A Literary Culinary Journal
Brian is a Boston-based food photographer and writer. He is the creator of the food blog A Thought For Food, a collection of recipes, personal anecdotes and historical information pertaining to cooking.
His photographs are available for viewing on his photography site, Brian Samuels Photography. Brian’s work has also been featured on Saveur , The Kitchn , Tastespotting, and FoodGawker.
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To safeguard one’s health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed.–La Rochefoucauld, 1678
François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. His literary work consists of three parts: his Memoirs, the Maximes and his letters.
His importance as a social and historical figure is perhaps overshadowed by his importance to literature. He is often referred to as the “master of eloquent melancholy,” because he was known for his dark views of life, and for leading what were perhaps the first salons in Paris.
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“Most people think of the toilet as the most contaminated part of the house, but in fact the kitchen sink typically contains 100,000 times more germs than a bathroom or lavatory.”
“The average kitchen chopping board has around 200% more faecal bacteria on it than the average toilet seat. Hygiene experts advise you to use separate chopping boards for red meat, poultry, fish and vegetables.”
Click here to read more about the British National Health Service‘s statistics regarding germs and their propagation in your food and home.
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“David Korten explains that our existing industrial agriculture system receives essential public subsidies (and tax supports) that offset the real costs of energy, and food production. Without these supports, the global food system would no longer be economically viable. Who are the true beneficiaries of a food system that separates the eater from the source of their food? The large agribusiness corporations. Korten argues that both “peak oil” and climate change makes it imperative that we transition to a more localized food economy to insure continued access to adequate food supplies.”
It’s time we took our future into our own hands by supporting our local economies, learning to grow our own food, and generally rebuilding local food systems, by making the well-being of human beings more important and central in our lives than corporate earnings.
Click here to listen to The Capitalist Threat to Democracy, Part 1.
Click here to listen to Capitalism’s Threat to Democracy, Part 2.
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by video
If you’ve ever had to the good luck to taste Joël Robuchon’s mashed potatoes, made with the variety Ratte, you probably daydream about them often enough. This here explains how to make them. Click Swiss Info to watch a video that explains how to make them.
Gawker says more than 10,000 tons of potatoes will end up in Swiss troughs this year. The dry spring and warm autumn made them too big to meet the standard sizes that can legally be sold in supermarkets.
Ever wonder how many calories are in those KFC mashed potatoes and gravy? article calculates “680 calories, and an even more shocking 2130 mg of sodium per serving.”
Potatoes from the New World most likely saved Europe from a famine in 18th century. This Smithsonian 
is a fascinating history of the potato and how it changed the world, and full of interesting facts.
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by Jonell Galloway
Quote from Wendell Berry‘s Bringing it to the Table, On Farming and Food, introduction by Michael Pollan
In the time when my memories begin –the late 1930s — people in the country did not go around empty-handed as much as they do now. As I remember them from that time, farm people on the way somewhere characteristically had buckets or kettles or baskets in their hands, sometimes sacks on their shoulders.
Those were hard times — not unusual in our agricultural history — and so a lot of the fetching and carrying had to do with foraging, searching the fields and woods for nature’s free provisions: greens in the spring-time, fruits and berries in the summer, nuts in the fall. There was fishing in warm weather and hunting in cold weather; people did these things for food and for pleasure, not for “sport.” The economies of many households were small and thorough, and people took these season opportunities seriously.
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The annual chocolate feast, fete and orgy known here in Paris as the Salon du Chocolat takes over the city this year from October 20 to 24. If you’re not in Paris already, get here fast. There might not be any chocolate left if you arrive on the last day.
It has been remarked (by yours truly) that if you toss out a euro these days it will probably land on a Paris chocolate shop or pâtisserie with a celebrated chef bent on titillating his customers’ taste buds while dazzling their eyes and lightening their wallets.
No other city, not even Brussels, has as much fine chocolate as Paris. Paris is the chocolate capital of the world.
While the Swiss and Belgians weren’t looking, Paris stole their milk cows and became the swaggering global capital of chic chocolate.
All challengers to this claim please take one of our chocolate tours and then decide whether to proceed with the duel.
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Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.–Socrates, c 430 BC
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher unlike any other, since he never wrote anything. He is credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy.
He believed in teaching people how they ought to live and how to think for themselves, and is therefore compared by many to Jesus and Buddha, even though he had no dogma as such. He was convicted and executed for irreverence toward the Greek gods.
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by Jonell Galloway
This year’s fashion show at the Salon du Chocolat in Paris was probably the most stunning and creative to date. The fashion designers gave a burlesque atmosphere to the entire show, and there was a full array of top top models to show their creations to their best advantage.
I’m melting! Chocolate catwalk show comes a cropper after model’s dress falls off. The Daily Mail has one of the most complete coverages of the chocolate dress fashion show, with a full photo show, including the several shots of Karine Ferri’s dress as it gradually desconstructed as she walked down the runway.
Trendhunter show a great closeup of the gladiator bikini that 2005 Miss France Cindy Fabre paraded.
Japan was the featured chocolate country this year, and Japanese Susumu Koyama, 47, was even named “Best Foreign Chocolatier” — winning out over top masters from celebrated chocolate-making nations like Belgium and Switzerland.
The Telegraph has a great photo of Anca Radici, with a close-up of her chocolate stockings and shoes.
ShoppingBlog shows some highlights in video, including the deconstructing dress.
Good photos to be seen on Out and About in Paris as well.
The show ends tonight, so if you’re in Paris, you still have time to pay a visit.
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by Tamar Chamlian
Quinoa is a health food addict’s best friend. I have a love affair with it.
If I were to tell you that it could be used in 101 ways, yes there would be. I’ll keep it simple to start, however, by listing 5 easy, quick-fix ways to incorporate this magic grain in your everyday meals.
Do you want to know what so “magical” about quinoa? Its glory is that it is high in protein and fiber, yet provides you with lots of long-lasting, balanced energy.
But I don’t only like quinoa because of its nutritional values. I also like it because it is easy to combine it with other ingredients when cooking.
I often come home after a long day and the just the thought of thirty minutes in the kitchen making a big homemade meal overwhelms me. And can my digestive system really handle a big heavy meal?
The quinoa is sitting there, set, ready to go in just 10 minutes (and sometimes even less).
Here are my 5 easy, healthy quick-fix dishes:
Quinoa is revolutionary in the world of cereals and grains. It is chock-full of nutrition and fiber.
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Meet Jonell Galloway, a freelance writer and editor specialized in French cuisine. 
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