Amazing Shashlik in Almaty In Kazakhstan’s biggest city, there are hundreds of places to eat shashlik (grilled skewered meats), but the best we found were at the extremely popular Shashlik on Kirova. The level of attention and care that went into this food was unreal. The owner oversees every part of the process, starting with… Read More →
Fine Dining in America Fine Dining in America Andrew and Molly talk about the state of fine dining in America and how we are approaching the fine dining experience. Plus, Andrew shares from favorite stories from the South Beach Wine & Food Festival weekend, and they both give advice on shopping for new kitchenware. See:… Read More →
Minneapolis’ Young Chef in the Spotlight Mike DeCamp, the incredibly talented and creative chef de cuisine at Minneapolis’ award winning La Belle Vie, just announced he’s leaving his longtime mentor Tim McKee to open a new restaurant with Jester Concepts (the team behind Borough and Coup d’etat). They’ll be taking over Hotel Ivy’s first floor restaurant, formerly Porter &… Read More →
My Favorite Cookbooks of the Year Every year hundreds of cookbooks are published, dozens of which deserve a spot on your shelf. But we’ve tried to narrow it down to a handful that really impress–whether it’s the private cooking lessons from the world’s best chefs in Dana Cowin’s Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen, cooking… Read More →
Roast Crown of Goose By Giana & Clovisse Ferguson Goose will always be a celebration dish – the bird itself is large and its meat is very rich, so it lends itself to feeding a big table full of family. The reason for removing the legs is that they always overcook and dry out; here… Read More →
Oxtail with Bread Dumplings This is a rich and hearty dish – the juices from the oxtail make the gravy unique and if there is any left after your dinner on day one, you can certainly make a soup the following day when the richness will have done that wonderful ‘next day’ thing. Recipe from Gubbeen… Read More →
A Few Important Issues Support Local Food The 70/30 law is a twenty-year-old sales ratio that’s no longer compatible with today’s dining culture. It’s antiquated legislation that needs to be removed for small businesses to be able to thrive and grow. Here’s the gist: In 1983, Minneapolis passed a law that required restaurants and bars… Read More →
An Exploration of Bitter A James Beard award-winning author, Jennifer McLagan is known for challenging her readers, delving into topics that make us rethink what we eat and why. She’s famously covered Bones, Fat and Odd Bits, each a single subject book with recipes that aims to revive an unloved ingredient. McLagan’s latest book is… Read More →
Music City Food + Wine 2014 was the most intimate and fun food fest I have been to in years… Great out-of-town chefs, amazing local restaurateurs and food talent, superb food entrepreneurs and the most carefully-curated Grand Tasting Tent I have ever walked through. You gotta get there next year. Here are a few observations:… Read More →
Antibiotics and Icarus The Dangers of Antibiotics Andrew and Molly discuss the use of antibiotics in farming and how they can create superbugs. Plus, the rebirth of the Icarus Award and recommendations for the single traveler in New York. Read: Documents reveal how poultry firms systematically feed antibiotics to flocks (Reuters) Read: What If Antibiotics Stopped Working?… Read More →
Defining New Nordic Cuisine Chef Gunnar Gislason celebrates Iceland’s unique culinary heritage, embracing once-forgotten ingredients and techniques at his much-loved Reykjavik restaurant Dill. In his new cookbook North, written in collaboration with food writer Jody Eddy (author of 2012’s Come In, We’re Closed), Gislason and Eddy profile various artisan producers who are reviving Iceland’s culinary heritage–a… Read More →
Whole Animal Butchery Without the Self-Congratulatory B.S. Tom Mylan is a butcher. Not because it’s trending, but because no one else in his company wanted to do it. Seven years after launching Marlow & Sons’ local meat program, the largely self-taught meat man is running one of the best butcher shops—The Meat Hook—in New York,… Read More →
Another State Fair Has Come and Gone. We do things a little differently here at Food Works HQs. Where to start? The time one of us devoted a full day’s work trying to source live crickets for a cooking demo? Or maybe the time one of us once opened a UPS box with a whole… Read More →
50 Things to Look for at the MN State Fair Looking for a fun way to explore the Minnesota State Fair? Try completing this State Fair scavenger hunt. Mullets, crazy tattoos, award-winning baked goods, celebrities, unintentional innuendos… if you can think of it, you can find it at the fair. So to liven things up,… Read More →
Good Genes Pound for pound, Austin’s culinary gravitas rivals the best food cities in the nation. And it’s folks like Bryce Gilmore—a second generation Austin chef, a two-time James Beard award nominee and a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2011—who make the city’s food scene what it is. At his restaurants Barley Swine and… Read More →
Adventures in Sustainable Eating A two-time James Beard Award-winning online documentary series, The Perennial Plate explores socially responsible eating in the United States and abroad. The beautifully shot weekly series was created by Daniel Klein, an activist and chef, and Mirra Fine, a graphic designer, writer and now filmmaker, who impressively research, film, edit, and produce each piece… Read More →
Heritage Hog Renaissance As the founder of the pork-centric culinary competition Cochon 555, Brady Lowe is on a mission to remind us what true pork tastes like. In each of the 10 cities on the annual tour, Cochon 555 showcases five chefs, five heritage breed pigs and five winemakers to promote breed diversity and whole animal… Read More →
Eat Clean. Live Loud. Melissa Joulwan is a badass. A retired Texas Rollergirl, Mel J has a serious thing for friendly competition, the band Social Disortion and cooking up a storm. In 2008, she launched her blog, Clothes Make the Girl, which kinda started out as a lifestyle/style site and eventually became one of the… Read More →
How to Cook & Entertain for a Crowd By Andrew Zimmern Ben Ford is a true gem of the culinary world. His new book, Taming the Feast, is a departure from your run-of-the-mill cookbook. I am not looking for another way to make a Caesar salad. I want to know how to make wood-fired paella and roast… Read More →
Rust Belt Revival After years spent working in some of the best restaurants in New York City, chef Jonathon Sawyer is back in his hometown, raising his family and Cleveland’s food profile. He’s become an incredible son of Ohio, who has changed this town’s culinary landscape with his restaurants Noodlecat, Sawyer’s Street Frites, SeeSaw Pretzel… Read More →
Congratulations JBF Award Winners! I had a fantastic weekend at the James Beard Foundation Awards in NYC, the nation’s most prestigious awards ceremony honoring professionals in the food and beverage biz. Winners of the Foundation’s annual Book, Broadcast, and Journalism Awards were presented on May 2, at Gotham Hall in New York City, during a… Read More →
Charley Family Traditions In tonight’s premiere episode of the sixth season of Bizarre Foods America, I head to Alaska’s Copper River Valley to visit the Charley family, a group of Native Americans who live the traditional life of the Ahtna Tribe. In this far flung outpost of the great Alaskan wilderness, people survive by maintaining… Read More →
Congrats to the Nominees! Yesterday, the James Beard Foundation announced the finalists for the 2014 JBF awards. Congratulations to all of the nominees, what a talented pool of culinary greatness. If you didn’t catch the nominee announcement, the full list is below. The winners for the Book, Broadcast and Journalism Awards will be announced at… Read More →
For the Love of Ramen Ivan Orkin’s path to culinary greatness is somewhat like folklore. A Jewish guy from Long Island falls in love with Japanese culture and cuisine, marries a Japanese woman and moves to Tokyo. In 2007, he opens a ramen shop as a gaijin (foreigner) in a city where residents are passionately… Read More →
Just Breathe Sour Lung Soup is a German dish, most popular in Bavaria. In German, the dish is called saure Lüngerl, which translates to “sour (or acidic) lungs.” Oddly enough, the dish isn’t technically a soup at all. Finely sliced veal offal—such as lung, heart, and sweetbreads—is placed in a bowl and smothered in a… Read More →
Oh, Rats! I have eaten quite a few rats in my day, and I’m here to tell you they are pretty darn tasty. Bush and pack rats of several species in Arizona, jungle rats of several types in Ecuador and Suriname, Royal rats (gibnuts) in Belize, cane rats in Uganda, rice rats in Thailand, a giant… Read More →
Meat Jelly Headcheese is a meat jelly made from the head of a calf, pig, or sheep, typically served in aspic. “Aspic” might sound like a poisonous chemical, but it’s in fact just chopped-up ingredients held together with meat stock or consommé infused with gelatin. Meat jellies became popular many centuries ago when the head… Read More →
L.A. Recommendations From Michelin-starred fine dining to Korean barbecue and taco food trucks, Los Angeles has one of the most exciting and diverse food scenes in the country. Here’s a snapshot of my favorite L.A. eateries and hotels – there are probably a hundred more that should be on the list, but I’m only vouching… Read More →
Discovering Culinary Extremes An author, prolific poet, teacher and staff writer for The New Yorker, Dana Goodyear is one of the most authoritative voices in food journalism today. In her new book, Anything That Moves, Goodyear explores the remaking of America’s modern food culture, following intrepid eaters and chefs to the margins of the culinary world. Below,… Read More →
Lessons Learned Along the Way By Andrew Zimmern John Besh is one of the great culinarians of our time. He owns and operates nine fantastic restaurants – August, La Provence, and Domenica, to name a few. He’s got TV shows, and endorsements and cool things with his name on them, but I admire him most for how… Read More →
