The Cook’s Kitchen

At some point during the retail holiday season crush at work, an acquaintance and good customer handed me a small gift. Unable to stop what I was doing to properly inspect it, (people were four deep at the cheese counter, and their wine glasses were rapidly draining) I set it aside until later. […]

This was originally posted on WhiteTrashBBQ, which is the blog of Get Your Grill On editor, Robert Fernandez.
A while back, The Hampton Smoker and I brought Paul Kirk, The Baron
of BBQ, to NYC to teach his School of Pitmasters to us crazy Yankees.
The Baron taught us his secrets for developing our own rubs, or what […]

Preserving food by salting, drying or smoking are some of the oldest techniques known to man. And by old, I mean old. The Greeks and Romans began using salt to cure meat around 200 BC. Ancestors of the modern Chinese used salt to preserve food even earlier than that. Jumping ahead to modern times, most […]

This book is a real treasure. The authors, Mike Mills and daughter Amy, take readers through a history of barbecue, share recipes, discuss the bbq circuit, and the bbq restaurant business. The book begins with a family history about how the Mill’s moved from Missouri to Illinois and details some of the Mills’ family influences […]

Since we’re getting close to the gift giving time of year, the nice folks over at House and Garden have put together a lovely selection of book recommendations to give the foodies in your life. It’s a mighty impressive collection of books from well known chefs like Michel Richard, Donna Hay, Alain Ducasse and many […]

Danielle met John Scharffenberger recently and was nice enough to share the experience with us.
   
I met John Scharffenberger last Thursday.
Yes, one of the founders of Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker.
I passed by my local chocolate cafe, The Chocolate Room, that afternoon, only to notice a sign in the window saying that John Scharffenberger would be there that evening […]

I get asked at least once a month to recommend a good BBQ cookbook. My fall back book for the beginner is Cheryl Alters Jamison’s Smoke and Spice. It’s a great book full of information on smokers, techniques, fuels and how to barbeque in general. But, if you know how to build and control a […]

I started cooking by my father’s side at such a young age, that I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t doing something in the kitchen. I had a million questions, of course about the what and the why of how to cook. My dad would inevitably hand me The Joy of Cooking and encourage […]