Food Literature from TRE | Page 12 of 46

David Downie: Truffles in Black and White: Part Two, Truffle Hunting in Piedmont

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, February 23, 2012 Permalink 0

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by David Downie

Truffles in Black and White: Part Two, Truffle Hunting in Piedmont, Italy

The scent of truffles is what draws trained dogs and pigs to them. Wild or cultivated, truffles grow at random around host trees and must be hunted out and carefully removed using a small pick or trowel.

Eighth-generation truffle hunter and dog trainer Renato Agnello, a wiry dynamo in his late 60s, teaches truffle hunting at Alba’s Centro Nazionale Studi Tartufi (CNST) and leads simulated hunts. In Alba’s main square, Piazza Risorgimento, Agnello opened the back hatch of a muddy FIAT Panda and introduced me to his aging truffle hound, Diana. We drove at breakneck speed into vineyards bordering the Tanaro River south of town. The smell of Diana, dirt and truffles was dizzying.

In Italy, truffle hunters must be registered, trained and licensed. Piedmont’s 10,000 are reputed to be secretive. Agnello was expansive. “I’ve been at it 61 years,” he laughed. “With people and dogs it’s genetic.”

Italian law states that truffles on public or private land belong to their finder. To keep truffle hunters out, private property must be fenced and posted “no trespassing.” Trespassing is common, however, particularly in central Italy’s commercial black truffle plantations (there are no white truffle plantations).

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, February 23, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, February 23, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

No coffee can be good in the mouth that does not first send a sweet offering of odor to the nostrils.–Henry Ward Beecher

Henry Ward Beecher — brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin — was a prominent Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, and speaker in the mid to late 19th century. An 1875 adultery trial in which he was accused of having an affair with a married woman was one of the most notorious American trials of the 19th century.

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, February 22, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, February 22, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

Without my morning coffee I’m just like a dried up piece of roast goat.–Johann Sebastian Bach

here was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. “He learned to play all of the keyboard instruments of the time and also how to repair and build organs,” says Music at Your House.

Click here to listen to some of his most well-known recordings.

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, February 21, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, February 21, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

The golden rule when reading the menu is, if you cannot pronounce it, you cannot afford it.–Frank Muir

here was an English comedy writer, radio and television personality, and raconteur.

Click to see him in a TV commercial for milk.

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, February 20, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, February 20, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

One can say everything best over a meal.–George Eliot

Mary Anne Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She was the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Middlemarch (1871–72), and Daniel Deronda (1876), most of them set in provincial England and well known for their realism and psychological insight.

Culinary Chemistry: Tempered Chocolate for Valentine’s

Published by Jenn Oliver + Tuesday, February 14, 2012 Permalink 0

by Jenn Oliver

I love to make food creations as gifts for holidays, because I communicate through food (definitely better than through words). With words I find myself trying to be very precise, searching rather unsuccessfully for the most succinct way to express a thought. However, with cooking, I let loose a little more – I find the constraints and structures of recipes to actually encourage a bit of play. It’s one of the reasons why I have come to love gluten-free cooking, because the restriction in effect serves as an impetus for ingenuity; so amidst all of the rules surrounding the preparation of food, I find the freedom to express myself. Today, I tempered chocolate to tell my husband, “I love you” for Valentine’s.

Tempering chocolate is one of those techniques that is all about rules. It takes care, patience, and most of all, constant attention. A bit of a hassle if you don’t have a temperature controlled device – but, if dipping fruit or other chocolaty Valentine’s confections, there are definitely some advantages to using tempered chocolate. For one, the melting point of the chocolate is higher, so it doesn’t melt as easily, making it less messy to eat. Tempered chocolate is also prettier. It has a more glossy sheen to it, and snaps a bit when you break it apart. Besides aesthetics, tempered chocolate is less likely to bloom – the process where fat rises to the surface giving chocolate unattractive gray splotches.

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, February 13, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, February 13, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

We never repent of having eaten too little.–Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson — author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, third president of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia — voiced the aspirations of a new America as no other individual of his era.

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, February 10, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, February 10, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

The further I travel in search of the ideal slimming method the more I am convinced that food is one of the oldest and greatest comforters… a secret return to the womb…–Roy Andries de Groot

Baron Roy Andries de Groot was a British-born American culinary writer and wine critic. He was born in London, the son of a Dutch artist and a French noblewoman. During the 1930s, de Groot worked as a news and feature writer, film writer, and director. When World War II broke out, he joined the British Ministry of Information and worked for the BBC, where, during The Blitz of London, he suffered eye injuries that would leave him totally blind within 20 years.

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, February 9, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, February 9, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life.–Elsa Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) was an Italian fashion designer. Along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars. Starting with knitwear, Schiaparelli’s designs were heavily influenced by Surrealists, such as her collaborators Salvador Dalí and Alberto Giacometti.

Click here to see examples of her designs.

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, February 8, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, February 8, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

Food Haiku

A man that eats
his meals amidst morning glories—
that’s what I am!

–Matsuo Bashō

Matsuo Bashō was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief, clear haiku.