Prime Time
Nashville’s Kayne Prime has me at “hello.” Walking into this modern-rustic steakhouse of my dreams and—with profound apologies to Dad whose backyard-grilled steaks were good—I know whatever protein I choose from the menu, it’s going to be like nothing I’ve ever experienced, a definite wow-wow-wow. How can I predict Kayne is going to satisfy my hungry heart? Intuitively you sense when a restaurant has “it”—a vibe, a swagger, an aroma of good stuff happening behind the swinging doors. And Kayne definitely has it, lots of it.
This boutique steakhouse doesn’t disappoint, right down to the last spoonful of Coffee & Donuts—espresso semifreddo paired with warm ricotta beignets. But I digress—it’s the beef that’s the A-lister at Kayne. Succulent filet mignons, juicy New York strips and ribeyes that melt away from fork and knife. This restaurant is a prime example of the steakhouse revolution that chefs like Robbie Wilson—head tastemaker at Music City’s premiere fusion-style steak emporium—are giddily leading across the country, in cities large and small.
Local ingredients drive classic-casual steakhouse menus where beef is king and accompanying sides are glorious reincarnations of dishes Don Draper and his martini-swilling pals enjoyed back in the day. Kayne serves up a mess o’ swoon-worthy riffs on favorites like Cream Corn Brûlée, Creamed Spinach with a fried organic egg and Heirloom Carrots with tandoori-spiced, barbecue raisins. Seconds, please?
Recreating the steakhouse experience in your own kitchen is a snap with the locavore-rich array of beef that’s available to today’s home cook. Hallelujah and bow down to the steak gods!
Dean & DeLuca’s Brandt Beef, a family-owned California-based producer who takes a decidedly artisanal approach to beef farming, is a contemporary steakhouse-pedigreed product. Hand-raised, free of hormones and antibiotics and thick and flavorful, Brandt’s corn-feed meat—like the baseball cut top sirloins and the family reserve Porterhouse steaks—is the tasty answer to the home griller’s wish. The beef is simply raised, which in the end yields an opportunity to savor steaks and chops au naturel. The Brandt Beef is a building block to a memorable meal and when partnered with sides like Creamed Spinach with Artichokes and Potatoes au Gratin with Fennel, it becomes a triple-threat, culinary supernova.
Keep those reservations at your local steakhouse—no doubt the menu has been overhauled to combine traditional flavor spiked with contemporary flair. And when firing up your patio grill, seek out quality stuff chefs like Robbie Wilson would be proud to deliver from behind those swinging doors.
-Kimberly Winter Stern
Fire up the grill and perfume the neighborhood with a couple of juicy boneless Angus ribeye or porterhouse steaks, rubbed to perfection with a Southwestern or Barbecue spice blend. And don’t forget to pick your sides as carefully as you choose your cut of meat—after all, a steak without a good companion is almost as sad as an out-of-season tomato. A properly baked potato is a classic steak partner (make mine loaded, please) or a creamy risotto-like dish made with imported farro and pungent mushrooms is a hearty accent to a grilled steak. Here are a couple of picks for your steak fry from The Dean & DeLuca Cookbook.
PERFECT BAKED POTATOES
Preheat oven to 500°. Wash the potatoes of your choice, place the grate in the oven, turn the potatoes once or twice during cooking, and cook until crunchy on the outside, tender within.
Cooking time depends on size. Here’s a handy guide:
¼-pound potato: 45 minutes
½-pound potato: 1 hour 10 minutes
¾-pound potato: 1 hour 30 minutes
Top to your delight: butter, sour cream, Tuscan extra-virgin olive oil, coarse salt
Note: For light, dry, super-crunchy potatoes, cut the baked potatoes, after cooking, into walnut-sized chunks. Place in a roasting pan in a preheated 550° oven for 20 minutes. Toss with coarse salt, extra-virgin olive oil, and serve immediately.
FARRO “RISOTTO” WITH WILD MUSHROOMS AND PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO
Serves 6 as a side dish
INGREDIENTS
2 cups imported Italian farro
1 quart of water
1 ounce dried wild mushrooms (preferably porcini)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup dry white wine
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
METHOD
Boil the farro in the 1 quart of water, salted, in a large saucepan, partially covered, for 45 minutes, or until it is soft. Drain it in a colander or strainer.
While the farro is cooking, soak the dried mushrooms in a bowl with 1 cup of hot water for 15 minutes. Remove them from the bowl with your fingers, squeezing the water back into the bowl. Reserve the soaking liquid. Chop the mushrooms coarsely.
Melt the butter in the olive oil in a skillet over low heat. Add the onion and cook until soft. Stir in the mushrooms, and then add the wine. Simmer for 10 minutes. Strain the reserved mushroom soaking liquid through a cheesecloth or fine strainer into the skillet. Simmer for 10 minutes. If the farro is not yet cooked, remove the skillet from the heat and set aside.
When the farro is cooked and drained, put it back into the empty pan, and add the contents of the skillet. Mix well and season to taste with salt and pepper. Top each serving with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Print This Post / / May 17.12 / Feature Stories, Recipes: Savory, Seasonal, Summer / by Dean & DeLuca
The humble eggplant turns into a tangy side dish
Last year I was at a BBQ at a friend’s house and someone served this grilled eggplant that I devoured: it tasted both caramelized and tangy—complex for the humble eggplant. When I asked her the ingredients, I was shocked. Only one ingredient was added to the eggplant and it has this much flavor?
Oh yes, it’s true.
Since I like to shake things up, I also added the Il Boschetto coarse salt, which I found while strolling the aisles of Dean & Deluca in SoHo. The “esotica” blend contains chili pepper, onion, parsley and pink pepper. I plan on adding it to many other dishes.
Once you see how easy it is to make this grilled eggplant, it just might become a staple during grilling season—or anytime.
Grilled Eggplant
Serves 4-6 as a side dish
Ingredients
1 eggplant, washed + sliced into 1/2-inch thick circles
Balsamic vinegar (enough to cover the eggplant in a bowl)
Il Boschetto salt blend
If you don’t don’t have the salt above (though I highly recommend it!), then use sea salt + freshly-ground pepper—and perhaps a pinch of crushed chili pepper, all to taste
Olive oil
Fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped (enough to garnish)
Make the dish
Slice eggplant into 1/2-inch thick circles and then submerge in enough balsamic vinegar to cover the eggplant. Let marinate for 10-15 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with the Il Boschetto salt blend (or some sea salt, freshly-ground pepper and crushed chili pepper, to taste).
Heat up about 1 tablespoon of olive oil a grilling pan over medium heat. Grill eggplant slices for about 8-10 minutes on each side. You may want to add some additional vinegar to the slices with a spoon as they cook, but that’s not essential. Remove from pan, sprinkle with parsley—and serve.
Need help planning dinner? Tracey Ceurvels invites you into her virtual kitchen on her blog, The Busy Hedonist, where she shares her creations + discoveries with you. Tracey also offers a weekly dinner plan for time-crunched food lovers that includes recipes + shopping lists to make dinnertime stress-free. Tracey has written about food + travel for such publications as The Boston Globe, PAPER magazine, Relish, Haute Living and many other publications. Stay tuned for her food and travel writing experience that takes place this October in Tuscany + Rome.
The iFoodShop App has arrived!
Print This Post / / May 14.12 / Recipes: Savory, Summer / by Dean & DeLuca
The Queen Is In: Queen City Cookies
Entering Peggy Shannon’s world is a bit like stepping into a culinary-inspired Fantasia where everything is beautifully orchestrated and colorful—and lucky for us, edible.
As proprietor of Cincinnati-based Queen City Cookies, Shannon’s regal spin on the time-honored combination of eggs, butter, sugar and flour is indeed fit for royal consumption. Her handmade buttery shortbread cookies are transformed from mere discs of dough to artistic treats in the shapes of elephants or embossed with cherry blossoms and scrolled hearts topped with a rich, white chocolate icing to gallery-worth riffs on Frieda Kahlo with food-coloring ink.
And just in case the exquisite confections aren’t proof enough of Queen City’s attention to detail in both appearance and flavor, cookies are packaged with greeting cards that tell enchanting stories of their pedigree or in bags that bear mascot elephants (Peony, Elodie and Duchess of Roux, fashioned after some of Shannon’s real-life acquaintances) and quips and quotes about their qualities (Elodie: Arrives Late. Leaves Early. Onward to the Next Adventure).
“Who doesn’t like a little story with their cookie?” I wonder, reading more about the trio of elephants.
The Queen City Cookies legacy started when ex-corporate maven Shannon fell head over heels for Martha Stewart Living’s 2008 Christmas cover, which pictured stunning springerle cookies, an old-world German recipe featuring an embossed design. Shannon has collected more than 500 antique molds, many of which help create the distinctive Queen City Cookies look.
“But your cookies are simply too gorgeous to eat,” I murmur, clicking through the offerings on the Queen City Cookies Web site.
Shannon is quick to dispel the ridiculous notion.
“Deconstruct that phrase,” says Shannon, laughing. “It implies that you’re not worthy. That’s just not true.”
Shannon’s mild frustration that people sometimes consider her cookies too precious for consumption was the driving force behind the Pachyderm Packs, bite-sized elephant-shaped cookies just right for nibbling or pairing with coffee, tea or wine. The Chocolate Chipotle, Blueberry Maple and Shortbread Bliss are made with premium ingredients like European-style Plugrá butter and pure cane sugar and hand-stamped with decorative molds that have made Queen City Cookies famous.
During our interview Shannon steps from Queen City Cookies’ fragrant commercial bakery in a delightfully renovated carriage house on her Cincinnati property to tend to another work of art—the city’s first mobile cookie food truck. But Shannon’s truck, much like her product available in the Dean & DeLuca catalogue, is not just a mobile cookie dispenser. Right down to the endearing elephant head topped with a crown that’s perched atop the purple, pink and yellow van, Shannon’s Queen City Cookies truck is designed to amuse the senses.
“Wouldn’t you love to walk up to this truck and see what you can buy?” Shannon squeals with enthusiasm.
I agree. I wish that truck would drive down my suburban Kansas City street right now.
Attendees of the summer Fancy Food Show in Washington D.C. in June will encounter Shannon’s imagination, as the Queen City Cookies food truck debuts on the exhibit floor. And Shannon is up for the crème de la crème award of the specialty food industry during the show—with a sofi™ Silver trophy already holding court in her Cincinnati business, Shannon is crossing her sugar-dusted baker’s fingers for the granddaddy of honors: the sofi™ Gold.
“Queen City Cookies was selected from a field of nearly 2,000 applicants last year,” says Shannon. “The competition was whittled down to four for each of 30 categories, and the Pachyderm Packs are a sofi Silver finalist in the cookie category. The sofi Gold will be announced in mid-June.”
Shannon’s undeniable passion for Queen City Cookies is as captivating as the sweet treats she and her team create. And she demands that as a customer, you take her motto—Eat. Smile. Repeat.—to heart. Nothing this good—though it could be framed and displayed in MoMA—should go to waste. Shannon insists. Politely.
Now, where is that cookie truck when I need it?
-Kimberly Winter Stern
Overland Park, Kan.-based freelance writer Kimberly Winter Stern writes travel, food, lifestyle and design. Also known as the gregarious and cuisine-informed Kim Dishes, listeners tune in weekly for her on-the-road segments on “LIVE! From Jasper’s Kitchen,” a popular Kansas City radio food show. Prolific in eating, writing and discovering, this foodie satisfies an innate desire to sample the world’s gastronomic rainbow by meeting food artisans and trendsetters, gaining insight into the culinary points-of-view of everyone from cheese makers, chocolatiers and chefs who set their city’s locavore pace to farmers who are passionate producers. Stern is a sought-after writer, with work appearing in Better Homes and Gardens, Unity, KANSAS! Magazine, 435 South magazine, KC Homes & Gardens, Generation Boom, Shawnee Magazine, KC Magazine, KC Home Design, KC Business and Midwest CEO. Stern is a national blogger for the Dean & DeLuca Gourmet Food Blog where she cooks, styles, shoots and writes about life and cooking … and loves to lick the bowl clean. This writer may have been given product and/or other compensation from Dean & DeLuca for this post.
Print This Post / / May 09.12 / Feature Stories, Vendor Feature / by Dean & DeLuca
That Kitchen Magic
A food-loving friend of mine in New Jersey lost her mom earlier this year. The jolt of the unexpected loss coupled with its sober reality sent her in search of comfort. Not surprisingly, she found a bit of solace in places where the familiar smells, sights, and sounds elicit virtual hugs: her home kitchen and the instructional kitchen where she teaches cooking. She whipped up cupcakes from her childhood, chicken piccata, and a Passover meal that was perhaps more symbolic this year than others.
My friend is a writer, and like most writers who channel their thoughts about food onto a computer screen, the memories and emotions that swirl around cooking, favorite childhood dishes, and handed-down recipes are filed in the forefront of the mind. And so it is with my friend, whose recollections of spending time in the kitchen with her mom are crystal-clear, as though it was just yesterday they cleaned up the dirty bowls and measuring cups and mixers produced during a baking marathon.
Many of my friends love to cook and are very good at it: they turn out pans of fragrant cinnamon rolls for holiday breakfasts, serve authentic Indian food for dinner parties, and grill like competitive barbecue masters. I don’t cook for a living anymore—I was a caterer for 12 years—but I roll up my sleeves and get into the kitchen for sustenance and most importantly, for therapy from stress-induced deadlines. Although it’s not always the memory of an aproned mother standing at the stove offering me and my pals tender guidance on the finer points of preparing a weeknight dinner for the family, undoubtedly there is the essence of women from generations past whose influences are gently folded somewhere into our culinary genes.
When I was a little girl and spent time in the kitchen with my mom, watching her make a roux for scalloped potatoes or scraping the batter for her famous buttermilk chocolate cake into a well-used sheet pan, there was the ghostly presence of reinforcements: her mother Mary and grandmother Florence. It was the latter cook, my great-grandma, who set the family’s standards for food. Her kitchen remains a perfect snapshot in the recesses of my mind as an efficient and well-equipped room always prepared for action. I remember great-grandma’s ample figure bent over some surface of her small kitchen, kneading dough for a loaf of whole wheat bread, rolling out a piecrust destined to cradle a rhubarb filling, and lifting a heavy roaster splattered with the juices of golden-brown roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots and onions from the oven.
Mother’s Day will be bittersweet for my New Jersey friend as she marks the first without her mom while celebrating with her own children. She will be comforted by the magical memories of those marvelous pink cupcakes but won’t have the woman who was her faithful companion during delightful hours of kitchen time. I’m sure of one thing, though. If my friend chooses to go into the kitchen on that Sunday, it will be crowded with the spirits of her mom and the women before her whose culinary inspiration taught her well.
Raise your glass on May 13 to the women who have taught you well—in sustenance, and in life.
-Kimberly Winter Stern
This Mother’s Day, cancel the brunch reservations and venture back to your roots: prepare a meal that requires a bit of effort in the kitchen, maybe fueled by the memories of the generations of cooks who impacted you. Mom is sure to appreciate these herb drop biscuits and the springtime freshness of the chilled asparagus soup; to round out the meal, add a simple salad and for dessert, purchase gelato from your favorite hometown creamery and serve with fresh berries.
Recipes shared by Dean & DeLuca/Leawood, Kansas, Executive Chef Kevin Johnson
PETITE HERB DROP BISCUITS WITH COUNTRY HAM & CHEDDAR
Serves 10 – 12
INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons cold shortening
1 cup whole milk
12 ounces rosemary ham, sliced thin
12 ounces cheddar cheese, sliced thin (white or yellow)
METHOD
Preheat oven to 450°.
Sift all dry ingredients together into a bowl, and then cut in the shortening. Add the milk to make moist, soft dough. Using a spoon and your finger, drop biscuits onto a greased baking tray, and bake in a hot 450° degree oven for 12 minutes. Serve hot with a small piece of rosemary country ham and sliced cheddar.
ASPARAGUS SOUP WITH LEMON CRÈME FRAICHE
Serves 4 – 6
INGREDIENTS
2 pounds medium asparagus (2 bunches), cut in half crosswise
as needed kosher salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Spanish onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
7 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
1 bay leaf
½ cup heavy cream
¼ cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
LEMON CRÈME FRAICHE
½ cup crème fraiche
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon lemon zest
¼ teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
Kosher salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
METHOD
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Fill a medium bowl with salted ice water. Working in two batches, add the asparagus to the boiling water and cook until just tender, about 4 minutes per batch. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the asparagus to the bowl of ice water. Drain. Reserve 8 cups of the cooking liquid.
Thinly slice 18 of the asparagus tips on the diagonal and reserve for a garnishing the soup. Chop the remaining asparagus spears into small pieces.
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 12 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 2 minutes more.
Pour in the reserved asparagus cooking liquid and bring to a boil while whisking constantly. Add the thyme, and bay leaf and add to the soup. Lower the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.
Stir in the chopped asparagus and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Working in batches, transfer the asparagus mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Using a sieve over a large bowl, strain the asparagus soup. Return the puree to the pot and reheat over medium heat.
Whisk the heavy cream, white wine, and salt into the soup and season with pepper. Allow soup to cool before serving. Divide among chilled soup bowls, top each soup with the reserved asparagus tips, and a dollop of lemon crème fraiche and serve immediately.
Overland Park, Kan.-based freelance writer Kimberly Winter Stern writes travel, food, lifestyle and design. Also known as the gregarious and cuisine-informed Kim Dishes, listeners tune in weekly for her on-the-road segments on “LIVE! From Jasper’s Kitchen,” a popular Kansas City radio food show. Prolific in eating, writing and discovering, this foodie satisfies an innate desire to sample the world’s gastronomic rainbow by meeting food artisans and trendsetters, gaining insight into the culinary points-of-view of everyone from cheese makers, chocolatiers and chefs who set their city’s locavore pace to farmers who are passionate producers. Stern is a sought-after writer, with work appearing in Better Homes and Gardens, Unity, KANSAS! Magazine, 435 South magazine, KC Homes & Gardens, Generation Boom, Shawnee Magazine, KC Magazine, KC Home Design, KC Business and Midwest CEO. Stern is a national blogger for the Dean & DeLuca Gourmet Food Blog where she cooks, styles, shoots and writes about life and cooking … and loves to lick the bowl clean. This writer may have been given product and/or other compensation from Dean & DeLuca for this post.
Photo by Kimberly Winter Stern
Print This Post / / May 02.12 / Recipes: Savory, Uncategorized / by Dean & DeLuca
Top Mother’s Day Gifts
Mother’s Day in 2008 was exciting and yet it was a blur. My daughter was only a month old that May and while she was the most wonderful gift I could have received, another gift I craved was sleep. Now that she’s four I’m (sort of) well-rested. Yet still, gifts that contain caffeine are always welcome, which is why I’ve included some gifts for “the coffee loving mom.” But even if the mom in your life doesn’t crave coffee, I’m sure she’ll fit into one of the following categories. —Tracey Ceurvels
For the coffee loving mom
For some moms, caffeine is a must in the morning. This Barista Gift package comes with three sampler bags: Espresso, Breakfast Blend and French Roast, plus a Chemex coffee maker, filters and mugs—everything she needs to perk up. The Coffee Connoisseur is another option for the mom who has her own coffee maker: this set comes with a range of three certified organic coffees.
For the afternoon tea loving mom
Does mom love tea? The Wellness Teas by Kusmi were created with well-being in mind, and there are five blends: Boost, Be Cool, Detox, Algotea and Sweet Love. Whichever she chooses, she’ll feel better after a cup or two. “Les Moments” Tea Collection, also by Kusmi, is another option. Pair these sets of teas with a Sweet Treat Gift Box—mom will love the chewy cookies, iced cupcakes and rich brownies.
For the wine loving mom
Ah, a movie and glass of wine…a great gift for any mom. The Movie & Wine Gift comes with both sweet and salty snacks, plus a bottle of sparkling wine and a Napa Valley Cabernet. If she loves cheese along with her glass of wine, send her a cheese plate…perhaps the Ricotta & Honey Gift will do the trick, or the French Cheese Plate.
For the ice cream loving mom
Mom hasn’t tasted luxurious ice cream until she’s dipped her spoon into a pint of Luxury Ice Cream by High Road. Crafted in small batches for exquisite flavor, this gift arrives in a set of 4 flavors made with high end ingredients: Strawberry, Almond, Vanilla and Chocolate.
For the cookie loving mom
Cookies are always a sure bet. And if you don’t have the time to bake your own choose these pretty—and buttery rich—handmade Mother’s Day Cookies by Emily’s Homemade that are whimsically decorated with hearts, flowers and the Queen of Hearts. Or, these artisanal Mother’s Day Bouquet Cookies that consist of six daisies, six tulips and one read heart are pleasing to the eye, palate and heart.
For the Franco-phile mom
French sophistication meets Japanese flavors in this tantalizing collection of sweets. The Mother’s Day Gift Box arrives with miso chocolate brownies, yuzu-vanilla blueberry poundcake and matcha green tea almond financiers. Classic Macarons, ubiquitous in Paris, make a great gift for the mom who loves French sweets. Cremes Parisiennes, pretty pastel fondant creams, are another delightful option from Charbonnel et Walker.
For the chocolate loving mom
For the chocolate-loving mom, the Aurora Box that’s filled with handmade confections from Marie-Belle Chocolates, (with flavors such as cinnamon Frangelico, cardamom, Kona bean and dulce de leche) is a stunning choice as is the Anthology Collection from Chocolat Moderne. This collection contains beautifully hand-painted chocolates
in unique flavors like Baklava spiced walnut praline, persimmon white peach and passion fruit cardamom. If mom loves Paris, she may enjoy these praline domes topped with sea salt that arrive in a fanciful Eiffel Tower. If mom loves roses, surprise her with this unique box from Roni-Sue Chocolates containing truffles made of ganache with a variety of flavors, including rose petal jam and rose liqueur, white chocolate rose ganache, and lavender and Earl Grey tea.
Need help with planning dinner? Tracey Ceurvels offers a weekly dinner plan for time-crunched food lovers that includes recipes + shopping lists, which make dinner time stress-free. Tracey Ceurvels has written about food + travel for such publications as The Boston Globe, PAPER magazine, Haute Living among other publications as well as on her blog, The Busy Hedonist. Interested in travel writing? Join Tracey for Fly Away Travel Writing Class, launching May 7th.
Print This Post / / Apr 23.12 / Top Gifts / by Dean & DeLuca
A Love of Macarons: Talking Sweets with Amy Thomas
Amy Thomas has a self-proclaimed sweet tooth. In fact, when she spent two years living in Paris, she hunted down truffles, cakes and one of her her favorite sweets of all: macarons. Her research resulted in a recently-launched book: Paris, My Sweet: A Year of Living in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate).
Here I speak with Amy Thomas about her time in Paris, her penchant for sweets and her favorite macarons, in Paris and New York City.
Tracey Ceurvels: Tell me about living in Paris. What prompted you to move there?
Amy Thomas: Although I’d always had the fantasy of moving to Paris, I really had nothing to do with the opportunity that came my way. It was 2008 and I was working at an international ad agency in New York (Ogilvy & Mather), and the in-house recruiter approached me one day to ask if I wanted to go to the Paris office to write ad copy for the Louis Vuitton account. What kind of Louboutin-loving, Coco-worshipping, macaron addict wouldn’t? You couldn’t dream up a better scenario if you tried! (I said “yes.”)
Tracey: What do you miss most about living there?
Amy: I miss the constant beauty and inspiration. While I was there, I knew it wasn’t forever, so I really took advantage of everything. I traveled, I took cooking classes, I went to museums―I just opened up and absorbed everything possible. It was such a special time. And since I blogging about it all, I was hyperaware of my own observations and emotions. It was almost an out-of-body experience, but in the most magical and delicious way.
Tracey: Tell me about your love for sweets?
Amy: Some people like salty snacks; I love sweets. Growing up, I was always helpless around candy, cookies, sugary cereals, pastries―you name it, I devoured it. As an adult, the only thing that’s changed is the quality of the sweets I eat. Although I’ll still indulge in the occasional Dairy Queen blizzard or bag of Twizzlers, I prefer things like champagne truffles, salted caramel cupcakes and almond croissants.
Tracey: What are some of your favorite macarons?
Amy: In Paris, there are two kinds of people: those who think Pierre Hermé makes the best macarons, and those who think Ladurée’s macarons are best. Me, I like them both. Pierre Hermé’s macarons are still made by hand and come in really inventive flavors like raspberry and wasabi, white truffle and hazelnut, and olive oil and vanilla―all of which I love. But Ladurée’s macarons are pretty exquisite, too. If you like floral flavors, their rose macaron is pretty special.
Tracey: Do you have any favorite macarons here in the U.S.?
Amy: I recently discovered a tea parlor in the West Village called Bosie, and the pastry chef (Damien Herggott) is French and actually worked for Pierre Hermé for three years. His macarons are excellent. He does classics like chocolate and raspberry, but to have fun with American palates, he also offers fun flavors like maple bacon, peanut butter and jelly, and chai.
Tracey: Do you like to make macarons at home?
Amy: I’ve never tried to make them on my own. I took a macaron-making class in Paris, and learned firsthand just how persnickety they are. You have to whip egg whites into a perfect meringue, grind almonds and sugar into a fine pulp, mix the meringue and dry ingredients ever so gently so you don’t get spiky or flat cookies, pipe them into perfectly uniform circles, and then bake them at a very precise temperature for exactly the right amount of time, and then also create well-balanced, flavorful ganache to hold them together… Well, that’s a lot of work for one girl in the kitchen. 
Tracey: What’s next on the horizon?
Amy: I’m having fun promoting my book, Paris, My Sweet. I’ve been doing readings and signings, and I’m returning to Paris in mid-April to celebrate the launch there. After these activities subside a little, I want to really sit down and figure out what’s next. I’d love to write another book, but have to figure out exactly what that would be. I also want to do some more traveling, so maybe something along the way will inspire me.
Tracey Ceurvels has written about food + travel for such publications as The Boston Globe, PAPER, Haute Living among other publications as well as on her blog, The Busy Hedonist. Interested in travel writing? Join Tracey for Fly Away Travel Writing Class, launching May 7th.
Print This Post / / Apr 18.12 / Feature Stories / by Dean & DeLuca
