Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 90

Secrets of Great Chefs (My Cookbook’s Finally Here!)

At long last my cookbook, SECRETS OF GREAT CHEFS, is here! I am over-the-moon excited–exhilarated!–to finally share this 400-page labor-of-love with you. As many of you know, I’ve been working on this project since May 2010 when I announced the book to you all. Since then I’ve cooked with over 50 of the best chefs in the country, learned over 150 of their recipes and adapted them all for the home cook (that’s you). Click HERE to visit the SECRETS book page where I’ll tell you all about the book in great detail, share pictures and sample pages and even a video, then you can click over to one of the book sellers at the top and pre-order a book to arrive on your doorstep September 10th, when it’s finally released. If you’re kind enough to do that, let me know here in the comments or on Twitter or over e-mail so I can thank you individually. Any support you can give at this early stage is most appreciated. Needless to say, I’m so psyched to finally have this book out there…and for you to see what I’ve been pouring my heart and soul into these last few years. I just know you’re going to love it.

Braised Endive

It was just a small rectangle on the cheese plate at The French Laundry; a single bite of braised endive to complement the other elements on the plate (apricot, a square of pistachio cake, a sour ale gastrique).

But that single bite stayed with me. It was memorable because endive, which is normally bitter, becomes remarkably sweet when it’s cooked. Not entirely sweet, though; the flavor is complex–which is why braised endive has a place on the menu at such a distinguished restaurant. The surprise is that it’s really easy to make at home.

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Get Ready

On Monday, at long last, I’m going to unveil my brand new cookbook to you all. There’ll be pictures, page samples, and video… so get ready!

The Top 10 Junk Food Ads Targeted At Kids

It’s news today that Disney is no longer going to air junk food ads targeted at kids. And though this certainly is a step forward in the battle against childhood obesity, I can’t help but feel a certain nostalgia for the junk food ads that were targeted at me in my childhood. Craig and I started the day today recalling our favorite junk food ads growing up and I had the idea to compile them into a list. What follows is certainly subjective, but even if these commercials don’t ring any memory bells, they’re worth watching for the insidious ways that they ensnare children into buying their products.

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Checking In with Eric Wolitzky from Top Chef Just Desserts (Plus: His Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Recipe)

Many of you will remember my friend Eric Wolitzky from Season One of Top Chef Just Desserts. Back then, Eric was the pastry chef at Baked in Brooklyn where Eric and I once did a live video podcast, answering your questions; he also shared his top secret recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Now Eric lives in Atlanta, Georgia where he’s the pastry chef at Cakes & Ale, one of the hippest and most celebrated food joints in town. I thought it’d be fun to check in with Eric, so what follows is a Q&A with a few pictures of the food that he’s been serving; plus, Eric shares his recipe for his favorite Cakes & Ale dessert creation, a pineapple upside-down cake.

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Night + Market

A food writer friend is coming to L.A. this week and asked for my tips on where to eat (specifically, Mexican and Thai restaurants). For Mexican, I expressed my love for Loteria and my admiration for La Casita Mexicana; for Thai, I brought up Jitlada and Saap and Pa-Ord but finished my sentence by recommending Night + Market, where I ate this past Saturday, as “my favorite Thai meal I’ve had so far in L.A.”

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Vanilla Bean Pudding

Let’s talk pudding.

It doesn’t sound sexy like “panna cotta” or sophisticated like “pot de crem.” It sounds like the kind of thing you eat out of a plastic container with an aluminum peel on top which, for many people who grew up with Billy Cosby shilling for it on TV, it very much is. Which is unfortunate because good pudding–the kind of pudding you make at home with whole milk, sugar, corn starch, and any flavor combination you want–can be a cozier and more comforting dessert than those fancier, European concoctions.

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Purple Lunchtime Salad & Cherry Tomato Quinoa Tabbouleh

Last week something unprecedented happened. I was having a new friend over for dinner and, after shopping at 3 o’clock and starting to cook at 4 o’clock, I found myself at 8 o’clock holding my cellphone and a text message from this new friend saying that he had a work emergency and wouldn’t be able to make it. I was left with a giant bowl of couscous, a whole roasted chicken, vanilla bean pudding (which I’ll blog about later this week) and, lucky for me, two undressed heads of radicchio that I’d sliced and refrigerated in anticipation of making a salad. Now that it was just Craig and me, we wouldn’t need the salad and that undressed radicchio would survive the night in the fridge and become next day’s lunch. As it turned out that lunch–a purple salad that I concocted with leftover chicken, red onion, raisins and toasted walnuts–was almost better than the dinner.

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A Nifty New Banner

I’m putting this month’s banner in my Top 5 Favorite Banners of All Time (see the banner gallery) because it just looks so cool. I’m not even sure what the concept is (it’s kinda retro, 60s, World-of-Color-ish), but it proves that Lindy Groening, my banner illustrator, is a real visionary and I’m super lucky to have her designing banners for my blog.

Wine Tastings, Picnics and More…Our Trip to Napa

If we hadn’t gone to The French Laundry and we’d just gone to Napa we still would’ve had a most memorable trip.

The place is just obnoxiously beautiful. If you could bottle beauty and sell it, you could do a lot worse than to bottle Napa: with its lush hills and crisp, clear blue skies and perfectly temperate weather. To experience it more fully, we all agreed, at the car rental, that it’d make sense to pay a little more for a convertible.

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