Yay Cupcakes! And You Thought I Was a Hater….

For reasons having to do with the fact that I had no idea how much work it would be and that I would have had no idea what else to get my friend Julie for her 40th birthday, I baked 100 cupcakes last week for Julie’s milestone party. Yes, you read that right: cupcakes. In [...]

The Sweet and Savory Smell of Success

One of the positive side affects of a bar set high is that when you meet it, you feel heart-swellingly good about your self and about life. The weekend before last, I made a lamb ragú, the first of my recipes that Matt declared “Mozza-esque,” and I almost cried. Last weekend I made short ribs, [...]

When is Second Rate Still Great? When It’s Ice Cream!

I’m writing the cookbook for the L.A. resto phenom, Mozza (Pizzeria Mozza, Osteria Mozza, and Mozza 2Go), and included in that is what seems to be no-end-in-sight job of testing the recipes. The executive chef, Matt Molina, Nancy Silverton, who owns the joint (along with Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich), and I wrote Nancy’s last [...]

Secret Sauce

I was at the Original Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax last week when Jim the butcher–the one that makes Nancy Silverton’s famous burger blend–asked me how to make the mayo that Nancy puts on her burgers. For an upcoming party, he wanted to create The Perfect Slider, and he felt this might help him [...]

Guac-ing The Line to Victory

I am moving today, and therefor have no time for much of anything other than pace around the house thinking of all the things I have to do, but I felt I had to touch down here, to gloat, errr…. write about my guacamole victory at the First Annual Competitive Guac-Off on Saturday. I wish [...]

Nancy Silverton’s Great Buns

Here in L.A., when it comes to burgers, people talk about Nancy Silverton’s hamburger meat, but strangely, nobody ever mentions her buns. I was making Nancy’s classic burger buffet for my family recently, and in addition to the famously fatty blend of 18% fat prime chuck with an extra, whopping 20% fat (that’s fat trimmed [...]

Speaking of Food

I haven’t written here in awhile for a number of reasons, only one of which I will get into now, and that is that in one of my last posts I asked what people might serve to Alice Waters should she come to their house for dinner, which was, looking back, an inauthentic question that [...]

When Alice Comes to Dinner…

Consider this a cry for help.
Alice is coming to dinner. What should we serve? No, this isn’t a riddle, or even a hypothetical question. This is a problem. (I mean, if you can call it that.) I’m talking about an evening in the near future where Alice (those of you to whom this desperate cry [...]

A Day in the Slice of Life

When I was in my 20s and living in New York, I remember feeling like I wasn’t really qualified to be a girlfriend, much less a wife, because I didn’t have enough of a life. I had a boyfriend, Henry, who was 10 years older and a chef at one of New York’s few four-star [...]

Down With Beautiful People

I had a birthday this week, and I got a lot of great gifts, the kinds of gifts that show that your friends know who you are, and that they love you for it. I got a samurai knife from my friend Larry Silverton, who only gives knives, he says, to the people he cares [...]