Recently, I heard a rumor that my friend Rocky claims to be a member of Spanish culinary royalty.I first get the word from my colleague Hal2001, a creative thinker and epicurean. We are sampling Manchego and chorizo – with a side of red wine – at Despana Gourmet in Jackson Heights. I am admiring the gleaming paella pans perched high on a shelf.“Rocky says he’s the King of Paella,” Hal2001
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The Woman Who Revived a Forgotten Food Writer
Clementine Paddleford. Her name sounds like something out of a Rogers and Hammerstein musical, but she was perhaps the most famous food writer of her day. And, when she died in 1967, Clementine Paddleford’s distinctive name and voice all but vanished from the annals of food history. Until now.I first spot Paddleford’s intriguing moniker in a recent Gourmet article about a new biography. The “
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Eight-and-a-half Hours in the Sonoma Valley
We’ve dubbed the day the “First Annual Food and Wine Classic.”The conference is over, and fifteen of us have stayed on in the San Francisco Bay Area to, quite simply, wallow in all its gastronomic delights. And, we’re really good at wallowing, especially when it comes to food.Sonoma is that place I’ve never quite gotten to, but almost everyone who mentions it, says they find it even more
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The Restaurant Formerly Known as KFC
What is a Spork? I must admit I was totally in the dark. Maybe I don’t get out enough, but for those of you who are as blissfully uninformed as I am, a Spork is an amalgamation of a spoon and a fork, and it allows you to pierce food and scoop food in one easy stroke. The Spork – I am told – is a utensil that originated at the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain. So, why am I bringing this
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Economic Remedy
Has the news got you down? Global economic woes got you in a slump? Cheer up – apple season is in full swing!Okay, maybe food can’t actually solve everything. If a glistening green Granny Smith is not enough to inoculate you against all the financial and political shenanigans going on at the moment, how about a golden apple cake drenched in bath of buttery-bourbon? The economy is tough, and
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Les Dames and Daniel
It is not my typical Saturday lunch. The autumn air is crisp and clean as I stroll along East 65th Street in Manhattan, towards a cream colored building with an art deco façade. I turn left into a large set of revolving doors with burnished trim. On each glass panel is a cocoa-colored plaque embossed with the name DANIEL. Inside, elegantly dressed women are drinking ruby red sparkling
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