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Foodista Makes Front Page of New York Times Dining Section

Sheri Wetherell — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:03:19 +0000

Making the front page of the Dining section in the New York Times gives you bragging rights for at least a day, doesn’t it? We’re as proud as new mamas and papas here at Foodista, grinning from ear to ear that our food-wiki baby has splashed the pages of the Old Gray Lady.

Barnaby also bravely roused himself out of bed this morning at the crazy hour of 3:45 for an interview on The Takeaway, an NPR and BBC syndicated radio program hosted by John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee with co-guest Kim Severson, author of the Times article.

Cigars all around!

Photo by Axel Koester for the New York Times.

Jo Stougaard (Mylastbite.com) making Bacon Wrapped Breadsticks.

Find the recipe on Foodista:

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When Foodies and Photographers Come Together

Melissa — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:15:42 +0000

Last Friday, a group of 75 passionate food lovers, photographers, chefs and food stylists came together for FoodSnap! an event put together by Keren Brown Media and Foodista.

It didn’t matter if you only had a point and shoot camera or zero experience behind the lens, eight other photographers and food stylists were right there holding reflectors, white cards and offering tips to help you capture the best shot. Chef Wayne Johnson from Andaluca catered lunch for the event and several other vendors provided delicious offerings, including Kathy Casey who provided the attendees with two FoodSnap! signature edible cocktail gelees; pomegranate rosemary and elderberry and cucumber. The gelees were just as beautiful as they were delicious.

Here is Keren Brown holding a tray of Kathy Casey’s Pomegranate Rosemary Gelees

Guest of honor, Lou Manna, educated, entertained and inspired us all to take better pictures in general, not just of our dishes.

Pictured above is Karlyn, Sheri, Lou, Barnaby, Keren and Melissa

Lou started us off with his basic recipe for food photography (excerpted from Food Arts – July/Aug 2007 issue):

Start with a full helping of the camera manual. Lou says your camera’s manual is like a cookbook that will help you find the key ingredients of your camera.
Think grey. Your camera’s light meter is calibrated to measure grey, so using a grey card to meter the reflected light or an incident meter to meter the light falling on the subject will help give you the correct exposure.
Think white. Be aware of the White Balance setting on your camera. Do your photos often have that yellow, green or blue tint? Auto White Balance doesn’t always work; you can set it manually or take a Custom White Balance to brighten the color of your photo.
Think Right. In the Western world we read from left to right, so it makes sense that our eyes also scan a photo the same way. Lou says there are some simple rules of good composition: a spiral composition that leads your eye clockwise; and the Rule of Thirds, where you divide your frame into a tic-tac-toe design and place your subject at one of those intersecting points.
Serve with the proper resolution. Use some type of photo editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop, and as Lou puts it, “cook” your photos to enhance their “visual flavor.” Set the digital oven to 300dpi with an image size of at least 5×7 in a jpeg format. “Don’t forget to meta tag your photos, use keywords, write captions, and use a descriptive file name.”

For more information and workshops check out and join Lou’s social network DigitalFoodPhotography

If you’re looking for an excellent, informative photography book, check out Lou’s Digital Food Photography book available on Amazon.com:

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Test Your Culinary Knowledge With Escoffier

Sheri Wetherell — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:12:36 +0000

We’ve created a fun new game to test your culinary knowledge (and an amusing way to kill time at work on a boring Monday. Shhh, we won’t tell!) It’s called Escoffier, and it’s the game that makes you hungry for more!

How well do you know your ingredients? Can you prove that you’re a flavor junkie? Try your skills out on the Escoffier game, you may surprise yourself. We’ll show you four ingredients and four recipe titles. Use your cooking skills to select which recipe contains all four ingredients.

Make sure you’re signed in if you want your username associated with your score, and please feel free to send us your thoughts. We’re still tweaking things.

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Night School

Sheri Wetherell — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:55:07 +0000

Oh, do we have some cool things about to happen here in Seattle! An exciting new artsy-literary-food-cocktail series called Night School will kick off next Tuesday, August 18, at The Sorrento Hotel. Night School is a collaboration between The Sorrento, Michael Hebb, an array of intellectuals, artists, writers, filmmakers, mixologists, chefs and the leading cultural institutions in the Northwest.

The Sorrento opened in 1909, just before the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, a world’s fair that was held in Seattle to highlight the development of the Northwest. It was the first and most luxurious boutique hotel in the Northwest – the place where the well-heeled came to stay. People gathered in the opulent mahogany-paneled Fireside Room to hear music, poetry and conversations.

The series begins with Drinking Lessons, a Night School event. Twice a month the Sorrento Hotel will be hosting one of the countries leading liquor savants and dedicating the bar at the Hunt Club to an investigation of the American cocktail. Invitations have been extended to members of a small group of extraordinary bartenders, mixologists, and distillers that are re-shaping the American cocktail. Many have called this new school of mixology a “revolution” – regardless of terminology something very interesting is afoot and we are putting ourselves smack dab in the middle of the action. Twelve Drinking Lesson guests can expect an animated two-hour lesson in the preparation and history of three distinct cocktails.

In an effort to not only imbibe, but also to document the new American cocktail, Night School is partnering with Foodista. We will have staff on hand at all Drinking Lesson events to document the recipes, transcribe them to the web in real time, and create a web-based event out of the proceedings so that people around the globe can take part in the intimate experience at the bar. More information to come at foodista.com/nightschool.

First up at the bar is Ryan Magarian, President Liquid Relations/Co-Founder Aviation Gin. In his years “behind the stick” and on the consulting front, Ryan has received a nomination as Best Bartender in the city of Portland (Citysearch; 2000), was named Best Bartender in Seattle (Seattle Magazine; 2002), received a coveted Tastemaker Award (Food and Wine Magazine; 2004) and, most recently, was tapped as Seattle’s Best Mixologist (Seattle Weekly; 2005). Ryan’s recipes have garnered notice in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, People Magazine, US Weekly, Men’s’ Health, Wallpaper, Food Arts, Fit Pregnancy, The LA Times, The San Francisco Chronicle…Come see him Monday, August 18, at 5:30pm and 8pm. Email nightschool@hotelsorrento.com for reservations, or follow along live on the Web!

More cool stuff to come!

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Foodista Hits 3000 Followers on Twitter

Sheri Wetherell — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:20:01 +0000

Foodista is now connected to over 3,000 people on Twitter who are passionate about food and cooking! Our three-thousandth follower was Lorna Yee from The Cookbook Chronicles (check out her blog, it’s gorgeous!) Thanks, Lorna!

For those of you not familiar with Twitter it’s a real-time short messaging service that works over various devices and networks. What does that mean? That means you can get notified of breaking news from the sources you are most interested in, from friends and family to world news. Or, from Foodista!

We look forward to discovering, learning, and connecting with more of you out there! If you want to follow us on Twitter click here.

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Foodista and Onepot.org

Melissa — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:01:55 +0000

This last Monday night, Foodista collaborated with Michael Hebb of Onepot.org and Foraged and Found Edibles in the Caffe Vita Loft for a “Friends of Foodista” dinner. What came together in the kitchen was beyond extraordinary. If you have followed Michael Hebb lately, you’ll notice that the guy is involved in a variety of projects all over Seattle and making the rules up as he goes. As part of the evening’s experiment, I showed up to the Vita loft around 11:30 am and set up my laptop at the edge of the kitchen counter right next to Chef Conor Donahue from San Francisco who was busy slicing butter clams, and began to document recipes directly into Foodista as each recipe was created in front of me.

The dinner wasn’t completely thrown together by the seat-of-their-pants. Over the weekend, chef and co-founder of Foraged and Found Edibles, Christina Choi, and Chef Donahue met with Hebb and decided on a menu inspired by seasonal and foraged ingredients from the area. The menu would be about the ingredients. Every recipe on Monday night’s menu was either foraged wild or locally harvested. Even the butter clams for the Butter Clam Fritter Appetizer was foraged by Foodista co-founders Barnaby and Sheri over a long weekend near Hope Island.

Chef Choi showed up at the loft carrying ingredients freshly picked only 24- 48 hours prior and set to work baking off Elderberry Shortbread to go with the local strawberries with elderberry syrup that we would later eat for dessert. As I was attempting to write precise recipes into the Foodista site, I received less than standard responses to measurements, techniques and even ingredients for most of the recipes. Not to anyone’s fault, it’s just that chefs don’t often use measurements while they are cooking, chefs cook by feel, taste, touch and smell. So when I ask for the recipe on how to make their specific court bouillon, they’re recipe suggestion was to “use what you have lying around,” only half joking of course. For example, while Hebb was preparing the octopus, I asked, “Okay, so what is the next step?” ”

“Use a sharp knife and cut head from tentacles,” he said.

“And then what do you with the head?”

“Say… give it to your cat.”

“Michael, can you tell me what is in the spice rub for the elk shoulder and what the amounts were?”

His response was, “Open your pantry, use a variety of spices that appeal to you. We used juniper berries, fennel seeds, chili flakes, cumin and coriander guajillo chili peppers.”

Over the course of the day and into the evening I watched the three experienced chefs create stunning dishes out of simple, but high quality ingredients and all inside a fairly basic kitchen set up. The dishes were beautiful, delicious and made with respect to the ingredients. I kept thinking as each gorgeous dish was passed around the table, I’ve seen these ingredients before, I can do this at home- with the right recipe that is. When you buy fresh and local, the ingredients speak for themselves and don’t require too much work on your part. Plus, you are supporting local farmers and foragers who didn’t fly your produce from half way around the world to get it to you. If you need a little inspiration for turning your farmer market seabeans or garlic scapes into a great meal, check out the recipes created by Onepot on Foodista.

Appetizers

Butter clam fritters with wild sorrel aioli:

Lemon balm leaves with raw porcini salad and chive flowers:

Plates

Local scallop crudo with sea beans and shiso:

Octopus with fingerlings and wild onion blossoms:

Elk shoulder with porcini, farro, and garlic scapes:

Wood violet and miners lettuce salad:

Sweet

Local strawberries with elderflower syrup and cream:

Farm direct Caffe Vita Sumatra Gayo River coffee

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Personal Recipes

Sheri Wetherell — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:25:13 +0000

Photo: Charkesw

We’ve got our noses to the grindstone working hard to make things even more fun for you at Foodista! Our newest feature is the ability to make a recipe Personal – meaning no one but you can edit it or make changes. We still believe it’s valuable for a recipe to be editable – and, honestly, we’ve found that most changes are simply to correct spelling or make other minor adjustments that don’t fundamentally change the recipe - but if you want to add your Grandma’s super-special pie recipe or you created a blow-your-socks-off casserole and don’t ever want it to change, make it Personal!

Here’s how to do it: when you add a recipe simply select “Personal Recipe – Only I can Edit” before you click “Save”. Only you will be able to make edits (except for Foodista editors), however, once you make a recipe Personal, there’s no turning back, so make sure you really want to do it!

Pretty nifty, huh?

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Mushroom And Rice Soup

Betsy Dorfman — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:00:51 +0000

The genesis of this soup was a trip to Costco, our first in a long time, resulting in wide eyes and a cart full of mega packages of delicious things to be used up…somehow. Even with three adults on the eating roster, that pound and a half container of lovely Italian brown mushrooms was going to last awhile.

Then suddenly it was a rainy Sunday — soup weather! I came up with this recipe after cobbling together ideas from several cookbooks. I am not a big fan of over thickened floury “cream” soups or those testing the arterial limits with scads of butter and cream. So for shortening I used a combination of non-hydrogenated margarine and grapeseed oil. Where traditional recipes called for thickening with cream or with a true butter based béchamel, I used a microwaved white sauce with a base of skim milk. The huge volume of flavorful mushrooms is what made this all work.

INGREDIENTS
1 lb fresh Italian brown or other mushrooms, washed, stems removed, chopped medium fine
1/2 cup white or yellow onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped fine
4 Tbs tbs non-hydrogenated unsalted margarine (or substitute butter)
3 Tbs mild cooking oil such as grapeseed, olive oil not recommended
1 C skim milk
2 tbs white flour
4 cups chicken stock, unsalted or low salt
1 C cooked brown rice
salt and pepper

TECHNIQUE
Heat 3 Tbs of margarine and 3 Tbs of oil in large heavy saucepan or stock pot
Add garlic, onions and mushrooms
Sauté for 15 minutes adjusting heat as needed to keep contents from browning
Sprinkle with 1 Tb flour, stir in, then add 4 cups of stock
Bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer for 20 minutes

Make 1 cup of thin white sauce in microwave as follows:
melt 1 Tb margarine in microwave safe bowl
Stir in 1 Tb flour and mix to a paste
Heat 30-60 seconds in microwave until the mixture looks grainy – do not let this brown!
Add 1 C skim milk and whisk until incorporated
Heat in microwave for 1-2 minutes, stopping to stir occasionally, the sauce should come to a boil as this helps cook and remove the “floury” taste
NOTE: you could skip this step and instead use cream or half and half

Add white sauce to soup pot, stir, and heat through
Stir in the cup of brown rice (optional, but adds nice body) and heat to just below simmer
Taste and add salt and pepper as needed

Serve and get ready to receive compliments!

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Green Curry Chicken Salad

Sheri Wetherell — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:00:53 +0000

This is a fun twist on the classic curried chicken salad. It’s brighter and lighter with the apples and lime juice, and more flavorful with the lemongrass in the curry. The chilies in the curry also adds a nice kick! Increase or decrease the amount of curry to adjust the spice. This salad can also be served in sandwiches. Try substituting tuna for a “pescatarian” version.

Green Curry Chicken Salad

½ roasted chicken
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Thai Green Curry Paste
1 Lime, Juiced
1 tablespoon fish sauce
¼ cup green onion, chopped
1 head Romaine lettuce

Remove skin from chicken and then meat from bones. Shred meat, discarding skin and bones.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, green curry paste, lime juice, and fish sauce.

Mix in shredded chicken, chopped apple and green onion.

Chill and serve on a bed of Romaine or Bib lettuce.

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Cold Smoked Tuna

Sheri Wetherell — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:07:24 +0000

I’ve started smoking. No, not cigarettes, but food. I wrote before about the electric smoker I gave Barnaby for his birthday in December and we’ve been going crazy throwing down various meats and fish on the grill: mangalitsa pork, trout, skirt steak, shrimp, scallops. Next on the list is cheese: provolone, mozzarella and cheddar.

Last night we tried a new preparation: cold smoking. Traditional cold smoking requires cooling the smoke before applying it to food, however, that’s both difficult to achieve and requires special equipment. Our version of cold smoking is much easier: toss a piece of frozen fish on the grill and let the smokin’ begin.

Starting with frozen fish minimizes the amount of cooking so the result is a delicious smokey flavor and ever so minimally cooked – perfect for sashimi! We used a 1.2 pound sashimi-grade albacore tuna loin and smoked it over alder pellets for about an hour and a half. If you’re looking for a more fully cooked preparation, or you are smoking meat, then you can sear it afterward.

Our meal was Japanese-style; the tuna drizzled with a bit of ponzu sauce and served with rice, seaweed salad and yaki imo (grilled sweet potato). The smoked tuna would also be delicious in a salad, such as niçoise.

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