While other small-batch cookbooks come at you with recipes for modest amounts of cookies, doughnuts or tartlets, its new “Baking for Two” actually has a recipe for “Vanilla Cupcakes” that makes four of them. Yes, perfect for a family of four, a couple who wants to indulge in seconds, or a close-group of besties to share together.
The cookbook has more than 200 recipes for bakers who want to indulge their passion but don’t want to bake themselves into a frenzy.
Whipped cream cake that tastes as rich and buttery as you imagine.
Would you believe that this cake contains no butter and no oil?
Just heavy cream — a lavish amount of it.
“Whipped Cream Cake” is from the newly revised and updated, 35th anniversary edition of “The Cake Bible” (William Morrow, 2024), of which I received a review copy.
It’s a beautiful golden-hued Bundt cake with a tender, moist crumb and a taste so rich that it needs no embellishments.
First published in 1988, it’s by baking expert, Rose Levy Beranbaum, who has been nicknamed the “diva of desserts.”
The revised book is a whopping 684 pages, with 150 pages and 30 percent more recipes than the original.
Kyoto, JAPAN — In Japanese, Ima means “living room.”
If only my own living room in the Bay Area were filled with the relaxing fragrance of cedar, the warmth of a crackling fire, and such tantalizing aromas as this one.
Tucked away on a quiet street that once housed kimono shops, this newcomer opened barely two months ago in a renovated 110-year-old townhouse.
With a small team of three, it is overseen by Chef Kiichi Imai, who trained at Michelin-starred Hotel de Yoshino in Wakayama, before going to work in several Tokyo restaurants. He later worked on the opening team for Michelin-starred Txispa, a wood-fire restaurant in Spain, before returning to Japan to cook most recently at Noma Kyoto.
The restaurant is inside a 110-year-old former townhouse.The restaurant is all about live-fire cooking.
One of the restaurant’s investors will surely be familiar to anyone with a sweet tooth in the Bay Area: Charles Chen, founder of Basuku Cheesecakes.
Ima is all of 10 seats at the counter, which affords a clear view of the live-fire grill fed with oak firewood from Miyami forest in Kyoto. From start to finish, the hearth plays a major role in the dishes, blending Japanese and French influences that meld with sure-handed searing and charring.
Osaka, JAPAN — Getting a reservation at Yoshoku Izumi was an arduous affair. Even when we managed to land the remaining seats on a Saturday night at 8:30 p.m., the extensive list of dos and don’ts on its website had us quaking in fear we’d commit a faux pas and get thrown out mid-bite.
Visions of the iconic Soup Nazi on “Seinfeld” were firmly planted in our heads.
We may have stepped inside the unmarked door, identifiable only by its potted maple tree outside, with trepidation. However, we left not only completely at ease, but thoroughly charmed and beyond content by a tasting menu that was absolutely delicious, as well as a relative bargain.
Our journey to this restaurant, renowned for its yoshoku or Japanese-style Western cooking, began last year, when my friend Charles, who travels often to Japan and knows conversational Japanese, recommended it highly. Having dined there twice, himself, he wasn’t sure if anyone on staff spoke much English. And unfortunately, Izumi is one of a number of restaurants in Japan that only takes reservations by phone.
The unmarked restaurant.
So, I enlisted my friend Donna, who speaks Japanese, to try calling the restaurant on my behalf. She called, and she called. No matter if it was morning, afternoon, or evening in Japan, no one ever picked up the phone even after days of her trying. There was no answering machine, either, to leave a message.
Chicken braised in hard apple cider and creme fraiche — a dish with a spiritual history.
Tender, juicy chicken simmered in a creamy sauce flavored with hard apple cider is as comforting as it gets.
But did you know it’s also a spiritual dish?
Yes, “Chicken Normandy” is a classic that has been enjoyed for centuries at the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille, founded in the 7th century as one of the first Benedictine abbeys in Normandy. It epitomizes this lush coastal region of northern France by making use of the bounty of local dairy farms, apple orchards, and the monks’ own brewed cider.
It’s a dish usually served as Sunday supper, following the monks’ traditional performance of melodic Gregorian chanting.
So writes noted cookbook author and food writer Jody Eddy in her book, “Elysian Kitchens” ( W.W. Norton & Company, 2024), of which I received a review copy.
This fascinating cookbook delves into the food served in monasteries, temples, mosques, and synagogues around the world. It’s filled with 100 recipes along with beautiful photographs of these cloistered sanctuaries of which few are ever granted such an intimate view.
