Panel Discussion with Leah Koenig, Arthur Schwartz and Rozanne Gold

Celebrate the publication of Leah Koenig’s new book Portico: Cooking and Feasting in Rome’s Jewish Kitchen with New York’s beloved food maven Arthur Schwartz and four-time James Beard award-winning chef and author Rozanne Gold.

Join us in the Museum at Eldridge Street’s beautiful Main Sanctuary on October 17th at 6pm for a lively panel discussion delving into the riveting history and aromatic foodways of Rome’s Jewish community, among the oldest in Europe. Vibrantly portrayed in Leah’s captivating cookbook, published this Fall by W.W. Norton & Company, Leah chronicles a tale of modern-day Roman Jewish food culture, enlivened with anecdotes from the chefs, butchers, and waves of immigrants who helped shape the Jewish cuisine of the Eternal City.

As leading authorities on both Jewish and Italian food, Leah and Arthur, guided by moderator Rozanne Gold, explore the origins of la cucina ebraica romana (Roman Jewish cuisine) with research, recipes, and recollections. Discover how Rome’s millennia-old community became home to the food of the Diaspora, including those of the Libyan Jews who came to Rome in the 1960s and ‘70s. The result is a uniquely beguiling cuisine whose aromas fill the streets of Via del Portico d’Ottavia (the main road in Rome’s Jewish Ghetto) and beyond. Come fill your senses!

Click here to purchase a ticket.

"Iconic New York Jewish Food:" June Hersh, Niki Russ Federman, Rozanne Gold

Dear friends:

How wonderful it will be to see you at this upcoming event at the Eldridge Street Museum -- one of the most alluring and historical museums in the city. Seeing Kiki Smith's extraordinary blue stained-glass windows is reason enough to come. But here's another temptation: On May 2nd at 6 pm there will be a free event and panel discussion to celebrate the publication of June Hersh's new book Iconic New York Jewish Food. Another powerhouse, Niki Russ Federman, fourth-generation owner of the beloved Russ & Daughters will join us. Together we will acknowledge the moxie of the ingenious immigrants who helped shape the city's culinary streetscape and rejoice in collective memories. Since the event is right before Mother's Day, a signed copy of June's book -- chock-a-block with fabulous recipes -- would be a wonderful gift. Noshes, book signing, and maybe a poem or two from my new poetry collection, Mother Sauce, will add to the festivities. Hope to see you there.

Happy Spring.

Warmly,
Rozanne

Mother Sauce: Now Available on Amazon

MOTHER SAUCE by Rozanne Gold
Four-time James Beard award-winning chef turns from food to poetry 

“This book was created by a singular poet - death doula, legendary chef, geographer of women’s souls - who writes with a memorable voice. Deft, wise, and delicate, the poems of Mother Sauce are powerful recipes for wisdom and compassion.”

—Annie Finch, author of Spells and A Poet’s Craft 

Brooklyn, New York (Dec. 27, 2022)   After more than four decades in the food world, award-winning chef, celebrated author, food writer, and international restaurant consultant Rozanne Gold turns her formidable creativity to poetry with her first poetry collection Mother Sauce published by Dancing Girl Press.   

Mother Sauce refers to the five classic sauces created by chef Auguste Escoffier, and the subsequent “daughter sauces” that form the basis of all French cuisine. This metaphor weaves itself through Gold’s “spare and deceptively simple” poems which, like her minimalist style of cooking, resound with unexpected complexity that “tease the senses and excavate bliss.”    

This poetic memoir, a bildungsroman, takes the writer from an unhappy childhood in Fresh Meadows, Queens, finding nourishment through men, to becoming a chef and food writer in order to nourish herself, and an end-of-life doula to deal with her grief after her mother’s death.

It’s about the heartache of "motherlessness" -- caught between not being one and not having one; a story of endometriosis; a powerful connection to Nefertiti, and what it means to become a poet in her 60s. It’s about trading the language of food for the language of words and images; it’s about the search for spiritual nourishment and what it means to become a mother at age 53; and what it means to care for dying people. It’s about a psychological dimension that gives rise to a city of women, of women carrying women home, and ultimately about God as a woman… the ultimate source of nourishment.  

Buoyed by her singular career, both glamorous and gritty, Gold delves deep into her own experiences of feeling unworthy, unseen, and taken for granted; taken from, not celebrated, known and yet not known. It is a quiet reclamation of the divine and the feminine in her later years.  And while Gold’s story is uniquely her own, women, men, humanity at large can relate in their own way to the book’s many steps, both in its path and pathos.

 “Mother Sauce is nourishment for the heart and soul. Exploring loss and joy in motherhood and motherlessness, these poems entice the reader into a feast of contemplation and experience. We are served a savory and well-balanced meal ranging from “how to grieve” to “how to peel a carrot.” From the Imaginative leap of the first poem – God as cook creating Mother Sauces – the culinary serves spiritual Inquiry, seasoned with everything from razzmatazz to gravitas.”  --Krista Leahy, Nothing but Light 

“With a chef’s touch Rozanne Gold’s debut chapbook exquisitely gathers memory, loss, and boundless love into a redolent bouquet garni. With a keen eye for lush detail and epic sweep through the sensorial necessity of food, Gold offers process, where a recipe holds the future, where we grow memories older than water. Step into this kitchen. There is nourishment here.” –Robert Balun, Acid Western and Traces

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rozanne Gold is an award-winning chef, food writer, journalist, and end-of-life doula. At age 23 she was first chef for New York Mayor Ed Koch and later the consulting chef for the Rainbow Room and Windows on the World. Considered “one of the most important innovators in the modern food world,” by Bob Spitz, (Julia Child’s biographer), she is the author of 13 acclaimed cookbooks, and winner of four James Beard Awards. Rozanne has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Gourmet and Bon Appetit, where she was entertaining columnist for five years. When Gourmet closed its doors, Gold bought their expansive library and donated it to New York University. After Hurricane Sandy, she ran a pop-up kitchen in Park Slope for 1-1/2 years, preparing 185,000 meals for those in need. A finalist of the 2020 Sappho Poetry Prize, she is a board member of Brooklyn Poets and co-founder of the Death & Living Project. 

DETAILS                      

Title: Mother Sauce
Author: Rozanne Gold
Publisher: Dancing Girl Press
ISBN #: 979-8-218-06304-7     
Price: $8.00
No. of pages/51  
AVAILABLE ON AMAZON    

Tricycle Magazine | 10,000 Dharmas in a Bowl

Click here to read the complete article in Tricycle Magazine.

Fourteen years ago, when Jonathan and Diana Rose created the magnificent Garrison Institute, a repurposed monastery on the banks of the Hudson River, they asked if I’d cook a meal for the Dalai Lama, who was coming to visit. I declined. Maybe insecurity got in the way, but it felt more like fear. Although I was well known as a chef with a Zen-like approach to cooking, I believed that the honor should go to a practitioner of Buddhism or at least someone who would be more fully awake to the experience than I would have been. Ever since, I’ve had a recurring thought whenever I shop, cook, or daydream. “What would I have made?” Sometimes the question makes me smile; other times it triggers great anxiety. But in the end, I realized that the food itself was not at all what mattered.

Brooklyn Poets | Rozanne Gold

It was a great honor to be chosen "Poet of the Week" by BROOKLYN POETS from October 24th to the 30th. The timing coincided with the publication of my first poetry collection called Mother Sauce published by Dancing Girl Press (October 28, 2022). I was delighted to be interviewed by this esteemed organization dedicated to celebrating and cultivating the poets, poetry and literary heritage of Brooklyn, the birthplace of American poetry. You can read the full interview and listen to a recording of my poem Kitchen Work, chosen as a finalist for the 2020 Sappho Poetry Prize below. Mother Sauce can be purchased from Dancing Girl Press .

Click here to read the full interview.
Listen to Rozanne read her poem, “Kitchen Work.”

Three Hours In Greenpoint

The sun broke abruptly through an Elsa-whipped sky of rain and clouds and we jumped in the car eager to book a spot at the Faurschou Foundation in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. We’d tried to visit the oddly-sited private museum once before, only to find it closed, and feared it could happen again. Located on a sleepy street of warehouses, black glass apartment towers and low-rise homes of red brick or wood, it was indeed open, and we were greeted by a hipster who was both gate-keeper and cheerleader. In less than twenty minutes we were transformed by the exhibit of sculptor Christian Lemmerz.

Clearly we were witnessing the future in the eerie power of five marble human forms chiseled by computer, in the way I imagine one experienced the power (or divinity) in Michelangelo’s “David” ages ago. Whereas the latter embodies the grandiloquence of the human body, Lemmerz subverts the human form into figures that feel at home in “the night of the living dead” and yet possess unimaginable grace and religiosity (although I am certain the German-born artist would scoff at that word). And yet. Lemmerz works in Copenhagen (Denmark) and Pietrasanta (Italy) where we coincidentally are headed this summer. Maybe we’ll run into him at the quarries in Carrara. The Faurschou Foundation, headquartered in Copenhagen and Beijing, was established in 2011 to exhibit important works of contemporary art and foster dialogue between the East and West. It opened in this “becoming” area of Brooklyn in 2019. The museum is free and will, next year, house a restaurant by a well-known Danish chef. Coincidentally, there is a timely article in the New York Times today about technology, robots, and the future of sculpture.

If you’re hungry now, at it’s 5 p.m., head over to Madre’s, around the corner on Franklin Street (and next to the tony Franklin Guesthouse, who knew?). Lurking behind two imposing wooded doors, is a trendy place to dine on croquetas with gruyere, black truffle and vinegar powder, fluke ceviche with coconut leche de tigre, artic char with spring onion dashi, fava beans & wild mushrooms, chicken with papas bravas, spiced jus & salsa verde, accompanied by a great selection of drinks.

The Springs

Or, if you’re ready to party in a huge outdoor patio with pink flamingos, sofas and tents, a food truck, Tivoli lights, and a welcoming GREENPOINT mural, try The Springs “inspired by the retro oasis vibes of Southern California.” You can have a Aperol slushy and a side of guate-yucca fries. Why not.

More our speed (since we are probably decades older than most who hang out here), was shopping at AS Warehouse, a Polish authentic-as-they-come smoked meat-smoked fish herring-kielbasa-fresh sauerkraut-homemade pickle-food emporium. It made us so hungry we shared a stuffed cabbage in the car and bought a mess of sausages, porky and aromatic, strewn with sweetly cooked peppers and onions, atop a mound of fresh-cooked buckwheat groats to take home for dinner. Three hours in Greenpoint.

Faurschou Foundation/ 148 Green Street
Madre /214 Franklin St
The Springs/ 224 Franklin St.
AS Warehouse/276 McGuinness Blvd.

Mid-Year Food Trends 2021

Happy Summer!  It is mid-way to the year-end food trends report joyfully undertaken by our company, Baum + Whiteman -- a restaurant consulting group dedicated to the creation of immersive food and restaurant projects all over the world. We are excited about the most recent good news! Restaurant sales last month beat all records, besting their previous high recorded in January 2020, just before the Covid pandemic exploded.

With summer travel expected to soar, restaurant sales will continue their upward trend – particularly as vaccinated Americans feel safe about returning to indoor dining.  This surge in restaurant spending seems to accompany a down-trend in retail sales.  That’s probably because consumers have used all the money that the government’s been sending out to purchase almost everything they’ve wanted.  So they’re now redirecting those dollars toward pleasurable pursuits.

However, it’s not all roses.  Next time you visit your favorite restaurant, you’re likely to encounter some startling price rises, and there are three reasons for this.  First, restaurateurs need to replenish their cash reserves after losing about $280 billion since the pandemic’s onset.  Second, shortages of practically everything – from paper cups to chicken wings – are triggering higher prices for restaurant supplies.  And, most important of all, there’s an extreme shortage of labor.  This also suggests that along with higher menu prices, you’re likely in many places to endure disjointed service. (The flip side to that is those who are working seem especially kind and grateful.)

Low wages, tough working conditions and this year’s focus on “worker equity” all have prompted about one-third of restaurant employees to move to different industries – or to move from big cities to places where living is easier and cheaper.  And this labor shortage is occurring as thousands of restaurants are reopening, adding to demands for labor while putting upward pressure on simple hamburgers, lofty rib steaks, or decadent desserts. Value meals, in fact, are disappearing at fast food locations. 

No matter.  The big news is that it’s great to have our restaurants back!

Here are five trendlets for the summer:

-- Boozed-up seltzer, with or without added flavorings.  Most contain about 5% alcohol but they vary up to about 12%, which is the same jolt you’d get from a glass of wine.  They’re for people who are drinking “lighter.”  Keto-maniacs like them.  And they offer cheap thrills.

-- Tajin.  The perfect summer spice mix from Mexico.  You can make your own simple version.  Or buy jars that contain ground mild chilies, dehydrated lime and sea salt. Dip the rim of your Bloody Mary glass in the mix, or sprinkle the stuff on scrambled eggs, roast chicken or, as they do on New York City streets, dip slices of mango in it.  

-- Calabrian chilis packed in oil.  During Covid, house-bound consumers began cooking again, and searching for “interesting” ingredients.  This one, driven by social media, is pretty hot but with lots of flavor.  They’ve gone from esoteric to mass-market in no time – from gourmet shop shelves to Trader Joe’s and Target.

--Upmarket “new Chinese American” takeout. We’re thrilled about the recent New York Times article (6/21/21), “More than Just Take Out” by Cathy Erway, featuring our friends at the growing fast-casual chain NICE DAY by Junzi.

--Devoted watching of “High on the Hog” – a Netflix docu-series illuminating how African- American cooking transformed America (based on the book by Dr. Jessica Harris).

--The global tofu market is soaring and will continue until 2027.  

Buzzwords and favorite bites:

Sake on tap (and sake bars); pistachio-filled croissants at Carissa (in East Hampton); salmorejo (a silky gazpacho-like puree, the color of lipstick – my version is made only with bread, olive oil, ripe tomatoes, garlic and a splash of sherry vinegar); vegetarian Reuben sandwiches made with roasted beets, truffle-infused hot sauce (by Truff); sunflower butter; tonburi, and Friendly’s Forbidden Chocolate ice cream (not kidding).

Will Write For Food

Will Write for Food. Was there ever a better book title to pique your curiosity?

Dianne Jacob, journalist, author, and writing coach, said during our recent chat (she in her beautiful home in Oakland Hills, California, and me sitting in a big comfy chair in my Brooklyn dining room), that the original title of her book was “How to Write about Food.” But “Will Write for Food” engages all the senses, going way beyond didactics, almost begging the reader to explore hidden desires and latent hungers – because, after all, who doesn’t want to scribble about edibles?

Lesson #1.  A provocative title is a good start. But it is the subtitle to Jacob’s fourth edition: “Pursue Your Passion and Bring Home the Dough Writing Recipes, Cookbooks, Blogs, and more,” that says it all. 

I wish this book existed in the mid-1970s when I got started in this business – first, as a chef, and then as a food writer.  I’d have had all the tools I needed and the confidence a new writer longs for. Yet, even now (13 cookbooks and 600 articles later), Dianne’s fourth update still reveals professional secrets to me and I can’t recommend it highly enough.  Each edition is a sociological map of the culinary landscape harkening back to 2005 when the first “Will Write for Food” was published -- well before the riotous world of blogging began. The second edition published in 2010 was early to food writing’s more entrepreneurial vibe, while the 3rd edition, published in 2015, inched away from gastronomy’s Eurocentric point of view.  Now Jacob’s newest edition embraces roiling diversity and the artful virtue of “voice.” Not necessarily “storytelling,” according to Dianne, but the development of personality on the page. 

What’s most different today, she observes, is that “to be a food writer also means to be a business person.”  So while Jacob stirs in ample amounts of editorial prowess about how to structure a story, do an interview, or invent a good lede, she serves up multitudinous interviews and real-life experiences shared by the food writers who are joyfully, and successfully, singing for their supper. “I love unearthing this information and talking to really smart people about it. I love the learning.  The people who want to write want to learn,” she said.

In this newest edition, Dianne demystifies the process to make it possible for anyone (imagine!) to write about food.  “And,” she says with great earnest, “there is now money in it. A website with ads and high traffic can bring in a six-figure income.”  

“Is anything being lost?” I innocently asked, “in this bulging-influencer-foodie-zeitgeist?” “The writing is suffering,” she replied. “Those who are interested in business are not necessarily focused on the writing.”

Dianne, for whom writing is paramount, comes armed with two degrees in journalism and decades of positions as an editor-in-chief and senior editor at a handful of publications, in addition to being the restaurant reviewer for the San Francisco Weekly (where she misheard   be “edgy” as be “bitchy,” and so a riveting style ensued.)

More riveting still may be Dianne’s childhood table: laden with Bombay-Baghdadi food, Japanese food, Iraqi Jewish food, and Chinese food. Curious? Her parents, Orthodox Iraqi Jews who lived in China, were obsessed with food, and cooking became a metaphor for identity. Her book is dedicated to them: “For my parents who cooked to remember who they were.” I especially loved hearing about a beloved family dish that was prepared for the Sabbath: Hamin, a multi-layered complex recipe of rice-stuffed chicken with more rice and spices and boiled eggs, gets baked overnight, and then served with radishes and green onion.  But that’s another story for another time.

For now, you may enjoy as a special treat, one of Dianne’s personal favorites – about comfort food and memory

https://www.diannej.com/MediaFiles/MumsComfortFood.pdf

or you can simply devour Will Write for Food, 4th edition, 2021.

One Woman Kitchen: Allison Kave of Butter and Scotch - Queen of Baked Goods and Booze

Allison Kave is this week's awesome guest on "One Woman Kitchen." The co-owner of the trendy "Butter & Scotch" in Brooklyn, where cakes and cocktails happily coalesce, she is the author of "First Prize Pies" and co-author of the "Butter & Scotch Cookbook." Once upon a time Allison may have been a successful gallerist and art historian, but now she's happier than ever as social activist, community-builder, brilliant conversationalist, and hipster restaurateur. Get ready for the world's best pie crust recipe and a kitchen tip of my own.

Listen here and subscribe!

My New Podcast: One Woman Kitchen

I’m very excited to share this news! Tomorrow, MouthMedia Network will launch my new podcast “ONE WOMAN KITCHEN” on iTunes, Spotify, and everywhere else you listen to your favorite podcasts. Honored to have such a stellar line-up of guests, including food writer Priya Krishna, L’Artusi pastry chef Jessica Craig, Sofreh restaurateur, Nasim Alikhani and many more. Listen to the remarkable stories of women from all generations who have carved their way into the culinary landscape as innovators and visionaries. Join us! You can subscribe at https://onewomankitchenshow.com/

For immediate release:                                                                               May 1, 2019

 MouthMedia Network launches new podcast celebrating rising star women in the culinary world

(New York, NY)  Adding to an impressive portfolio of industry-leading podcasts, , MouthMedia Network is thrilled to announce the launch of ONE WOMAN KITCHEN, dedicated to “giving voice” to rising star women in the culinary world.  This inclusive, intergenerational podcast also features the remarkable women who paved the way for them, at a time when women chefs, food writers, innovators and entrepreneurs were anathema in professional kitchens and the food industry in general.

The host and creator of this podcast, in conjunction with the executive producers of MouthMedia Network, is Rozanne Gold, a “living legend,” “the food expert’s expert,” and recently named “one of the most important modern innovators in the food world,” by Julia Child’s biographer, Bob Spitz.  An early influencer on the culinary scene at the age of 23, she was first chef to New York Mayor Ed Koch, and went on to become consulting chef to the Rainbow Room and Windows on the World, two of the country’s largest-grossing and most magical restaurants. A four-time winner of the James Beard Award, the author of thirteen acclaimed cookbooks, and a respected journalist, she is responsible for some of the country’s most enduring food trends – from “cocktails & little meals,” to three-ingredient recipes (she is known as the “mother of minimalism”), Hudson River cuisine, Med-Rim cuisine, and “The Greatest Bar on Earth.” A philanthropist and social activist, Rozanne created a pop-up kitchen in Brooklyn to prepare 185,000 meals for those in need after Hurricane Sandy, purchased Gourmet Magazine’s Library and donated it to New York University, and firmly maintains her prominent role as mentor to many in the food world. She has won numerous accolades for her broadcasts, as guest host for Martha Stewart on Sirius, Joan Hamburg on WOR, and as a guest on WNYC for which she received her fourth James Beard Award.

Gold’s guests are a diverse group of outstanding women – Priya Krishna (food writer/New York Times and the New Yorker), Nasim Alikhani (restaurant owner and chef of Sofreh), and Jessica Craig (Michelin-star pastry chef at L’Artusi) – representing all sectors of the food world, all ages, backgrounds, and experience. Their stories, revealing grit and glamour, success and failure, are inspirational. As are their answers to Rozanne’s final question, “What does ‘one woman kitchen’ mean to you?” The show’s title is a metaphor for what it means to be a woman in today’s food world – each carving out a place in unique and special ways.

MouthMedia Network’s CEO Rob Sanchez says “Having Rozanne Gold join is a monumental step for MouthMedia Network as we launch the first of several shows focused on the importance of good and the rapidly changing food industry. We are excited to have such a powerful leader and visionary with us as we embark on this new journey.”

The podcast airs weekly, beginning May 1 and can be found on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify.

It joins MouthMedia Network other  leading shows including AMERICAN FASHION PODCAST, ENTREPRENISTA, and BEAUTY IS YOUR BUSINESS .

ONE WOMAN KITCHEN with Rozanne Gold plans broad outreach to all women in the industry and to other women’s organizations.  The podcast also features men in the food world who have supported the great accomplishments of their female colleagues.

About MouthMedia Network

MouthMedia Network fosters great conversations about business, innovation, careers, and leading a balanced life through their podcasts and live events. MouthMedia Network develops podcasts that enable business development, connect audiences, inspire actions, and expand brands, They also work directly with major corporations on internal communication tools, developing podcasts that achieve human resource, training and motivational goals.

Festive Fourth of July Food

While these sparkling recipes are designed for July 4th fireworks, they are perfect for entertaining all summer long. Three cheers for the red, white, and blue! Hope you have a festive holiday.

COOL BLUE MARTINIS

This recipe is for each drink but they can be made by the pitcher. These are really “light martinis” as there is more bubbly and less vodka or gin than in standard martinis.

– 5 ounces chilled Prosecco

– ½ ounce (1 tablespoon) gin or vodka

– ½ ounce (1 tablespoon) blue Curacao

– 1 tablespoon (or more) simple syrup

Stir everything into a shaker with a few ice cubes. Shake away! Strain into a chilled martini glass.

MAKES 1 DRINK

RED, WHITE AND BLUEBERRY SHORTCAKES

This luxurious dessert is worthy of fireworks. Wonderful if you can get tiny ripe strawberries from your local farmer’s market. The light touch of lemon zest in the biscuits and thin layer of lemon curd makes these truly memorable. Garnish with edible flowers.

LEMON-BUTTERMILK BISCUITS

– 1½ cups flour
– ½ teaspoon salt
– 2 teaspoons baking powder
– ½ teaspoon baking soda
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
– Grated rind of 1 lemon
– ⅔ cup buttermilk

SHORTCAKES

– 1½ cups heavy cream
– 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
– 1 teaspoon vanilla
– ½ cup lemon curd
– 3 cups fresh berries: raspberries, tiny strawberries, blueberries
– Edible flowers for garnishing

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and 1 tablespoon sugar. Cut butter into small pieces and incorporate into flour mixture. Add lemon zest and buttermilk and mix lightly. Turn dough out onto floured board. Roll out to 1-inch thickness. Cut out 3-inch round and place on ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle lightly with sugar. Bake 16 to 18 minutes until golden. Let cool.

Whip heavy cream with confectioners sugar and vanilla until very thick.

Cut biscuits in half. Spread lemon curd on bottom half of each biscuit. Spoon whipped on top and add fruit. Top with biscuit “hat” and add more berries and whipped cream. Garnish with edible flowers. SERVES 6.

The Heart-Tug of a Handwritten Recipe

Just this week I received this note from a stranger. “I grew up eating South African pumpkin fritters as a special treat — my mother made them from my late grandmother’s recipe and they have stuck in my memory. Recently leafing through an old binder of recipes, I discovered my grandmother’s recipe. But it was not the taste memory that tugged at my heart, but her handwriting that stirred something deep within.”

I knew exactly what he meant. One year ago, I found a recipe I wrote in my best penmanship for my mother as a small gift for Mother’s Day. I had not seen it since she died and the flashback of writing it connected me to her in a combustible way – at the intersection of love and loss. At that moment, I proposed an idea to Brett Rawson, a poet and co-editor of the literary arts magazine “The Seventh Wave,” who had just started a terrific website celebrating the handwritten word.

The idea crystallized into a column called “Handwritten Recipes,” which re-ignites the connection between generations of families through the exploration of food and memory – most profoundly through the power of the pen. While the relation of food to language is universal, the curve and slope of a loved one’s scrawl can recapture long-lost memories, scents, tastes and emotions at a moment’s notice.

I’ve been collecting (with some exuberance) handwritten recipes from both friends and strangers around the world, and publishing them on handwrittenwork.com. These stories reveal new connections between pen and people. Some recipes have been handed down for generations, and their appearance shows it: tell-tale stains, scribbled additions, scratched-out revisions, and the fascinating variation of penmanship styles. Other recipes are recently uncovered after years in dust-covered boxes in dark and distant closets. Magically, they each bring to light the silent power of the handwritten word. More nourishing than simply something to eat, these stories shorten the distance between our sense of taste and our history.

A particularly engaging story comes from Lari Robling, an independent radio producer and writer, currently producing “Voices in the Family” with Dr. Dan Gottlieb for WHYY in Philadelphia. A special cup of tea, carefully placed next to a handwritten recipe card, sets the scene to unlock the secrets to Bettymarie’s Peach Meringue. The yellowing card’s splotches hint at past mishaps, while a faded cursive “what’s cookin’,” specifies Mom as the author, calling her by name. Yet the story is not all peaches and cream. The cracked exterior of the cake becomes a metaphor for a complicated mother-daughter relationship whose sweetness and love stand the test of time.

Another story focuses on the rekindling of father-daughter memories through the unexpected discovery of a handwritten recipe for “vodka sauce.” It is testament to the emotional power that “chicken scratches” can hold. Told by Allison Radecki, a culinary tour guide, her poignant tale is as much character study as it is a love story. Allison’s neighborhood-based walks in Brownstone Brooklyn trace the history of immigration and culinary change, and her father’s hastily scribbled note on a random piece of paper acts as a time machine to past meals. Over the years, other family members have added comments and drawings to the recipe’s edges, preserving a multi-generational bond of memories.

As these essays and connections accumulate on my desk and brighten my inbox, they form an exchange of collective memory and the transmission of taste beyond flavor — my very goal in creating this column.

Writer April Lee’s vivid memory of her grandmother’s sweet potatoes encouraged her to jot the recipe down in her own handwriting, the pen as medium for evocative recollection. “I wrote the recipe exactly as she told me. It’s captured in ink on paper, a record of holidays, of seeing my grandparents’ car pull into the driveway, of a full table with family and sweet potatoes with cherries, a record of her voice, her peculiar nature. I make it from memory and for now, this recipe is preserved, put aside, ready to be offered when we are sad along with two extra pineapple slices and a cup of the juice.”

And then there’s poet Tina Barry’s pot roast. “It is a part of our history: My mother’s, my daughter’s and mine. And it will be a part of my granddaughter Vera’s, too. When Anya cooks for Vera, my mother will be with them in all the flavors on the plate. There will be a little of me, too, in the slant of my “t,” the dot that never quite caps the “i.” That’s what a recipe does, especially one that’s handwritten: it brings loved ones closer with the proof of their hand on paper, the memory of clangs and chatter, the perfume of onions cooking slowly on the stove.”

As we become so digitally dis-connected, I’ve taken on the enriching task of assembling and publishing these linkages between gastronomy and memory from a time when people actually did things by hand; when cooking symbolized something that felt like love.

The “handwritten recipes” project is a living cookbook. Yet in some ways it has already been written and waiting to be retrieved from a dusty shoebox or kitchen drawer.

Restaurants Without Seats? Big Trends In 2017

Food trends are fascinating; we are obsessed with what we eat. But more importantly, these trends tell larger stories about who we are. Looked at yearly, they depict the shifting sands of consumer behavior.

For example, I’ve just learned that ordering food delivered from restaurants surges, improbably, on ... Valentine’s Day! It’s not because of the death of romanticism in America or because restaurants are heavily booked. Just the opposite: Lured by the ease of Internet ordering and speedy delivery by Uber or Amazon, people increasingly are “eating out” at home and abandoning restaurant dining rooms.

So a big trend for 2017 will be companies opening experimental kitchen-only restaurants whose sole purpose is to send prepared meals to your home. They are called “phantom restaurants” (also known as ghost restaurants) because no one ever visits them. They’re located in low-rent locations but staffed by real chefs and cooks. Even Olive Garden, just last week, said that it was considering building kitchens in warehouse districts that could deliver to a major city, an idea earlier floated by the fast-growing Panera Bread company.

I’ve attached an article on this very subject by Financial Times’s restaurant critic Nicholas Lander as reprinted in last week’s blog by Jancis Robinson, one of the world’s premier wine experts (and someone I’ve adored for decades). Expansion of delivery-only kitchens is reshaping the restaurant business — and perhaps also our waistlines. Or it may simply satisfy an innate desire to nest.

Every year I write about food trends as gleaned from the best in the business, and there are many exciting ones on the horizon. Is seaweed the next kale? Are wildly creative sandwiches reshaping how we think about breakfast? Will congee be the next new thing? (I am crazy about it; any time of the day.) There’s all this and lots more in the 2017 food and beverage forecast from Baum+Whiteman International Restaurant Consultants, which you can read about here. Most intriguing in this report is an analysis of why vegetables are becoming the new “comfort food,” and whether that means we’re saying goodbye to mac-and-cheese.

What are some other trends on the horizon? Well, gentrification of the $4 “chopped cheese” for one. A sandwich, made famous in the bodegas of Harlem and the South Bronx, went viral this year, causing a stampede to the upper reaches of the city. This mélange of ground beef, American cheese and condiments, all piled on a hero bucks the trend of highly contrived, super-creative, attention-getting food served elsewhere at more like $4 a bite.

Another trend? Chef magicians turning food-waste into delectable things to eat. I am one of them and among the first to fry carrot tops to use as a garnish, and definitely the first to boil the peelings of fresh asparagus to resemble fettuccine. I also make “compost soup,” and transform leftover bits of iceberg lettuce into a wondrous vegetable by simply sautéing with olive oil and lemony sumac. I pulverize old gnarly carrots into “nibs” and toss them with couscous. So good. And essential to creating a sustainable planet.

Other trends? Chefs who use menu language in new ways and intentionally break from traditional forms. I now teach a class at the New School for Social Research (in New York City) called “The Language of Food,” which looks at menus as a form of literature. And chefs, like poets, use the fewest possible words to express desire and hunger, getting to the essence of a dish quickly, like good haiku. More? Specialty drinks with LED lights inside the ice cubes has a certain poetry of its own, as does “candy floss” (the British word for cotton candy) used in brand new ways.

More? It’s time to click on Whiteman’s forecast for 2017 – sporting the 13 hottest food & beverage trends in restaurant & hotel dining, not to mention 23 prescient buzzwords. According to Nick Lander’s in December’s Financial Times, “Michael Whiteman is a striking example of a lifetime well spent in the American hospitality business.” As the guy who (with his partner Joe Baum) created the world’s first food courts and five of New York’s three-star restaurants, including the legendary Windows on the World and the Rainbow Room, he knows a thing or two about what’s happening.

London Now: Restaurants to Watch

On a recent trip to London with trends guru Michael Whiteman, I had the luxury of drinking the world’s best martini – made with Cotswolds Gin. The distillery, located 1-1/2 hours outside London (in charming Shipston-on-Stour) is an alluring introduction to the idyllic landscape, known for lush patches of lavender and gentle hills. Ask proprietor Daniel Szor to give you a tour. Eat at the nearby gastropub, “The Kingham Plough” (20 minutes from the distillery), and then head on to bustling London, a world-eats destination, and stay a few days. Giving thanks, here, to MW (husband) for succinctly mapping the brilliance of three of London’s best new dining spots.

Without a great city street map you’d be pressed to find Beast, but every London cabbie knows the location. Beast comes from the creators of the sizzling Burger & Lobster chain but this time the menu focuses on humongous king crabs and great steaks from several countries. You pass massive tanks holding angry, prehistoric-looking crabs and lobsters with claws almost the size of your shoe before entering a bustling underground room full of wooden communal tables with candelabra. There’s a festive roar, mostly from men spending more than your last paycheck. A short assortment of starters (shrimp tempura with Cajun mayonnaise and avocado is sold by the piece but everyone seems to order a platter) leads you to “The Beasts”, all sold by the gram.

Next to us, four petit women from Paris shared some starters and a king crab beast that arrived on a silver platter; they then collapsed into a caloric stupor and gasped “fini.” Three of us, on the other hand, hoovered up a miraculously sweet crab and then carved into a great slab of corn-finished double sirloin from Nebraska grilled over charcoal. We’re partial to grass-fed Basque Holstein, but they were out that night and our other choices were beef from Scotland, Australia and Finland.

Our meal was rounded out by thrice-fired potato wedges and a green salad topped with juicy smoked tomatoes, which were infinitely better than expected. Do not request bread to sop up the salad juices or meat drippings because there is none.

The knowing wine list is full of big bruisers and first growths and, as befits a steakhouse, Beast is rightfully expensive. Don’t be surprised if this celebratory restaurant migrates to New York or Dubai where there already are busy outposts of Burger & Lobster.

Beast

3 Chapel Pl, Marylebone

+44 20 7495 1816

beastrestaurant.co.uk

Portland is the ideal neighborhood restaurant: smallish, warmly lit, gastronomically ambitious, acoustically sensible and fairly priced. For this reason, most people take taxis to this restaurant in the Fitzrovia neighborhood. Portland is one of three admirable London places run by Will Lander (the others being Quality Chop House and nearby Clipstone). The menu appears concise but then you’re struck with the “I want everything” dilemma. A recently bestowed Michelin star is so well deserved.

A smooth chicken liver parfait is offset by crisp chicken skin, candied walnuts and pickled grapes, and Devonshire crab is rolled with lovage into a thin slice of kohlrabi — both exercises of texture as well as taste. Evidently not one for gastronomical grandstanding, chef Merlin Labron-Johnson, who previously worked at Belgium’s famed In De Wulf, transforms complexities of ingredients into watercolors of flavors, as in foie gras with endive, clementine and raisins soaked in Alsace muscat — bitter flavors balanced by sweet. Roasted heritage carrots get the same attention with brown butter, aged nutty comté and toasted buckwheat. Cornish cod with green cauliflower, sorrel and smoked cream, and hay-baked guinea fowl with chestnuts and mushrooms were sublime and comforting on a rainy London evening.

Our waitress, fresh from Gramercy Tavern in New York, provided flawless service and there was nothing she didn’t know about the food.

The wine list is an endless work-in-progress since it changes almost every week, and is full of thrilling things you’ve never heard of — which is no surprise since Lander’s mother is the estimable wine writer Jancis Robinson (his father is food writer and critic Nicholas Lander).

Portland

113 Great Portland St.

+44 20 7436 3261

portlandrestaurant.co.uk

StreetXO is a rollicking transplant to London of a tapas bar in Madrid. That statement is akin to saying that Audi is an automobile. StreetXO is an underground, wackadoodle fusion restaurant where Michelin-starred chef David Muñoz layers Asian flavors onto traditional Spanish tapas, with occasional detours to Mexico. The resulting food erupts with umami and spices. A croquette that in Spain would be bound with a simple béchamel here is filled with sheep milk, XO sauce, lapsang souchong and kimchi, then topped with a slice of toro. If you fancy crunchy pig’s ear dumplings and pickles spattered, Jackson Pollack stye, with strawberry hoisin sauce, this place is for you.

There’s a long, brightly lit open kitchen “counter” where a gaggle of chefs— dressed puzzlingly in strait jackets — prepare these over-the-top inventions and serve you directly, each dish accompanied by an explanatory recitation. This is where you want to sit since the remaining space is night-clubby black, dark red and rather gloomy, but probably appropriate for date nights.

We particularly enjoyed a show-stopper of octopus, tomatillo and green apple mole (a faux guacamole) with “fake Chinese wok noodles” that turned out to be an amazing umami-laden tangle of enoki mushrooms. Muñoz’s steamed club sandwich is a pillow-soft bao with suckling pig, ricotta, quail egg and chili cream. And so it goes — tandoori chicken wings with pickled onion, trout roe and bonito flakes; Iberian pork belly with mussels in escabeche and sriracha; paella with sea urchin, chicken, bergamot and yellow aji — a carnival of animals and seafood.

StreetXO had opened only a few days before we dropped in and London’s trendoids already were clamoring for reservations.

StreetXO

15 Old Burlington St, Mayfair

+44 20 3096 7555

Chocolate + Tahini

Photo by: Jonelle Weaver

I was among the first to make ganache from chocolate and tahini (instead of cream) and invented a recipe in 1999 for a Gourmet magazine cover story.  I created a chocolate petits fours for a kosher-style meal where the mixing of meat and dairy was not allowed.  This idea is now a hot new trend and lots of chefs are exploiting tahini (sesame seed paste) to the max.  Here's my recipe from Gourmet for Chocolate-Tahini Cups.  They are radically simple to make and taste like a sophisticated Chunky bar.  A great idea for Valentine's Day.

Chocolate-Tahini Cups

1/2 cup dried currants
1 cup boiling-hot water
8 ounces best quality semi-sweet chocolate (like Valrhona)
3-1/2 tablespoons tahini (Middle Eastern sesame seed paste)
vegetable cooking spray1
8 - 1-inch candy papers/liners

Soak currants in hot water for 5 minutes.  Drain and pat dry with paper towels.  Melt chocolate with 3 tablespoon tahini in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring until smooth, and stir in currants.  Lightly spray liners with cooking spray and spoon chocolate mixture into candy paper liners.  Cool 5 minutes.

Decorate candies by dipping tip of a skewer or toothpick into remaining 1/2 tablespoon tahini and swirling over tops.  Chill until set.  Makes 18.  Will keep, covered and chilled, for 1 week. 

New Food Trends 2015

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At the end of every year, platoons of food professionals -- consultants, chefs, writers and research firms -- race to predict the trends that will influence foodies all over America and ergo the world. According to Carol Tice from Forbes, the forecast released in mid-November by Baum+ Whiteman international restaurant consultants, was "one of the most fascinating." You can check out their full report of 11 dining trends plus 22 hot restaurant buzzwords for 2015 here.

Although I am married to Mr. Whiteman, his prognostications were unknown to me until they were released on Nov. 11th. The trends sit in telling categories: how the importance of technology will profoundly change the way restaurants function; how the notion of authenticity has less relevance, and how our lust for new and different has resulted in "restless palate syndrome" -- meaning that we can't leave simple food alone. One upon a time we liked salty, sweet, spicy, smoky, fatty and bitter flavors -- but now we want them all at once. In other words, "too much ain't enough."

The report, picked up by an Arabic newspaper, focuses on the importance of hummus, which Whiteman says, is probably the most mispronounced word in our country's food vocabulary. It gobbles up shelf space in our supermarkets because of a profusion of flavors added to what simply is a chickpea dip eaten in Israel and Arab countries. It now comes in dizzying variations including red pepper, chimichurri, lemongrass-chili and even chocolate mousse! (I've recently discovered a hummus ice cream in Tel Aviv).

Or take beer. Cocktails with beer are finding favor in trendy bars. Meanwhile, Micheladas are creeping up on us. Micheladas are Mexican beer concoctions that invite you to dump in all manner of spices -- bloody Mary mix, chipotle-tomato juice, soy sauce, beef broth and tequila ...you get the idea: beer for restless palate people who've become blase about just a pint of IPA.

They also note in their predictions that honey is being "enhanced" with ghost peppers; that bourbon is being flavored with honey and chili pepper or with pumpkin pie spices; that while the fixation of everything-bacon may be abating, now there's 'ndjua, a light-up-your-mouth spreadable sausage from Calabria that's finding its way onto pasta, melted over pork chops, even blended into vinaigrettes as sauces for fish. "If bold flavors are a trend" they say, "this eye-stinging, red-peppered mushy salami is next year's bold flavor."

Do strawberries taste sweeter on a black plate or a white plate? On a square plate or a round plate? Their forecast about "neurogastronomy" -- how your mind and body can be manipulated to enhance how you sense and taste food --is required reading. So is their comical rant about overpriced avocado.

Among their predictions: The death of tipping, and a reduction in the vast earnings gap between tipped waiters and low-paid cooks and dishwashers; fine dining chefs ditching flowers, linens, reservation systems and expensive china, instead going downscale to develop fast-casual restaurants; insects as food as we search for renewable sources of proteins; savory ice creams and yogurts as consumers realize how much sugar they're getting in sweetened cold treats; the war on waste is gaining traction; pistachios will be the nut of the year; authentic Jewish delis and also Jewish-ethnic mashups; savory waffles and waffle sandwiches; matcha (green tea powder) in fancy beverages and even seafood stocks and sauces; night markets, building on food truck rodeos, growing around the country with multi-ethnic festivals that bring thousands to riverfronts and public squares.

In their trend called "Soda Fountain Crashes the Bar," Baum+Whiteman sees childhood treats boozed up as adult shakes and smoothies with bourbon, gin, Frangelico, Galliano, Chartreuse.

Even coconut and cucumber waters, promoted as somehow being "purer," are being overlaid (or adulterated) with flavors like coffee and mango and with energy-boosting ingredients. Now maple water and birch sap are being tested.

Finally, clever computer programs now allow high-end restaurants to sell tickets for dinner rather than take reservations. Eating out could become as hateful as dealing with the airlines, the consultants say, with cancellation penalties and price shifting based upon demand for seats or time of day.

My adds? Cabbage. Food as medicine. Page oranges from Florida. Tahina is the new mayonnaise. It will come in as many colors (and flavors) as a box of crayons. See you in 2015.

You can also check out the National Restaurant Association's list for the coming year, Carol Tice's report from Forbes, and this article from Cosmopolitan.

Spring Review

It’s time for a Spring Review since beginning my blog in 2010. I’ve written more than 300 entries and wanted to share the best with you. Because of instantaneous access to one another via the Internet, the “world’s table” is now on public view. It is my goal, then, as a journalist, chef, author, restaurant consultant and food trends junkie, to help set the table with decades of perspective. When Vladimir Nabokov got around to writing his memoir, he called it “Speak, Memory.”  When writing my blog, I issue a similar command to myself:  “Taste, Memory!” I seek ways to connect the reader emotionally to his or her own gastronomic wavelength. Just as Anna Quindlen writes about her keen observations about life – tying together politics, family, and one’s inner experience, often with whimsy -- I have written my voice into daily, and weekly, connections to food, dining, cooking, history, biography and memoir. Each entry is a deliberate serving of the past, present and future – whether connecting the uprising in Egypt to my respect for Naguib Mafouz and my fondness for Egyptian cooking (with a contemporary photo of a young man preparing an ancient dish of ful mudammas); or experiencing the soul of Philadelphia-chef Marc Vetri through his singular approach to food and cooking and told his story by deeming him a “culinary bodhisattva.” A posting about “white carrots” informs the misinformed (which at times can be most of us), with an observation backed up with a bit of history, some speculation, and a few recipes to make the point. Included is a mesmerizing photo of carrots.

I believe that a younger generation of “food passionistas” – a term I coined for the group of dedicated, enthusiastic, and obsessively curious types about the world of food, chefs, and cooking – are in need of less hype, and more information, in an accessible  way. Inspired by the daily experiences of life in my kitchen, life in other people’s kitchens, learning at the hands of some of the industry’s most influential tastemakers, the purpose of my blog is not to attract advertisers or lure masses of readers; rather, it is an intimate, highly personal, often funny view of the world of food. Every blog posting puts my readers in-the-know about something timely. As a bonus, there’s always a “goody bag” in which one finds original recipes, ways to use new ingredients, food and wine pairing ideas, tips for entertaining, news about the coolest chefs and hottest restaurants. Or something more personal – a taste experience (ever try bitter chocolate, Parmigiano-Reggiano and sweet red grapes?); a mind stimulant (what about making marmalade from carrots?), or a new technique (like my deconstructed “wined-and-brined turkey,” or making cream cheese via “drip irrigation”).

Cooking is not merely about measurement and temperature, and the culinary world is not merely about gastronomy or nutrition. Food has deep historic and emotional resonances, and profound historical connections -- think about “feast” or “famine” or “bread riots.”

Food is familial and simultaneously social: We break bread together and then divide the world into pig-eaters or pig-shunners.

When one writes well about food, all these factors come into play, consciously or not. One should know that The Gleaners in Millet’s famous painting reach backward historically to biblical injunctions not to harvest to the corners of the field, but to leave food for the poor. One should know that without the discovery of the Americas, there would be no tomatoes in Naples, no paprika in Budapest, no chocolate in Zurich. One should know something about why certain foods connect to certain religious festivals – why, for example, we serve lamb at Easter and also at Passover, and why both “feasts” relate to activities around the table.

What my mother cooked for the her family is different from what my readers’ mothers did then or do today, but they all set standards for how we view not just what’s on our plate, but how we will relate to a larger world – one in which even the present seems to vaporize in an instant.

Please take a moment to enjoy the posts below, and I encourage you to search the archives for others that may be of interest to you.

Cooking in Silence

Chocolate Dirt: Is it Art or is it Dinner?

Insanely Delicious Fresh Figs

Ten Radically Simple Days of Christmas

Recipe countdown:  For the next 10 days I will share a main course recipe from Radically Simple: Brilliant Flavors with Breathtaking Ease. After all, it is the time of year where we all crave abundance without the burden. A nice holiday gift? A copy of the book from Amazon. For me, I'd love a fruitcake. Salmon & Mint in Crispy Grape Leaves This is an unusual fish dish for this time of the year but it's one of my favorites. Serve it on a mound of couscous mixed with orzo -- a new combo for me.  I invented it this morning!  Add a side dish of tiny roasted Brussels sprouts with a drizzle of walnut oil, sea salt and lemon zest.  What to drink?  Open a great bottle of pinot noir from Oregon or France, depending on your mood. This recipe is easily doubled, or tripled, and so is quite desirable for a holiday menu.

1/2 cup crème fraîche (I love the one from Vermont Creamery) 1 small garlic clove 4 thick salmon fillets, 7 ounces each, skin removed 2 medium bunches fresh mint 8 large grape leaves in brine, rinsed and dried 3 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Mix the crème fraîche with the garlic, pushed through a press. Add salt to taste. Season the fish with salt and pepper. Top each fillet with 6 mint leaves. Wrap each piece of fish tightly in 2 overlapping grape leaves, tucking in the ends as you go. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet. Add the packets and cook over high heat until crispy, 2 minutes on each side. Transfer the fish to a rimmed baking sheet and scatter with mint sprigs. Bake 8 minutes, until the fish is just firm. Serve with the crème fraîche and crispy mint. Drizzle with additional oil, if desired. Serves 4

Win an Autographed Copy of Radically Simple: Brilliant Flavors with Breathtaking Ease

Radically Simple: Brilliant Flavors with Breathtaking Ease might be most useful in the summer months, so here's a way for someone to get an autographed copy. One lucky winner will be randomly chosen on Monday, July 23.  Here's how you can enter:

1) Comment below letting me know what your favorite summer "go to" recipe or meal is.  If you'd like to share a recipe, so much the better.

2) For an extra entry share this post on Facebook or Twitter and comment letting me know that you have done so.

A few quotes about Radically Simple:

"Chosen as one of the most important cookbooks of the past 25 years." -- Cooking Light Magazine

"Gold’s global palate and talent for distilling a dish’s essentials put her in a Minimal(ist) league of her own."--Christine Muhlke, New York Times

"Rozanne Gold is the personal trainer of food writers. She wrings stylish, streamlined, fabulous results with inspired combinations."--Julia Moskin, New York Times

Here are a few recipes for a wonderful summer meal:

Cucumber-Coconut Bisque This is incredibly refreshing and lasts, surprisingly, up to 5 days in the fridge. Even kids love it. Make sure all the ingredients are icy cold before assembling.

2 large cucumbers, peeled 1 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt 1/2 cup coconut milk, chilled 4 scallions 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint, plus julienned mint for garnish 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling 1/3 cup finely minced red bell pepper

Cut the cucumbers in half lengthwise and scrape out the seed with a spoon. Cut the flesh into pieces and put in a blender with the yogurt and coconut milk. Sliver the dark green parts of the scallions and set aside for garnish. Chop the white and light green parts and add to the blender with the chopped mint, cumin, and oil. Process for several minutes, until smooth; add salt. Ladle into bowls. Garnish with slivered scallion greens, julienned mint, bell pepper, and a drizzle of oil. Serves 4

Grilled Tuna with Lemony Tahina, Greens & Pomegranate Seeds This dish is made with both fresh cilantro and ground coriander seed. The first perfumes the fragrant tahina sauce; the latter contributes its aroma to the fish.

1/2 cup tahina 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice 1 medium garlic clove 1/2 cup chopped cilantro 5 tablespoons olive oil 4 thick tuna steaks, 6 ounces each 2 tablespoons ground coriander 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin 4 ounces mesclun 1/3 cup pomegranate seeds

Combine the tahina, lemon juice, garlic, and cilantro in a food processor. Process, slowly adding 1/2 to 2/3 cup cold water, until smooth and thick. Add salt and pepper. Drizzle 3 tablespoons of the oil all over the tuna steaks and season with salt. Mix the coriander and cumin on a plate; rub into the fish. Heat a ridged cast-iron grill pan over high heat. Sear the tuna 2 minutes on each side. Keep the tuna very rare. Toss the mesclun with the remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Add salt and divide among 4 plates. Place the tuna on the greens. Pour the tahina sauce over the fish and scatter with the pomegranate seeds. Serves 4

Orange Flower Strawberries & Mint Sugar While this recipe can be made all year long, it is sensational right now -- when berries are at their peak.

2 pints very ripe strawberries, hulled and halved 1/2 teaspoon orange flower water 6 tablespoons granulated sugar 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh well-dried mint leaves 1/2 cup crème fraîche 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Toss the berries with the orange flower water and 1 tablespoon of the granulated sugar. Put the remaining 5 tablespoons granulated sugar and mint in a food processor and process until incorporated. Divide the berried among 4 glasses and sprinkle with the mint sugar. Combine the crème fraîche with the confectioners' sugar and dollop on top. Serves 4

Polenta: The Next Big Thing?

Not long ago, in the epicenter of Brooklyn's culinary scene, I had a delightful dinner in a place called Osteria il Paiolo. Williamsburg, Brooklyn, home to some of the world's hippest dining venues, is a multi-culti morass of righteous Jews, old-time Italians and Dominicans, and newly-converted food passionistas with young families and big dreams. It is also home to one of the only places I know that features polenta as its calling card, authentically made in an "il paiolo" -- a large unlined copper pot -- the traditional vessel in northern Italy in which to s-l-o-w-l-y stir ground cornmeal into boiling water and salt until thick and creamy. It is sturdier than porridge and more sublime than its humble ingredients might imply. I was no more than 19 years old when I first met its acquaintance during a trip to northern Italy. It was there that I had one of the my most memorable dishes of my life: A thick slice of Gorgonzola dolce onto which was poured a stream of hot buttery polenta across its girth. An exercise in simplicity, its creamy texture and unexpected melding of flavors and fragrances, was downright sinful. And while not the traditional form polenta usually takes, it remains a love-at-first bite memory. While the good people of Tuscany are known as "bean-eaters" because of their culinary proclivity towards legumes, the Piemontese locals are known as polentone. Apparently, everyone in Piedmont eats polenta all the time, and have done so before the Roman empire! (At that time, polenta was made from other grains such as millet, barley, and farro. Corn, or maize, appeared in the 16th century.)

That said, I was excited to try the polenta, and all the other good things I had heard about, at the dining spot loosely translated as "the polenta pot." It is an osteria which, in Italy, connotes a rather casual restaurant where the owner is also the host: Enter Alex Palumbo. Alex, a native of northern Italy's Piedmont region, was primed to bring the signature dish of his family's kitchen to slightly tonier environs. Amidst a sprawl of white table-clothed tables in an industrial modern space, one can dine very well indeed. In addition to the myriad ways to eat polenta, topped with tomatoes and quail, with shrimp and rosemary, with fontina, are exemplary antipasti and main courses -- we especially loved the homemade sausage with savory cabbage served in a terracotta casserole, and my husband said his roasted quail, prepared with pancetta, cream and sage, was the best he ever had. Good, too, was the unusual pappardelle al cioccolata, chocolate pasta with a wild boar and vegetable ragu.

Unbeknownst to me, authentic polenta is made with only water and salt, not the butter and cheese we have come to expect. But along the way, the latter ingredients have become commonplace. And while the ingredients may be 1-2-3, the mastery is in the preparation: Polenta must be slowly stirred for up to 45 minutes for its requisite creaminess and flavor. There are huge copper paiolo pots that have electric motors attached, but at Alex's osteria, everything is lovingly stirred by a mano (by hand.) Alex gets his heirloom polenta -- which is coarse and toothsome -- from a "secret source" in Italy and claims that no one else in New York (ergo the country) has it. At last count, the kitchen is stirring up more than 60 pound per month, up from 10 pounds when he first got started, not so long ago. Clearly, the locals are catching on.

In my own kitchen at home, I make polenta with tomatoes and Parmigiano-Reggiano as one of my ultimate comfort dishes, and on occasion, indulge in that time-honored memory of gorgonzola topped with steaming polenta. Only now I gild the dish with a tuft of balsamic-tinged wild arugula and anoint it all with my best extra-virgin olive oil on top. And I am still enamored of Colman Andrews' polenta with oranges and olive oil from his wonderful book, Flavors of the Riviera. The potential for polenta is promising, perhaps turning us all into polentone one day.

Osteria il Paiolo, 106 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211 (www.ilpaiolonyc.com)