2016 Gift Guide : Bistro Cookbooks

27_septime3_11172The weirdest year most of us can remember has almost lurched across the finish line, but before we can all raise a glass to 2017 there’s still the matter of Christmas. I ‘dunno about ya’ll but this year we plan to keep our holiday festivities as low key as possible and focus on family, with moments set aside here and there to escape to the blanket fort with a good book.

The last couple of years I’ve suggested all manner of gadgets and do-dads for the kitchen, but this Christmas I’d like to go oldschool and point out a couple great cookbooks that I’ve collected over the years that have inspired me. Some of them were given to me as gifts and many I have gifted to others with similar results so they are 100% vetted for giftabillity! Read More

2016 Post-Holiday Beer List

Photo via Google Images
Photo via Google Images

It’s been a hell of a holiday season, or what the mighty Greg Proops recently referred to as “The frantic week of unbelievable mayhem”. And I along with my fellow hospitality brethren need a couple nights of actual sleep and a lot of beers to make up for all the Christmas mornings, New Years parties and warm fuzzy family moments that we’ve missed. *Phssssst* Here’s to 2015 and all of the surprising moments and spectacular meals that we have survived!

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2014 Holiday Guide : Ten Gifts For Geeky Cooks

2014 Holiday Gift Guide - GeeksAs many sharp readers may have guessed, I’m not only a cook, amateur writer and degenerate wastrel, but a huge… And I mean HUGE geek. Capital G!

I love 80s ‘wrasslin, comic books, Godzilla flicks and nostalgic video games almost as much as love shaping dumplings or searing duck breasts. So when I was researching my 2014 Holiday Guides (plural, I also have a gift guide for foragers in the works that probably won’t make it out before X-Mas) I was floored by the massive amount of geek-centric kitchen gifts available to the internet-savvy public.

Sites like Nerd Approved, Archie MacPhee’s, and Pintrest led me down a long ‘n dark rabbit hole of nerdy kitchen accessories. This stuff is serious kitsch… It’s like the internet knows me!

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2014 Holiday Guide : Ten Gifts For Pro Cooks and Chefs

2014 Holiday Guide - Pro CooksHoliday shopping sucks.

It should be fun and joyful, but most of it is a florescent-lit hell of shopping cart lines, tinny Sinatra music and a dull nagging doubt that you (yes you) could have done better… Could have found that perfect gift for the one you love! Instead every year is a bit of a compromise, a sell out. And every year another promise to get it right… Next year.

No longer! “Next year” is this year, and your good buddy The Internet is here to save you from another long, soul destroying slog through Wal Mart. This year you can point and click your way to the perfect gift for everyone on your list, including your buddies in the culinary industry!

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