Anytime I’m invited to wear my chef’s pants, flour-dusted clogs, kerchief and an apron, I’m happy, happy, happy! So yesterday I was thrilled to be back in the kitchen at West on Centre in West Roxbury where I – with some help from the Rose kids – assembled and baked off 25 apple pies for […]
As a history buff and food lover, chef Will Gilson’s Puritan & Company in Cambridge is my new happy place. First off, it’s located in a building that housed the Puritan Cake Company‘s bakery from the 1930s to the 1950s. So, it feeds into my need to honor the past. And Puritan’s eclectic menu pays […]
I cannot imagine what the late, great Julia Child would think of all the science projects that pass for fine dining these days. My guess is she’d be horrified. I envision Julia — or Meryl Streep as the cinematic French Chef — bellowing as a hipster waiter placed a plate of foam, gel and smoking […]
Today’s confession: I have a major girl crush on Melissa Clark. The flame-haired culinista writes the “A Good Appetite” column in the New York Times‘ Dining section on Wednesday, but I’m such a groupie, I check out her column on my iPad days before the recipes appear in the Times. I skip right over Mark Bittman […]
My grandmother in Maine always talked a good game about the Down East tradition of serving salmon and peas on July 4. We never ate it, of course, because Grammie, who lived in Portland, would rather have hamburgers and Jordan hot dogs. And who could blame her? Like I said, she talked a good game. […]
We will celebrate Father’s Day and Dad‘s 76th birthday tomorrow, a rare feat of the calendar, so I felt the need to cook up a small tribute to my father, the consummate Foodsmith. After nearly 52 years with John Philip Raposa, his obsession with food, especially the baking business, has rubbed off on me. And, […]
We have had plenty of signs that summer is upon us, but for me, the first week of my Community Shared Agriculture program at R & C Farms in Scituate confirms it — despite the rainy week we’ve had! I picked up our full CSA share today, a crate stocked with three kinds of […]
…which set the tone for my first day of the week at Flour. Simply stated, I was a total spaz yesterday. Not only did I lack sleep, my routine was altered, and now I’m worried I’ve morphed into a perimenopausal cat. Working on maybe 5 hours of sleep, I drove — in a downpour — […]
Finally, these native beauties have returned to my local farm stand! Now, what to do with them…. Should I make ice cream? Or shortcakes? Or mix them with rhubarb for a pie? Perhaps spoon them into cereal or concoct a strawberry seltzer. I simply cannot make up my mind. Maybe I’ll just eat the first […]
The Second Act of my life began yesterday at 6:50 a.m. when I entered the doors at Flour Bakery + Café with a smile on my face and chef’s pants in my tote bag. I left 11 hours later with the same smile, dirty chefs pants and a sense of pride. Sadly, I could barely walk. […]