Daily Loaf

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, by Richard Wrangham, is rightly taking the food world by storm. Well researched and documented (the bibliography alone is 30 pages long), it is also an engaging read. Astonishingly, few other writers have previously related the importance of cooking to the nutritional quality of food, thereby enabling human beings to evolve.

Not only does Wrangham detail the evolution of humankind in terms of how we understood and utilized fire, he also sets his aim on the modern food system. He takes on the trendy raw food community, as well as the fast food, chemically-processed types. He argues that eating calories that are too easy to digest is now a bigger problem for many than getting enough food. His book puts out a clarion call to Read the rest of this entry »

(Click here to watch the video of Giuliano Hazan on the Today Show.)

Security in New York is serious business. The city is still exciting, the energy stimulating, and the pace can give you whiplash. But the access is gone. Just try and get into the Today Show set and you run a gauntlet of security that makes airport TSA feel like a walk in the park.

Giuliano Hazan, my cookbook author husband, had been invited to do a return segment for the Hot Chef segment on the Today Show on September 10th. As usual, there was a walk-through the day before to make sure that everything he might need would be on the set. Just to get to that walk-through we had to go through two buildings and run the gamut of security. First we passed through a gaggle of onlookers waiting for some star to come down from the studios. We had to give some VERY big security guys the secret code (we are here to do a segment on Today) and finally received clearance to go through the doors to the next security station to get our pictures taken. Even before we could get there we had to explain to other security people what we were doing. Finally, we stood in line to get our names crossed off an OK list, and have our pictures taken for a temporary id.

With our precious badges affixed to our lapels Read the rest of this entry »

As I wander through the grocery store, immersing myself in the complex challenges of one-ply or two, I am sometimes struck by food non-sequitors. Here are four that I couldn’t get out of my mind, and the answers to those food mysteries.

The questions.

Why, do hot dogs come 10 to a package while the buns come in packages of 8?

I’m not the first to ask this question — judging by the amount of “net noise it apparently it has been a topic of interest for over 50 years.

Meatpackers sell by the pound and most hotdogs weigh in at a tenth of a pound. Buns are typically baked in eight roll pans. I have no idea why the manufacturers haven’t gotten together on this. But if you need them to come out even purchase five bags of the 8-pack buns and four of the 10-pack hotdogs. Time for a Labor Day cookout!

Why do yeast packages come in threes when all you need for most recipes are two packages? Read the rest of this entry »

The aroma of yeast fills the house. It is Friday afternoon. The children drop their backpacks near the door, heaven forbid that they put them away, and quickly make their way to the kitchen. “Is it time yet?” they ask in unison. They want to make sure that they haven’t missed braiding the challah. Sometimes they get home early enough for the second kneading; but usually they get home just in time to shape the bread into the fanciest braids possible, sometimes even creating braids with six strands. In Jewish tradition, challah is served for Shabbat. The smell of the challah baking not only makes my home smell wonderful, it also heralds the Sabbath, the day of rest, a time of peace and tranquility.

The very act of creating a challah is one of transition. Read the rest of this entry »

Every year I obsess about the first few weeks of school. Not because I’m worried about my children’s teachers — I’m more concerned about lunchtime.

My kids do purchase the stuff made at school, but there are also times when they’re fortunate to have fabulous food prepared for them by their gourmet cook father. Yes, we do send leftovers and those wonderful Thermos containers that keep food hot are a godsend. But all too soon there will be days when a quickly made sandwich ends up in the bag.

What causes me consternation is not that my kids will get odd looks when they bring a frittata or curry soup that might not appear on a regular school lunch menu; rather it is that the kind of sandwich my children prefer always gets a comment from a new teacher or another child in class who isn’t familiar with our sandwich filler choices.

My kids like Nutella. For those not familiar with it, Nutella looks like a chocolate spread, so to the untrained eye my children are eating a chocolate sandwich. In these days of hyped up healthy eating-isms, chocolate is bad!

At some point, early in the year, I find myself explaining: Read the rest of this entry »

Israel is becoming a surprising food Mecca (yes, I enjoyed writing that). Israelis enjoy traveling and are demanding higher food quality and variety when they arrive home. That, combined with an influx of peoples from all over the globe, has started a food renaissance that makes eating in Israel a surprising joy.

Standard Middle Eastern fare has become anything but. Instead of just one “Middle Eastern” food experience, there are many wonderful variations. The Jews from Arab lands brought their own method of cooking and regional dishes with them when they moved to Israel, like summaq salad from Iraq; a lamb stew called harira from Morocco; fatoush, a salad made of eggs, olives, bread and lettuce from Syria; maraqa, a ragout of quince and lamb from Tunisia; as well as the more commonly known hummus, pita, and kebab each made with a slight variation in honor of the country of origin of the maker. There is care in the preparation of the food, and I — who tend to not like the hummus that I’ve had in America- couldn’t get enough of it in Israel.

What really surprised my food educator husband was the quality and variety of the less traditional food. Read the rest of this entry »

Summer is the traditional time to travel, and what could be more fun than traveling with your entire family? OK, I heard that! Traveling with kids can be: exhilarating, anxiety-producing, joyous, excruciating, eye-opening, fearful and downright fun! Recently, my family and I spent a marvelous day in Venice. The other one. The one in Italy.

My family had a mission on this trip: to eat and then go to the great square of Piazza San Marco and play. Venice is overwhelmingly rich in museums, churches and history. Just taking the vaporetto, the city waterbus, down the Grand Canal allows one to see the great Gothic palazzi that fill so many postcards.

Getting lost in Venice is a fabulous experience: Every turn exposes new treasures, from beautiful door handles and exquisite glass chandeliers that often hang from the decorative ceilings on the noble (second) floor, to the beautiful and intricately carved water wells that are the focal point of even the smallest square. Venice is magnificent and, if you can, plan to spend at least four days reveling in its beauty.

We only had one day for this trip. Read the rest of this entry »