(Leftover) Quinoa and Sesame Candy
Vidhi Dattani
In the game of repurposing leftovers, desserts always win. There are rice and bread puddings, noodle kugel. But nothing beats the healthy grain gone sweet.
Read MoreOther Writings and Recipes
Finger Food: Do Manners Matter?
Ronna Welsh
I am no expert on feeding kids. But I think the worst mealtime strategies uphold the false classification of food “for children” and “for adults” and often result in lower standards for what we’ll ask our kids to eat.
Read MoreToward a Personal Taxonomy of Food
Vidhi Dattani
To archive recipes for a cookbook, you must subscribe to a specific taxonomy of food. Any distinction beyond “poisonous” and “edible” would reflect your assumptions about how people decide what to cook and eat.
Read MoreClear the Clutter? Not in my kitchen.
Vidhi Dattani
Organization is a key tenet of professional kitchens. In the home it is, too, but here it plays out differently.
Read MoreEmbracing the Unknown: Magic in Cassoulet
Vidhi Dattani
Cassoulet involves preparing all ingredients individually which then bake off all together, slowly, at the end. Add confit to the process, the project becomes a three day affair with an arsenal of pots.
Read MoreKids in the Kitchen: Ella’s Pink Peppercorn Salt
Vidhi Dattani
In my teaching kitchen, I watch adults enjoy experiment, but seek success. They want to acquire experience, but to come away, ultimately, with an arsenal of tested ideas. Kids, however, don’t care as much about culinary convention or precedent.
Read MoreThe Power of Prepping Your Own Food
Vidhi Dattani
I am not opposed to the recent growth of pre-prepped ingredients. I understand why, for instance, a home cook finds it tempting to buy pre-cut vegetables or packaged stocks, especially if he/she is typically pressed for time to prepare meals. But while it is understandable to buy a bit of mise en place to help out with a meal or fill your pantry, I wonder what kind of price we pay for leaving most of dinner’s prep to someone else.
Read MoreLabeled Astray
Vidhi Dattani
I was setting up for a workshop last week, which included pulling dozens of prepared items from the refrigerator. We always start with a nice lunch, and I often marinate olives to match whatever we’ll eat that day. I wanted to give the olives time to warm up before serving.
Read MoreBeyond the Price Tag
Vidhi Dattani
You know that moment. You’re standing in front of the fish counter despairing the higher cost of wild salmon over farmed. You want to make the environmentally kinder choice.
Read MoreA Different Omnivore’s Dilemma
Vidhi Dattani
You may think me blasphemous, but I’m over pork belly. And offal. And pieces of fat for fat’s sake. This isn’t an issue of health or of taste, but of fatigue.
Read MoreA Recipe: Why Size Doesn’t Matter
Vidhi Dattani
Often people come to me, gripping recipes in their hands, “Can you help me simplify this? It’s too long!”
Read MoreWhat Restaurants Can’t Do
Vidhi Dattani
If restaurants weren’t cautious about food costs, many would go under, quickly. Food cost is the amount of a dish’s raw ingredients taken as a percentage of its sales price.
Read MorePie Dough, A Project in Many Parts
Vidhi Dattani
Chefs prep dishes in steps to handle volumes of orders efficiently and well. Home cooks can take cues from this professional system to streamline and personalize their own kitchen work. Let’s take, for example, the making of pie.
Read MoreTeachings from Chefs’ Menus for Home Cooks
Vidhi Dattani
Today’s restaurant menus read like grocery lists. Descriptions, even prepositions, are edited out. Steak isn’t “served with.” Peppers aren’t piled “on top of.” It’s this elemental style, which makes restaurant food seem sparse, unfussy, even when it’s not.
Read MoreOtherwise, Trash: Day-Old Salad Turned to Tomato-Olive Oil Soup
Vidhi Dattani
Yesterday’s salad is hard to love. Time turns muddled and mushy what was once crisp and bright. Dressed too long, salad is the leftover without another life.
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