Just over a year ago, I made the Momofuku Milk Bar Birthday Cake for my husband’s birthday. He requested it. We had just finished watching the first episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table: Pastry, and he turned to me and said “I want that for my birthday.” That being pastry chef Christina Tosi’s iconic Birthday Cake.
Read MoreHere we are tuning in for part 3 of the well-stocked kitchen, a series in which we take a walk through our kitchens and name off what we consider some of our favorite and essential items for cooking and baking.
If you haven’t seen them yet, check out part 1: stovetop essentials and part 2: cooking essentials.
Read MoreToday we’re bringing to you the second installment of the well-stocked kitchen series: cooking essentials.
We’ve curated a list of our top recommendations for cooking workhorses…essential kitchen items like knives, cutting boards, and other items that will help meal prep go smoothly.
Read MoreAt Beneath the Crust, we spend a large part of every day in the kitchen. After countless hours — really too many to count — spent cooking and baking and meal-prepping for our families and friends, we know which items we reach for time and again, and which ones are left getting dusty on the shelf. That’s why Maria, Sophie and I feel confident in presenting to you a new series: the well-stocked kitchen. Over the next couple weeks, we’re going to share with you which kitchen items we consider pretty much essential.
Read MoreThere has been a lot of buzz over the cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat. I had read all about it on various food blogs and websites before receiving it as a gift for Christmas. Cookbooks rank as my #2 favorite gift after chocolate so needless to say I was pretty excited about it.
The book is authored by Samin Nosrat, a self-described cook, writer, and teacher. While studying English at Berkeley, she got caught up in the world of cooking after being mesmerized by a meal at Chez Panisse, Alice Waters' restaurant in San Francisco. She began by begging her way into an apprenticeship at Chez Panisse, first doing grunt work but eventually working her way up into cooking. The internship began her extreme focus on and impressive perseverance in learning the ways of good cooking, taking her to Italy and beyond in the quest for culinary wisdom. Along the way she developed a theory of culinary fundamentals - that good cooking essentially boils down to the correct understanding and application of four elements: salt, fat, acid, and heat. The book, then, is the product all her research, apprenticeship, interviews, and trial and error in the quest of honing her theory and her skills, which she delivers to the reader in a very clear and detailed format. As she says, "You can become not only a good cook, but a great one. I know, because it happened to me."
Read MoreI was a middle child. Growing up, there was always a steady stream of books available for me to read. My parents must have acquired books for my older siblings as they reached new developmental stages, so by the time I was old enough to read, there was already a vast library to choose from. When I was finished with one book, I would sit in front of the towering shelves and look at the spines, all neatly arranged, trying to decide which to start on next. The question never was whether I would start another book. It was always, simply, which? I can remember fingering certain volumes, intrigued by their covers, just waiting for the time when their wonders would be accessible to me.
Recently, it dawned on me that it is one of my responsibilities, as a parent, to provide the opportunity for such wishful waiting to my own children. I want them to grow up with that same sense of eager anticipation.
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