Writer, Eater
One of my greatest fears when someone asks me to cook with them is the prospect of blunt knives in their kitchen. I hate being asked to finely slice an onion or trim a piece of meat with a large dull-edged kitchen knife. Ugh. I believe I've once successfully nagged a friend into getting some decently sharp knives.
Ten months after I last donned my patissier gear and squeezed out a few hundred macarons, I returned to the piping bags for a brief baking blitz. My back hurt for two weeks. So then I made a cake instead.
The most impressive book on macarons is now in English! Pierre Hermé's 2008 French book "Macaron" is out this month in English.
The vanilla slice is one of those standard, humble Australian bakery items that qualifies as "good old" for its longevity and as "humble" because of its modest level of finesse. But there are mysteries in all this (and questions for readers at the end)… What was your childhood vanilla slice like? Did it have a different name? And how long has it been around?
I'm curious about how political/social beliefs or traditions shape where people will shop or dine. A timely example is that of Max Brenner, the Israeli chocolate company, which is broadly popular in Australia, but an unacceptable place to visit for some consumers. I wonder what other examples exist here or elsewhere?
It's pizza time in the Daring Bakers' Challenge. I love pizza. Too many think of it as a fundamentally unhealthy food to be banished from kitchen. Codswallop. Anyway, as I make pizza regularly, to do something novel required a little creativity... so I decided a 1980s...
Read more Thu 30 Oct, 2008
I once lived in Canberra. In the late 80s it was shockingly quiet. For a city overrun with public servants, diplomats and the entourages of politicians, it offered relatively little in the way of...
Read more Thu 06 Dec, 2007
I feel myself drawn inexorably to baking projects that have no end, just a rocky path of discoveries, flops, experiments, successes, flops... Not content with macarons and pasteis de nata to add girth and grey hairs to my existence, I started playing with canelés de Bordeaux...
Read more Fri 25 Dec, 2009
The last week of the year was delicious. I hope the same goes for all my readers and correspondents! Here are the highlights of the Christmas week and some reminders of many fun articles from 2008, with a few pretty photos thrown in. If...
Read more Wed 31 Dec, 2008
At some point I'm going to have to stop saying oh-my-god another-month-has-passed! But it seems only days ago that I was munching on éclairs. Lo! today it's time for lavash crackers, thanks to the Daring Bakers. No buttercream. No ganache. No calories (almost).
Read more Sat 27 Sep, 2008
In the newly revised and updated Memories of Philippine Kitchens, Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, owners and chef at the Purple Yam and formerly of Cendrillon in Manhattan, present a fascinating—and very personal—look at Filipino cuisine and culture. 
April Bloomfield takes home cooks on an intimate tour of the food that has made her a star. Thoughtful, voice-driven recipes go behind the scenes of Bloomfield's lauded restaurants and into her own home kitchen, where her attention to detail and reverence for honest ingredients result in unforgettable dishes. 
Since its first publication in 1970, South East Asian Food has achieved a reputation as the authoritative book on the subject. This new edition features a completely updated and easy-to-follow design, with beautiful illustrations throughout. 
More than 200 simple, authentic recipes for fish and seafood, newly collected from the Silver Spoon kitchen. From traditional seafood soups to simple grilled fish with herbs, the Italian approach to cooking with fish is both delicious and resourceful.