No comparable collection of recipes has ever before been brought so fully to life, so respectfully executed, so minutely illustrated, and so usefully commented by such a collection of genuine cooks
Category Archives: Marcella Hazan’s Musings
Goodbye Espresso Machine
Many may be surprised to learn that it’s not the least like dust dissolved in hot water. It can be delicious, if you learn how to use the Moka. It’s not pushbutton coffee, it requires judgment to do well.
Marcella responds to Modernist Cuisine and Marcus Aurelius
Why does Cooking need to be defended? Isn’t it only about food? It isn’t only about food the way love isn’t only about sex.
Cooking with Olive Oil
The smoke point for good quality EVOO is around 200o C, which is more than hot enough for frying. The interesting thing is that the cheap oil you are recommending has a lower smoke point than EVOO. …Do you know what really matters in the end? It’s how the food you cook tastes. There is no more powerful agent for good flavor than genuine EVOO.
Marcella Answers a Question about Risotto
A recent letter to Marcella and her answer: Here is the recipe for squash risotto. Dear Marcella I thought of you watching Top Chef these last couple of weeks. One […]
In Praise of Tenderness
Why are we bringing home rock-hard fruit, stuffing it sometimes in a brown bag where we are told it will ripen? It’s the sun not a paper bag that ripens fruit, that makes it produce succulent, sugary flesh. Have we all forgotten the difference?
CRUISING THE BACARI, VENICE’S WINE BARS
The wines bacari dispense by the glass are of the kind Italy excels in making: very young, light-bodied, exuberantly grapey, inexpensive and deliciously gulpable. Many are produced in the Veneto itself, including the most popular white, the fresh, soft, and gently sparkling Prosecco, and the most popular red, Merlot, produced in a simple, tenderly fruity style.
Marcella and Victor Hazan on NPR
Recently Linda Wertheimer interviewed Victor and Marcella Hazan at their home on Longboat Key for NPR’s Morning Edition series the Long View.
The Intersection of Culinary Cultures
And so, although our backgrounds were religiously and in many other ways diverse, there were moments at table where they coincided.
Deconstructing the language of Food: Colman Andrew’s biography of Ferran Adria
Cooking well is like the telling use of language: Expression must be vigorous, clear, concise. There can be no unnecessary ingredient or unnecessary step. A dish may be complex, but every component, every procedure, must count. …Do not arbitrarily shuffle the vocabulary of one cuisine with that of another to make your cooking (original). There is no more use for use for such a hybrid than there was for Esperanto.
