Chef Marcus Samuelsson approaches cooking and life without boundaries

The USA Character Approved Blog has now officially launched! For my first post-soft launch post, I’m profiling chef Marcus Samuelsson.

For many of us, Marcus Samuelsson first appeared on our radar screens when he was chosen to cook the Obamas’ first White House state dinner last November. But the accomplished young chef had already made quite a name for himself. At age 24, he was named co-owner and executive chef of New York’s Aquavit, transforming the Swedish restaurant with his willingness to use distinctly non-Swedish ingredients such as curry and lemongrass. And he is the youngest chef ever to receive a three-star restaurant review from The New York Times.

Samuelsson comes by his global approach to cooking naturally. He was born in an Ethiopia village. When he was three, his mother died of tuberculosis, and he and his sister were adopted and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden. Continue reading “Chef Marcus Samuelsson approaches cooking and life without boundaries” →

Celebrating America’s birthday by eating our way around the world in Michigan

America isn’t a melting pot. It’s a smorgasbord. A road trip over the Fourth of July weekend proves it without even trying.

Yeah, it’s Wednesday. There should be a recipe here. But we had too much fun in too much heat with too much driving over the holiday weekend—more than 800 miles by the time we got home Monday night. Tuesdays are my absolute deadline for my weekly Wednesday posts. If I haven’t cooked my post before then, it’s do or die time. This Tuesday, it was just not in me to cook something, photograph it and tell you how I did it.

So instead, let me tell you a little about our weekend—mainly about what we ate, this being a food blog. You’re not going to get restaurant reviews here and certainly no photos of what we ate. This is more a celebration of the wealth of food experiences available here in America—more specifically, in three Michigan cities not especially known as culinary centers, but all serving up plenty of good, diverse eats. Detroit, Hamtramck and East Lansing.

Whenever we find ourselves in Detroit these days, one required stop is the Detroit Beer Co., a friendly, comfortable microbrewery, Continue reading “Celebrating America’s birthday by eating our way around the world in Michigan” →

Food notes from all over: Mobile Indian food with a side of fun, Cajun cooking in the Midwest and bar snacks for wine

Fake brothers from a fake country serve up real treats from a DC food truck, a former construction worker cooks up Cajun food surrounded by Illinois cornfields, and a California winery creates bar snacks to pair with its wines.

Gourmet food trucks have been catching on everywhere (well, except here in Chicago, where draconian health regulations continue to thwart most attempts). In the past couple of years, chefs and wannabe chefs have been rehabbing used postal vans, delivery trucks and even old ice cream trucks and creating rolling restaurants that serve up an amazing range of eats in cities across the country. But few do it with the style and charming back story of the Fojol Bros.

Only two of the four Fojol Bros. are actual brothers, and no one is named Fojol. Wearing turbans and patently false mustaches, they peddle a changing menu of delicious, healthy Indian food with no preservatives from their homeland, “Merlindia.” And they let people know of the whereabouts of their “traveling culinary carnival” on Twitter. The Fojol Bros., back story and all, are the subject of my latest piece on cable station USA Network’s USA Character Approved Blog. The blog is in soft launch mode at the moment—I’ll let you know when it goes into full launch (heck, I’ll probably take out a full-page ad somewhere).

At Ron’s Cajun Connection, a lively roadside place about 80 miles southwest of Chicago, every order comes with a side of sass, from chef/owner Ron McFarlain himself. Continue reading “Food notes from all over: Mobile Indian food with a side of fun, Cajun cooking in the Midwest and bar snacks for wine” →

Ten more reasons to follow me on Twitter

Okay, I know this seems shamelessly self-promotional, but it’s not. Well, not totally. Yeah, it may get a few more people to follow me (I hope so), but it’s just as likely to make a few people take umbrage and unfollow me (I hope not). But my real reason for posting this is the reason I’m having so much fun with Twitter. Because of all the cool food-related stuff there is out there.

Regular readers here, especially those who scroll down to my second posts most weeks, know that I have a real magpie eye, always on the lookout for some shiny, interesting thing. Twitter is a great place to share those finds—like the study that shows that women who drink gain less weight. Or the story about how humanely raised meat is turning some vegetarians into meat-eating flexitarians (both links are below, but don’t skip ahead). Continue reading “Ten more reasons to follow me on Twitter” →

USA Network’s Character Approved Blog launches—and I’m writing for it!

USA Network just created a blog in support of its Character Approved Awards celebrating the people, places and things that are making a mark by positively influencing our cultural landscape—and I’m writing weekly food pieces for it!

It’s getting harder to avoid me. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I was 1/55th of the new eBook 55 Knives. Well, as of this past Monday, I’m 1/10th of the writing staff for an exciting new blog. It’s in soft launch mode right now; they’re expecting an official launch this summer.

Cable channel USA Network has just launched the USA Character Approved Blog. Every day, you’ll find stories of people and places and things having a positive influence on the way we live now. To create these stories, they’ve assembled a team of 10 writers to “discuss the ideas and trends impacting the cultural landscape around us.” The areas the blog covers include architecture, art, design, fashion, Continue reading “USA Network’s Character Approved Blog launches—and I’m writing for it!” →

Hey! I’m 1/55th of a book!

I first heard about the 55 Knives project last September. Nick over at the food blog Macheesmo had come up with what sounded like a brilliant idea—and a daunting task: He would ask 55 food bloggers to each submit a recipe and the story behind it and turn all of this into an eBook. I was one of the 55 bloggers Nick invited.

And now it’s in print! Well, in “print.” Nick has just published 55 Knives as an eBook, a downloadable, interactive, searchable, printable PDF. You don’t need a Kindle or an iPad to read it—any computer will do. Continue reading “Hey! I’m 1/55th of a book!” →

Women chefs raise $19,200 for Greater Chicago Food Depository at 14th annual Girl Food Dinner

We’re big fans of the Greater Chicago Food Depository and all they do to help fight hunger. So I was delighted to hear the results of the 14th annual Girl Food Dinner, held this past Sunday night at West Town Tavern. The sold out event brought in an amazing $19,200 to the organization; 100% of the $150 ticket price paid by 85 lucky attendees went to the Food Depository, as did the proceeds of a raffle held at the event.

The annual event is called the Girl Food Dinner because the meal is prepared exclusively by Chicago women chefs. Continue reading “Women chefs raise $19,200 for Greater Chicago Food Depository at 14th annual Girl Food Dinner” →

Books, DVDs and… bananas? Baltimore turns libraries into Virtual Supermarkets

In an experimental program to improve nutrition, the Baltimore health department has turned two public libraries into virtual supermarkets where patrons can order groceries along with their bestsellers.

We have always been card-carrying fans of public libraries. The stack in the photo above is a modest example of how many books we may have checked out at any given moment. To us, libraries are one of the most noble inventions of civilization. So when we read about the public libraries in Baltimore taking part in a pilot program to help people in underserved communities have better access to healthy food, we were delighted, but not overly surprised.

I’ve written here in the past about food deserts—communities with little access to supermarkets or other sources of healthy food options. Continue reading “Books, DVDs and… bananas? Baltimore turns libraries into Virtual Supermarkets” →

Hold the salt: FDA plans to gradually limit salt allowed in processed foods

Excess sodium in our diets is linked to hypertension and heart disease that kill thousands of Americans each year. The Food and Drug Administration has announced plans to wean us off oversalted foods.

Finally food and its effects on our national health are starting to get some attention. In February, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the launch of the ‘Let’s Move’ campaign to end childhood obesity in the United States. Films like King Corn and Food, Inc. have focused the spotlight on how our food is produced and what that does to our health, our workers and the environment. And now, the Washington Post reports that the Food and Drug Administration is planning an unprecedented effort to reduce the salt Americans consume each day, Continue reading “Hold the salt: FDA plans to gradually limit salt allowed in processed foods” →

Should cookbooks come with expiration dates?

Recent gift-giving situations have had me rethinking classic cookbooks and their place in the kitchen. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic.

Last summer, 48 years after its first publication, Julia Child’s Mastering The Art of French Cooking finally made it to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. This was thanks of course to a certain movie, and it was totally cool to have Julia once again getting well deserved attention for her contributions to home cooks everywhere. But I can’t help but wonder how many people who recently got this groundbreaking cookbook will ever cook anything from it. Continue reading “Should cookbooks come with expiration dates?” →