Photo Essay: Chef Daniel Boulud at Pebble Beach Food & Wine

April 11, 2013
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The gleaming mirror angled at 45˚ to the audience reflected the array of ingredients on the counter as the knife quickly chopped red pepper and leafy greens while the gorgeous Red Snapper fish laid out glistening on the platter. Large projection screens on both sides of the stage showed details of what was happening to [...]

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Passion Fruit & Green Tea White Chocolate Marble Cookies and Pebble Beach Food and Wine’s Omakase Lunch by Morimoto and Yamaguchi

April 8, 2013
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“Well the secret to getting me to eat things I don’t normally want to eat… well it’s not G-rated.” said my lunch companion, as he grinned mischievously. Then he laughed loudly and shook his head while his girlfriend giggled. I was lunching with three complete strangers and we were having a grand old time at [...]

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Photo Essay: Kubrick at LACMA, Los Angeles CA

April 4, 2013
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No one really makes art films nowadays that are commercially successful. At least not like Stanley Kubrick did. It seems the films released today by the major studio houses are either designated extreme blockbusters or tend toward the smaller independent. But Kubrick seems to achieve the fine balance of creating singular works of art that [...]

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Blood Orange & Coconut Velvet Cake with Whipped Cream and Cream Cheese Frosting and DIY Desserts at 18 Reasons

April 1, 2013
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“Who made this cake, the one with the coconut?” asked someone at the 18 Reasons DIY desserts event that I was hosting a few weeks ago. I fessed up that it was mine and she gushed that the flavors were fabulous. I had based it on my favorite Red Velvet Cake recipe, but instead of [...]

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Photo Essay: CAAMfest 2013, San Francisco CA

March 28, 2013
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Small bit of trivia, if you look closely at the basketball scene in the independent film by Justin Lin called Better Luck Tomorrow, you’ll see me in it, as well as hear my voice yelling really loudly. I bring this up, not because it was my fifteen seconds of fame (Justin Lin has since gone [...]

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Blood Orange and Blueberry Coconut Macaroon, Kosher for Passover and naturally gluten free

March 25, 2013
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I’ve been toying with the idea of making Coconut Macaroons for while, but something slightly different, something more than the traditional chocolate dipped Kosher for Passover treat. Not that I am one to discard the classics, but for me, making coconut macaroons are criminally easy. Unlike their French cousins the macaron with its persnickety feet [...]

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Photo Essay: S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition, Napa California

March 21, 2013
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The trickle of sweat started to run down the side of his temple as he leaned over to finish plating his 15th serving but he ignored it. I was watching one of the ten finalists of the S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef competition compete in Napa at the Culinary Institute of America, Greystone. That particular [...]

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Seville Orange & Noyaux Semolina Pound Cake and Never Being Alone in the Kitchen

March 18, 2013
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“I’ve been saving this for you all year long…” explained my friend Sean, of the fabulous blog Hedonia, as he handed me a package during my hectic, crowded holiday party. I opened it up and pulled out glistening bottle of amber liquid. “It’s Extrait de Noyaux. You know what that is right?” I squinted my [...]

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Photo Essay: Museum of Modern Art, New York City

March 14, 2013
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In a former life I was an art student. I actually studied painting, receiving a bachelors in fine art in the subject, though I was careful to never call myself an artist. After a year or two of renting an outside studio and barely painting anything at all, I slowly abandoned my artwork, turning to [...]

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On Jealousy and Chocolate Cake (some musing after 3 years of blogging)

March 11, 2013
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I am writing to announce that I was NOT nominated for any awards today. In fact, I was not nominated for any awards, nor was I signed for a cookbook deal today. There is no award announcement, no cookbook, no upcoming TV show where I will be featured on, no contests that I won, no [...]

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Photo Essay: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

March 7, 2013
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Going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is sort of like reliving my freshman college course, History of Art 101. Except it’s not 9am in the morning and I’m not sitting in a dim room with a slide show playing, struggling to stay awake because I was up at 4am the night before [...]

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