Here's what's cooking in the Los Angeles Times Food Section today: What's hot, what's not: Russ Parsons and Amy Scattergood weigh in on what a kitchen essential really is.
Celebrity chefs will cut some costs to keep their restaurants afloat in this economy. But cutting quality remains verboten.
Spice your own: Combine spices to create something special...and uniquely you.
Maybe you read about the fact that Campbell's Soup was the only stock on the S&P 500 that didn't fall that fateful day in late September, when the market tanked 700 points. This is like that. Only with recipes.
According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), publishers are betting big that cookbooks will continue to sell even as everyone tightens their wallets significantly. No surprise there. Eating out is one of the first luxuries people cut back on in tough times.
But publishers are hoping this turn of events will help them peddle product during the upcoming holiday shopping season, which is shaping up to look otherwise pretty unappetizing. They are releasing a clutch of new cookbooks from well-known names, including Paula Deen, Jacques Pepin and Jeff Henderson, figuring that as long as people are cooking more from home, they will buy a book of recipes from names they recognize from the Food Network.
Here's what's being featured in today's Los Angeles Times Food Section:
Beer Babes: There were never a lot of women brewing their own, but that's all changed. A new generation of young women, hooked up online and in homes, are taking the home brew movement out of the old boy's club.
Mushroom king: Russ Parsons reports that a new partnership between an American company and Japan's largest mushroom grower to build a growing plant near San Diego will soon have California markets awash in exotics.
How did this idea pop up? A restaurant in Switzerland decided to make soups, sauces and other delicacies using 75% human breast milk. If it's a good idea for one Swiss restaurant, it's good enough for a mass-market, (albeit right-on) maker of ice creams. You have to give credit to PETA for seizing a PR opportunity when it finds it .
"If Ben and Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk," wrote the animal rights group in its letter, "your customers-and cows-would reap the benefits."
Ben & Jerry's, which made a name for itself in the '90s by running its business on progressive, pro-environment practices, is one of the few mainstream companies that might even "consider" a proposal like this.
Unfortunately, it's got product to push. And eye-popping though this idea may be, it's not exactly lip-smacking. Putting aside the health debate surrounding dairy products, I feel fairly secure in saying that the American public is not likely to find the idea of human breast milk ice cream as titillating as the Swiss might.
Chef Jose Andres, just back from filming the second season of his "Made in Spain" series, arrives in Los Angeles with a new eating venue...and a lot of other ideas. Preguntas, por favor: When does he have time to eat?
If you live in Los Angeles, you've no doubt seen the large ABC gradings hung outside of every eatery. A large "A" tells you that the county health inspector has deemed the restaurant up to snuff. B's and C's suggest a restaurant has been found lacking in health and cleanliness, although everyone knows that the best ethnic foods in town don't meet this level and are fantastic anyway. One blogger reckons this is because American health code standards are ridiculously, well, American in their fastidiousness.
Regardless. The signs are ubiquitous around town. But now you can get your own home kitchen rated by the health inspector, and if yours rates an "A" - the county will send you your own "A" refrigerator magnet.
Even though I know better than to think my kitchen would cut the mustard, I can't think of a cooler gift for your favorite foodie friend. Unfortunately, the health department doesn't send out "B" or "C" magnets. Somebody will just have to send me one...
Summer's nearly here, and you know what that means: Potlucks.
Everyone needs at least one dish they can nail at a moment's notice. A dish everyone will love, from vegans to carnivores. Something that's cheap, easy, quick, yet delicious. Something that dresses to impress. Something that even bad home cooks can manage.
The vintner who put California on the wine map, Robert Mondavi, has died at the age of 94, says a spokesperson for the Robert Mondavi winery. Mr. Mondavi died Friday (May 16) at his home in Yountville, Calif.
Though he had little formal training in wine-making, Mondavi has been credited with creating fume blanc, and with popularizing that quintessential Californian white, chardonnay. He was the first one who saw that with proper techniques and a lot of great PR, domestic wines could one day hold their own against the French tradition.
According to the obit in the Los Angeles Times, when Barron Phillipe de Rothschild of Bordeaux first approached him about a Franco-American collaboration in 1970 -- the equivalent, in the words of wine industry consultant Vic Motto, of "Goliath coming to David to learn how to throw stones" -- the resulting Opus One cabernet sauvignon not only sold for a then-unheard of $50 a bottle (in 1979), but validated his vision for the industry.
"He has probably been the most important figure in the wine industry in the last half of this century," Paul Gillette, then-publisher of the Wine Investor newsletter, told the New York Times in 1990.
Ironically, Mondavi was born on June 18, 1913, in Virginia, Minn., just five and a half years before Prohibition.
Former mayor Richard Riordan already runs two iconic L.A. restaurants -- downtown's Original Pantry and Malibu's famous Gladstone's for Fish. But never one to rest on his laurel's, he's added three more to his lineup: Riordan's Tavern, the Oak Room and the Village Pantry.
I am a budding foodie and reluctant food blogger. I've only recently joined Slashfood, and unlike many of my colleagues, I don't have any particular knowledge about the foodie world. I don't watch the Food Network (that would require me getting cable, and nyaaaah). I don't know much about fine cuisine. I wouldn't know a truffle from a button mushroom (or maybe I would, if somebody would buy me a truffle). And indeed, although I love food, love being in the kitchen and (trying) to feed my friends and family, the learning curve is daunting.
But I want to learn! And since I'm at least another year away from actually taking a cooking class, I've done what most writers do: I've hit the books. I thought I'd share them with you, while I'm educating myself on all things culinary.
Food is the new black. Or at least it seems that way, given the mass media interest in food and its preparations. It's not hard to compile a sizable reading list. I've culled mine mostly from suggestions on the food blogs, and here they are, in no particular order. The list isn't complete by any means, but it's a start.
First, let me apologize to every foodie who reads this blog. I deeply regret making this admission: I do sometimes consume microwavable food.
The new obsession is making me do it.
Black bean and jack cheese burritos from Trader Joe's.
I buy three. Over the course of a week, I eat three. I hide them from my kids. They're perfect for lunch. I work from home, blogging, blogging, blogging, and often waiting until my blood sugar is so low I can barely make it down the stairs into the kitchen. With great effort, I reach into the fridge, pull out a burrito, rip open the wrapper and slap it in the microwave. Two minutes later, I'm shoveling cheesy, beany-goodness into my pate.
I normally turn my nose up at such processed food, but (and I speak here as a native Los Angeleno and lifelong burrito lover), these taste pretty darn good. The cheese melts, the beans taste fresh, the tortilla is firm yet moist....it's the next best thing to running out and buying a fresh burrito. And God knows I'm not taking the time to do that.
Give it a try. Keep a couple of these babies in your fridge for when you need a quick bite. You'll be grateful. And let me know what you think.
Pity my poor kids. Forced to eat the slop I make for them. No doubt they'll grow up with horror stories to tell their friends. Like the time their mom made them Rice with chicken crap. Or any one of a dozen other examples. Home cooking may be an expression of love, but in my case, perhaps I'd better content myself with buying them more Nintendo chips.
Then I got to thinking: What could one get the mom who can't cook -- but is forever trying?
The basics: I'd start with a nice new copy of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. It's the Joy of Cooking for our generation, a large yellow tome featuring the basics of roast chicken and chocolate chip cookies. Foodies might sneer at its simple level, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? And if Mom is starting late, gently help her along in her cooking adventures with a book that will hold her hand down the road. The recipes are simple, and more likely to turn out than not.
There are a lot of sights in the City by the Bay that deserve the epithet "Only in San Francisco." But even in a town where you have a good chance of being knocked down by a transvestite nun on roller skates, this one is a doozy.
Actually, noted Beijing artist Zhan Wang has made stainless steel replicas of other cities (working in stainless is what he does), but The City rendered in stainless steel cookware holds a special resonance, given the history of the Chinese worker in San Francisco over the past 150 years. Thousands of Chinese came over to seek their fortune in California's Gold Rush, but were largely left out of the ensuing riches and many entered the service industries instead.
The pots, serving platters, teakettles and flatware that make up this "sculpture" then, hold a duo political message.
Of course, the only message I'm really left with is this: I left my favorite pork buns in San Francisco.
I come from a long-line of Irish alcoholics. And although I myself hold my liquor like a ten-year-old, I have a special place in my heart for alcohol-flavored sweet things. Indeed, I have had a torrid love affair with the bourbon ball ever since my mom first let me try one during the holidays when I was a kid.
See, at my house, bourbon (or rum) balls were holiday fare. But I'm told they're traditional at the Kentucky Derby as well. I've never been to Kentucky, and I know next to nothing about the event, which, I'm told, involves race horses and women in elaborate hats.
But in the spirit of this prestigious event, I offer you my family's decidedly un-traditional recipe for bourbon balls.
Hot Diggity Dog! L.A. is a hot-dog kinda town. From Pink's to Dodger's Stadium to a variety of zesty newcomers, the lowly hot-dog is still much beloved in Tinsel-town.
Maybe you read about the fact that 
Here's what's being featured in today's Los Angeles Times Food Section:
The vigilant folks at PETA are really straining at the boundaries of good taste.
Summer's nearly here, and you know what that means: Potlucks. 
The vintner who put California on the wine map, 
Here's what you can find in Today's 
I am a budding foodie and reluctant food blogger. I've only recently joined Slashfood, and unlike many of my colleagues, I don't have any particular knowledge about the foodie world. I don't watch the Food Network (that would require me getting cable, and nyaaaah). I don't know much about fine cuisine. I wouldn't know a truffle from a button mushroom (or maybe I would, if somebody would buy me a truffle). And indeed, although I love food, love being in the kitchen and (trying) to feed my friends and family, the learning curve is daunting. 
First, let me apologize to every foodie who reads this blog. I deeply regret making this admission: I do sometimes consume microwavable food.
Pity my poor kids. Forced to eat the slop I make for them. No doubt they'll grow up with horror stories to tell their friends. Like the time their mom made them 
I come from a long-line of Irish alcoholics. And although I myself hold my liquor like a ten-year-old, I have a special place in my heart for alcohol-flavored sweet things. Indeed, I have had a torrid love affair with the bourbon ball ever since my mom first let me try one during the holidays when I was a kid.
Today in the Los Angeles Times food Section:
Soy and chickpeas might help stroke victims
The world of pie and tart crusts
Starbucks launches the Piadini 
