Truth be told, I don't like Zucchini very much. It’s not terrible, but it’s not my favorite vegetable. Zucchini has its uses for sure, mostly as a supporting actor in recipes, particularly salads, where its vibrant color and astonishingly low-calorie count are useful. This time of year, zucchini is a welcome, if unobtrusive addition to my favorite Summer Salad.

"Have you ever eaten too much caviar?", he asked. Imagine the magic in the air when two days later the man appeared. He arrived at the kitchen door in a wrinkled tan suit, with an igloo in one hand and a briefcase in the other.

Avocado pairs beautifully with so many foods that it is difficult to choose a favorite. They are delicious eaten with canned tuna, slathered onto a bagel with lox, or simply sliced into a cheese omelet. Nothing, however, marries as marvelously with the avocado as a bit of lime, cilantro and red onion in a well-made guacamole; a combination of flavors and textures that transcends its simple ingredients.

Americans love mayonnaise and we use it with abandon. Mayonnaise is used as a spread for burgers and sandwiches, in dips and dressings, as a binder in casseroles.

It's often the simplest recipes that can bring the most joy in these colder months. Beef Stew, is chief among them. This recipe is a be-all, end-all in beef stew making. No frills, just pure methodology.

The traditional methodology for making turkey gravy is a cruel hoax. Household cooks have been led to believe that somehow, in the time it takes to rest your beautifully roasted bird, you will be able to deglaze the roasting pan and magically turn that greasy schmutz into good gravy. But that’s just not reality. First off, a roasted turkey does not generate nearly enough schmutz to make enough gravy for your thanksgiving table, let alone the leftovers. Secondly, there are a m

On the west coast cheesecake, even New York style, is made with a graham cracker crust opposed to the traditional east coasters that use a cake layer as a crust. A great cheesecake is dense and impossibly creamy. It’s almost like eating ice cream. Cheesecakes are not terribly sweet, but they need a dab of sour cream or a kiss of fresh lemon juice to cut the richness.

For reasons I cannot comprehend, pizzerias and chicken wings became inextricably linked in the mid-sixties and to this day Howie’s Artisan Pizza and every pizza joint in North America is expected to sell them.

For the next version of my Panzanella, I took note of the quantity of tomato that was able to hold my interest in the first outing, roughly 6-8 mouthfuls and added to that an equal part of that killer toasted bread.

A fine, from-scratch cornbread, hot from the oven is the best example of traditional American cooking that I know. Skillet cornbread harkens back to a simpler time in America, a time long before Pop Tarts, Impossible Burgers and Instapots. In the days when a hot breakfast was an important part of every day, and families still gathered routinely at the table, any household cook worth their salt could throw together a hearty cornbread, buttery biscuit or flaky piecrust...

In our July Recipe of the Month, we will depart from our usual format and challenge you, dear reader, to test the limits of your culinary prowess. I offer a well-considered collection of tips, tricks, recipes, photographs and strategic advice, all useful in the preparation of “Weber-Weber Chicken Dinner.”

What distinguishes a good shortcake from a great shortcake is the strawberries. The fruit component of strawberry shortcake is often just sliced under-ripe strawberries and a bit sugar. But it can’t be. Strawberry shortcake should make us remember that strawberries are crazy delicious.

On March 20th the sun crossed the celestial equator. In that magical moment, day and night, darkness and light are evenly divided. It is...

Howie’s Chicken Salad is a complicated recipe. Between the dressing and the body of the salad, there is a long list of ingredients.

Between 1880 and 1921, in what is known as The Great Migration, over 4 million Italians immigrated to the United States. Having suffered...

I live a food obsessed life. I’m not sure if that stands as an admission, a confession or a boast, but it’s true and I have been eating...

I drove to work this morning, a bit frantic, but thinking hard about how to add interest, relevance and snappy repartee to a Pumpkin...

Contrary to the adage that simple things can be “simple as pie”, a well-made pie is in fact, devilishly difficult to pull off. Certainly,...

Fresh basil pesto has come to define much of what Americans like best about Italian cooking. This simple blend of basil, garlic and olive...

Some years ago, I had the good fortune to work as a stagiaire in the kitchens of the late Alain Chapel at his magnificent restaurant in...