A Literary Culinary Journal
The three-Martini lunch is the epitome of American efficiency. Where else can you get an earful, a bellyful and a snootful at the same time?–Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States of America (1913-2006), was then incumbent Presidential candidate running against Jimmy Carter. who condemned the practice of having luxurious mid-day meals that could be written off as tax expenses.
Click here to listen to the 3-martini lunch song.
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Never hesitate to take the last piece of bread or the last cake; there are probably more.–Hill’s Manual of Social and Business Forms: Etiquette of the Table (1880)
The entire book is scanned for reading online. Click here to read it.
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by Jonell Galloway
A new Middle Eastern pastry shop has opened in Pâquis, right in the heart of Geneva. Their base is in Paris in the 18th arrondissement at La Rose de Tunis.
The Achech family have been making pastries for they can’t quite remember how many generations. They come from the Tunisian village of Ghomrassen, known for its pastries, thanks to the almond trees and other ingredients used in Middle Eastern pastries that thrive in its soil. It is thanks to this heritage and carefully kept-secret family recipes they have been collecting for generations that they produce the most delicate Middle Eastern pastries I have ever tasted.
Tunisian baklava, Moroccan baklava, Turkish baklava. Pure almond paste, pistachios, rose water. The perfumes of the Orient are all there, in the pastries and in the flowery, nutty wafts you experience as you stroll through the tiny shop. Pastries are stacked artistically, like pièces montées, and can be bought individually or on a catering basis for weddings, receptions, banquets, etc.
The shop is filled with Middle Easterners in their finest attire. It is classy and impeccable in every way.
They also serve mint tea…the real stuff.
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Click here for English version
On associe traditionnellement le nom de Laguiole, petit village des hauts plateaux de l’Aubrac aveyronnais, à celui d’un restaurateur émérite, autodidacte génial qui a décroché en 1999 sa troisième étoile ainsi que la considération des gourmets du monde entier : Michel Bras. Dans le monde de la haute cuisine, il est regardé comme un touche-à-tout surdoué qui, dans son laboratoire arrimé au Puech du Suquet, invente sans patron, sans modèle et fait de nombreux imitateurs. On peut imaginer combien ceux qui ont fait une halte dans ses cuisines ont été profondément marqués par la fréquentation d’un homme qui donne l’impression d’habiter un temps différent du vôtre. Peut-être a-t-il été moine cistercien dans une autre vie, cherchant à introduire dans ses compositions culinaires des formulations secrètes inspirées par le nombre d’or. Lorsqu’on demande à Michel Bras ce qui l’inspire le plus dans son cheminement créatif, il répond : « C’est la photographie et la course à pied ! ». Autrement dit, l’ascèse et la contemplation. Pascal Auriat, boulanger à Laguiole, en tous les cas, transpire encore de cette fréquentation avec le cuisinier ascète-esthète. Lorsqu’il parle de ses années passées chez Bras, il évoque une sorte de « conversion » à ce qui aujourd’hui le retient durablement : l’alchimie des fermentations.
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It isn’t only fictional heroes to whom toast means home and comfort. It is related of the Duke of Wellington – I believe by Lord Ellesmere – that when he landed at Dover in 1814, after six years’ absence from England, the first order he gave at the Ship Inn was for an unlimited supply of buttered toast.–Elizabeth David, English Bread and Yeast Cookery (1977)
Elizabeth David was British food writer and author of eight cookbooks published during her lifetime, and five more published posthumously. She won the prestigious Glenfiddich award for her book English Bread and Yeast Cookery. In the 1960s she was hailed as the person who transformed the eating habits of middle- class England.
Click here to listen to interview with Jill Norman, her publisher.
Click here to watch a scene from a documentary about her life.
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When I’m old and gray, I want to have a house by the sea. And paint. With a lot of wonderful chums, good music and booze around. And a damn good kitchen to cook in.–Ava Gardner
Hollywood leading actress of from the 1950s through the 1970s. Married three times to actor Mickey Rooney; to jazz musician Artie Shaw; and lastly to singer and actor Frank Sinatra. She was also romantically involved with Howard Hughes and Spanish bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín.
At the end of her life she suffered from emphysema brought on by a lifetime of smoking. She died at the age of 67 from pneumonia after having had two strokes which left her bedridden.
Click here to listen to Ava Gardner in the movie Show Boat singing Can’t Help Lovin´dat Man, which clearly she did.
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I don’t like to say that my kitchen is a religious place, but I would say that if I were a voodoo priestess, I would conduct my rituals there.–Pearl Bailey, Pearl’s Kitchen
Pearl Bailey was an American Tony-award winning actress for her role in Hello Dolly! (1968). President Richard Nixon appointed her America’s “Ambassador of Love” in 1970, three years before she published Pearl’s Kitchen.
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A man who loves good food has a way of making it gravitate toward his kitchen.–Angelo Pellegrini, The Unprejudiced Palate (1948)
Ruth Reichl describes The Unprejudiced Palate as a “manifesto for living the good life.” Angelo Pellegrini was a writer, English professor, gardener, and lover of food and cooking. He believed in the seasonality of cooking and eating and practiced Slow Food philosophy before it became popular.
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Meet Jonell Galloway, a freelance writer and editor specialized in French cuisine. 
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