What do you call this–mixing additives E 102 (Tartrazine); E 122 (Azorubine); E124 (Ponceau 4R); E 131 (Patent Blue V); E 132 (Indigontine); E 407 (Carrageenan) and E 953 (Isomalt) along with industrial sugars, synthetic dyes, and a lot of fat? The answer for more than two decades is high-end pastry.
Read moreJörg Zipprick: “Why the Beautiful Has Replaced the Good”
Regarded in Western Europe, and increasingly so in China, as one of the relatively-few independent-minded, outspoken gastronomic writers and critics, Jörg Zipprick is unafraid of tackling controversial subjects and resisting selling out or writing either thinly-disguised or blatant PR. He has created a large repertoire of praise-worthy, widely-read books and articles. Because he writes mostly […]
Read moreThe Society of the Illusionists: The World’s 50 Best Restaurants List.
Mouthing Off: Form Swallows Function-The Tyranny of Tasting Menus.
Below is an essay I wrote a year and a half ago and posted on Mouthfuls that I am reposting for new readers. I sent it on a lark to the New York Times Op-Ed page and to Edward Behr at the Art of Eating. It went unpublished, but I believe I make an interesting […]
Read moreMouthing Off: Let the Dining Room Belong to the Diner
That gastronomy, particularly the fine dining kind, has drastically changed over the past three or four decades is beyond any doubt. One of the more-significant ways is the shift from good and gifted chefs doing the maximum to serve and please their clientele to what is now many “celebrity” chefs increasingly controlling at your expense […]
Read moreMouthing Off: “Let’s Go Back to the Waltz”.
Let’s go back to the waltz Take me back to the waltz Let’s journey back to the past Back when the world wasn’t Turning so fast When the tempo was slow In the long, long ago How I yearn How I long to return To the golden days of the waltz. (Music and lyrics by […]
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