I walked into this year’s Fancy Food Show with trepidation. I made sure I had a good breakfast, because I expected there would not be much to sample on the show floor that would fit within my current parameters of gluten- and dairy-free (among other things). Color me happy, because everywhere I looked, there were great big, blue signs saying “Certified Gluten-Free.” It seemed that every row had one, and some were completely allergen-free. I felt like a kid at Christmas.

I tasted a lot, and made Madeline taste what I could not, and though as usual there was a lot of mediocre, there were some serious standouts. All of their sites have store locators, so please indulge yourself in textures and tastes that will absolutely delight you. I promise.

Divvies: www.divvies.com

Oh, chocolate. Even though I’m not a huge chocolate eater, sometimes I just want a little something sweet (I’m looking at you, ladies). Lately, however, I’ve had to remove dairy from my diet in order to heal.

I’m also a sucker for beautiful packaging. So when I stumbled upon the Divvies booth, I was a little overexcited. As is typically the case with outstanding allergy-free products, there was a personally compelling story behind it all. Founder Robin Sandler’s son often spent birthdays and Easter celebrations without chocolate due to his extensive food allergies, and was unable to partake in the comfort of sharing food, as so many of us do. So she decided to do something about it, and created Divvies, a completely allergy-free bakery in South Salem, NY from which everything is designed to be shared. There are giant popcorn boxes with scoops and individual bags, trays of cupcakes, cookies and…wait for it…chocolate mint crunch bars.

Lori has just released her first cookbook, so look for more on her on an upcoming Food Philosophy podcast. There might just be a cookbook in it for you. You can order her products online via the web link above.

Gilbert’s Gourmet Goodies: www.gilbertsgourmetgoodies.com

It is often with hesitation that I bite into a gluten-free cookie. Usually they’re crumbly, taste like beans, or just aren’t worth the bother. Not these. Gilbert’s Goodies dairy-free chocolate chip, snickerdoodle and chocolate cookies are soft and luxurious like a normal, soft-baked cookie. I nearly lost my head for a minute.

Much like me, Liz Gilbert was an avid cook who developed food allergies later in life. And, like me, she found the offerings out there less than appealing, so she got to work in the kitchen. Her cookies have no wheat, gluten, peanuts, nuts, soy, milk, corn, corn syrup, transfats or preservatives, and gawd are they good. I could kiss her for her efforts, because those bites of cookie made all the bad go away.

Aunt Gussie’s: www.auntgussies.com

I haven’t had an English muffin in months. I’m a total hog for English muffins. And while I was an avid whole-grain bread eater before, I’ve found that much of the gluten-free breads out there are essentially Wonder Bread without the wheat. White, tasteless — blech. So I was delighted to meet David Caine of Aunt Gussie’s Cookes & Crackers, because his whole grain rosemary focaccia bread and English muffins were gorgeous without anything else on them. Gorgeous.

The best part? His company didn’t start out making gluten-free products — his mother made him do it. I need to shake that woman’s hand.

Against the Grain Gourmet: www.againstthegraingourmet.com

Pizza? Certo. Baguettes? Mais oui. Bagels? I was verklempt.

Though it contained dairy, I did have to sneak a few bites of dough from Against the Grain Gourmet, as the yellow color drew in my eye like a handsome cabana boy. The mozzarella added such flavor that I wanted to snarf the whole tray of samples. The texture was light, airy and a bit firmer than conventional baguettes, but the flavor made up for what I miss in a baguette.

I made Madeline try the pizza, as too much cheese would have sent my body to bad places, but given how she was raving about the pesto pizza (sans pine nuts) for the rest of the afternoon — and her unabashed love for cheese — I’m going to take her word for it.

If you’ve followed my musings for any length of time, you probably know that I’m a first-generation American. As such, I’ve made it a mission to learn as much as I can about my family pre-emigration, so the past few years have entailed a lot of research. My mother’s Scottish side has been quite easy to trace, as our clan (Forbes) is a prominent one with a well-documented history. On my father’s Italian side, however, the road has been an emotional one, and at times quite frustrating.

I find that you never really recover from losing a parent; it simply becomes part of the fabric of your history, and at times that material can feel a bit delicate. My father died suddenly when I was 18 years old, at a time in my life when I was absorbed in college and building my future, so I didn’t have a whole lot of interest in his history. The Calabrese are also known for their hard-headedness (“testa dura”), a trait I clearly inherited, so we weren’t always the best of friends.

Now that I’m older, and traveling the world exploring food and culture, it’s as if there’s a giant question mark floating above my head; since my father isn’t here to answer my myriad questions, I’m on my own to find out more about his homeland. Oddly enough, I’ve been to almost every other region of Italy, yet I seem to be saving Calabria. Perhaps because I’m trying to prepare myself.

In the interim, I’m happy to say that the rest of the world has also, at last, taken note of Calabrian cuisine, so I’ve been able to sample some of it from American soil while gathering the information to make my pilgrimage.

On the map of Italy, Calabria is the “toe” of the boot and home to the renowned bergamot orange, used in so many perfumes, and of course as the main accent in Earl Grey tea. Calabria’s landscape is lush, and was highly prized by the ancient Greeks as well as the broad collection of invaders who chose to call the region home throughout its colorful history.

As part of Vino 2010, Italy’s showcase of its regional winemakers, the Italian Trade Commission and the Region of Calabria held a winemaker’s dinner enabling me to explore how Calabrian wines were paired with its foods. The meal was prepared by guest chef Vito Gnazzo of Il Gattopardo restaurant.

During the welcome reception, we were served some of my favorite flavors, like Bruschetta con N’duja, the spicy sausage so indicative of Calabria. We also had Piccoli Peperoni Ripieni di Tonno (peppers filled with tuna) and Arancini di Riso (rice balls filled with veal, peas and Pecorino cheese).

When we sat down to dinner, our antipasto was a welcoming remembrance of childhood: Carciofi e Patate in Tortiera. Though this particular combination paired braised baby artichokes and potatoes, when I was growing up we often had a variation of this with eggplant, peppers and potatoes (which I featured on the Culinary Media Network as Serafino’s Sofrito). I could see this was going to be an evening of comfort.

The first course took the memories a step further with Lagane e Ceci, a thick chickpea soup with pasta. The dish had a fantastic peppery kick so familiar in Calabrian cuisine, and was paired with a big red wine, Ippolito 1845 Ciro Rosso “Liber Pater” DOC 2007. Ippolito is the oldest winery in Calabria, and this particular wine had one spicy profile. I think I may have preferred with the soup with a contrasting wine rather than another layer of spice, but I would love this wine served with beef.

The ever-familiar dried cod appeared in our second course as Lo Stocco di Mammola, a cod fish salad with parsley and extra virgin olive oil from Calabria. This dish was bright and sunny, just like its home region, and would be perfect on a summer afternoon. It was paired with Statti Lamezia Greco Bianco IGT 2008.

After a lemon sorbetto to cleanse the palate, we moved on to Cosciotto d’Agnello Lardellato al Polline di Finocchio Selvatico, a lamb shank scented with wild fennel pollen. (I do love the word finocchio, incidentally, as it is a perfect representation of Italian’s melodic lingual expression.) This mild dish was paired with Cantina Val di Neto Rosso “Arke” IGT 2005.

To cap the evening, we finished with a lightly sweet dish that finished things on a lovely, mellow note: Panzarotti Ripieni di Ricotta con Gelato al Miele, a crispy, flaky pastry filled with ricotta and served with honey ice cream.

This was paired with Amaro, perhaps the most indicative drink of Calabria. This rich, sweet dessert wine, F.lli Caffo Vecchio Amaro del Capo, added the perfect ending to a memorable evening.

There is much to come as I share my discoveries of the region of Calabria, but if you’d like to learn a bit more for yourself, you can visit ItalianMade.com to learn about all of Italy’s wines and regional specialties. Many thanks to the Italian Trade Commission, the Region of Calabria and Chef Gnazzo for enabling me to get a taste of it for myself, and for the comfort it brought me.

If you have any preconceived notions about coffee, this is a good time to cast them aside. After talking with Brian Franklin, I certainly have. Brian is the owner of The Double Shot Coffee Company in Tulsa, OK, and he is roasting the best coffee that has ever touched my lips, bar none. He has changed my whole world.

In our chat we discuss everything from picking, roasting, grinding and brewing to why most of the commercial coffee you buy (including from that big chain) is burnt, and why those enticing-looking, oily beans are bad. Step into Brian’s world with me.

www.doubleshotcoffee.com

Here’s the Cook’s Illustrated coffee machine test to which we referred:
http://www.cooksillustrated.com/video/default.asp?docid=17108&newVideo=y

I’ve also got a very important announcement about Sex on a Plate in case you haven’t heard the news!

sexonaplate.eventbrite.com

Music: Beau Hall (www.beaurocks.com)

Food Philosophy is a production of the Culinary Media Network (www.culinarymedianetwork.com)

This past February, an article came out in the Village Voice about foie gras (Is Foie Gras Torture?), and whether or not ducks are being tortured to produce this delicacy. The debate has raged on for years, which sparked my initial rant in The Duck Stops Here. What I think author Sarah DiGregorio brings to light with this piece, however, is something that applies universally to food, and in my opinion, is a method we should all use: Know where your food comes from. Know how it’s produced. One of the leading doctors raging against the foie gras machine has never actually set foot on a foie gras farm; she simply perpetuates the propaganda from assumptions.

If you’ve ever watched a PETA video, of course the images are disturbing. That’s their purpose. PETA is going to sensationalize whatever they find in order to make a good video, because they have a very specific intent: They want you to stop eating animals altogether. And that is their prerogative, but when they are harassing members of the public (and their children!) they become their own terrorist force. Bricks have been thrown into restaurant windows, and patrons have been harassed on their way in the door. And you all know about the pies that get thrown. Are they following the equation that two wrongs make a right? How is that going to help, exactly?

I’ve met many artisanal farmers over the years, and to a person they care passionately about their work, their livestock, and for raising them in a humane way. In the end, it makes the food taste better. A stressed out cow or duck is going to have some very tough meat for you to chew, so it is in the farmer’s best interest to keep his livestock calm and happy.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras seems no different. I’ve talked to Marcus Henley, the farm’s manager, numerous times over the past few years, and he has invited me to come see for myself. I haven’t yet had the time to do so, but I will get there, because I want to know where all my food comes from. I’ve done the same with heirloom tomatoes, cows and pigs. I invite you to do the same.

What are your thoughts on this issue?

Photo: Kelly Cline

ReMARKable Palate #200: Abalone Farming in Hawaii

If you can believe it, this is my 200th Show! No special programming, just more great talk with amazing people who make food. This week, I speak with Hiroshi Arai, CEO of the Big Island Abalone Corporation on the Big Island of Hawaii, a sustainable farm that cultivates the prized abalone, which has a huge market in Japan, China and Korea, and which is starting to enjoy increased popularity in the US. I posted 2 videos about the process, and here Hiroshi explains a little more about the abalone itself and how they grow it sustainably using deep ocean water.

Theme Song: “Go Fish”, by Big Money Grip, from the Podsafe Music Network.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

One of the most interesting things I discovered in Hawaii, while on the “So Much More Hawaii” tour sponsored by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, was the Big Island Abalone Farm, an operation on the Kona coast which farms prized abalone using sustainable aquaculture supported by deep sea water from the NELHA project (Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority), a state supported “pipeline” which brings pure cold water from from than 2,000 feet below the surface.

I spent the afternoon at the farm accompanied by Al Salomon, Facility Manager, who gave us a tour around their unique facility. In this video, Al explains the system and gives us insight in the sustainability of the process, which has added benefits in the form of an employee vegetable garden.

I also got to go behind the scenes into the state-of-the-art sorting area where the adult abalone which are large enough for harvesting are sorted by size and weight. This system uses non-toxic CO2 to lull the abalone to sleep long enough to transport them through the sorting process and back into the cold water tanks so that they don’t react negatively and toughen up. The abalone are kept alive throughout this process and even in transport.

I interviewed Hiroshi Arai, CEO of Big Island Abalone, about the project, the process and the tremendous market demand for abalone in Japan and other parts of Asia. I’ll have that audio interview on an upcoming episode of the ReMARKable Palate Podcast, as well as a more in depth “Main Course” video. For now, these are just “Quick Bites”.

If you’re a beef lover like me, things can get a little confusing when it comes to buying the right thing — or even finding out which beef you like best. You might be surprised at all the nuances involved — I certainly was!

Carrie Oliver from Oliver Ranch is here to help all of us learn a lot more about beef, so this is a veritable primer on grass fed vs. corn fed, Kobe vs. Wagyu, marbling, grading — meaty stuff! (Sorry, couldn’t help it.)

http://www.oliverranch.com

Follow Carrie on Twitter: @OliverRanch

I’ve also got our book contest winner, updates on our latest travels including last week’s trip to Toronto, and news about our upcoming Gilded Fork cookbook!

Food Philosophy is a production of the Culinary Media Network (www.culinarymedianetwork.com).

Music: Beau Hall (www.beaurocks.com) and George Fletcher’s Bourbon Renewal (www.georgefletcher.com).

This week, I take a trip to the west of the UK and get a taste of Wales! I wish it were really so, but actually I spoke with a bunch of Welsh food producers at the Fancy Food Show here in New York. From cheddar cheese, to beer, sea salt and flavored pates, the foods of Wales reflect the Gaelic roots of these warm people, and I’m sure you’ll agree that the ones I met are a fun lot.

Collier’s Cheese
Cwrw Haf
Halen Mon Seasalt
Patchwork Foods

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

Inventor and old friend Matt Griffin joins me to talk about his culinary wonder, the Edge Brownie Pan, which is taking the food world by storm — even getting a nod from Martha Stewart herself.

http://www.bakersedge.com

You can also find the Edge Brownie Pan in our Gilded Fork online boutique!

Music: Beau Hall (http://www.beaurocks.com/) and George Fletcher’s Bourbon Renewal (http://www.georgefletcher.com)

Food Philosophy is a production of the Culinary Media Network (http://www.culinarymedianetwork.com/).

My favorite chocolatier Jeff Shepherd joins the Pastry Princess and me for a tasting of Lillie Belle Farms’ newest, spiciest, creamiest chocolates, including cayenne caramels and blue cheese truffles. I luvs me some Lillie Belle.

http://www.lilliebellefarms.com

Music: Beau Hall (http://www.beaurocks.com/)

Food Philosophy is a production of the Culinary Media Network (http://www.culinarymedianetwork.com/).

ReMARKable Palate #136: Moroccan Olive Oil

I speak with Majid Slimani and Driss Chaouni from Alili Morocco, a new company bringing the fine products of Morocco to the United States. They won the Runner Up award in the New Product showcase at the NY International Restaurant show earlier this month.

ReMARKable Palate is a production of The Culinary Media Network. www.culinarymedianetwork.com

We are in the thick of the holiday season, so if you’re like me you probably cringe at the idea of going to the mall. Fear not! Online gift options abound, and I found a few gems from our friends at Lillie Belle Farms and Saxon Chocolates that are oh-so-perfect for the decadent gift-giver (even if the recipient is you). From smoky blue cheese truffles to enrobed chocolate treats that call for disrobing, you can stay right at home and let the beauty of the internet make your holiday season a calm one.

http://www.saxonchocolates.com/
http://www.lilliebellefarms.com/

We’ve also got an incredible collection of holiday gifts in the Gilded Fork Boutique, and as a Food Philosophy listener you can get 10% off your order with code FPHOLIDAY at checkout. Happy shopping!

Sponsors:

Partida Tequila (http://www.partidatequila.com/)
Don’t miss our video podcast series with Partida, On the Tequila Trail!
(onthetequilatrail.podshow.com)

Hamilton Beach (http://www.hamiltonbeach.com/)

Go Daddy (http://www.godaddy.com/)
Use code food1 for 10% off your order
Use code food2 for $5 off orders of $35 or more
Use code food3 for $6.95 domain names

Music: Beau Hall (http://www.beaurocks.com/)

Food Philosophy is a production of the Culinary Media Network (http://www.culinarymedianetwork.com/).

food, food podcast, sensuality, Food Philosophy, Culinary Media Network, Gilded Fork, Jennifer Iannolo, chocolate, holiday gifts, gift ideas, Saxon Chocolates, Lillie Belle Farms

I discovered an intriguing line of wines from Domaine du Tariquet in the Gascony region of France. Importer Bobby Kacher shares his passion about this unusual varietal, and surprises us with white wines that can hold up to hearty winter foods.

http://www.robertkacherselections.com/

Sponsors:

Partida Tequila (http://www.partidatequila.com/)
Don’t miss our video podcast series with Partida, On the Tequila Trail!
(onthetequilatrail.podshow.com)

Hamilton Beach (http://www.hamiltonbeach.com/)

Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com)
Use code food1 for 10% off your order
Use code food2 for $5 off orders of $35 or more
Use code food3 for $6.95 domain names

Music: Beau Hall (http://www.beaurocks.com/)

Food Philosophy is a production of the Culinary Media Network (http://www.culinarymedianetwork.com/).

food, food podcast, sensuality, Food Philosophy, Culinary Podcast Network, Culinary Media Network, Gilded Fork, Jennifer Iannolo, PodShow, wine, Gascony, French wine

Laura Waite Zuckerman, founder of Yummie Chocolates, joins me for a discussion about what’s new in her collection this year. From chocolate clouds to dipped pretzel rods, we’re covering every yummie base just in time for the holidays.

http://www.2yummie.com/

Find Yummie Chocolate collections in the Gilded Fork Boutique!

Sponsors:

Partida Tequila (http://www.partidatequila.com/)
Don’t miss our video podcast series with Partida, On the Tequila Trail!
(onthetequilatrail.podshow.com)

Hamilton Beach (http://www.hamiltonbeach.com/)

Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com)
Use code food1 for 10% off your order
Use code food2 for $5 off orders of $35 or more
Use code food3 for $6.95 domain names

Music: Beau Hall (http://www.beaurocks.com/)

Food Philosophy is a production of the Culinary Media Network (http://www.culinarymedianetwork.com/).

food, food podcast, sensuality, Food Philosophy, Culinary Podcast Network, Culinary Media Network, Gilded Fork, Jennifer Iannolo, PodShow, chocolate, Yummie Chocolates, gifts

What is the anatomy of the perfect brownie? For some, the answer is a crispy edge, which is why our friend Matt Griffin invented his Baker’s Edge pan (you’ve read his story in the Artisan’s Corner article Living on the Baker’s Edge.) For others, however, the ideal brownie lies at the opposite side of the spectrum: the edgeless brownie. At Sugardaddy’s Sumptuous Sweeties® in Columbus, Ohio, owners Mark Ballard and Tom Finney are dedicated to perfecting edgeless brownies for every taste (including some special Gilded Fork collections for our boutique!).

Chef Mark had a chance to sit down and speak with Tom and Mark about their mission, from creating a name for the company to baking the perfect brownie and building a business catering to the luxury market. Longtime life partners, Mark and Tom decided to turn their combined business experience and Tom’s talent for baking into a family business, so while Tom heads up the kitchen, Mark is the driving force behind Sugardaddy’s gorgeous packaging and gifting solutions. Here are some excerpts from Chef Mark’s interviews with Tom and Mark, which can be heard in full on ReMARKable Palate Podcast #61.
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Gilded Fork: Tom, you say you spent years developing these recipes. Tell us about your love of baking, and how the business came about.

Tom Finney: Actually, it started several years ago. I have to preface that by saying that brownies are absolutely my favorite dessert of all time, and so I started on this quest about six years ago to bake the perfect brownie. Looking at various recipes, there were elements and nuances of each that I liked, and I tried to combine the best elements of each one. I started with our chocolate brownie, which is what we call our Auburn Original because it was our very first chocolate brownie. Taking the elements and nuances of each recipe that I worked with, I developed my own recipe. And to me it’s the perfect brownie — it’s not too fudgy, where it is sometimes so dense it feels under-baked, and it’s not so cakey and light that it’s more like a cake than a brownie. So to me, there’s that perfect density.

GF: What’s nice about the Auburn Original is that it’s got walnuts in it, but it’s also got a little something else to give it a kick. What’s that dash, that secret ingredient that goes in there?

Finney: That would be espresso powder! It’s really interesting — you say “espresso powder” to some of our clients, and they’re like, “No, no, no I don’t like that!” then, “I don’t like any form of coffee or espresso flavoring.” And then when they taste the sample, it’s amazing that they go, “Oh, I love this. This is great!” And the espresso just helps bolster and boost up the chocolate flavor.

GF: So that’s a baker’s secret that we can pass on to our readers. It’s the amazing thing about coffee — it does have those characteristics that help to intensify the flavors of other ingredients.

Now, how did Sugardaddy’s come to be a business — going from an idea in your head and some really tasty brownies to an actual business? What was the structure and the vision behind it?

Mark Ballard: As with anything, it’s a journey. It’s not something that happens instantaneously overnight. But Tom has always had this love of baking, and made these killer brownies. And I would say to him, “Tom, you’ve got a great product, and you could sell these.” So when you take the warm, cozy classic of the American brownie, what can you do to make it more unique and actually much more luxurious as you think about it in terms of dessert or in terms of gifting? It was really an evolution. We started with one flavor, and extended that and made it into the chocolate collection, which then became the Brunette collection, because as we started to talk about blonds, we thought it would be cute to have a blond collection and a brunette collection. And then all of a sudden the name Sugardaddy’s hit us and struck us as the right way to frame this, and as we really started talking about the brand, we thought about how we could really begin to brand brownies. So one thing led to the next. It was an evolution.

GF: I don’t want to let you gloss over how Sugardaddy’s came into your head as a name because I’m sure it’s intrigued people who have differing connotations of the word “sugardaddy”.

Ballard: Well, it is a fun name. I think it resonates with people that everybody wants a sugardaddy. And so we’ve kind of turned that into “Everybody wants a sugardaddy…brownie, that is.”

GF: Is that a catchphrase?

Ballard: Yes, “Everybody wants a sugardaddy.” Everybody wants one; but not everybody wants a chocolate brownie, and maybe not something with nuts, so that’s how all the collections really started exploding. But what we wanted to do was contain it and not be whacked out with our flavors as we launched. So we came up with this collection of eight: four brunettes, which are the chocolate base, and four blonds, which are the butter-brown sugar base, and then went beyond that to ask what’s going to make this spectacular? What do we really want to do with this? We really wanted this to be a gifting destination, a place where people would come, and it would be a wonderful experience. Give a product that really does, at the end of the day, add value to somebody’s life or to somebody’s relationship.

GF: And I like that you decided to go that way, because the truth is, these are large brownies! They’re very indulgent, so they are the perfect thing for a gift because you probably would feel guilty about buying them for yourself and eating them every single day. One other thing I love is that you have these luscious fruit swirls on the top of several of them, both with your strawberry blondie and with your dark berry brunette.

Finney: Yes, those are all done after the batter has been put in the pan, and then we go back and do a hand-swirl on top in strawberry jam and raspberry jam. It’s very brand-appropriate for us. Our website and all our packaging use a swirled background.

GF: So let’s talk about the signature aspect, which is the fact that these are edgeless brownies. These are round, cut out brownies. What brought you that as an idea for marketing your product?

Finney: It’s very interesting. We knew we wanted to go with an edgeless brownie — I’m not a fan of the hard edges. And after watching people in front of a bakery case, inevitably they were pointing to the ones without corners or edges.

Ballard: We made it edgeless because we wanted to signal in terms of the shape that it is not your everyday brownie. Now, for the leftover edges, we certainly didn’t want to throw those away, the question was should we give them away or sell them? We started playing with the words, and decided that a sugardaddy would call them Sugardaddy’s Pocket Change. Because they’re these little bite-size morsels, these little leftovers, it would be pocket change to him. We sell out nearly everyday of pocket change, because it’s packaged in these cute little cellophane bags. It’s a quick pick-up kind of item. So people say “The brownies seem so large. I’m not going to take a brownie, I’m actually going to take a pound of pocket change.” And we find on many days that we actually have more of a demand for pocket change than what we have available. There have also been times when people will order pocket change from the online store, and we have to bake and cut up big pans of brownies to turn it into pocket change.

GF: That’s one of those things where the solution to the problem actually becomes more in demand in some ways than the actual solution. I just think that’s a great business story, and something that’s inspirational. Never throw anything away — always try to find a way of turning it into a profit.

Let’s also remind our readers that they will be able to order the special Gilded Fork Sugardaddy’s collections for the holiday season.

Ballard: That’s the other thing that I know makes our company unique: It’s all customized. Not only are your brownies and blondies made-to-order, but you get to pick the flavors. With eight flavors, you get to build your package. You get to choose the back color, message on the card, a monogram if you want it, and flavors of blondies, brownies or a combination.
Photos: Copyright 2006 Sugardaddy’s Sumptuous Sweeties®

_____

You can order any of the four special Gilded Fork Gift packages from Sugardaddy’s in our boutique: The Brownie sampler, the Blondie sampler, the Brownie & Blondie sampler, all of which come in a silky white bag with gold bow and glossy postcard from the Gilded Fork; as well as the Trifle Bowl Gift Set, which includes Sugardaddy’s Pocket Change®, an elegant glass bowl for making a party dessert and a recipe book with lots of ideas.

Forget every rumor you’ve ever heard that vanilla is bland, boring or otherwise uninteresting — the Vanilla Queen, Patricia Rain (owner of The Vanilla.COMpany), is here to tell us why those characteristics are exactly wrong. Not only is it one of the most difficult plants to grow, but vanilla also has a sordid past — and one that might surprise you, for it isn’t just the little bean’s intoxicating, titillating scent that makes it so expensive.

Patricia Rain’s books, The Vanilla Chef and Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World’s Favorite Flavor and Fragrance are available in the Gilded Fork Boutique.

www.vanilla.com

Special Segment: Sweet Indulgence
It’s time to share your favorite guilt-free indulgence with us and our friends at A Life Much Sweeter. (And remember, in Jennifer’s house, all indulgence is guilt-free…)

Theme Music: Super Hot Lady Cop by Beau Hall, Grapes by Evan Stone

The Food Philosophy podcast is a production of The Gilded Fork.

Last week Mark and I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff Shepherd from Lillie Belle Farms — and of course tasting his chocolate creations. A combination of hippie/rocker and master craftsman, this is one chocolatier whose creations are not to be missed. Did I mention that he does everything by hand, from the chocolate to its berry fillings? Yes. And yum.

www.lilliebellefarms.com

Theme Music: Super Hot Lady Cop by Beau Hall, Grapes by Evan Stone.

The Food Philosophy podcast is a production of The Gilded Fork.

by Vic Cherikoff

Vic Cherikoff is an ambassador for the native tastes and spices of Australia, and the host of the Australian television series Dining Downunder. He shared his passion for native Australian foods with us, and his desire to teach the world about the oldest cuisine still in use today.

My commitment to the native Australian food industry goes back to the early 1980s, when I began trading those indigenous foods; but the story goes back to well before then.

I was in the habit of driving a lot and going places to bush-walk, look around or just enjoy this amazing country we call home here in Australia. But to get to the spectacular places you had to pass hundreds of kilometers of damaged farmland, cleared bush, ruined ring-barked forests and weed-infested grasslands; it was obvious we had learned nothing from the original inhabitants of this land, the Aborigines. Gone were the herbs, spices, fruits, nuts and seeds – gone forever from vast tracts of ‘improved’ pasture and agricultural wasteland.

It depressed me that along most country roads I’d see thin strips of bush no more than twenty meters wide, and behind them vast distances of cleared land or single crops. Often the topsoil was easy to see because it was blowing around in the air, in willy-willies like mini-tornadoes. I knew that a lot of this fertile soil, severely limited in Australia, ended up in our rivers and creeks, and eventually in the oceans.

I’d often see farmers sitting in their air-conditioned tractors ploughing land from which they or their predecessors had bull-dozed away healthy eco-systems: a huge number of edible fruit trees and bushes, vegetables from forbs, creepers and other plants, herbs, spices, nuts and seeds. They bulldozed habitats, killing native bees and dozens of other gourmet delicacies including lizards and other reptiles, tortoises and terrapins, kangaroos and their relatives, a wide array of birds from emus, turkeys, bustards and pigeons to cassowaries, geese and ducks.

My thoughts often turned to considering that there must be a better way to grow our food. I had made a study of the foods native to Australia since my teenage years, and even studied environmental biology to learn more about botany and ecology. After five years of study and a triple major (environmental biology, biochemistry and industrial microbiology), and another six in clinical pharmacology, I undertook scientific analytical research into the nutritional value of native foods at the Human Nutrition Unit at the University of Sydney. My teenage passion, finding and eating native Australian foods, then popularly known as bushfood, and now referred to as authentic Australian food, was now my professional pursuit.

Having access to over 450 different foods for analysis – and the ability to nibble on thousands more – gave me a unique insight into Australia’s undiscovered wild food and medicine resources. Tasting the fruits, tubers, vegetables, herbs, spices, seeds and nuts made me realize that there was an industry waiting to be commercialized. What started with a single customer in Sydney is now Vic Cherikoff Food Services, and my company exports plantation-grown, organic native foods as well as Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal wild-harvested ingredients to over twenty-eight countries and to countless chefs, manufacturers and online consumers each month.

Our selection of products comes from around the country, predominantly supplied by Aboriginal communities and my own collections. In 1983 some of the products were supplied to chefs, and although I didn’t recognize its potential impact at the time, the possibility of an Australian cuisine had begun. I started my first wild food trading company, Bush Tucker Supply, in 1987. After various name changes and incarnations, I now run a start-up business with a small but growing and highly capable team that keeps Cherikoff Rare Spices leading the way for the future of Australian cuisine.

As the author of two books on native foods, The Bushfood Handbook and Uniquely Australian, A wild food cookbook and co-author of the Dining Downunder Cookbook with chef Benjamin Christie, I hope I’ve spread my enthusiasm for native foods to gardeners and professional growers, foragers and food lovers, cooks and chefs. Through the school and trade curricula I have written, Australian native cuisine is being taught to both qualified and apprentice chefs. I have personally trained over six hundred chefs in my scientific approach to the incorporation of native flavours into other, more conventional cuisines – and I hope I have inspired many more.

The motivation and untiring commitment behind Vic Cherikoff Food Services embraces a vision that anyone who appreciates good food will soon learn to seek out and appreciate wild and unique flavours; those that make our modern and distinctive Australian ingredients the one influence unifying the many food fads of contemporary, multi-cultural Australia.

And finally, I see the spread of Australian native flavours around the world as simply the result of a Twenty-First Century spice trade: one that explores the new and exciting flavours this ancient continent has to offer the culinary world.

I am proud to have initiated it.

Don’t miss Chef Benjamin Christie’s recipe for Lamb Loin with Baby Spinach, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Bush Tomato Chutney, adapted from Dining Downunder with Vic Cherikoff.

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www.cherikoff.net

If you visit Vic’s site and use discount code “gildedOz”, you will receive a special 10% discount as a Gilded Fork reader. For more information about Vic and these special products, listen to the ReMARKable Palate Podcast Episodes 32 and 33 for his interview with Chef Mark.

by Matt Griffin

I live a dual life.

By day I work full-time as an urban planner for a mid-sized blossoming city, and by night I am a bakeware expert.  Twelve months ago I formed a tiny company around a big idea, and at long last it’s finding its way into kitchens all across America.

Seven years ago I was pretty much like every other guy in his twenties: good at eating food, but not great at creating it.  This wasn’t a problem until I moved away from friends and family to start my career. Without food within “mooching distance,” I was forced to learn how to make a few things, and brownie connoisseur that I was, began my first foray into box-mix brownies. However, when I baked them (or anything for that matter), I always got the same lackluster results: The edges would finish baking long before the center, and while the edge brownies were perfect, the center was still in “batter format.”  If I waited for the center to finish, the edges dried out.  As a guy strapped for cash, yet blessed with a hearty appetite, wasted servings were not an option; and as a corner brownie lover, I would typically just sacrifice the centers for edge perfection – which didn’t leave a great taste in my mouth.

This age-old baking problem would still be unsolved had it not been for two factors:  A job I hated, and a boss who watched Oprah.  My first “career job” was in an office that had all the morale of the Department of Motor Vehicles combined with the charisma of the IRS; as a new college grad, this was a tough reality for me to accept.  Like many office workers I started “scheming” ways to get out (think Tom Smykowski’s “Jump to Conclusion Mat” from Office Space).  One day my sullen boss (Dave for future reference) came in talking about an Oprah episode featuring a 12-year-old inventor who was already retired as a result of her “wacky plastic bacon makin’ rack.”  This was the motivation I needed – from that point on, I was determined to act on good ideas.  That evening, while eating a corner brownie I had just baked, it struck me that a simple redesign of the conventional baking pan could make all servings edge brownies, and eliminate the undercooked middle entirely. The Baker’s Edge was born – a pan with additional walls that would work to distribute heat evenly to every serving.

For the next few years I did hours of self-study on intellectual property rights and patent procedure; without the funds to hire an attorney, it was up to me to secure rights to my innovative bakeware concept.  During this time I changed jobs and moved to the east coast with my then girlfriend/now wife Emily, and got a new job that I actually liked (sort of), but continued work on the Baker’s Edge.  While we were there, Emily decided to try her hand at “escaping” the office profession as well.  She had always fancied becoming a chef, and figured she would just apply for culinary scholarships.  She not only got funding from the state, but was awarded a James Beard Foundation scholarship to study pastry arts at Sullivan University in Louisville, Kentucky.  We picked up and moved to the Midwest immediately.

While Emily was in school, the patent for the Baker’s Edge Baking pan was issued (or the “Edge Making Baking Pan” as it is known by the Patent Office).  As Emily learned the science of baking, I did as well; it quickly became apparent that baking is dependent upon exact measurements, precise timing, and the right tools.  Taking advantage of her coursework and baking labs, we studied what makes existing pans less than efficient, and by using the best qualities of existing bakeware as a point of comparison, we began to create the construction plan for the Baker’s Edge.  In the end, a single-piece, heavy-gauge cast aluminum pan seemed to be the best way to create efficient heat distribution.  We also tweaked our handle design to eliminate one of Emily’s baking pan annoyances: handles that can’t be used after the baked good is flipped out (on existing bakeware, handles become flush with the counter when the pan is flipped over).

With our vision of the perfect pan, I set out to sell the idea to numerous bakeware manufacturers in America , with tactics ranging from cold-calling to my personal favorite of crashing the International Home and Housewares Convention posing as a manufacturer’s rep.  While many places said it was a great idea, none of them thought it had “consumer merit,” mostly because, and I quote: “No one else makes something like this.”  One of my favorite responses was “No, we can’t take a chance on making this pan – we just took a huge gamble by expanding our product line to include a mini-muffin pan.” Wow, that does sound risky.

Shortly after Emily graduated from Sullivan University with her pastry degree (top of her class no less) and started her new career, we decided to cash in our savings account to make Baker’s Edge prototypes, with the long-term goal of bringing our bakeware to market on our own.  After getting the prototypes (which seemed amazing at the time, but look like caveman pans in comparison to the finished version) we test-baked everything imaginable.  Not only did the Baker’s Edge bake evenly, but its versatility also got us really excited.

While my love of corner brownies is what spawned the creation of the Baker’s Edge, we found that it allowed bakers to reinvent difficult and messy dishes into simpler, more successful servings:  With brownies, cookie bars, cakes and quick breads, every serving baked at the same temperature.  As anticipated, this eliminated sloppy centers and burnt edges.  At some point during our testing an open box of lasagna noodles spilled, and one uncooked noodle landed in a pan, coincidentally fitting perfectly between the interior walls.  This was when we realized it could be used for layered dishes, with the interior walls of the pan keeping the servings intact.  We baked lasagnas, potpies and cobblers, and found that in addition to baking evenly, the walls kept each serving nicely stacked, so the last serving looked as good as the first (after servings were removed, the remaining servings didn’t slide around and become an unappetizing pile).  For a year most everything we cooked was designed around – or retrofitted into – the pan.  At family gatherings I was the “odd” relative who brought “Baker’s Edge” food and evangelized about the benefits of our “weird kitchen utensil sorter-looking pan.” (Don’t ever try to be a prophet in your home town.)

The real turning point (or “tipping point” as the hip folks now call it) for the Baker’s Edge happened a year ago:  Emily was a day away from giving birth to our son and she caught a television spot for an invention contest put on by Visa and hosted by MSN (the Ideas Happen contest).  Instead of being nervous about becoming parents the following day, we opted to work up a contest entry. Two months later, the Baker’s Edge was announced a Grand Champion.  After winning the contest, we were contacted by folks from across the country (and even a few other countries) inquiring where they could buy the pan.  Needless to say, we were flipping out.

With a growing consumer demand for the Baker’s Edge (a product that had never been advertised or mass-produced), my wife and I formed a company and teamed with my former boss Dave (the Oprah watcher).  Like Emily and me, Dave had been striving to make his own way, and get out of the office life.  Dave’s pastime/second job was producing independent films as well as getting an MBA – a natural fit to round out our team of dream chasers.

This January our three-person team launched the Baker’s Edge Baking Pan into the marketplace.  We passionately believe that it should be the American standard for baking (i.e., the one pan that everyone has in that odd metal drawer under the stove).  Dave and I still work in offices – for now, and Emily is our full-time chef (and my son’s full-time mom).  We hope expert and novice bakers alike will give our innovative pan a try. Regardless how our business turns out, however, at the very least I now have the ability to bake the perfect batch of brownies. From scratch.

The Baker’s Edge Pan is now available in the Gilded Fork Online Boutique!

P.S. See the decadent Baker’s Edge recipe for Mascarpone Brownies with Honey Chocolate Sauce. We’re swooning.
All photos copyright Baker’s Edge 2006. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

by Dick Pyle

It all started with Father’s Day in 2001.  After years of not even a card, that year saw two wonderful presents: a trip in a glider, and the rent of a vine for a year in a Sussex vineyard — plus a bottle of wine from ‘my own’ grapes.  At the time a buyer had just been found for Hilaire Restaurant on London ’s Old Brompton Road — a business in which I had a one-third share — and my long-held dream of retiring to a quiet corner of France began to seem a distinct possibility.  I did some rough research on possible regions, then some armchair house-hunting, and finally flew over in February 2002 armed with around a dozen properties-to-view spread over four immobiliers and four days, in one of the few areas of France I had never visited: Le Gers, département 32.

The houses I had chosen to see all seemed to have minor problems attached, from a beautifully converted mill with a glass drawing room floor (and magnificent views of a huge, tatty pet food factory, courtesy of the 1999 storms) to a vast mansion with innumerable rooms in execrable repair – which would have cost a couple of million to render even habitable.  On my final day sitting despondently in the immobilier in Auch, I was idly scanning some property details pinned to a board when a house caught my eye.  It looked in reasonable repair, seemed quite imposing, and most importantly, had an affordable price tag.  I asked M Brunel if I could inspect it and we rushed out there at once.  It sat on the side of a gentle slope about 150m up from the minor road that ran along the valley bottom, with a field of wheat dividing its garden from the road.  For some reason the idea of copying the rather old hat ‘adopt a vine’ concept — but this time with the million-times-sexier truffle instead — suddenly came to me.  I asked tentatively whether the field could be for sale and the answer was, “Probably, yes!”  Just on cue, the owner of the field drove past on a wonderful antique tractor and provided the definitive positive reply I was so hoping for.

Perhaps I should explain at this point what a truffle is — an explanation that was only finally widely accepted towards the end of the Nineteenth Century.  It is a kind of mushroom that grows underground in the root systems of several species of young tree, the most important genera for commercial use being oaks and hazels.  It is not a parasite, but grows in a strange symbiotic relationship, enabling the tree to assimilate phosphorus and other minerals in return for which it receives carbohydrates to further its development.  Nowadays dogs, not pigs, are used to hunt for truffles, and a trained chien truffier is a very valuable beast.  There are many species of truffle, mostly inedible, but two are very highly prized by gastronomes: the white Piedmont (Tuber magnatum) and the black Périgord (T melanosporum).  Both will cost you at least £2,000 per kilo in London , Paris , or New York , and supply is never able to keep pace with demand.

I came back in April to sign the preliminary purchase contract for both house and field, and after that, ignoring the usual horrors of British house-buying chains, all was pretty well settled; all that is except the $64,000 question: Was the land going to be suitable for truffle growing?  I returned in July and the very first thing I did was send a soil sample off to a specialist laboratory for analysis.  Three weeks later the result came back — near-perfect for truffles, needing just some phosphorous, potassium, and a large quantity of manure.

We started in October with the manure – not something that is normally easy to lay one’s hands on; but by an extraordinary stroke of luck, just fifteen metres from the boundary of the truffière sat a huge heap of pretty well rotted material from the bottom of my new neighbour’s 6,000-bird chicken sheds.  Chicken manure is not absolutely ideal, as it’s rather acidic, but it was terribly convenient, and 60 tons was duly spread over the 1.2 hectares that were to be planted with oaks.  Next, in December, came the ploughing.  Normally the objective in cultivating is to avoid a pan – a solid boundary between the relatively fine topsoil and the subsoil.  With truffles that is just what you do want; the tree roots must be encouraged to grow laterally rather than downwards so the truffles appear not too far below the surface.  (In Provence a flat stone is sometimes placed just below the tree to achieve this objective.)

While waiting for the soil to dry out after the winter rains, I composed a very rough draft of a press release explaining the Truffle Tree concept, and sent it off to a journalist friend for his comments.  Three weeks later I had heard nothing, and feared that he had found my idea uninteresting.  Then the phone began to ring — a national newspaper had printed a small but very effective story.  Meanwhile my neighbour, Serge, had been presented with three puppies by his border collie, Rumba.  I would need a truffle hound eventually, but it seemed far too soon with not a single tree yet planted.  I avoided visiting the youngsters for a week or two but finally I succumbed — and there was Polka.  She was a delight: clearly intelligent, stunningly beautiful, and totally irresistible.  Against all my inclinations she became mine.

Shortly after that the land was dry enough to be worked, and things really started to move.  The phosphorous and potassium were spread, followed by a ton or so of lime to counter the acidity from the chicken manure and return the pH to its original 8.0.  Le Gers abounds with wildlife, and two species are particularly dangerous to a newly-planted truffière: wild boar and deer.  The former are, apparently, even able to detect the truffle spores around the roots of the trees and will come in and wreak havoc with their huge tusks, while the latter love to nibble the bark and new shoots of young trees.  So some sort of enclosure was a necessity — not, perhaps, high enough to deter a cervine high jump champion, or so solid as to be totally impenetrable to a linebacker, but sufficient enough to deter the odd amateur who would happily be diverted to easier pickings elsewhere.  After soliciting construction advice from numerous people, no two of whom agreed, I settled for a simple wire mesh fence supported by long-lasting acacia posts.  I had reckoned to slot in the posts myself over a weekend using a rented, hand-held, petrol-engined boring machine but it was impossible; every time I let in the clutch the bit stuck in the clay and I was spun to the ground.  In the end it took a mini-excavator and much trial and error before we discovered a viable technique: dig a hole around half the depth of post to be buried, refill the hole and compact it with the bucket, and then push the post into the ground, again using the bucket.  With the truffière secure and harrowed once again, we could now turn to planting.

Planting densities in truffières vary quite a bit.  I went for an average sort of figure, 500 trees per hectare, with trees 4m apart in rows 5m apart.  This would give room for mechanised harrowing even when the roots were fully developed.  My original intention was to plant a mix of hazels, evergreen oaks and deciduous oaks, but after a visit to a plantation in the next village I was put off the former on the grounds of their labour-intensive pruning requirements and very acid leaves.  So the Holm Oak (Quercus ilex) and the Pubescent Oak (Q pubescens) became my chosen species.  Truffles have a status in French agriculture way higher than their economic importance justifies and much government-funded research has gone into the preparation of truffle-producing trees.  Around thirty years ago it was discovered that seedling trees produced truffles much more rapidly and reliably if truffle spores were in contact with their roots.  Hardly surprising, one would have thought, and I’m sure the ‘secret’ was known to plenty of individuals; they just weren’t in the business of giving away valuable commercial secrets!  The truffle business is terribly secretive; no wild truffle hunter divulges the location of productive trees unless on his deathbed and all sales are cash — no cheques, no invoices — and often take place right outside the mairie or gendarmerie.  I chose to buy my trees from a fourth generation family truffle business in La Drôme, about an hour’s drive North of Avignon, and placed an initial order for 100.

The twenty square metre plots were marked out using six kilometres or so of tough binder twine and on 3rd April 2003 my daughter, Hannah, and I planted the first trees.  Following the newspaper article, adoptions were taking off rapidly and towards the middle of April I decided to plant another 100.  My order was lost twice and when the trees were finally shipped they took ten days in transit and arrived on 22^nd May, bone dry and looking as if the cartons had been kicked most of the way.  It was really too late to plant but I decided to risk it, pray for some rain and a cool spell of weather and rely on the newly installed watering system to give them a bit of cosseting.  So now you know what caused the 2003 heat wave which gave us temperatures in the low forties day after day, relentless sun and not a drop of rain for months.  The trees really suffered.

With the initial planting completed the next task was to build a web site so that potential owner’s could learn about truffles, see pictures of the truffière under construction, and adopt trees on-line, either for themselves or as gifts.  But the nicest aspect of the entire business has proved to be welcoming visitors who come to see their tree.  Some come for a couple of hours, some for a week but all seem to enjoy being photographed with their oak, toasting it with a glass of Gascony wine and experiencing the beautiful, tranquil Gers countryside.

So that’s the story of how Truffle Tree was born.  Since 2003 the owner base has continued to expand, and we now have tree owners in eleven countries.  More trees have been planted.  A litter of potential truffle hounds has been produced with attendant comedies and tragedies.  Weeding and watering, watering and weeding seem to go on endlessly.  But life here is superb.  The best thing I have done in my life is to have moved to France, and the second best is to have launched Truffle Tree.

NOTE: You can now buy Truffle Trees in the Gilded Fork Boutique!

Dick Pyle is happily tending to his truffle trees in Le Gers, France.