Il Forno

Cookbook spotlight: Kitchen Sense (and Buttermilk biscuits with sausage gravy)

As all my fellow food bloggers, I have a passion for cookbooks: as hard as I try to promise myself that THIS book is the last one (... at least for a few months) I inevitably end up with a new addition to my collection sooner than I can say mise en place. You can imagine that when Cathy of A Blithe Palate asked me if I was interested in Getting a copy of Mitchell Davis' new cookbook, Kitchen Sense, to test I simply could not resist.

Now, I must admit that I am most definitely not a huge fan of plain cookbooks. I do use them, to great extent sometimes, but they're not exactly what I would read from cover to cover. Like wise, I must admit I had little idea of who Mitchell Davis is, of his role in the James Beard Foundation and of his previous books, The Mensch Chef and Cook Something.

And still, once the book arrived, I found myself reading through it (almost) from cover to cover captured by the clear and concise recipe descriptions, the short introductions to each  and the very welcome tips for variations and leftovers. I cannot even complain too much about the Italian recipes, one of my favourite hobbies. Apart one or two details and a semantic disagreement, these keep the original spirit if not always the original ingredients. Nonetheless, this makes the recipe more feasible for the US public the book is aimed at.

Tallinn, (final) take 5: Estonian food in Eesti Maja.

And so I come to the final post of this series on Tallinn. Though it will probably not be the last Estonian flavoured post to appear on this blog, I wanted to tie things up with a post about Estonian cuisine and one of the Tallinn restaurants specialising in it: Eesti Maja.

You should not to get the idea that Tallinn has only traditional or medieval restaurants, so I should mention that, like in any European capital, there are quite a few exclusive restaurants offering refined international cuisine. If that is what you are after, then, according to what I read on the web, places like Ö and Bocca might be a good choice; Silk sushi is for some people a real hidden treasure; and clearly one should not forget Estonia's own celebrity chef Imre Kose and his Vertigo, opening in July (maybe, I would add, since the opening date has been shifted forward a few times already). All these places certainly tickled my curiosity, but when travelling somewhere new I prefer to get a taste of the local cuisine instead of going for stuff I could get elsewhere.

In Tallinn there is a small group of Estonian restaurants that seem to pop up in every guidebook I have read. Apart Eesti Maja, two traditional places are Kuldse Notsu Kõrts (Little Piggy Inn, Dunkri 8) and Vanaema Juures (Grandma's Place, Rataskaevu 10/12). There is also Maiasmokk, serving a modernised version of traditional cuisine, which I mentioned before and comes with Pille's recommendation.

I picked Eesti Maja mainly because it was the one place that seemed to come up again and again with goodish reviews on the web, but with a little more time I would have liked to try at least another of the remaining three mentioned above. Looking at the restaurant's website you would be excused for thinking that the place is not exactly appealing on the aesthetic level, i.e. looks like a dump, but you would be wrong. It is seldom that an establishment manages to sell itself so short on its own website, but Eesti Maja manages this feat. Instead, the atmosphere is rustic, yet warm and cosy, and the non-smoking room on one end of the restaurant where we dined was even quite intimate.

IMBB 20: Ernest Knam's "Soufflé"

We all have our little customs when it comes to cooking or picking recipes. During the past editions of IMBB, I've grown used to turning to my cooking book collection for inspiration as soon as the theme of the next edition is announced. It's a way to visit old friends, books I like but seldom use or favorites I haven't leafed through in a while. When Kitchen Chick announced Soufflé would be this month's theme, I immediately turned to a book that has a special place in my collection, and one that is simply perfect for the chosen theme: Soufflé by Ernst Knam. Although this was not my first cooking book, it is definitely the first "food porn" book I ever read and definitely the one responsible for letting my budding gastronomic bibliophile character bloom.

Celebrity chef's screw ups: coming soon...

... in a bookstore near you.

Ever wonder if those big name chefs ever run into those same disaster you experience over and over from time to time (clearly because of "bad luck", we're all great cooks here)?

Just wait a tad longer. In October you will be able to read all you wanted to know about the worst moments experienced by chefs like Ferran Adria, Mario Batali, Heston Blumenthal, Daniel Boulud, and clearly Anthony Bourdain in :

"DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME--a collection of culinary meltdowns, humiliating clusterfucks, worst moments, misadventures, low-points and absurd confrontations".

Tony B himself spilled the beans about this new book on the eGullet forums. We can only hope Anthony will have learned to spell Schadenfreude by the time the book comes out ;-).

Digital Dish Released.

In the past few months a bunch of food bloggers went on along their blogging way, while we waited for something special to happen. Behind the curtains one of us, Owen, decided food and blogs would make a great theme for the first book ever published from his new company, A Press for Change. Owen asked us to join in this effort and submit a handful of our best posts. 24 of us did and today the book has finally arrived from the printer.

Food Blogs might have been a little niche phenomenon over a year ago but they are now a full fledged part of gastronomic sources on the web. They (we) have been in newspapers, magazines even TV in the past year. Congratulations to Owen for having the guts of taking a risk bringing Food Blogs into books first. Inside Digital Dish you will find the passionate and original writing and cooking of Food Bloggers from around the world. Reading the book you'll be carried away around the globe by the stories or will die to try out those special recipes.

A word about ordering the book. You could easily order the book from amazon, but it would be great if you didn't. Digital Dish hopes to become a yearly collection of the Food Blog writing. To do this it A Press for Change, being a new company, needs to make some profit from the sales. By buying the book through the buttons present on the left column a greater share of the book's sale price will go to A Press for Change (and you'll also be supporting this site).

So what are you waiting for go on, place your order and enjoy the read!

La pasta di Montalbano: i perciati ch'abbrusciano

Ever noticed the narrative power food has in stories? Imagine a hero (or heroin) of a book or movie. There he is, almost too perfect to be true: is anyone of us even remotely like him? Now imagine him eating in a down-trodden bar, making coffee on a campfire or sitting in his own kitchen. Immediately the atmosphere becomes warmer, more human and homely. The food eaten or served itself can have a meaning by itself. A special sweet might indicate a need for affection, an excessive dinner the exuberance or self-indulgence of a character and so on. A book with no mention whatever about food still feels weird, I must admit (but then, I write a food blog), as if it lacked contact to real life. Probably that's the reason why enjoy so much books mixing crime and food. This might sound like an improbable combination, and has a somewhat sick side to itself, but it's full of examples out there. I have to admit that the crime writers that really rock my boat are those who bring the topic to an almost obsessive level: George Simenon and his Inspector Maigret, and his frequent bistro visits, and Manuel Vasquez Montalban and his character Pepe Carvalho, immersed in the aroma of Cataln cooking and preserved :-) in plenty of alcohol, are two favourites.

Apart these two, there's one Italian writer who I probably like even better and writes great crime stories laden of delicious Sicilian food references: Andrea Camilleri. Most of his books are centred on the figure of commissario Montalbano (chief inspector Montalbano) and the collection of amusing characters that make up his police district.

Pierre Herme's Nutella Tart.

Some cookbooks should come with a warning sticker. I'm not talking about health warnings here though I could see a point sometimes. Something on the lines of "The subject of this cookbook is classified as chemical weapon according to the latest UN report. Probable side effects after ingestion: loss of taste, intense oral pain, excessive sweating, hyperventilation and next-day rectal inflammation." would go very well with The Habanero Cookbook. That's not what I mean though. The warning I have in mind should be somewhat along the lines of "The recipes contained in this book are dangerously delicious and addictive. After trying them your taste will be spoilt forever and you'll become a demanding eater." That's what should have been pasted on the cover of Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme. I've only made two of the recipes in the book and I'm totally hooked: will any other chocolate sweet ever taste the same after this?

On reading and classic sauces: "The making of a chef"

A book themed post for Unesco's world book day.

Sometimes books can be full of interesting information but not written in a way that really keeps your attention there. Other books might be great to read, fun, thrilling but ultimately just like junk food: no "nourishment" there. And then, once in a while, you stumble across a book that's well written, enthralling and loaded with interesting and stimulating info. Such as Michael Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef.This book is an account on the CIA, the Culinary institute of America, the way this famous school works and how it prepares its students. It is also a book that inevitably challenges my opinion on classical French cooking and makes me feel like preparing some of those sauces described by Escoffier at the beginning of the last century.

Mouthwatering vegetarian: Cafe Paradiso Cookbook

Last summer the three of us spent our holidays in Ireland. Me and Daniela both love this island, with exception of the weather maybe :-). We drove a bit around the west and south, enjoying the landscape, views, the great people and also the food. Oh, and also the great radio show "The Full Irish". I was positively impressed by the food and style of the Irish restaurants we visited. These places were almost always friendly and with a cosy atmosphere, food prepared with nice local ingredients in an Irish/international cooking hybrid style, and most important of all unpretentious. For this very reason I think they wouldn't have a chance to win a Michelin star but would certainly make my "eating-out places to visit often" list if they were in the neighbourhood.

Sadly we didn't manage to try one restaurant I had been hearing about a lot: Cafe Paradiso in Cork. I'd heard great things about this vegetarian restaurant. Since my previous vegetarian dining experiences had all been depressing (one in Naples probably the worst) I was ready to try what is by some considered "maybe the best vegetarian restaurant in Europe". But alas I couldn't. Cafe Paradiso was closed on the two days we spent near Cork. To make up for the disappointment I bought Dennis Cotter's (Paradiso's chef) The Cafe Paradiso Cookbook. I've not been cooking from this book for a while but it still is one of my favourite ones. I really enjoy the way it is written, the recipes are explained in an easy way and it breaks all the prejudices one usually has about vegetarian food.

South East Asian Cooking books II: Vietnamese Pho

Second post on SE-Asian cookbooks after yesterday's on David Thompson's Thai Food.

I fell in love in May 2000. Not with Daniela, that had happened about a month before :-). I fell in love, like Anthony Bourdain, with Vietnamese food. On a May Saturday I was getting home from some shopping in Cambridge's city centre and decided to stop for lunch at Pho Coffe House (Reagent street 33a, if you're interested). I had my first ever bowl of Pho, the delicious Vietnamese rice noodle soup, there and it was love at first bite, or better slurp. I had lots of different noodle soups before, always an affordable option for the not-too-well off student, and although most were good none had captured me like Pho. I went back to eat at Pho Coffee House a few times, at least as many as the times didn't manage to get in (the place is really small), and discovered new dishes every one of them as stunning as my first bowl of soup. It was only a matter of time till I bought my first Vietnamese cookbook. There's not many around so after some thinking I decided to go for Mei Pham's Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table.