Under the Covers: Exploring Below the Dust Jackets of Cookbooks

I’m not sure what compelled me to get under there. Maybe it was a lustiness that arose from the shirtless, tanned, fish-tossing-in-a-rough-ocean photo towards the beginning of the book that make me remove the dust jacket on Chef Ludo Lefevbre’s first book, Crave: The Feast of the Five Senses. Since that first time, I’ve wiggled my hands under the cover of many a hardcover cookbook to see what I might find or quickly bent back a front over to peek between the glossy paper and cardboard cover. Often enough the results are uninspired, a design space forgotten. But once in a while I hit the jackpot and discover lush photographs or gentle textures and reap my reward by carefully running my fingertips over the book with a glassy-eyed gaze. My heart swells, my stomach growls and my grin widens.

Chef Ludo’s interior is elegant enough, a blacked-out background with khaki-colored text. Organic swirls mimic the title on the cover, the black and off-white print play up his then edgy-rockstar cooking style:

Others simply utilize the space to mimic their cover art, such as Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours, Paula Wolfert’s The Food of Morocco, and Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home. Not exactly inspired, but better than nothing:

Some go as understated and tasteful as desired… not just on book covers…

An Evening with Patricia Wells: Salad as a Meal

By far one of the best decisions I've made since moving to Manhattan was becoming a member of FIAF (French Institute : Alliance Française) this past Bastille Day. Tonight found me at another great event in Le Skyroom with my good friend Kyle (also a FIAF member). 

Kyle waiting for the talk to begin

FIAF welcomed Patricia Wells for the American launch of her brand new cookbook Salad as a Meal. Tonight's event was the first in a series of 3 talks and a city-wide tour titled Gardens for Gourmets. Each talk will have a notable guest to guide the conversation and tonight we were happy to welcome the well-known Ina Garten who is a long-time friend of Wells. 

Garten introduced Wells as the second most influential person in bringing French cuisine to America, of course, after Julia Child. Salad as a Meal is Wells' 12th book. One of her best-known works is The Food Lover's Guide to Paris (which I believe Wells said would be coming out in a newly revised and updated version soon). Garten remarked that Salad as a Meal is a combination of what Wells loves - fresh, simple market ingredients and easy, beautiful cooking. Garten recollects that when she and Wells go to fresh markets, Wells is always asking the growers what they do with their bounty; 'well what do you do with those raspberries?' Finding out what the people who are bringing the food to the table do with it in their own homes is a way to come up with new ways of using ingredients. 

Wells and her husband, Walter Wells, split their time between Paris and Provence. The couple moved to Paris in 1980 when Wells' husband was offered a job as an editor for the  International Herald Tribune (and he has a piece in the recently released, excellent collection of works about Paris, Paris Was Ours). They stayed on in Paris for Wells' job as a restaurant critic for the International Herald Tribune. Before becoming the cookbook author and Paris/Provence home cooking school teacher she is today, Wells worked extensively as a journalist and restaurant critic. When speaking about what it is like living in France she mentioned how a foreigner is always an outsider looking in, never fully part of the "club." As a journalist she found this exteriority to be a helpful perspective, aiding in giving a view  on a subject at arm's length.

As the first of a series of "Gardens for Gourmets" talks, Wells spoke to her own growing philosophy. In Provence she has a beautiful garden (there are some stunning photographs in the book), Wells encouraged audience members to grow something (same advice Marion Nestle gave at a talk I attended in June 2010). Rosemary was her best suggestion for a good, hearty herb to grow on an urban windowsill (if only I had windows!). Boasting an impressive garden, last year she had 40 varieties of tomatoes and even has her own vineyard producing a Côtes du Rhône. (You can find her wine at Eli Zabar's W.I.N.E next to TASTE on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.)

Welcome Autumn! Squash, pumpkin, and all things orange!

"When autumn comes, it doesnt ask. It just walks in, where it left you last." -John Mayer

Autumn is by and large my favorite season! I love all the colors, the crispness of the air, the smell of fallen leaves, and all the warm delicious food that comes back after a summer of cool foods and homes too hot to cook in. Many a harbinger signals the change of seasons before the equinox arrives; children head back to school, the temperatures start staying below 80*, Starbucks brings back my favorite drink- the Pumpkin Spice Latte, and you see the vibrant colors of the summer harvest mixing with the muted colors of fall-- dark green acorn squash, pale sandy colored butternut squash, bumpy gourds, bright orange pumpkins, light and dark green mini cabbage- brussel sprouts, flowers of deep burgandy, marigold yellow, and rich burnt orange. 

Carrot & Pineapple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting -- Thanks to Ina Garten

Along with yesterday's Fresh Direct delivery came a free Peak Produce item --- a pineapple!

I'm not much for eating pineapple cut up and am really not a fan of pineapple juice, so I figured I should bake it into a dessert for my dinner guests tonight and tomorrow. I wasn't keen on the idea of a pineapple upside-down cake so I searched for desserts with pineapple on the Food Network website. I discovered a wonderful recipe for Ina Garten's Carrot and Pineapple Cake. The recipe seemed easy enough and the photo of the finished cake looked elegant and mouth-watering, so I deemed this to be an excellent use of my peak produce! I went to the store to get the additional ingredients I needed as well as cake pans (it is a true crime I do not have layer cake pans of my own-- hi mom!). There were no 8" round cake pans, as the recipe called for, so I opted for 8" x 8" square pans which worked out great and make for a fun shape.

The cake came out lusciously moist and also crunchy, these textures with that of the silken cream cheese frosting made for a surprisingly welcome dessert.

Josh with the cake we enjoyed after our dinner of Chicken Pot Pies-- his favorite!