New York’s most recent addition to Chinese Food is a solid hit. The last time I wrote about Xi’an Famous Foods there were just 8 branches of this wildly popular chain of Chinese restaurants scattered around New York.  Now there are 15. There’s no stopping…

I confess. I am starting the trip reports completely backwards.  Quite simply, my amazing voyage of culinary discovery, aboard Silversea’s exquisite flagship, Silver Muse, ended in Manila.  And while I will take you to Bali and to Borneo and cannot wait to share with you…

I am mad for Lasagna.  Those layers and layers of pasta and cheese and luscious fillings with hints of rich tomato sauce are some of my favorite things to eat.  That explains why there are  no less than four recipes on the subject, links which…

Two years ago, we covered Christopher Kimball’s scandalous leave-taking from Cook’s Illustrated, the precursor to which he founded in 1980.  If you want to relive the whole sordid mess, there’s a link to that story beneath today’s recipe.  The announced reason that he then started…

Campanile in Chaplin’s Day I used to spend a lot of time in Los Angeles, sometimes for weeks on end. As an Advertising Agency creative, I was there making TV commercials for everything from Coca Cola to Johnson’s Baby Shampoo.  Inevitably, we had clients along…

Alison Roman of Bon Appetit I keep wishing there was another protein to cook with.  How many riffs can you find for boneless skinless chicken breasts?  But it seems unlikely that the Fearless Flyer from Trader Joe’s is suddenly going to extol the virtues of…

Of all the things that you can rely on when you want to make dinner special, the rack of Lamb should be high on your list.  It’s astonishingly easy to cook and requires very little effort.  That’s especially true with this method of cooking from…

Gyros, ubiquitous in NYC A Gyro is a Greek dish of meat that’s been roasted on a vertical spit, folded into pita bread and then served with tomato, onion and tzatsiki sauce.  Gyros, pronounced “Heros”, are everywhere in New York City.  The website Yelp has…

I am a big fan of the loin lamb chops that you can buy at Costco in packages of between 10 and 12 chops. They are all completely trimmed with none of the extraneous fat I often see on the chops in the butcher case…

         Who can forget Carla Hall? Twice a contestant on Top Chef, she was voted “Fan Favorite” her second time around, which is equivalent to being named “Miss Congeniality” in the old Miss America days.  She was lots of fun to watch…

           Seamus Mullen’s name would give you no clue as to this particular chef’s specialty.   Chef Mullen is the chef/owner of two wildly popular and critically acclaimed restaurants specializing in modern Spanish cuisine.  The first, Tertulia in Greenwich Village (359 6th Avenue, NYC 10012 Tel:…

“Greek” Lamb with Orzo “Greek” Lamb with Oricchiette          Amanda (l.) and Merrill (r.) Food 52 is a food ‘community’ headed by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs.  Amanda is likely most famous from having edited the Essential New York Times Cookbook, the 2010 revision of…

  As much as I would love a true tagine, I’d have to store it in someone else’s NYC kitchen          Not too long ago, I published a recipe for Moroccan Meatballs that was a huge hit.  People wrote about how much they loved the…

Jennifer May’s Photo of the Dish My rendition of the dish           There was a time when everyone who visited the south of France came back and immediately went straight to their oven to prepare something called “Seven Hour Gigot of Lamb”.  It was one…