From the category archives:

Chefs and Restaurants

A la Plancha

July 1, 2009

They won’t leave me alone.  Today’s NY times piece on burgers has opened up a Pandora’s box of craving.    The same cake tester, potato rolls, handling instructions, pickles and other pointers I’ve been playing with for weeks have been re-arranged and laid out for me in a way that has stoked an absolutely ravenous  burger [...]

Read the full article →

A Letter To My Lunch Lady

June 28, 2009

Dear Anna,
Whoever is in charge of prepping your tidy station has clearly given up. Illuminated by the cold fluorescence of a sneeze guard everything looks a little tired.  But it’s the chicken I want to talk about most – The chicken salad I order every day.  It wouldn’t take much to go from pale postmortem [...]

Read the full article →

Burger Bonanza

June 17, 2009

Burgers are everywhere. The Washington Post penned an article today about burgers that are served with a side of food advocacy.  Husband-and-wife owners Derek and Amanda Luhowiak have built a food cart business that may make a drive to Reston mandatory this weekend.  In addition to serving burgers that earn the Post’s praise, Local [...]

Read the full article →

Cochon 555

May 26, 2009

The more  I’ve read about what goes on at big business processing plants the less I want grocery store meat on my table.  Thankfully local farmers like Bev Eggleston have been bucking the trend focusing  smaller production organic, and heritage breed meats.  You have to go to the farmers market, and you have to pay [...]

Read the full article →

Tag, You’re It

May 5, 2009

The fellas at Ziploc were off to a good start.  Opaque windows on nearly all thier bags allow us to jot down highly informative tidbits of information on the contents frozen within.
“Chix Breast” is helpful.  Accurately identifying the contents hidden behind layers of plastic and foil.
“Chix Breast 4/5/08″ is better.   Letting us know that at [...]

Read the full article →

Batones Para los Preguntones

March 10, 2009

I love the cool stories we tell while we cook.   Watching a pot simmer for hours can be like watching paint dry, so it’s nice to have a tale to tell to pass the time.   While hashing out an upcoming article for the Post I was afforded some time with Will Artley, the Executive [...]

Read the full article →

Morou’s Tortilla Soup

February 13, 2009

Metrocurean’s post about tortilla soup, reminded me of the version I watched Morou Ouattara prepare as a staff meal before a Friday night dinner service. What was most interesting was not the soup itself (even though it was awesome), but the method used to bring it to life. Other than the two [...]

Read the full article →

Cesare Lanfranconi’s Risotto ai Funghi

January 31, 2009

One of the things you don’t get to see in DC Chefs are the recipes that get dumped because the photos didn’t turn out, or the recipe didn’t fit the magazine.  It was a little heartbreaking when a dish really came out well but didn’t make the cut.
I loved the language Cesare used in the [...]

Read the full article →

Making Saltenas

January 31, 2009

While scoping out a joint for the Post’s Good to Go feature, I was lucky enough to get a hands on Saletna lesson from a true pro.  I was curious how you got a liquid stew to chill out inside a pastry while they were rolled and sealed.  When I asked the chef, he invited [...]

Read the full article →