I was particularly pleased two years ago when I won the competition to be the blogger judge for the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition Canadian regional competition. It meant sitting on a judging panel with James Chatto and Claire Tansey, but also getting to meet and talk to some of Canada’s best aspiring culinary talent.
As part of this year’s programme a collection of the recipes from the 2011 and 2012 entrants has been published as a free e-cookbook. I had a chance to spend some time reading and cooking from the book and want to share my thoughts about it.
Culinary school students–especially when they enter competitions–seem to choose recipes that lean towards the fancy and French. For better or worse, that means no tacos. And it also (generally) means a central protein, supporting starch, and vegetable only as garnish. A minority of the recipes break this mold, but for the most part this is a lineup of classics that we don’t often see recipes for.
The 13 main recipes cover uncommon meat options like bison, duck, foie, and cod. We’re also introduced to cool and unusual techniques like tea-smoking for scallops and flavoured rice. (more…)
adds another to the popular stack of cookbooks that are based on seasonal cooking. His story is a personal one that deeply connects him to the small farm that has been in his family for more than 200 years.
cookbook. Or in some cases the entire point of the party was to serve and eat food from Momofuku. How do I know this? I’ve been that guy; I’ve cooked those meals.
is getting the full, giant-stack treatment from bookstores (and will likely sell well) but I didn’t like reading it nearly as much. I found Christina Tosi’s writing style less comfortably enjoyable than Chang’s but I can see that if desserts are your thing–especially ones with classic American flavours–this will be more up your alley. 
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