Michael Ruhlman | Translating the Chef’s Craft for Every Kitchen

Sunday night my dear friends JD and Catherine Sullivan invited me for dinner. JD is a good cook (see the sausage making video we did together; video also feature my partner in tools, Mac Dalton, an appearance by my young son, James, who now, lean and tall, looks me straight in the eye, and JD at the end; it’s a good primer on making sausage). But when I arrived to find that JD’s chicken Provençal was simply baked chicken with herbs I was prepared to be underwhelmed. JD explained that it was a recipe from the estimable Sam Sifton who runs the excellent NYTimes cooking site. Chicken is seasoned, floured, put in a baking dish and roasted for about an hour. It turned out to be a terrific preparation, thanks to the aggressive herbage, and also, importantly, Read On »

I’m working with my friend Susie Heller (French Laundry/Bouchon books, among so many others) who’s commandeering the launch of a sleek new cooking app called Feast. It launches Thursday. It’s the brain child of tech health entrepreneur Jakob Jønck a co-founder of Endomondo, a running and fitness app with now more than 25 million users. He also was Head of International Operations at MyFitnessPal, a nutrition app with now more than 100 million users. He and Susie are bringing their love of food and cooking to this new app by marshalling dozens of chefs and food writers who also want to share the love—chefs as diverse and talented as David Kinch, Mourad Lahlou, Michel Richard and Jacques Pepin. The site, which is drop-dead gorgeous, combines these chefs’ recipes (more than 500, all scalable at a touch), technique Read On »

Start the new year off with a bowl of hopping john. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.

I read this excellent NYTimes article on field peas by Kim Severson yesterday and already started hungering for Hoppin’ John, a traditional dish for New Year’s Day. The article is a good reminder too that all peas are not alike so, while the dried peas in your supermarket are perfectly fine, there are other sources for different varieties of field peas for those looking to explore different flavors. The below is my go-to recipe for Hoppin’ John. It will work with just about any dried bean, but I do love the earthy flavor of the black-eyed peas. Wishing all a festive New Year’s Eve, and a healthy, prosperous 2016 filled with good food and lots of home cooking! Hoppin’ John 1 pound black-eyed peas, rinsed 2 large Spanish onions, 1 peeled and halved through the root, 1 Read On »

A friend said something important to me this morning: “There’s always a big component of sadness in Christmas. If there isn’t, then you haven’t had a lucky life.” I hadn’t recognized this explicitly until that moment, but I think I’d known this since I was a boy. I still remember one particular Christmas Eve, I must have been six or seven. My parents were upstairs dressing for a series of parties we attended in those days, especially the open house at Peter and Connie Zacher’s. Peter, life-long friend, was a great gourmand and the house was filled with food and cooking and laughter, kids and adults of all ages. But in the quiet, as my parents dressed, I wandered the living room of our small colonial on Norwood Road, in Shaker Heights, OH. The room Read On »

By Emilia Juocys The Christmas baking season is upon us again and I could not be happier for the cookies that will be coming out of my oven. The usual suspects of chocolate chip, ginger pig, chocolate orange crinkles, cat’s tongues, and dream bars are in the works. Baked treats for my family and friends. The funny thing was that I was so excited for Christmas cookies because earlier this year the Chicago chef and cookie goddess Mindy Segal came out with her cookie book, Cookie Love. I jumped for joy because the book has the most-delicious rugelach recipe ever! So if you are looking for a dazzling cookie book to give to your baker this holiday, sprint to get this one. Every year I mention why I enjoy sharing these tasty morsels and how that brings smiles to Read On »

Roasted Chicken Provençal

Exciting New Cooking App:
Feast!

Happy New Year!

Peace On Earth,
Good Will Toward All