Empires, Cannibals, and Magic Fish Bones
Join us as we celebrate food, the dinner table, and quite likely empires, cannibals and magic fish bones!
Sunday Morning by Wallace Stevens. Complacencies of the peignoir, and late Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair, And the green freedom of a cockatoo Upon a rug mingle to dissipate The holy hush of ancient sacrifice. Such a gorgeous, lush opening. A perfect pairing with a very serious Bloody Mary from Downhouse in the … Continue reading Your Food Is Brought To You By . . . .
Our third president farmed, and failed in quite a spectacular and yet illuminating way, as Modern Farmer’s Thomas Jefferson”s Farming Failures reveals–“When it comes to agriculture, few have persevered more in their failures than Thomas Jefferson.” His was a philosopher’s wonder as he walked the fields and forests of Monticello. In a letter to Lafayette on April … Continue reading Thomas Jefferson And La Fruta Del Diablo: The Promise And Problems Of Harvesting Food
Most of the artwork through this post is by Joe Jones (1909-1963) who painted midwestern wheat fields, segregation in the south, and the effects of The Great Depression on American farmers. The above painting The American Farm (1936) captures the stark ruin of soil and crops and the precarious struggle for life in rural America. … Continue reading Body and Soul: “our demands upon the earth are determined by our ways of living with one another.”
Sean Brock has an amazing menu and a clear creative and critical eye for Southern Cooking. I’ve dined at Husk in Charleston, while the above image is from his new Husk in Nashville. I’m watching him on The Mind of a Chef, narrated by Anthony Bourdain. His mind clearly cooks within heirloom varieties, centuries-old traditions … Continue reading Food Of The Day
Stepping out tonight, driving to your favorite restaurant. How exciting! You park outside a corner building glowing with bright, animal warmth. Up the steps, a smartly dressed man opens the heavy oak door, inside you go. Ah, the maitre d’ greets you. Bon. You’re thirsty of course. Do you see something on the menu that speaks … Continue reading Specialties Of The House
I’m in the beer section of a market, what to have? What to have? Ah, Dogfish Head, yes they have some rather . . . oh, an almost three-thousand year old beer recipe from Italy. I’ll take it. Birra Etrusca Bronze: drinking vessels in 2,800 -year-old Etruscan tombs. I taste wine? Sauturne? Fermented pomegranate? A … Continue reading Rome: Porridge or Pig Stomach?
Thanks to Pieter Claesz for Still Life With Musical Instruments (1623). Let’s say you plan on spending a couple of hours in the kitchen–finishing your stock off into a sauce, slowly sweating a sofrito, carefully stirring risotto, parboiling potatoes, drinking a Brooklyn Ridgy-Didge (I swear I taste that Tasmanian pepperberry), boiling pasta, layering a stew–you … Continue reading The Orchestral Recipe: This Is What I Dance To In My Kitchen, What About You?
How does the Culinary Institute of America teach hospitality? This is what John W. Fisher has to say in At Your Service: A Hands-on Guide to the Professional Dining Room. To help bring the concept to life, I begin with an example that draws upon the students’ own memories and emotions. I ask them to … Continue reading The Dinner Party 3: “When Shall We Live If Not Now?”
