Take a "long john" doughnut. Stuff it with bananas and banana cream, then top it with peanut butter frosting. And bacon.
Call it the "Elvis." Hungry yet? Unh huh-huh.
You want a little more excitement with your morning doughnut? How about a "Chocolate Heat," a sour cream doughnut with a chocolate glaze sprinkled with red and green jalapeño peppers?
Where can you get doughnuts like that? Only in your imagination, for now. But if there's a deep-pockets investor out there with a hankering for an Elvis, there's some high school kids you should talk to.
The imaginary doughnut shop belongs to a four high school students in the Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES Culinary Arts Program. Challenged to come up with a restaurant concept that could be developed and pitched to theoretical investors for a culinary student contest called ProStart, they went for the doughnuts.
Competing against other New York students in March, in the state ProStart contest, Alex Dispense, Joselyn Igielinski, Jewel Kwilos and Michael Wittcop presented their imaginary shop, called "Doughnut Pro."
They came up with a menu that included nine doughnut products of their
own invention, including the Elvis, Chocolate Heat, a Rocky Road doughnut, and the Double Stack, fresh doughnuts split and filled with seasonal fruit.
(More, including all the doughnut glamor photography, after the jump.)
Continue reading "Meet "Elvis," a banana-bacon-peanut-butter doughnut" »
Mexicans celebrate Independence Day on Sept. 16, not Cinco de Mayo. May 5, celebrated especially in the Mexican state of Puebla to mark the defeat of a French army in 1862, is a much bigger deal to Americans, especially tequila marketers.
Still, it's one day when lots of cooks feel like tackling Mexican. So here's some of the best online guides to real Mexican food, and some Tex-Mex favorites. Practically any main dish you choose could be accompanied ably by
a platter of Mexican rice, the focus of today's Elements recipe.
Epicurious, which draws from the recipe databases of Bon Appetit and the now-shuttered Gourmet,
has a heaping helping of recipes, videos and guides. The
chicken mole procedure is less intimidating if you make the sauce a day ahead, says Miguel Ravago, chef of Austin's Fonda San Miguel.
Saveur offers a
Mexican cuisine starter kit drawn from on-site research south of the border, with a section of simple Mexican desserts.
Mexican food guru Rick Bayless's
Frontera Kitchens make supermarket salsas and other ingredients, but the recipes he offers don't require purchasing his stuff.
"Everyday with Rachael Ray" magazine's May issue features celebratory menus including a two-page
"Your Teen Is College-Bound" spread decorated with University at Buffalo paraphernalia.
The university, happy for its exposure in the 1.8-million circulation magazine, is cooking up the suggested menu tomorrow for its Student Advisory Board. Those on the 30-member board will enjoy herbed crouton salad, tomato-braised lamb shanks with orange and mint and pistachio crème brûlée in the university's Tiffin Room. The meal might be a welcome respite, as this is exam week at the university.
When Raymond Kohl, marketing director of UB Campus Dining and Shops, heard about UB's appearance in "Everyday," he contacted Nicholas Cee, executive chef of
Three Pillars Catering at UB.
“Most people are surprised when we tell them Chef Cee from Campus Dining & Shops at UB trained at the Culinary Institute of America,” Kohl said in a news release. “In fact, our catering operation, Three Pillars Catering, serves fine gourmet food like this at weddings and other special events at the Jacobs Executive Development Center on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo all year round. Rachael Ray’s meal gave us a chance to show our stuff.”
April 23, 2010 - 11:20 AM | Comment
A sauce inventor with a line of barbecue sauces aimed at people with diabetes will offer tastes of his American Diabetes Association approved products tomorrow at Premier Gourmet.
Jamie Faitelson graduated from the University at Buffalo in 1988, with a political science degree. He became a luxury watch salesman, enabling him to travel the world and enjoy extraordinary cuisine.
Living in New Jersey, he pursued his interest in food, going to cooking school and working in a Manhattan restaurant.
His sauces, under the
nom de cuisine Chef Hymie Grande, range from mild New Mexico to the fiery Cascabel Express, but they're all made without high fructose corn syrup. He says they're the first to sport official Diabetes Association approval on the label.
His event is from noon to 3 p.m. at Premier Gourmet, 3465 Delaware Ave.
April 22, 2010 - 12:20 PM | Comment
As a person who routinely embarrasses tablemates by whipping out my digital camera as plates arrive,
this article in the Los Angeles Times caught my eye.
Photographing your food has never been easier, and food enthusiasts have been emboldened by thousands of fellow hungry souls posting tasty looking documentation of their eating adventures. But especially in fine places, where plates are especially fascinating, a photographing diner can add an hour to a meal like the 13-course tour de force at Chicago's Alinea.
Chef Grant Achatz's molecular-gastronomy-influenced dishes have included showstoppers like morsels of tofu served on a tiny pillow full of lavender smoke to scent the air as the diner eats. So he wants you to stare. But the photographers can add an hour to a meal, and not turning tables costs the restaurant money.
"I have people waiting in our lobby for their table, and there's not a thing we can do about it," Achatz told the Times. Flash photography is forbidden, but otherwise he endures the culinary paparazzi.
But another chef, L.A.'s Ludo Lefebvre, notes that the free marketing provided by enthusiasts' photography can help increase demand. "The online buzz helped him quickly sell out every reservation for his latest endeavor -- a restaurant that will be open only for seven weeks," Times reporter P.J. Huffstutter wrote.
Mario Batali's new cookbook, "Molto Gusto," focuses on vegetable preparations, pastas and pizzas. This green bean side dish can be served warm or room temperature.
GREEN BEANS WITH CHARRED ONIONS
From "Molto Gusto," Mario Batali and Mark Ladner, Ecco
Serves 6.
Kosher salt
1 pound young green beans or haricots verts
2 medium sweet onions, such as Vidalia or Walla Walla
1 ½ tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 ½ tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Maldon or other flaky sea salt
Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot and add 2 tablespoons kosher salt. Add the beans and blanch until crisp-tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain the colander and cool under cold running water; drain well.
Halve the onions lengthwise and trim off the ends, Cut lengthwise into ½-inch-wide slices.
Heat a dry 12-inch sauté pan over medium-high heat until very hot. Add the onions and sauté until charred in spots but still crunchy, 4 to 6 minutes. During the last minute or so, add the beans, stirring and tossing to warm them through. Transfer the beans and onions to a large bowl.
Whisk the balsamic vinegar, orange juice, and oil together in a small bowl. Pour over the beans and onions, tossing to coat. Let stand for at least 10 minutes, or up to 1 hour, before serving.
Sprinkle the beans with Maldon salt and serve.
April 20, 2010 - 10:32 AM | Comment
Even among adventurous eaters, there are
people who detest the taste of cilantro, the green herb commonly found in Mexican salsas, sprinkled over Indian vegetable dishes, and lacing Thai salads. Julia Child herself said she was inclined to "pick it out and throw it on the floor."
Food scientist Harold McGee, who thinks cilantro sometimes tastes like hand lotion, put the question to Northwestern University neuroscientist Jay Gottfried, who explains how an herb can thrill many and nauseate a few. It has to do with how your mind sorts out what's edible from things that will kill you. Whether you end up in the Death to Cilantro club sort of depends on how your brain classified the flavor at first encounter. McGee writes in the New York Times:
If the flavor doesn’t fit a familiar food experience, and instead fits into a
pattern that involves chemical cleaning agents and dirt, or crawly insects, then
the brain highlights the mismatch and the potential threat to our safety. We
react strongly and throw the offending ingredient on the floor where it belongs.
But there is hope for the cilantro-adverse. Gottfried explains that you can train your brain to appreciate cilantro, as he did, simply by continuing to encounter it, in context with good food and good times.
"“It can still remind me of soap, but it’s not threatening anymore, so that
association fades into the background, and I enjoy its other qualities," Gottfried told McGee. "On the
other hand, if I ate cilantro once and never willingly let it pass my lips
again, there wouldn’t have been a chance to reshape that perception.”
April 15, 2010 - 11:30 AM | Comment
You're not going to find ramps, or wild leeks, at the supermarket. They're foraged, picked from local woods, for the few weeks they last. Melissa Gardner has got plans for what's in the basket, above, and they include ramp pesto pizza.
At Five Points Bakery, 426 Rhode Island St., Melissa and her husband Kevin Gardner are using ramps plucked from Alden woods to make ramp pesto. (He's the guy in the hat, back in the corner.) It's part of the couple's mission to offer locally sourced food, including meat, eggs and butter, from their West Side storefront.
(Check out the pizza, and dessert, after the jump.)
Continue reading "Ramp pesto pizza at Five Corners Bakery" »
Childhood obesity is an American epidemic, leading to a debilitating and hugely expensive wave of preventable diseases like diabetes, public health authorities say.
But that doesn't mean junior couch potatoes are useless.
They've been employed by Gov. David Patterson, as the chief argument for a penny-per-ounce excise tax on sugary beverages. He announced the beverage tax, expected to raise about $1 billion, in his January budget.
The price of a 12-pack of Coke would jump from $2.99 to more than $4. That's a heavier tax than the ones on wine and beer, and it falls heaviest on the people who drink the most soda: poor people and minorities. Of course, for it to have a deterrent effect, the prospective Coke drinker would have to feel the pinch.
How much of state government's newly urgent concern for obese children is driven by a concern for the well-being of its most vulnerable citizens, and how much is practical politics? The $1 billion in soda tax is ostensibly meant for health programs, though veteran Albany-watchers wouldn't be shocked to see some of the new cash commandeered to help plug the state's $9 billion budget hole.
The money could help cure state government's hunger pangs. Whether it will help children stay healthy remains debatable, Mark Bittman wrote in the New York Times. Hiking tobacco taxes has been credited with helping drop smoking rates, but it's significantly harder to convince consumers that they can be hurt by soda pop.
Buffalo diners who lament the scarcity of top-level places within dining range might consider Niagara Falls, Ont., where fat-walleted gamblers have made first-class dining a sustainable economic proposition.
The city's reputation as the Canadian equivalent to Las Vegas was underscored last month when two restaurants at the Fallsview Casino Resort were awarded "four diamond" status by the Canadian Automobile Association. It's the only time the CAA has awarded four stars to two Ontario places at the same resort, said Fallsview spokesman Greg Medulun.
The CAA diamonds serve much the same purpose as Michelin stars, as the automotive group's restaurant and lodging ratings provide one of the only ways to compare offerings across Canada. Four diamonds are one step below the top rating, five diamonds. There are only
four of the five-diamond places in Canada, at last count, while there are
56 four-diamond restaurants in Ontario.
Ponte Vecchio, the casino's newest upscale restaurant, boasts "traditional Italian cuisine, a vast wine cellar and world-class service," and the CAA's anonymous inspectors apparently agreed.
17 Noir, its original fine-dining restaurant, has retained its four-diamond rating as well.
