     
Kai Young Coconut Shochu - Stunning New Rice 'Vodka' from Vietnam, the Full Flavor of a Coconut in a Bottle!

Mandarian Hotel Group Now Offers Diners the Newest Cyber Currency - Worldwide E-Gift Cards

Qkies Cookies Makes QR Codes So Sweet

Air France Brings Art Aloft with New Menu Covers

Moet's Ice Imperial Champagne, a New Summer Favorite at Cannes Film Fetival Designed to Serve on Ice! 


P8tch, Customized Cloth URL patches - Perfect for Website ID Link on a Chef's Knife Roll

Dexter's New Knife Shape, the DuoGlide - An Innovative Design that More Than Makes the Cut & Then Some!

Spring Cupcakes, Perfect for Easter and Beyond, Thanks to Jelly Beans

Chocolates as Stunning as Rare Jewels from Promise Me Chocolate: Great for Mardi Gras or Elegant Weddings

Microplane's Fantastic New Hard Cheese Mill Exclusively from Williams-Sonoma

Be Enchanted by Red Italian Rosa Regale Sparkling Wine, Perfect with Chocolate for a Rose Themed Wedding

Moet & Chandon, the Official Champagne of the Oscars

Hu2 Design,  Art Stickers for the Kitchen 

Dry Fly Vodka of Washington State

New Portability with the Collapsible X-Grill by Picnic Basket

Before there was Champagne, there was Saint-Hilaire, the original sparkling wine

Chilean Winers to Remind Us All of True Courage

Monk's Head or Tete de Moine Cheese Slicer by Boska

The Amazing Smoking Gun by Poly Science

Maytag - Great Blue Cheese

Bookshelf

Ukutya Kwasekhaya - Tastes from Nelson Mandela's Kitchen is more than a just a book of recipes. Each dish tells one part of the 20 year journey the Mandela Family's cook traveled on South Africa's path to freedom.

Like Water for Choclate uses Magical Realism to capture the transformative qualities of everyday food and drink into something more. Also consider reading (and enjoying) Joanne Harris' amazing Chocolat.

Seven Fires by Argentine Grill Master Francis Mallmann is a must have book as all things Latin are set to become a major culinary trend.

Food Landscapes by Carl Warner, London's Amazing Commercial Food Photographer (and yes, there is a 2012 Image Calendar for your wall - Happy New Year!)

Trading Up by Michael J. Silverstein and Neil Fiske, a Must Read for All Who Market Luxury

Las Cocinas del Camino de Santiago de Compostela Captures the Essence of this Great Spanish Journey of Discovery

La Cuisine de la République, Cuisinez avec vos députés! (The Cuisine of the Republic: Cook With Your Deputies!) by Françoise Branget

Toast by English Food Writer Nigel Slater

Dinner at Buckingham Palace by Charles Oliver, Royal Household Servant

Tihany Design by Adam D. Tihany and Paul Goldberger - Truly Inspiring!

Hollywood Cocktails by Tobias & Ben Reed

The Art of the Chocolatier by Master Chef Ewald Notter, National Pastry Team Champion

The Stork Club Bar Book by bon vivant and culinary critic Lucius Beebe

Les Gouttes de Dieu, French Edition

Great Places

Entries by Ana Kinkaid (287)

Wednesday
Sep052012

Anna Karenina and Vodka Equal Great Chemistry

We can thank the Russians for great literature, and of course, for vodka. And this fall we will get both.

Kicking off the winter season is a new movie that creatively re-envisions Leo Tolstoy's great heroine, Anna Karenina.

Directed by Joe Wright and starring the breathtakingly beautiful actress Keira Knightley, it is staged on a stylized inclusive theater set, designed to reflect the closed world of values that sought to control the last days of czarist Russia.

The film’s elegant style is sure to affect culinary trends this fall including vodka cocktails, caviar service and all things grandly Russian. 

Yet few in the culinary world would connect the creation of science’s esteemed Periodic Table of Elements (something every chef interested in molecular experimentation should have) with the creation of Russian vodka.

Yet Dmitri Mendeleev, who labored long and hard to develop the Table, also used his amazing skills to define the precise formula to produce the perfectly balanced vodka – 40% alcohol by volume.

For that we should thank him most hardily. Thank you, thank you!

And yet, there is not a single vodka cocktail that honors him (or Tolstoy) by name.

Perhaps that omission will be correct this winter as the message of the new Anna Karenina movie reminds us all that the vital right to decide our own life’s course is a freedom to be treasured - and protected. 


To that we at Your Culinary World gladly raise our glasses!  We hope you do as well.

Post Note, November 30, 2012: In a creative marketing move that must be a reflection of current trends, the new Anna Karenina movie props are for sale on the Internet, including tables, chairs and mother-of-pearl cutlery. Amazing times these! Beautiful bargains! 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012 

Friday
Aug242012

Peanut Butter Goes High Fashion Thanks to Diana Vreeland

Peanut butter is generally thought of as ideal for children’s school sandwiches or as a key ingredient in after school snack cookies.

Actually peanut butter was first savored in 1890 when a St Louis doctor thought a high protein peanut paste would be a nutritious treat for his elderly patients with poor teeth.

By the turn of the century Dr. George Washington Carver had identified over 300 uses for the humble peanut, including a much improved peanut butter spread.

In 1908 the Krema Products Company in Columbus, Ohio produced the first commercial peanut butter, followed in 1928 by Swift & Company (a company that later became Peter Pan).

But least you think all peanut butter is restricted to primary school lunches or the home cookie jar, a new documentary, entitled The Eye Has to Travel, has revealed that Vogue’s legendary editor Diana Vreeland’s favorite daily lunch in her elegant red New York office was, yes, you guessed it – a peanut butter sandwich!

But a peanut butter sandwich with flair. The peanut butter had to have enough flavor to prompt Vreeland to declare that peanut butter was the best invention since Christianity.

Her sandwich bread had to be equally unique - cut from a freshly baked loaf of whole wheat bread. Vreeland disliked bland commercial white bread so much she was known to remark that it would make better glue than bread.

Last but not least, she regularly finished off her peanut butter sandwich with a tablespoon of her favorite marmalade jam, made from Spanish oranges.  

Being a powerful arbiter of fashion, her lunch time beverage of choice was a long shot of memorable scotch. Wow! – definitely not for Johnny or Mary at school, but so elegantly Vreeland: a healthy, classy peanut butter sandwich with Highland scotch! (No wonder she defined style as the editor of Vogue for over 30 years and later as the esteemed director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute!)

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012

Thursday
Aug162012

Le Cordon Bleu Honors Julia Child's 100th Birthday with the Perfect Recipe

Happy Birthday Julia! And who better than Le Cordon Bleu in Paris to celebrate this remarkable woman's 100th birthday for it was at this, France's most esteemed culinary school, that Julia first formally studied cooking.

However, it has surprised some that Le Cordon Bleu chose to honor Madame Child by posting on their website a recipe for such a humble dish as Oeufs à la Bourguignonne’ or eggs poached in red wine. (See a link to their recipe, also known as Oeufs en Meurette, below).

Yet have no fear - their choice is so much what Julia was truly about – simple fresh ingredients, great technique and a touch of historic French flair.

Just consider that Oeufs à la Bourguignonne’ was originally from beautiful Burgundy (the source for the red wine used in the recipe) and associated there with a Cadet Rousselle, who built in the late 1700's an open-air walkway above his house that offered shelter to birds (remember that eggs are also a key ingredient in the dish).

His strange walkway was soon immortalized in a local song that quickly became a favorite of Napoleon’s far marching soldiers.

It remained so popular that after a mere 50 years Tchaikovsky in czarist Russia chose to use it as the theme for the towering Mother Ginger and her many children in his beloved holiday ballet, The Nutcracker.

If you consider that Julia, like a modern Mother Ginger, led so many ingénue American home cooks out of the dark and into the larger world of fabulous French flavors, you can see how perfect (and oh so perceptively French) Le Cordon Bleu's honorary choice of cuisine was.

And what better work of musical talent could there be to represent Julia Child's love of sweets than The Nutcracker ballet with its many food references, all dancing by in wonder and delight.

(Thank you, Meryl Streep, for both of these two amazing portrayal of Julia Child in the award winning movie, Julie and Julia).

Julia Child never had children of her own but she shared with millions the very best that she knew - how to enjoy life each and every day. What can we say for such a gift, but thank you! Julia, you are remembered and treasured! 

Oeufs à la Bourguignonne' Recipe 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012

Wednesday
Aug152012

Rural Holiday Inn Express Offers True Hospitality during Washington State's Great Taylor Bridge Fire 

The heart of the Hospitality Industry has always been large. No matter where disaster strikes, members of the Industry have always done all that they could to help others impacted by fear and pain, whether harmed by man or nature.

During the tragedy of 9/11 hundreds of hotels and restaurants in New York City stop service and offered everything from food to staff to the thousands so cruelly and senselessly injured.

Now, once again the Industry has shown its heart. Not this time in New York City, one of the world’s leading centers of commerce, but in a much smaller town located in rural Ellensburg in Washington State.

The Holiday Inn Express in Ellensburg is a small hotel by the world’s grand standards. And it’s also located not far from the vast Taylor Bridge Fire, now raging out of control.

Home after home has burned, leaving hundreds without shelter, clothes or lodging. And although over 800 firemen are laboring around the clock to stop this furious Fire, the flames are only 10% contained and now cover an area equal to half the size of the nearby city of Seattle.

Ellensburg’s small Holiday Inn Express, in the finest tradition of our Industry, has chosen to open its doors and, using Facebook, has asked those who could, to bring clothing, blankets, books and toys to the Inn to help the Fire victims.

They have also prepared high protein sack lunches for those in need of a meal.

This small hotel’s courage and true professionalism should be a reminder to us all that no matter where we are in this wide world, from the might of New York City to every small rural town, we are all here to care, to make a difference, to help each other, to serve those in need. 

If you are in the Pacific Northwest and wish to help sort the donations arriving at the Holiday Inn Express or give recovery funds, call 509-962-9400 and see how you can be part of the kindness that is the hallmark of our Industry.  

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012

Monday
Aug132012

Usain Bolt Celebrates Close of London Olympics with Gold Champagne

The final week of the 2012 Summer Games have come, sadly, to an end.

And while the final fireworks fired from the Olympic Stadium (truly the best use for gunpowder), millions of people worldwide have been inspired by the breathtaking feats of the athletes and thankful that no acts of senseless violence have marred the Games.

There have been so many unforgettable moments – the fact that every nation’s team included women for the first time, the breathtaking soccer games, the sleek and speedy swimming champions, and, of course, the high flying courage of the gymnasts.

But certainly one of the greatest memories from the games was when Usain Bolt ran, winning gold in the 100 meters, the 200 meters and anchoring Jamaica's world-record gold medal performance in the 400-meter relay.

The speed, the elegance of form, his supportive gesture of the first physically challenged runner marked him as a modern athlete in the true tradition of the classic Olympic spirit.

So how does one celebrate winning triple Olympic gold in London?

Bolt chose to celebrate by enjoying a large Nebuchadnezzar size bottle of Armand de Brignac Champagne (also known as the Ace of Spades Champagne) at the very hip club Movida

Don't worry that his future endorsements will have to cover the final tab for the bottle – £80,000 (US $125,496)! It was comped - thank goodness! But lest you think fame has gone to his head, he shared the fun and this world-famous gold toned bottle of champagne with his assembled fellow medal winners. Well done Bolt!

And well done London! It's been a great two weeks! What fantastic Olympic Games! Rio, the selected site for the 2016 Games, will have to work very hard to top the 2012 London Olympic Summer Games, that’s for sure. Bravo Britain!

Post Note, August 14, 2012: The Olympic flag has been transferred to Rio de Janeiro, which will host the 2016 Summer Games. Considering that Rio will also host the 2014 World Cup Soccer Games, all things Latin American are sure to be an emerging culinary trend. 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012