Atlanta-style Biscuits

Southern biscuit production requires adherence to two strict rules: Rule # 1  As bakers in Georgia, Louisiana, or the Carolinas will tell you, you need White Lily Flour. This is not a secret; it is a fact. White Lily Flour is a 135-year-old regional brand made from 100% soft red winter wheat (as opposed to the hard red ...

Chardonnay Sauce in San Juan Capistrano

"We take the essence of the scallops, mussels, shrimp, and the sea and we infuse it into the sauce," said Chef Pascal Olhats as he described the preparation of his velvety Chardonnay Sauce.  Brimming with fruits-de-mer fullness, the sauce is served under a thyme-crusted fillet of sea bass.  This dish is based on a regional classic ...

Holiday Desserts in Pictures

 In December, much of the world sees things the way I do. Artistic cakes, cookies, snow globes, chocolates, and vividly wrapped confections fill shop windows, screens, and billboards.  They are everywhere. For over 17 years, I have explored the pastry arts, sometimes as a chef and sometimes as a gypsy traveler hoping to capture in ...

Old & New Nordic in Iceland

Reykjavik is not a cheap-eats town. As trawlers, seiners, barges and battered military ships churned in and out of the icy, early-winter marina, bowls of fish stew from the dock shacks cost as much as a steakhouse dinner in the states. This wild island, this legendary home of Vikings who could weather any hardship, offered ...

Chocolate Chip Cookies … Chef-Style

Leave it to The New Yorker to produce a charming article on the history of the famous Chocolate Chip Cookies known as Toll House.The recipe is an historic, uniquely American keeper. And yet we've all been to that bake sale with a plate of chocolate chip cookies that didn't quite work out - pancake-like, melted ...

Farm-to-Table Tableaux in the Berkshires

I've been photographing what is beautiful to me in The Berkshires for a long time, including plenty of farms and tables. My town in this western region of Massachusetts began as Shawenon, named for a Mohican chief who had an eye for gentle majesty. Egremont view of Mount Everett, known as "The Dome" The 1780's-ish dairy ...

Fika & Wild Swans in Stockholm

Ah, midsummer.  The harsh ways of the world won't find you here, especially on the Nordic water.  That's where I was last year - travelin' solo in the Swedish archipelago - and I thought I was turning 56 on my mid-summer birthday.  My family later corrected me - I was a mere 55.  But for ...

To London, With Love

Borough Market in London was an early stop when I started this blog in 2015.  Today, in the aftermath of a deadly terrorist attack, my heart goes out to all the people of London and their beautiful city. Here are photos from Borough Market and its environs on happier days. ...

Fried Chicken & Food Market Gypsy TV Cooking Class

This is not just fried chicken, but very crispy, buttermilk-soaked, fried chicken adapted from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc recipe.  We made it LIVE on Facebook and you can see the video here or on YouTube.  We were live but the chicken, alas, was not. 1 whole chicken, cut up into frying parts 3 cups buttermilk 6 cups canola oil 2 ...

Hitting Home: The Kentucky Bourbon Trail

  Daffodils & bourbon barrels in March Sometimes you can't tell how far you've traveled until you rumble all the way back and hit home. When I left Kentucky in 1975, bourbon was a blase part of blue grass culture like coal, horses, and Ohio River catfish that few of us dared to eat.       Family julep ...

Reubens & the Women’s March in Cincinnati

Cincy was my sports town in the days of Pete Rose and Johnny Bench.  We rolled in from the nearby hills of northern Kentucky where my family ran a local newspaper.  Folks, this was going to the city.  I still associate Cincinnati with ball park peanuts, fountains, and German-influenced culinary fare. It was easy to ...

Gingersnaps & Christmas Markets in Copenhagen

Gingersnap cookies, heart-shaped Christmas lights, and Glogg (hot mulled wine with Aquavit, raisins & almonds) fill the stalls along the Copenhagen's Nyhavn Canal. Pine trees, trinkets, bratwurst, fried potatoes, chocolate, hot candied almonds and dazzling Christmas ornaments will pull you in - powerful winter magnets.Tourists, couples and local families with bundled children mill around Nyhavn (New ...