Christopher Kimball threw down the proverbial glove and issued a “Wiki vs. Test Kitchen Challenge” on October 15th. I publicly accepted within hours, but after 3 weeks, we still haven’t heard back. I left blog comments, @tweets, and submitted a private message via Cook’s Illustrated. I’ve seen no additional announcements, and though others accepted publicly, none came from a Wiki. Further, it’s clear that his post was in response to The New York Times and TIME Magazine articles about recipe Wikis that featured Foodista and quote both of us.

Dueling Pistols image courtesy of Nfutvol

Though the idea of this challenge seems to have fallen by the wayside, the resulting discussion has been fascinating. I’ve observed a lot of confusion about how the Web works and what a Wiki is vs. a blog, a search engine, or other types of web technologies. This is the first in a series of posts where I will share some of what I’ve learned from 13 years of building large scale websites and a prior career in cooking.

So what exactly is a Wiki? Well, the whole concept is less than 10 years old and there are a number of definitions, but they all share these elements:

• Is accessed via a Web browser
• Facilitates easy creation and publishing of web pages
• Enables large numbers of people to edit the SAME page
• Links between pages
• Reports on who edited what pages and when

Print has been a medium used to convey knowledge for thousands of years, including recipes. Indeed, some of the earliest surviving cookbooks date back to the Romans, including De re coquinaria, from circa the 4th century. Gutenberg later used technology to create a new medium: mechanical printing. Replacing legions of scribe monks, his press had a major impact on the business of the printed word when it massively reduced the cost of each additional copy produced. Cookbooks quickly grew to be a significant part of the overall printing industry. Over time, more mechanization continued to lower costs to the point where hundreds of pages can be had for pennies.

Still, printing has a number of limitations relative to a Wiki. Here are a few points of comparison:

Print

• Cannot be changed once produced
• Expensive:
  • Additional cost to every copy
  • Cost increasing, especially when considering the environmental impact
• Slow to produce and distribute
• Invisible editorial process
• Disconnected, getting more information/context is difficult

Wikis

• Pages are continuously improved
• Inexpensive and getting cheaper, cost of each copy is close to zero
• Fast to produce, publishing is instant
• Open and transparent editorial process
• Connected, more detail is just a click away

This is not meant to be an attack on print, in fact I have a large and treasured cookbook collection. However, I feel it is also important to point out some of cost/benefit issues missing from the debate.

Upcoming Post: Quality and Accuracy in Wikis

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Categories:	Author • Cookbooks • Cooking tips • Events • Technique • books	2 Comments
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Drinking Lessons, a Night School event continues this Sunday, September 20th with Robert Hess behind the bar at the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle. At 6 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. Hess will mix, muddle and stir for 24 lucky attendees sitting around the smooth mahogany bar at the Hunt Club that is inside the swanky Sorrento Hotel.

Seattlite Robert Hess is founder of the Chanticleer Society, author of The Essential Bartender’s Guide: How to Make Truly Great Cocktails and operator of Drink Boy.com.

Want to go? Email nightschool@hotelsorrento.com for reservations.

Can’t go but want to follow via the virtual bar? Go to http://www.foodista.com/nightschool/ on Sunday night!

Cheers!

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Categories:	Author • Beverages • Events • cocktails	Leave a Comment
Tags:	drinking lessons • night school • Robert Hess • sorrento hotel

We are counting down the days to FoodSnap! an all-day food photography and food styling event happening this Friday, September 18th at George Town Studios in Seattle, Washington. The event has sold out, but you can follow along with us on Twitter the day of the event and stay tuned for a FoodSnap! round up blog post with highlighted tips and secrets we will have learned from the pros that you can implement at home with a simple point and shoot camera.

Here’s the list of food photographers and food stylists who will be sharing with us their magic bag of tricks!

Lou Manna
Lara Ferroni
Rina Jordan
Barry Wong
Charity Burggraaf
Kevin Fry
Tyler Rebman
Danielle Leavell
Jonathan Shmidt
Kathryn Barnard

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Categories:	American • Author • Events • Photography • Technique	4 Comments
Tags:	food photography • food styling • foodsnap • loou Manna

Are you food obsessed? Do you always turn to the food section in the newspaper? Are you always found hidden amongst the cookbook section in a bookstore? And when you do buy a cookbook you don’t just skim it, do you? You devour it. Lucky for you, there is a lot to savor when it comes to food lit! With the long Labor Day weekend approaching, you’re bound to have some free time to feed your inner chef a little brain food. Here are 10 great food books we recommend.

1. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
2. The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn
3. Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, by Bill Buford
4. A Homemade Life, Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, by Molly Wizenberg
5. Salt: A World History, by Mark Kurlansky
6. Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, by Ruth Reichl
7. French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew by Peter Mayle
8. My Life in France, by Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme
9. Alice Waters and Chez Panisse, by Thomas McNamee
10. The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World’s Most Glorious – and Perplexing – City, by David Lebovitz

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Categories:	Author • Cookbooks • books	2 Comments
Tags:	authors • books • food authors • food lit • food memoires • food reads • food stories • food writers

I was perusing through some of Julia Child’s great cookbooks last night and came upon her recipe for Basic Vinaigrette Dressing. I’ll let you in on a little secret: I’m horrible at making salad dressing. If it extends beyond a good oil, a splash of lemon juice, and some salt, I’m afraid I tend to fail miserably. Inevitably it comes out too vinegary or just simply lacking in flavor. Salad dressing should be easy, right!? I can create a beautiful cassoulet, a lovely osso bucco, delicate homemade pasta, even fresh sushi. But a simple salad dressing? Not my forté. I usually pass the task on to Barnaby.

So, I’m turning a new leaf (pardon the salad pun), grabbing the oil and vinegar bottles by the <er> horns, and approaching this salad dressing business with a new attitude.

I..will..master..the..vinaigrette!

Who better than to show me the way than our friend Julia Child. I followed her Basic Vinaigrette recipe and minced scallions, mixed in some Dijon mustard, a pinch of salt, some vinegar and lemon juice, a really good olive oil, and a few healthy cracks of fresh black pepper. I gave it all a little vroom! vroom! with the immersion blender and voilà, the perfect vinaigrette. Like Julia says, you can always add more vinegar or lemon but you can’t take it out. I spooned some into the salad bowl, added my just-snipped-from-the-garden baby lettuces, and gave it all a toss. A bit of lemon zest gave it a fresh snap of flavor.

I think Julia would have been proud.

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Categories:	Author • Chefs • Cookbooks • Cooking tips • French • Salads • Sauces • condiments	5 Comments
Tags:	Dijon • julia child • lemon • salad dressing • Salads • vinaigrette

It’s grilling day! Chicken, burgers, steaks, ribs…whatever you’re throwing down on the flames today here’s the perfect condiment: cilantro mint pesto. This recipe, I am super proud to say, came from Melissa and her co-author’s (Marcus Pape) newest book – their fourth! – Eat & Drink In The Northwest. The series is a beautiful food and wine (specifically Pacific Northwestern wines) pairing cookbook that will inspire you with seasonal ingredients. Of course I have to tout it! Even if Melissa wasn’t part of the Foodista team (and my friend) I’d still be shouting praises from the roof tops for her books. Each one is filled with beautiful mouthwatering recipes with local ingredients that are artfully paired with a local wine.

The other day Melissa brought to the office some grilled lamb and a jar of her cilantro mint pesto. (Did I mention that I love my job?) If it wasn’t for the spoon she placed in the jar I would have shamelessly dipped in and scooped out a big, green, tasty finger full.

Last night we grilled up some beautiful bison steaks, which we coated with a bit of the pesto before grilling, and topped them off with more. Perhaps this should be called Green Goddess – it sure is divine! Grilling lamb? Marcus recommends pairing it with a Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Red Blend or a Zinfandel.

Try it on any grilled meat or fish, smear it on your burger, make some crostini topped with ripe tomato, or even mixed with pasta. It’s the perfect condiment.

Here’s the recipe, thanks to Mel.

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Categories:	Author • Cooking tips • Entertaining • Herbs • Meat & Poultry	Leave a Comment
Tags:	bison • condiment • grilling • melissa peterman • pesto • steak

Editorial Note: We’re happy to introduce Warren Etheredge of The Warren Report as a Contributing Editor on the Foodista Blog. Be sure and check out the video clips below.

Which would you rather eat?

a) a genetically-modified, patent-protected soybean increasingly devoid of nutrients that may put all family farmers out of business?

b) a hamburger comprised of dozens of the ground-down slaughtered carcasses of cattle — raised more cruelly than Augusten Burroughs, Christina Crawford and Antwone Fisher — and padded with an ammonia-cleansed filler of fat, gristle and trimmings?

c) your words?

FOOD, INC. poses this question indirectly, but it is the crux of the movie. If we truly are what we eat, shouldn’t we review our options a little more judiciously? And, shouldn’t we discuss our choices publicly before our Freedom of Speech is bought out by the very business interests that intend to limit them?

Robert Kenner ’s well-packaged documentary serves up the issues in a manner suited for mass consumption. The film covers all the inherent problems with our increasingly industrialized food chain from the main ingredient of chicken soup to Big Food’s litigious oppression of growers and consumers that’s just nuts. We learn that poultry-breeders are today’s indentured servants, seed-cleaners are tomorrow’s witches and grocery-shoppers are an endangered species because food-like substances being marketed and sold to us are killing us slowly. (Think you’re healthier than your grandparents? Guess again. They didn’t stop thrice daily at the Yum-Yum Snack Shack for a Mega-Meal and Jug-o-Pop. Grandma and Grandpa also got out in the sun — to work! — once in a while.)

Authors Eric Shlosser and Michael Pollan have stated their convincing cases before — in Fast Food Nation and In Defense of Food, respectively. Here, they offer up their worries and warnings in bite-sized chunks that serve as a narrative backbone, along with pinches and dashes of like-minded mavericks such as Joel (Salad Bar Beef) Salatin of Polyface Farm and Gary (Stirring It Up) Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm (The latter is a entrepreneurial champion of the commodification of the organic movement; the former, an authoritative advocate for the (re-)simplification of the food cycle. Bet he read Snip, Snap, Snurr and The Buttered Bread.) Naturally, the big cheeses of Big Food refuse to go on camera, on record. Consequently, it is the repressed testimony of Republican mom Barbara Kowalcyk that lifts and separates FOOD, INC. from the cornucopia of related documentaries. Having lost her 2-year-old son to an E. Coli outbreak in 2001, Ms. Kowalcyk now fights for food safety legislation despite the efforts of lobbyists and lawyers to shut her up. Sadly, these money-launderers and three-bit shysters have succeeded to a great extent. Congress has done little to protect the public. And, when pressed to explain how her own eating habits have changed since her son’s death, Ms. Kowalcyk zips her lips for fear of prosecution. (You’ve got to see it to bereave it.) Apparently, it’s okay for the food industry to kill kids with tainted burgers, yet it is not okay for to her to have it her way and speak her piece.  Even Elise Pearlstein, the producer of FOOD, INC., shied away from talking about her diet, during our conversation, for fear of retaliation. Only Oprah is bold and wealthy enough to speak up and shill out for a dream team of defense attorneys. But what good is the First Amendment if Free Speech is only available for purchase? What good is the FDA if its policing-powers are as morally-corrupted by conflicts of interest as Eliot Spitzer at a Hookers-For-Justice conference? What good is the federally-approved food pyramid if its corn-and-grain keystones serve only as building blocks for a fatter, not fitter, America?

FOOD, INC. frames the dilemma, offers multiple choices. THINK before you bite. Read Pollan, Schlosser and Salatin. Read Nina Planck’s Real Food: What to Eat and Why, the best blend of the sense and science of nutrition. Better yet, visit a farm, not just your farmers’ market. If you’ve got kids, take ‘em. If you’ve got fists, shake ‘em at Tyson, Perdue, Monsanto and so many more. Remind yourself where your meals come from before saying grace. Not everything that lands on our plates is worth being thankful for, but by changing your shopping habits, you can ensure you are blessed. Think global, eat local.

(For more information on food issues, purchase a copy of The Warren Report: EAT ME, a half-hour investigation of organic food and farming with special guests Nina Planck, Colin McCrate and John Peterson of THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN The dvd — which contains bonus materials including a 40-minute panel discussion with Peterson, McCrate and Maria Hines, chef/owner of Tilth — sells for only $10, plus $5 p&h. Order on-line or write to warren@thewarrenreport.com)

FOOD, Inc. Interview

Eat Me Trailer

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Categories:	Author	Leave a Comment
Tags:	cattle • Eric Shlosser • Food • Gary Hirshberg • genetically modified foods • inc • michael pollan • the warren report • warren etheredge

I don’t know if you remember me telling you about Bethenny Frankel before, but I first met her at ChefDance in Park City in January. Her new book, Naturally Thin, is fresh off the press and I wanted to tell you more about it.

First, let me start by saying that I hate diets. Who doesn’t? But as a food writer and founder of a company that is all about food you could say I’m a bit obsessed with eating, and as such, would like to shed a few pounds before summer. Naturally Thin is a book about how to free ourselves from dieting, so Naturally Thin isn’t a diet, it’s a way of life. Better yet, Bethenny tells us that we don’t have to give up the foods we love. We simply need to moderate our intake.

As a natural foods chef (among many other things) her goal is to “democratize” health. That is, she wants health to be accessible to everyone, not just stars on the red carpet who can afford personal chefs and trainers to keep their bellies flat. Everyone deserves to eat well, be healthy and feel good. Amen.

She bases her no-diet tricks on 10 easy, no brainer rules. I’ll share some of my favorites with you:

1. Your diet is your bank account

Just like a bank account you need to manage how much you spend and save. It’s simply being aware of what you’re putting in your body; balancing not only the amount you eat, but also food “categories” (carbs, proteins, dairy, veggies, etc..) If you eat a hamburger for lunch, then it’s salad for dinner. Easy. No counting calories or points or any of that; just being cognizant of what you eat.

2. Get Real

This is one of my favorites because I grew up eating what I like to call “hippie food.” My mom always piled our plates high with whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and her own soups. We all get busy, but I will fall off the wagon if a diet tells me I can’t have something. Bethenny doesn’t say no to processed foods, but says to limit them and choose foods as close to their natural state as possible. And, as most of us know, raw foods are high in fiber so they fill us up more.

3. Taste everything, eat nothing

I know that sounds strange, but how many times have you been to a cocktail party with a lovely spread of food and you chow down a bit too much on the pâté and brie? Both Bethenny and I have spent a significant amount of time in Italy where we learned the expression mangia poco ma bene. Meaning “Eat little, but well.”  Bethenny says we don’t have to avoid the food table, in fact have it all, but only a taste of each. I like that, because again, if I know I can’t have it I’ll eat the whole darn thing. One of her other rules, which helps to moderate us in the “taste everything, eat nothing” rule, is to spoil our appetite with something healthy before we go to a party, that way we aren’t pigging out.

What happens when we overdo it? Bethenny says, “Don’t focus on your guilt – focus on healing.”  She has recovery recipes – light and easily digestible foods – to naturally flush our system and get us back on track. We just returned from Mexico (lots of chips and guacamole, beans, pork – you get the picture) and my jeans were a bit tighter than they were when I left. I’ve been eating her Pureed Zucchini Soup and I already feel better (and can zip up my jeans!). It’s darn good too, even if you don’t need the recovery!

Pureed Zucchini Soup

1 medium red onion, evenly chopped
6 cups chicken stock or broth
6 medium sized zucchini, evenly chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
12 oz. frozen butternut squash, defrosted
1 cup plain soy milk
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Sauté the onions in a large pot using nonstick pray, until lightly soft. Add the chicken stock, zucchini, salt, and pepper. Cook until zucchini are soft.

Using a hand immersion blender, puree the mixture until smooth. Add the defrosted butternut squash. Turn off the heat and add the soy milk and lemon juice. Season with more salt and pepper, to taste.

At the end of the day I like to relax with a little glass of wine or a cocktail – who doesn’t! Bethenny has a line of cocktails coming soon called SkinnyGirl. Her SkinnyGirl Margarita, in stores in May, is a low-sugar, low-cal version that she says is “the one to trust” since it’s free of all that heavy syrup you get in restaurant margaritas. She even asks bartenders to make it for her, which I now do too!

SkinnyGirl Margarita

2 ounces clear tequila (100% pure agave)
Large splash of lime juice, or 4 lime wedges
Tiny splash of orange or citrus liqueur
Optional: a splash of club soda to lighten it up.

If you’re tired of dieting, but want to look and feel good by summer, then I recommend this as a read (and no, I wasn’t paid to tell you that). Bethenny also has a cookbook coming out next year, but check out her website for more about her and other delicious recipes.

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Categories:	Author • Chefs • Cookbooks • Cooking tips • Interview	3 Comments
Tags:	bethenny frankel • books • diet • healthy eating • Interview • naturally thin

(Editor’s note: We’re thrilled to welcome New York-based food lover, Seth Knight, as a contributing editor to Foodista.)

If you have ever watched the Food Network, added herbs to a whole chicken, used olive oil, or hell, eaten out in the last 50 years, you must take a moment to give thanks to James Beard, the father and patron saint of American cooking. Beard understood the American palate preferred something familiar but also yearned for new and exciting all at the same time. Recently, I attended a symposium in New York City hosted by The New School celebrating the life of this food industry giant (literally, he was 6’4), and I found myself longing be a part of the club; whose members were taught by and touch by “Jim.”

James Beard was born in 1903 in Portland, Oregon and was raised by his mother who ran a boardinghouse.  Beard was a sickly young child and it was then that he was able to experience the joy of food though his mother and their Chinese cook. He was often fed chicken jelly, a mixture of chicken broth, with the whites of an egg and its shell mixed, chilled and strained into gelatinous globs. James would later reminisce that “The Chinese have the perfect palate.” Beard indeed remembered every meal he ate with extreme detail and clarity, which spurred his ability to create in the kitchen. After failed attempts to become an Opera singer and Broadway actor, James opened a catering business Hors D’Oeuvre Inc in 1937. It was then he also wrote his first book Hors D’Oeuvres and Canapés. His book went against America’s growing addiction to “fast, easy and cheap.” Science had replaced fresh picked berries with JELL-O and homemade bread took a backseat to Bisquick.

Beard’s books were the first to cross from a list of ambiguous instructions to a narrative. Betty Fussell, author of The Story of Corn recalled, “He was the middle man. Jim bridged my eighth grade home economics class and the select gourmets of the world. His books were “straight-talk” and were written the way Americans spoke.  And they were personal, as if to say, If I could do it, so can you…And now we’ll do it together.” She continued, “He was also from the west, a cowboy…so he cooked with that adventurous spirit.”

According to Cinema Studies Professor Dana Polan, James Beard also sought to extend the pleasure of cooking beyond the housewife. As the host of the first stand-alone cooking show “I Love to Eat,” his primetime segment would encourage “man duties” such as stuffing a raw chicken or grilling. He even suggested that men be in charge for garnishing dishes, for they are the best decorators (we’ll get to that later).

James Beard was a born teacher and loved having people around.  Judith Jones, who worked with everyone from Langston Hughes to Julia Child remembered, “Jim loved to get together with aspiring cooks and get close and instruct them. He would run to the telephone and field calls from women in Iowa, and instruct them on how to calibrate their ovens. And if anyone ever questioned the direction he was talking the recipe, he’d say, “We’re Americans, we can do as we please.”

The always outspoken food writer extraordinaire Barbra Kafka, summed-up James Beard the best, saying, “Jim was gay! A lot of people fail to mention that. He was uncompromisingly gay, as was everything he did. His books were uncompromising, his life was honest, and his cooking was real.”

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Categories:	Author • Chefs • Events	4 Comments
Tags:	american cooking • Author • Canapés • celebrity chef • Chef • cooking • Events • Hors D’Oeuvres • james beard • New York • The New School