Test Kitchen

Our virtual test kitchen is a place where we invite you to experiment, taste, think, swoon — in short, to play with your food. All of our own kitchen experiments and research are located right here so you can see what we’ve been up to. In our perfect universe, the whole world would be one giant kitchen, so we’re trying to get as close to that ideal as possible. Here’s what we’ve got for you:

DINNER PARTIES & ENTERTAINING: Perhaps our crown jewel — and the source of our Gilded Fork: Entertaining at Home cookbook. Here we’ve put together the dinner party menus AND wine pairings for you. From there you can riff, play and dazzle your guests with everything from brunch to a fall harvest dinner.

HOW-TO: Wondering how to cook a lobster? Sharpen your knives? De-bone a fish? Find our quick tips here.

INGREDIENT PROFILES: We’re geeky about ingredients, so here you can find all of our Test Kitchen Dossiers. Wondering what to do with fennel? Squash? Truffles? Find the history, cooking properties and recipe ideas here.

RECIPES: We’ve built up quite a collection of recipes over the years (we’ve been here a while), so we invite you to play with our ideas — and create a few riffs of your own.

And in case you just want to browse, here are our most recent posts:

New Year’s Eve Cocktail Party

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We’ve put together a menu perfect for a casually elegant night in. Now get that celebration started!

Cocktails, Anyone?

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The origin of the term “cocktail” itself is rife with rumor and speculation, so we’ll leave that to the drink historians.

The Good Host: Grace Under Fire

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There is a certain art to being a good host — one cultivated after what is likely trial-by-fire.

Hors d’Oeuvres: Little Bites of Heaven

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Hors d’oeuvres can encompass a wide variety of foods, and range from casual finger foods to elegant nibbles.

Chestnuts: The Taste of December

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Take an afternoon by the fire with some warm chestnuts and a spot of brandy. Go ahead, it’s the holidays.

Harvest Celebration Dinner Party

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At last, the season of entertaining and gathering indoors is upon us. I like to think of it as the modern version of gathering round the hearth; a shared table gives us common ground, and humans, after all, like to be nurtured.