Fresh Find | Lost Crates

Besides my love for food, I have another love in my life -- paper goods and stationery. And as such, Lost Crates catered to this relish of mine by initially providing curated subscription service that sends a crate of handpicked paper goods to my door each month ($38 per month plus $5 shipping). How exactly does this service "curate" to your tastes? Through an in-depth, visual survey about your likes/dislikes/preferences, Lost Crates is able to take those survey results and create an originally curated package of goods to fit the given tastes at hand. Later on, Lost Crates diversified its singular offering to a multi-faceted portfolio of other design-inspired goods other than the medium of paper and stationery, including two things that tickle my inner foodie -- housewares and grocery. Lost Crates also permitted frequency options of not just monthly but quarterly as well.

The Housewares crate is for those who wish to bring a little design into their homes, attempting to "spice" it up somehow. Each shipment's items are also aimed to compliment each other. For example, the current theme for this past month's Housewares crate is "Grill and Chill" which included an assortment of grilling tools and a Zoku popsicle maker.

The Foodie crate caters to those who take their "love of food to a new level" where "new recipes, cook-offs, and potlucks" add excitement to their lives. The crates offered will include "foods that they love and the accoutrements to serve them beautifully."

Lost Crates

assorted food/houseware-related crates, here and here at Lost Crates

Price point: $48 per period (quarter or month) for each Foodie crate, $68 per period (quarter or month) for each Housewares crate, $5 for shipping of each crate.

Feasts & Affairs | Food Book Fair NYC 2012

I took a little afternoon trip to Williamsburg on Saturday to attend a couple lectures sponsored by the first ever Food Book Fair in New York City! Certainly every foodie/cookbook addict's dream come true! :P

Everything was taking place at the new Wythe Hotel.

Food Book Fair is the "first ever event bringing together food publications from around the world alongside a dynamic set of events celebrating food writing, reading, and activism." It was created as a "weekend-long conversation and celebration of food reading and writing" through daily panel discussions with several well-known guest speakers, over twenty book signings, and a pop-up bookshop run by mobile bookseller, Mobile Libris. The event highlighted "cookbooks, memoirs, magazines, and books about science, food systems, agriculture, urban designs, and food art and culture, serving as a meeting place for food enthusiasts from all food disciplines."

The lobby of the Wythe Hotel -- high ceilings with a relax, organic atmosphere.

Checking in led to a quick stop in the mobile bookshop!

The pop-up bookshop was fittingly located in the Library of the Wythe Hotel, with titles hand-selected by the Food Book Fair organizers.

Inside the hotel's reception hall was where each panel took place all weekend.

The first lecture/talk I attended was entitled Food + Porn -- an intimate discussion about food imagery as well as the rise of the term food porn, its growing popularity, its wavering definition, and its relationship to food and sex. The panelists included a quintet of noteworthy food writers: Culinary Institute of America's Anne E. McBride (moderator), Restaurant Girl's Danyelle Freeman, Insatiable Critic's Gael Greene, Time magazine's Josh Ozersky, and Grub Street's Alyssa Shelasky.

Here are some interesting takeaways I had from the hour or so discussion:

Gael Greene:

• An early foodie before it was a word -- perhaps the first to use!
• Ms. Freeman said Ms. Greene the founder of food born, before it was a thing, as she was one of the first to take such an approach to writing.
• Going into restaurants is also sensuous experience for her -- the same eyes and nose are the things through which we experience both.
• Dinner is a possibility of new discoveries.
• Ultimately, food, however delicious, is not a substitute for great sex.
• Advice on having a wonderful dining experience: turn off your computer, leave your phone at home, and live in the moment.
• Had a one-time affair with Elvis Presley where afterwards, he asked room service for an egg sandwich.
• One must remember the evolution of American food -- from non-American chefs in America to celebrity chefs in present day along with social media.

Danyelle Freeman:

• She will always be monogamous to a man, but never to a restaurant or a chef -- so many opportunities to discover new things with food.
• Same excitement about food and sex, but food is obviously safer than sex as you don't get hurt as easily with food.
• Going to a new restaurant is like a first date for her -- seduction via cooking, plates, and cuisine.
• Food porn is a bit of a misnomer -- it is more like art. Not just photographs of food -- writing alongside a photograph elevates such a visual image with language.
• You are what your meal is.
• Kitchen was not always a glamorous place -- must remember that. Chefs are finally getting their due with chefs' tables and television broadcasts.

Josh Ozersky:

• Sees himself as having a celibate youth with a misdirected libido -- his appetites instead were channeled through food.
• Can sometimes see a steakhouse with a poorly prepared steak as disappointing as a padded bra.
• Believes in one pleasure at a time -- food and sex should remain separate.
• Great sex involves two people, but the ultimate food experience is typically a solitary experience.
• So much exposure to "food porn" these days that elevation is much easier, but definitely needs context.

Alyssa Shelasky:

• Her relationship to food is somewhat new -- discovered later in life than most individuals in the food writing sphere.
• Has always been comfortable talking about sex (with her column at Glamour magazine), so talking about food has become a relatively new concept that she has been getting acquainted with, writing-wise.
• New book, Apron Anxiety, is due out in three weeks, and is about her relationship with food discovered later in her life and how it helped her find love.

After the Food + Porn panel discussion, I went to get my copy of Gael Greene's Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess and Danyelle Freeman's Try This: Traveling the Globe Without Leaving the Table. So awesome! :D

In between book signings and the next lecture I signed up to attend, I grabbed a ramps sandwich from the bar (they had a brunch of refreshments for sale to all Food Book Fair attendees) which had ramps, ricotta, asparagus, and arugula between some artisan bread.

It was simple and really delicious. The greens were really fresh and the ricotta was creamy with the strong, fragrant flavor from the ramps.

The next panel was Food + Cooking + Change, where it explored the roles of chefs and food writers in our food system and how many have been changing the way we eat and think about food. The panel aimed to explore the question, "Can we change the world through the way we cook?" Included in the panel were esteemed food writers including The New York Times' Peter Kaminsky, author Tamar Adler, eco-activist Bryant Terry, and Chef Mona Talbott of the American Academy in Rome.

Some of the main takeaways:

Peter Kaminsky:

• Focus of the panel: nutrition, cooking, and change.
• Wide variety of backgrounds: institutional eating over at the American Academy in Rome; local, sustainable eating; resourceful and pragmatic cooking.
• Ultimate solution: learn how to cook or live with someone who does!

Bryant Terry:

• Changing nation's stereotypes of African American cuisine.
• Importance of food IQ: empowering young people as to how to cook and cultivate food.
• Potential idea to promote cooking among friends and family: cooking parties.
• Cooking communally is key.

Mona Talbott:

• The best way to learn how to cook is at the stove.
• Cooking gives her life balance -- it is empowering, grounding, and liberating, instead of being driven by hunger when she doesn't cook as often (thereby losing her way).

Tamar Adler:

• Two realms of eating and food: politics versus aesthetics -- bridged by cooking.
• Inspiring words by Michael Simon: choosing not to cook is freedom from the world while choosing to cook is freedom into the world.
• With social media today, sharing is the key word -- allows the world to be connected in so many ways, but in other ways, we may lose basic connections (i.e., physically sharing).
• Needing to buy things versus working with things you already have -- the message of her book, An Everlasting Meal (i.e., preservation of food, cooking, etc.).

I got my copy of An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace signed by Chef Tamar Adler after the panel discussion!

When you say there will be a food-themed book fair, you should automatically expect I will leave it with at least three or more books in tow. I think I will be needing a new bookshelf soon -- my one for cookbooks alone is almost hitting its maximum capacity!

Findings: I found the idea to bring together food enthusiasts, chefs, food writers, activists, and the like to be very inspiring and thought-provoking. It gives everyone a chance to get to know each other, via panel discussions, Q&As, book signings, and just plain ol' mingling in the crowd. The atmosphere was very casual and relaxed, and the questions explored were fascinating and discussion worthy. As a (cook)book signing fanatic, you can say I had a field day on just the one day I was in attendance. It was also great to put faces and actual voices to writing and press that I've read about the individuals in the lectures for which I sat. With that being said, I'm looking forward to the next Food Book Fair -- curious to see what the new topics of discussion will be, what writers/chefs/etc. will be there, and the cookbooks/food-related literary fare will be added to my growing library of food porn.

Price point: $15 per lecture/talk, $6.50 for the sandwich.

--May 5, 2012

Food Book Fair (NYC)

Wythe Hotel

80 Wythe Avenue

Brooklyn, NY 11249

http://www.foodbookfair.com

Exhibition | Have a Foodie Holiday

Barneys New York announced back in late October its upcoming holiday campaign in partnership with Food Network, Cooking Channel, and illycaffe.


Per the luxury department store's announcement, the "upcoming national holiday campaign, Have a Foodie Holiday" would be "Barneys' celebration of foodie culture." Once I heard the news, I immediately added the unveiling date at November 16 into my calendar so I'd be able to catch the first glimpse of the famed department store's glitzy window displays, though I didn't make it there until the 20th.


I actually think I viewed the windows in reverse order so please pardon this slight failure on my part. This first display was created by Simon Doonan, Barneys' creative director. The main attraction is Miss Illy, a modern diva outfitted and adorned in recycle tins and aluminum manufactured by the Italian espresso empire. In fact, there is a total of "300 3-kilogram illy tins, 250 foil bags (former home to illy’s single-serve iperEspresso capsules) and 250 8.8-ounce illy cans!" The holiday tree is also made from illy shopping bags. Gotta love all that red, silver, and white!


Miss Illy even is sporting a coffee scoop earring, a dress train fashioned from 300 paper cups, and espresso machine (i.e., illy’s Francis Francis X1 iperEspresso machine) tiara--something on every foodie's wishlist. Very shiny, indeed.


This next window includes the inspiring women figures in the culinary universe. You'll see Paula Deen on the left (in what I think is a Snuggie?), Rachael Ray as the clock, Ina Garten (best known as the Barefoot Contessa) in blue, Sandra Lee in Pink, Martha Stewart in white, Anne Burrell in the oven, and Lidia Bastianich in the right rear corner. The male seen at the bottom (under the sink, that is) is Lee Brian Schrager, the creator of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, with his latest cookbook inspired by the festival. Surrounding the frame of the window are little face placards made using pie tins with illustrated caricatures of famous female chefs, including Nigella Lawson, Gail Simmons, Anita Lo, and Alex Guarnaschelli.


This window features influential male chefs in the food business. Here, they're depicted in an epic food fight. You'll find Anthony Bourdain all the way on the left, Daniel Boulud with a baguette in his mouth, and Guy Fieri under the table with a mustard bottle in his mouth, a drumstick in one hand, and a ketchup bottle in the other. In the center of the table you will find Mario Batali's head stuffed with an apple in his mouth, similarly to the way a roast pig would appear on a dining room table during the holidays. Standing above him, you'll see Bobby Flay ready to fight! Next to him, there is a portrait of Mark Strausman along with Emeril Lagasse about to say, "BAM!" All the way to the right you'll find Wolfgang Puck reclining in laughter. Surrounding the frame here is similar to the female chefs' window--you'll see pie tin caricatures of famous male chefs, including Eric Ripert, Laurent Tourondel, Jacques Torres, Marcus Samuelsson, Tom Colicchio, Francois Payard, and Ferran Adrià.


I found this last window to be the most interesting. It showcases the "envelope pushers" of the culinary domain, dividing them into three categories: the Innovators, the Trail Blazers, and the main players in the Revolutionary Stew. The Innovators include (from the pie tin caricatures) Wylie Dufresne, Jacques Pepin, and Grant Achatz. The Trail Blazers include Nobu Matsuhisa, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and Alain Ducasse. The center focuses on the "steaming ingredients" and "aromatic geniuses" of Revolutionary Stew, including (from left to right) James Beard, Jamie Oliver, Julia Child, Thomas Keller, and Dan Barber. The best part of this stew are the fans with blue and orange lights blowing frayed cloths up to emulate brewing flames.

Findings: Once again, Simon Doonan wows and impresses Madison Avenue holiday shopping spectators with his creative genius and execution. I am even more blown away at how well he incorporated the major prominent and influential forces that continue to enhance the dimensions of the existing culinary world of today and tomorrow. I especially enjoyed Miss Illy's window display. I think Mr. Doonan said it best: “Think of Miss Illy as the ultimate exercise in creative recycling. One look, and you see she’s quite the contemporary gal, so her recycled content goes right along with her modernity. Her very idea and life quite literally sprang from others before her. So while this is great fun, with art, with coffee, we are serious about the multi-use message, about sustainability, as has been illy, long before it came into fashion.” Way to go, Barneys! You really outdid yourself this year! This wowed me so much this year that I can definitely start to see how "a foodie holiday" can be a la mode in the fashion world today!

Price point: free until the New Year!

--November 20, 2010

Barneys New York
660 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10021
http://www.barneys.com
Have a Foodie Holiday on window display from 11.18.10 through early 2011

Food for Thought | Gael Greene

“To be tempted and indulged by the city's most brilliant chefs. It's the dream of every one of us in love with food.”

--Gael Greene, on Patricia Wells' The Food Lover's Guide to Paris, 1984
from New York Magazine article (Vol. 17, No. 26), 6.25.1984.

Food for Thought | David Kinch

“Food is ephemeral. It becomes a memory after you eat it. It should provokes thought and make you learn something.”

--David Kinch

Food for Thought | Oscar Wilde

“Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!”

--Oscar Wilde

Food for Thought | Miguel de Cervantes

“La mejor salsa del mundo es la hambre [translation: Hunger is the best sauce in the world].”

--Miguel Cervantes
from Don Quixote (Part II, Book III, Chapter 5), 1605-1615.

Food for Thought | Marilyn Monroe

“I love food as long as it has flavor. It's flavorless food I can't stand. I usually have a steak and a green salad for my dinner, also for breakfast when I'm really hungry. I keep away from pastries--I used to love them, and ice cream, too. I skip all desserts unless it's fruit. I just don't like the taste of pastries. As a kid I did, but now I hate it--and as for candy, I can take it or leave it, usually leave it. But I love champagne--just give me champagne and good food, and I'm in heaven and love. That's what makes the world go round.”

--Marilyn Monroe, as told to George Barris

from Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words, 2003.

Food for Thought | Marie-Antoine Carême

“When we no longer have good cooking in the world, we will have no literature, nor high and sharp intelligence, nor friendly gatherings, no social harmony.”

--Marie-Antoine Carême

Food for Thought | Julia Child

“Noncooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.”

--Julia Child

Food for Thought | Epicurus

“We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.”

--Epicurus, Greek philosopher

Food for Thought | M. F. K. Fischer

“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it… and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied… and it is all one.”

-- M. F. K. Fisher
from The Art of Eating, 1963.

Food for Thought | José Garces

Food for Thought | Virginia Woolf

Food for Thought | Michael Chiarello