Taste Unlocked: Food & Thought

Published by Tuesday, June 26, 2018 Permalink 1

Taste Unlocked: Food & Thought

France and Italy’s relationship through time, wine & food

PROGRAM FOR 4-DAY MASTERCLASS TASTING WEEKEND IN CHARTRES

with Jonell Galloway and James Flewellen

4th to 7th October 2018
——-
Course Overview

FRANCE AND ITALY ARE TITANS OF EUROPEAN culinary culture. The nations of today are inheritors of rich culinary traditions that are the result of millennia of interweaving relationships between the peoples who inhabit these lands. This is a process that predates even the Romans and continues very much into the 21st century.

Over this four-day weekend, we explore the culinary and vinous relationships between France and Italy from Roman times through to today. We will look at what each nation has gifted the other through various lenses, including food, drink and culinary culture.

The masterclass involves sumptuous feasting, tutored wine tastings, and intellectual discussion. Bring your taste buds, something to say and a willingness to learn!

 

Continue Reading…

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

A Brief History of Coffee

Published by Tuesday, March 13, 2018 Permalink 0

by Brian Yarvin

“Collectively, Europe’s coffeehouses functioned as the Internet of the Age of Reason.”–Tom Standage

I once asked a friend how much coffee he drank and he boasted “500 billion cups a year.” I knew instantly that this was wrong because the entire world drinks only about 400 billion. No matter where we are — in the car-crazed west, the subway riding city of New York, a town square cafe in Kansas, or a science lab in Antarctica — coffee is our fuel.

Coffee is so powerful that it has its own creation myth. We are told that it was discovered by a guy named “Kaldi.” He was an Ethiopian goat herder who noticed that when his animals ate certain red berries, they got so excited, they began to dance. So he chewed on a few berries and felt that now universal coffee buzz. Afterward, he picked some more, and then told an Islamic holy man about his discovery. The holy man declared them evil and threw them on the fire. When they smelled the roasting beans, they gathered them up, threw water on them, and enjoyed the world’s first cup of coffee.

Continue Reading…

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Venetian Hours: Window into the Past

Published by Friday, December 15, 2017 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

We all have to let off steam from time to time. I do it through words, sometimes harsh, sometimes sweet; Venice does it through windows and steam-pipes.

Hand-shaped bricks were laid onto this marshland over a thousand years ago and still stand, the alder wood foundation stakes digging deep to reach the bottom sands of this shallow lagoon.

This wall tells a tall story, filled in over the centuries with newer bricks and stones, later covered with plaster, itself now crumbling with age, like family stories that change tones with the times and are embellished with black or white lace as we choose. Windows were carved out, later filled in and plastered over. A small window inside the older, larger one — for ventilation? — now itself bricked in, a simple steam pipe serving the purpose of ventilation today. It reminds me of that story about my great great grandmother who was kidnapped by an Indian chief for her beauty and the posses went out to look for her. It’s changed several times during my short lifetime, and I asked my mother: “maybe it was she who ran off with the Indian chief?” My imagination could go wild.

New-green plants nestle up close to darker, old ones. A half-timber overhang at the top recalls that Venice is in so many ways the door to the East and a city where old and new, East and West, uninhibitedeness and reservedness, have always lived comfortably alongside each other despite the natural elements being against her. I could study this façade for the rest of my life, unfolding its timeworn story, imagining the joy and the agony that went on behind this wall. Venice remains a city full of mystery, even after all these years of snuggling up tight with her.

 
 
 
Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Happy 1,595th Birthday, Venice!

Published by Friday, March 25, 2016 Permalink 0

San Marco and Doge's Palace in Venice, Italy

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Itsy Bitsy History of Candy Corn and other Halloween News

Published by Sunday, October 28, 2012 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Don’t miss Gourmet Live’s history of how candy corn was invented in a time when corn was seen as low-brow, and how it later came to be associated with autumn.

Click here to read more.

For lots of fun and novel uses for candy corn (and for a few good laughs), you might want to read this article on Jezebel.

Laughing Squid has produced an series of sculptures made from candy corn.

Craftberry Bush shows a step-by-step photographic explanation of how to make candy corn party favors. These are some of the most original Halloween treats I’ve seen.

 

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

The Macaron: A Dessert of Legendary Proportions

Published by Tuesday, March 20, 2012 Permalink 0

//
Indian-inspired recipes

by Meeta Khurana Wolff

The macaron is a desert of legendary proportions, which easily transcends the cookie genre. Technically, it is simply a pastry, in which two shells made from ground almonds, egg whites, icing sugar and sugar encase a delicate filling flavored with a symphony of different flavors. In reality, its finesse goes far beyond that of cookies.

History of Macarons

It is believed that macarons made their way to the French court from Italy with the chefs of Catherine di Medici who married King Henry II of France in 1533. This dessert of all desserts really came into its own in 1792 when two nuns seeking asylum in Nancy during the French Revolution baked and sold macarons to support themselves and became known as the macaron sisters! At that time, the macaron was just plain pastry no flavor and no filling.

It was not until the 1900s that Ladurée‘s Pierre Desfontaines revolutionized the macaron by taking two pastry shells and filling them with ganache. Today, besides Ladurée, there is, of course, Pierre Hermé, both whom have elevated the macaron to new heights and made them celebrated.

Continue Reading…

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 28, 2011

Published by Wednesday, September 28, 2011 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

God cannot appear before a starving man except in the form of bread.–Mahatma Gandhi, 1947

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement. A pioneer of satyagraha, or resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Continue Reading…

Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

A chocolate school, and guess where? Switzerland

Published by Wednesday, August 3, 2011 Permalink 0

You can go to chocolate-making school at the Chocolaterie Rapp in Prangins, between Geneva and Lausanne, even if you don’t want to be a professional chocolatier.

The introductory course lasts one hour and a half and consists of:

  • visit of chocolate school
  • presentation and history of chocolate
  • introduction to chocolate making
  • chocolate tasting and drink at the chocolate school
  • issue of a tasting diploma from the Compagnie des fins becs, a Swiss gourmet tasting society

Classes are given on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and on reservation only.

Price: 15 CHF per person, with a minimum of 10 people per class.

The school can be visited on Saturday for 25 CHF per head.

The full course lasts 5 hours, and consists of:

  • visit of chocolate school
  • presentation and history of chocolate
  • handling of chocolate
  • chocolate moulding and tempering, depending on the season
  • chocolate desserts
  • praline and truffles
  • chocolate tasting and drink at the chocolate school
  • issue of a Chocolate Know-How diploma and notebook of recipes

Price: 160 CHF per person.

Unfortunately, all classes are fully booked until the end of August 2011. September dates will be announced soon.

If you want classes in English, please request well ahead of time.

For more information, call (41) (0)22 361 92 12 or contact the school by e-mail at  rapp-confiserie@bluewin.ch.


Never miss a post
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

UA-21892701-1