I'm quite intrigued by this piece of equipment, but not so much to spend the $238 on it. Basically it was designed to replicate a cooking style of Olive Pickers, who, limited in their supply of water, cooked their pasta in a similar fashion as risotto, versus our traditional manner of vast amounts of boiling water. I'm sure it was meant for more macaroni type pastas, and Earthier types of dishes, but nonetheless, I'm sure it yields a delicious meal. I'm very fond of simple, rustic dishes, and this seems right up my alley.

Add to that the developer is Alain Ducasse, on of the world's most renown chefs, and it becomes a piece of art, as much as a utilitarian tool. I might have to test the concept with my enamel over cast iron dutch oven.

Hat tip to Uncrate

My new roommate subscribes to Time, and I had begun reading the latest issue, meaning to take some time to blog about it. The cover story is The Science of Appetite, and one of the interesting accompanying articles is what typical families from around the globe eat in a week, including a picture of the family with the all the groceries from that week. Jason Kottke linked to the Time site, What the World Eats, so I figured I'd share the link as well.

It's quite amazing some of the differences between cultures, and the differences in my own eating habits (though I might rival the Mexican family in their consumption of Coke).

So it seems Top Chef is coming back around for a third season. But before it kicks off June 13th, a mini "grudge" match between the top two chefs of the first two seasons will fill the time slot.

I've been generally pleased with the quality of the show, despite the overwhelming commercialization. (I'm sure a drinking game could easily be made, every time Padma says, "Sears Kenmore", or "Glad" you take a drink of Viogner). I do think less emphasis is put on professional cooking skills, and more so on ability to think outside the box (convenience store food quick-fire challenges, making an amuse bouche from snack machines), but sometimes that can really show a cook's creative side, and true understanding of flavor.

From a professional standpoint, which wouldn't fly with the soccer mom crowd, I would like to see more emphasis on skills, and not just culinary ones. Sure, give them all a whole fish, of about the same weight, and see who can yield the most usable product (bonus points for cheeks, collars, etc), or more budget oriented dish creation. Heck, take them into a typical person's home, and see who can produce the most elegant meal. But for the same reasons The Donald didn't have people balancing ledgers, you will not see those challenges on Top Chef.

This season's cast does seem to be of a higher caliber, at least from their small bios. Hailing from kitchens of the likes of Mark Milletello (a chef I admired while learning my chops, and still do) and Jean George, the profile of the types of kitchen's they've worked in seems to be on a much higher scale.

All in all, I find it quite entertaining as reality TV goes, and look forward to the escape.

Rather than just book mark this one, I figured it would make a great first post for my new Habari powered cooking site. Some may know that I've made a transition from full time chef to full time web geek, and if there was one job I'd take to get out of my desk chair, it might be one discussed in this article. What better way to marry geeky-ness with cooking? Being a chef at Google....EditFor some reason, this nearly two year old article just showed up in my feed reader. I didn't realize until after I started the post. Ah well...

Take two. Getting the ol' cooking site up, and figured it was as good a time as any to switch one of my sites over to Habari. More soon to follow. Gotta figure out some permalink issues and what not.