Kitchen Witch

Untitled Document I won’t deny that Christmas held a certain cachet for me as a kid, with the oft-unbearable anticipation of Santa’s arrival and gift-delivery service, but none of it held a candle to Mother Nature’s gift of summertime, not then or now. Visions of sugarplum fairies? Not for this kid. Instead, my thoughts turned […]

Untitled Document Stage left. Enter hyper-aware epicurean American, or HAEA, who’s got the latest culinary lexicon set to memory: “free-range,” “grass-fed,” “heirloom,” “pesticide-free,” “locally grown.” HAEA strolls through the aisles of Whole Foods (or an upscale foodie equivalent), shopping for the most patriotic of meals, the cookout. He examines the contents of his shopping basket, […]

Untitled Document Stage left. Enter hyper-aware epicurean American, or HAEA, who’s got the latest culinary lexicon set to memory: “free-range,” “grass-fed,” “heirloom,” “pesticide-free,” “locally grown.” HAEA strolls through the aisles of Whole Foods (or an upscale foodie equivalent), shopping for the most patriotic of meals, the cookout. He examines the contents of his shopping basket, […]

Untitled Document This is another one of those columns that will urge you to drop what you’re doing and hightail it to the farmers’ market. An early-summer treat is in town but only for a few weeks, and Mother Nature does not play around. When it comes to garlic, she really keeps to her schedule. […]

Untitled Document “We need Americans to come see us, meet us, and hear our stories.” The impassioned plea comes from Frank Brigtsen, James Beard Award-winning chef and owner of Brigtsen’s Restaurant in New Orleans. A native New Orleanian and protégé of culinary great Paul Prudhomme, Brigtsen recently stood before a group of volunteer chefs (myself […]

Untitled Document A good hamburger is hard to find but shouldn’t be. It’s one of the easiest things to make, but most cooks want to make it complicated. All a burger needs to taste lip-smacking are salt, pepper, olive oil, and mindful restraint. A few notes on those four ingredients: Salt and pepper — Use […]

Untitled Document I was 14, maybe 15. It was late spring, around this time of year, when the school year was coming to a close. My mother had hired a guy named Larry to paint our very old three-story house, both inside and out. It was a huge job, so Larry was at the house […]

Untitled Document I’d like to give vegan cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz a big high-five for the title of her latest book, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Although I admire her spunk and tenacity for giving vegan baked goods a respectable crumb, it’s the “cupcakes taking over the world” part of the title that […]

Untitled Document Now is the time for all good men, women, and children to have strawberries. Not in February to woo your valentine (there are plenty of other ways to say “I love you”) and not even in September, when we might still be in the mood for a daiquiri. Now, now, now. Did I say […]

Untitled Document As a kid growing up in the 1970s, I defined food in terms of catchy names and brightly colored boxes rather than as meals made from scratch. The menu of my childhood was defined by my mother, whose views about feeding her family were shaped largely by the advertising world. For a 28-year-old […]

Untitled Document Two weeks ago, a few thousand people lined up in a Columbia, S.C., parking garage for dinner. They wanted some of Lucius Moultrie’s fried whiting, despite the hearty serving of political grandstanding on the side. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, who’s also South Carolina’s most senior Democrat, hosted this classic Southern fish fry […]

Untitled Document Spring of 2000, northern Italy. It would be my first time, for real. It didn’t matter that I was a culinary-school graduate and had since attempted my own pizza dough (clumsy) and risotto (gummy and unseasoned). I was now in the land where it all began, and in the eyes of the Italians […]