CULTURE
2:49 pm, Dec 11, 2008
Two cruises over two years gave pastry chef Lisa Bailey and her husband, Food Network chef Keegan Gerhard, plenty of time to dream about starting their own restaurant. But the two were busy working in Las Vegas, balancing TV and festival appearances. A fateful trip to the Taste of Colorado in 2006, though, landed them in the kitchen of String's... MORE
12:32 pm, Dec 9, 2008
Throughout December, our Tasting Notes blog is featuring web-only interviews with select chefs from this month's roundup of Denver's Best New Restaurants. The birth of his daughter brought big changes to chef Bob Blair's life. He left his job at Parisi and became a stay-at-home dad with the grand idea of pulling together a business plan for his... MORE
10:44 am, Dec 4, 2008
Throughout December, our Tasting Notes blog is featuring web-only interviews with select chefs from this month's roundup of Denver's Best New Restaurants. For years, Alex Waters knew he would open a restaurant. But his professional background--working in weaponry logistics for the U.S. government and then waiting tables at a corporate chain--had... MORE
12:25 pm, Dec 3, 2008
Throughout December, our Tasting Notes blog will feature web-only interviews with select chefs from this month's roundup of Denver's Best New Restaurants. Six months after entering the Denver restaurant scene Masterpiece Delicatessen has outgrown their original space. (The deli added 20 seats over Thanksgiving weekend.) Taking a step back from... MORE
11:44 am, Nov 28, 2008
Mine family is one of traditions. Which means that for every major holiday dinner, I make dessert--a job I wholeheartedly tackle. Searching the Internet, the library, and cookbook after cookbook, I've found flourless chocolate cake and poached pear recipes that have won table-wide accolades. Over the years, eliciting these compliments has... MORE
3:27 pm, Nov 20, 2008
Immediately after college graduation, I moved to Spain, a country where food and wine reign, and conversations about dining are more common than those about the weather. Given this dining climate, I wasn't surprised to learn shortly after my arrival that at my town's eating clubs--public kitchens for cooking and dining--two topics were forbidden... MORE
4:11 pm, Nov 13, 2008
In search of Caribbean sunshine, I hopped a jet to Belize last week. But I arrived in that Central American country just as the sun was setting, which forced my thoughts from equatorial rays to my rumbling stomach. I've traveled alone quite a bit over the years, and I always find the moment of hunger to be a somewhat distressing one. I'm caught... MORE
4:28 pm, Nov 6, 2008
Last week, after leaving two sticks of butter on the counter to soften, I pulled down the flour and sugar and lined up bags of chocolate chips, a bottle of vanilla, two eggs, and boxes of baking soda and salt. It was time, in a soft cloud of flour, to bake. After setting the oven to preheat, I pulled a chair to the counter. My 18-month-old (... MORE
3:59 pm, Oct 30, 2008
Saturday started off well. I was up at 9:30 a.m., eating croissants shortly after, but then, like appointments in a doctor's office, my plans began to spill into one another. Laundry ate up email time. Emails dismissed voting, and by the time I was en route to afternoon cocktails, I was running, madly trying to catch up with all that I'd planned... MORE
2:05 pm, Oct 23, 2008
Autumn cold crept in this week, dropping its big icy raindrops, whisking its chilly winds through downtown corridors, pushing forward its dark, frosty mornings--and inspiring me to buy a can of pumpkin. As the last of the golden leaves shook themselves free of the trees, I baked a batch of warm pumpkin cupcakes to stop autumn in her tracks.... MORE
1:57 pm, Oct 16, 2008
A couple of weekends ago a friend from the East Coast suggested we go apple picking. That set me to dreaming. Steaming pies. Robust cider. Chilly afternoons in upstate New York. But mostly, I imagined, the crunchy, sweet-and-sour flavor of straight-from-the-tree apples. Ahh, sure, I'd like to go apple picking, but this friend, I thought, must be... MORE
3:27 pm, Oct 8, 2008
I love going to the grocery store. Well, that's not quite true. Who likes hazy florescent lighting and check-out lines? What I really love is planning to go the grocery store--that hour or so when all the cookbooks come off the shelf, my tattered collection of printed recipes falls open, and I imagine meals of warm Indian curry and Peruvian stir... MORE
3:59 pm, Sep 30, 2008
I can't quite remember when I had my first cannoli from Mike's Pastry in Boston's North End. Maybe it was the trip in sixth grade. Or high school? Perhaps it was during college? Honestly, I'm embarrassed that I can't remember. Who forgets the first time Mike's big yellow signs invited them in off Boston's raining streets? Or the saucers full of... MORE
9:18 am, Sep 26, 2008
This week has been a busy one. Last Tuesday night, I met a group of college friends for drinks at Forest Room 5. A couple days later, I scooped up creamy creme brulee with a friend at Capitol Hill's Potager. And, today, I read that the beloved Mediterranean diet (olive oil, fresh produce, lots of fish) is more alive in fancy English restaurants... MORE
3:32 pm, Jun 24, 2008
The cool, controlled India of E.M. Forester's famed novel A Passage to India is being shattered to bits this week in Aspen, as the city hosts the 32nd annual Aspen Summer Words Literary Festival. Running now through Thursday, the festival has brought together India's foremost writers (all write in English) and asked them to speak about what... MORE
