Wow. This is really cool. The Fondude comes to your home, gets in the kitchen and prepares a luscious cheese fondue for two or three people, serves it in a fondue pot (forks included) that you get to keep, plates-up baguette bread and cornichons (little pickles) to eat with the fondue, and then leaves. Excellent. How clever is this?! Cold weather, warm cheesy fondue, crusty bread, great wine (BYOB) - count me in!!

A friend of mine recently sent me a surprise gift in the mail—a book called, “My Last Supper.” Although the title sounds a bit morbid, it is in fact a really neat book!

Its author, Melanie Dunea, asked 50 great chefs six questions: “What would be your last meal on earth? What would be the setting of the meal? What would you drink with your meal? Would there be music? Who would be your dining companions? Who would prepare the meal?” As you can imagine, the responses are all across the board, from simple to spectacular.

One of my favorites is Eric Ripert’s response to the last question. He simply says he “would like to prepare it [for himself,] for the pleasure of doing so for one last time.” Truly the sentiment of a great chef.

According to the UK’s “Daily Mail,” the world’s most expensive Christmas cocktail is found at hot London nightclub, Movida and it will run you a cool $71,011.50. Dubbed the “Flawless,” the drink contains, “… a large measure of Louis XII cognac, half a bottle of Cristal Rose champagne, some brown sugar, angostura bitters and a few flakes of 24-carat edible gold leaf…But the real extravagance is an 11-carat white diamond ring - which can be found at the bottom of the glass.”

Because the cocktail is so over-the-top, customers who purchase the drink will have two security guards stationed tableside as the drink is prepared and all the way through to the very last sip.

I’ll take two please…yea right. FYI, according to the Guiness Book of World Records, the world’s most expensive cocktail is a $1400 Mai Tai served at the Merchant Hotel in Belfast. The notable ingredient is 17-year-old J. Wray Nephew rum from Jamaica that is called “history in a bottle” because it is only one of about six bottles in existence, available to the public. The Merchant Hotel locks their bottle in the hotel safe at night.

This is too cool and if you act fast, a great gift for the holidays!

Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazine’s website, Epicurious, has teamed up with Tastebook to create a website where you can make your own cookbook!

All you need to do is pick an image for your cover, give your book a title and plug in your favorite recipes from Epicurious—an online archive of Gourmet and Bon Appetit’s recipes which boasts a collection of over 5000 to choose from! Each book can hold up to 100 recipes and can be categorized into 10 different chapters. You can choose to fill the entire book yourself, or you can leave room for more recipes to be added later. Either way sounds good to me!

The book itself has a hardcover, and a binder (which makes for easy recipe access, and easy recipe additions), and is nicely priced at about $35. Not bad for a “handmade” gift!

Go to: http://www.tastebook.com/epi

Erwan Frotin is just 29 years old, but his still life photographs portray his wisdom beyond his years. His use of monochromatic themes is quite beautiful. I especially like the picture above, simply because it is made entirely of cabbages which gives the photograph a ton of texture.

From Toulon, France and educated at Lausanne School of Art and Design, Frotin has shot for Vogue, The New York Times, Wallpaper, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, and others. He has also shown his works throughout Europe, mostly in Paris. He currently lives between New York and Paris.

You can check out more of his work at art+commerce. I, of course, would start with the portfolio devoted to food.

photo source: New York Times

Did you know that making a solution of citric acid and water to soak fresh apple slices (or pears for that matter) prevents them from browning? I didn’t, until just a couple of days ago. It’s nothing more than an alternative to using fresh lemon juice, but it is much more effective and longer lasting.

Simply dissolve about a 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid powder in about 1 cup of cold water (to taste, really) add toss your freshly sliced apples into the solution as you chop them. It’s that easy! And depending on the variety of apple, the tartness of the acid can actually help to enhance the tartness of the apple!

So far, my best use of this new trick has been pre-slicing apples for a fruit and cheese platter a few hours before serving it at a party. Another great use is to store the apples in the solution in your fridge, making healthy snacks readily available!

Citric acid is available at Whole Foods, or most likely any shop that carries a large selection of vitamins and supplements.

Hard to believe it, but someone paid $338 for this pancake because it appears to have the images of Jesus and Mary on it. Gotta love Ebay.

When I was in New York last week, I spent my free time in bookstores (culinary of course) and food shops. As I strolled 5th Avenue and dug into a bag of roasted chestnuts, I happened past a Barnes & Noble where I spied a book called “The Gourmet Shops of New York.” What a great resource! The book is filled with 100 gourmet food shops all over the City, great photography, some fun recipes, and then in the back of the book, a listing of the shops with web information. Inside I was pleased to find one of my new favorite shops Kalustyan’s . This place was recommended to me by friends for stocking a crazy number of spices and rices, honey, salts, jerred foods, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. The store is a marvel and so is The Gourmet Shops of New York.

A friend of mine recently introduced me to a new book—“Phillip Collier’s Mixing New Orleans Cocktails and Legends.” It is now making it’s way to my top reads list!

The book is part recipe book, part history book and part picture book, as each chapter gives you the background on famous local liqueurs and legendary watering holes, recipes for some of our city’s most classic cocktails, and lots of neat old photos to go along. It is even peppered with tidbits of history about various celebrities’ favorite drinks!

While many of the drinks are familiar to New Orleanians and are readily accessible on any given night in the French Quarter, this book still makes a great gift for a local lover of libations or for any out of town cocktail enthusiast. The recipes are accurate and authentic as they are sourced from the locations where the drinks originated. And although you may already be well acquainted with some of the drinks (the Screwdriver, for instance), I am certain that you will find a new addition to add to your repertoire.

Note: I had a bit of trouble tracking this book down, as it seems to have been published and distributed locally (Philbeau Publishing, Inc.). However, I did find a copy of it at one of my favorite local bookshops—Octavia Books. It is a small shop, so I would suggest giving them a call first to find out if they have it in stock; if not, I’m sure they will happily order it for you!

On October 21st, I was in Phoenix for an event called Pleasures of the Palate—an annual art auction and dinner held at the Biltmore Phoenix, which helps to raise funds for a local charity—Casa: Center for Abuse and Prevention.

I love participating in off-site events, especially those that benefit charities. Most times, I will make a dessert that will be the last course of a dinner, or be responsible for little bite-sized sweets to be passed as hors d’ouevres. But, for this event, I did something completely different. I created and operated an “interactive food station!”

This meant that I spent the evening entertaining guests with my idea of dessert-related activities after the auction and dinner. As several other pastry chefs were assisting guests in learning how to decorate cakes, make new dishes, etc., I decided to go in a completely different direction—my interactive station was entirely about challenging the guest to try new flavor combinations!
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