chez pim

a (short) love letter to Lynn Rosetto Kasper

As heard today on the Splendid Table:

"Take a pound of garlic, don't even peel it, just get rid of the dirt and the roots. Crush it in the food processer, stuff it inside a duck, a goose, or a chicken. Leave it in the fridge over night. And then, roast the bird, very slowly, with that garlic inside of it. Now, you're not going to eat the garlic, you're going to throw it out, but you're going to have a bird that's so beautifully perfumed, subtly, with garlic. It's just a little trick, but it's got that hearty, lush flavor you need in the winter." (roughly transcribed)

A pound of garlic to subtly perfume a bird! I'm in love. I mean, I loved the show before but now I am head-over-heel IN LOVE.

If you don't live in America you may not have heard of Lynn Rosetto Kasper, the host of Public Radio's The Splendid Table. She has such a way with describing food on that show. In her voice food is not just beautifully delicious, but bee-YOO-ti-fully DEE-LI-cious. This must be what food porn sounds like. She often has interesting people on the show: the one I heard today included David Kamp, the author of The United States of Arugula, talking about his interview with the Japanese chef who invented the California Roll, and Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, talking about his book, Sound Bites, about eating while on tour, among others.

The best part of the show for me is when regular people call in with random food questions and Lynn just riffs off these recipes - like Ella Fitzgerald scatting, except this is food. You take a loin of pork, she'd say,...and you do this to it...and add that...and cook it this way...and be careful with that thing - improvising and relishing it as she goes along. You can practically taste her words. It's just marvelous. It's radio at its best. And, as I'd like to think, Lynn at her best.

I'm in love. Now, let me go see about that pound of garlic...

(Picture swiped from her website.)

P.S. Here's the link to the podcast for those who can't listen in on the radio.

Friday Five: Dan Barber's Five Things to Give Up for Mother Earth

Friday Five series returns today with Dan Barber, chef and proprietor of Blue Hill in Manhattan and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills. Stone Barns is only 45 minutes from Manhattan, but it might as well be a whole different universe. A model of self sufficiency and environmental responsibility, Stone Barns is a working farm, ranch, and a three-michelin-star-worthy restaurant. (Note to Michelin: limiting your guide to the five boroughs means you've missed out on perhaps the most interesting and unique restaurant in all of New York.)

Dan's commitment to the environment is well known, but he is hardly a die-hard radical. He is a businessman determined to find a way to be both environmentally and economically sustainable - now that's the way of the future. When I visited Stone Barns last September for my lovely birthday dinner, I was impressed by not only the beauty of the farm and the produce, but the massive scale of operation it takes to run that place.

Now, if I've painted him too much of a businessman for you, let me tell you another story. Before the meal Dan took us on a tour around the property. He insisted on taking us - with me in a lovely dress (read:freezing) and heels (read:@#$%) - way out of the way to show off his pride and joy, the compost pile. Compost field is perhaps a more apt description. Once you approach the vicinity you understand why it has to be so far out of the way. Use your imagination. Explaining the workings of the forklift compost turner and the rotation of the pile and the output that goes back into the field and the difference it's made in the quality of his produce, all with the delight of a boy with a brand new Lego set, Dan was a man in his element, doing what he loves and fervently believes in. That compost pile is shit to you and me - pardon my French - but it is a whole different thing in the eye of the chef and proprietor of Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

Given his pedigree and commitment, I asked him to suggest five things we should all give up out of respect for the earth. It's a perfect question for my Friday Five series. Read it and think, and, most of all, do it.