Penny Pleasance

For most of us, time in the kitchen is either too short or too long. Then there is the question of timing: is the meat/fish overcooked or undercooked? Did the rice burn?

The writer as gastro-tourist guide is nothing new.

“go ahead, indulge yourself in a trip to Italy while you’re waiting for spring to arrive. Vegetariano is just the ticket.”

In France, children are taught about cheese in school. Every day they are served different cheeses at lunchtime, developing both their palate and understanding of cheese styles.

It is a well-known adage that cookbooks written by renowned chefs are best enjoyed in an armchair far from the kitchen lest the home cook end up in a pool of tears when trying to execute one of its

A few years back the Times ran an article about Lior Lev Sercarz, a professional chef who hails originally from Israel and has honed his professional skills in the kitchens most notably of

“Globalization is here to stay. Let’s eat.”

“what we have in common as citizens of the world is far more than what divides us. Maybe spices are the answer to world peace after all.”

The month of January is dedicated to hitting the reset button.

“chock full of delectable morsels to keep even the most discerning reader sated.”

“A Kitchen in France gives a cook a reason to get back into the kitchen . . .”

“Too bad there aren’t more recipes like this in Prune, because Gabrielle Hamilton has comfort food down cold: rich, rustic food made with copious amounts of good fat and salt.”

“Bread and Butter is just a skim coat of a story about what a restaurant looks like from the back of the house. . . .

“This is why (if you can afford it) we are willing to pay so much to eat in a restaurant like Daniel rather than attempt to cook his dishes at home. . . .

“. . . it falls flat, like a soufflé that has collapsed in the oven. . . . Where Ms. Willan does shine, however, is as a food historian.”

“Cooked is a call to all of us to get back to our kitchens and cook our own food . . .”

“Behind the Kitchen Door is an eye-popping book about restaurant industry practices that brings new meaning to the notion of ethical eating.”

“If this book doesn’t put you in touch with your inner Viking, I don’t know what would. . . . If you buy only one cookbook this season, let it be Fäviken.”

“. . . chockfull of revelations that any cooking enthusiast will eat up with a spoon.”

“exhausting . . . The next time an economist invites you to lunch to talk about food . . . Consult your calendar and then reply, ‘How ’bout never? Is never good for you?”

“. . . French Bistro is a book worth owning.

“There are so many head-scratching errors in the quantities, oven temperatures, and cooking times that you have to wonder if the book was proofed or the recipes tested before it went to pri

“RÔTIS is a book for armchair cooks that will send you into food reveries for hours and make you wish you had been born French. . . .

“Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you have probably noticed that canning; preserving, jamming, pickling—or whatever you want to call it—is making a big comeback.”

“If he would just inject a little humor and poke a little fun at the French, Mr.

Elizabeth David is to the United Kingdom what Julia Child is to the United States.

When Julia Child died in 2004 her devoted and ardent fans mourned her as if they had just lost a beloved friend.

Critics have been lamenting the decline of French cooking for years.

When Meryl Streep portrayed Julia Child in the film Julie and Julia last year, Americans rediscovered French cooking.

Unless you are a regular reader of the New York Times weekly column “The Minimalist,” you've probably never heard of Mark Bittman.

In her memoir, My Life in France, Julia Child wrote, “One of the secrets, and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it i

Most of us know someone who could use a little basic instruction in the kitchen: a college student or recent graduate living in his/her first apartment, a newly single adult, a neighbor, a friend o

While it is true that you can’t judge a book by its cover, it is also true that titles can be equally misleading.