The Exploration of Food and Dietary Habits

A Medley of Nuts & Seeds - Photo by MeetaK

For the sake of creativity, an avid interest in food and drink, and knowledge and the sake of constantly seeking new ways to health and balance, I've tried all sorts of dietary regimens and foods, reasonably speaking.

No...still no exploring into an insect diet. Can't quite get myself to that realm of eating. But I hear that if one is able to push aside their culturally-conditioned aversion to eating bugs, that the fare can be quite tasty...and crunchy. LOL

At this this point, I just want to be healthy and holistic, so I'm not too keen on exclusivity in dietary habits anymore. I just like exploring good foods and whole and fresh ingredients. Nature provides us with so many delights that I don't understand how anyone can radically exclude most things, let alone be bored in their diets, unless there are allergies, health issues, and enzyme deficiencies to take into consideration..

If I like to eat lots of rice and consider it beyond thrilling to check out all sorts of rice varieties in local markets, why should I cut out eating rice because it's either a high complex carb or it requires boiling and cooking? Restrictions for the sake of restrictions aren't my thing and now I know that through much trial and error. This doesn't mean I can't respect religious and/or socio-political purposes behind certain dietary observations.

Inside Info: I use the word diet here as a way to simply refer to a -way- of eating. I am not using "diet" to specifically mean a way to control weight and body fat (example: "I am going on a diet"). A particular diet and set of habits can provide weight loss for someone, being the sole purpose and intent, but again I am just using diet to mean eating regimen and habits.

I used to be vegetarian for several years and then I became what is called a "pescetarian," someone who eats vegetarian but includes fish in their diet.

I just couldn't give up seafood! Especially sushi. I love the stuff. And it's good for you.

I no longer classify myself as a vegetarian, although I tend to naturally enjoy and eat far more grains, fruits, and vegetables over meats. But several times I have ventured into low-carb dieting in the past, which encouraged me to consume far more meat in my diet.

Photo by West of Persia

Lately, I find myself very intrigued by raw food eating and dieting. I've heard about raw food eating for some time but never really researched much about it. I assumed it was a diet exclusively of raw and fresh vegetables, nuts, and fruits. Well that is if you are a vegan/vegetarian raw foodist, as some raw foodists can and do eat meat, just fresh, uncooked meat such as sashimi or ceviche (seafood "cooked"/denatured and preserved naturally by citrus acids rather than heat).

I am definitely interested in learning more about raw food dieting. Because I don't like to be so exclusive when I eat, I don't see myself being a dedicated raw-foodist. But I'd like to enrich my diet with raw food eating habits and delicious raw food recipes, especailly for times where I'd love to naturally detox and rejuvenate my body and mind. I mean who can't use more fresh, raw, and whole foods in their diet? We all can.

I am also ready to start using my juicer more often. In fact, I consider a goof juicer a must-have in a kitchen. It's a wonderful kitchen toy and a worthwhile investment.

The amateur naturopath in me is also interested in exploring diets and foods because I find anything relating to the medicinal, nutritional, and functional properties of food to be captivating. I always want to research, learn about, read about, and experiment with all sorts of ingredients to open up my mind further on different and new ways of eating. I want to learn about foods and ingredients I am not only familiar with but stuff I've never tried or heard about.

I feel that eating should be fun and creative along with nutritive. We should delight in what bring to the table, shop for, and request in our favorite eateries. We should take more pleasures in preparing foods from scratch and respecting what the earth provides for us. We should be far more aware of how our foods are prepared and what goes into our bodies.

We should become more intuitive and mindful eaters. Eating with all of the senses.

Exploration leads to culinary adventure and enlightenment.

• What sorts of foods and new ways of eating have you always wanted to try? 
• What kinds of foods do you like to eat the most?
• What sorts of dietary ventures have you had negative experiences with?
• Have you tried a raw food diet or are you a raw foodist? What are your experiences like? What would you like to share?

Over the Top About Bibimbap

Bibimbap in Stone Pot - Photo by You Know Where You Are

Bibimbap! Bibimbap!! Bibimbap!!!

Such a fun word to say...even if you don't know how to say it!  

How is it pronounced? Well from local Koreans, I've heard it pronounced as [pee-beem-bahp]. Sometimes the first syllable will be pronounced with a "b" sound, but I've been told that the latter pronunciation is proper.

So, what is bibimbap? 

Traditional - Photo by Say Kimchi News

Bibimbap is one of my favorite Asian dishes. I could eat it every day. The dish is Korean and its name means “mixed meal.” It’s very hearty, healthy, filling, and tasty - a complete meal fixed with complex carbs and protein through a serving of various vegetables and select meats. The dish is also perfect to customize for vegetarians and vegans.

As far as some of the ingredients used, bibimbap can be prepared in a number of ways due to its diversity. It’s traditionally served in a hot stone pot, called a dolsot, in which the rice is cooked. The rice is considered the base of the dish and characteristically becomes crispy at the bottom of the dolsot. It's frequently flavored with sesame seed oil for taste and to help along the scorching of the rice as it cooks along the sides and bottom of the stone pot.

The rice is layered with generous but radially arranged and color-orchestrated helpings of fresh and sometimes seasoned vegetables and a select meat, such as bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms, minched beef (usually) or slivers of salmon, carrot julienne, kimchi (yum!), and bok choy or spinach.

This vegetable-laden portion of the meal is referred to as namul (without the meat selection). Namul is a Korean term for a dish or serving filled with a variety of seasoned vegetables. It can be served on its own or as an accompaniment to or inclusion in a meal, such as bibimbap.

Bibimbap is fabulously topped with a fried egg. The egg can be fried or it can be raw or semi-cooked. When the dish is mixed together, the runny and slightly gelled yolk from a semi-cooked or raw egg provides a divine taste, although it might sound weird to some.

Gochujang - photo by Korean Food

A red pepper paste referred to as gochujang is usually added to the dish or served on the side in a small condiment vessel. Gochujang has a spicy and slightly sweet flavor that compliments bibimbap very well. It is meant to be mixed in with the rest of the ingredients, as bibimbap is eaten with a spoon rather with chopsticks or a fork.

Some people love to sprinkle sesame seeds, dried seaweed flakes or even dried bonito flakes over the bibimbap for added texture and flavor.

You can find bibimbap on the menu in most Korean restaurants. If you haven't had it, you should definitely give it a try! Korean food is delicious!

Spicy BBQ Chicken Bibimbap - Photo by Closet Cooking

I personally would love to try my hand at making this dish at home. It seems rather easy, requiring the freshest of ingredients.

I don't own any dolsots (stone bowls), but I am sure I could find such serving pots at local Korean grocery stores or ethnic food supply shops. Or bibimbap can made and served in a basic ceramic bowl such as the one shown in the above photo.

The World According to...Buttercream

Classic buttercream icing

I dream, you dream, we all dream about buttercream!

I simply can't get enough of this stuff...on cakes, cupcakes, pettis fours, cookies, you name it, I love it!

This is the real creamy crack.

What can I say? Buttercream leads to sugar bliss! And any fan of buttercream knows they can have it in so many ways. That's THE icing on the cake!

What is buttercream, really? And what self-proclaimed sugar god or goddess decides what real buttercream is?

My macarons w/ hazelnut butter buttercream

I mean, who am I kidding here? A great deal of writing can be done on just this subject alone. Enough to compose a small book!  Now only if the pages were made out of cake, that would be something truly special and most fitting!

Hmmm, well historically boiled icings, which were some of the first icings, were used on yeast cakes. Yeast cakes were popular before the introduction of baking powder. Boiled icings were similar to today's royal icing and they consisted mainly of sugar and egg whites boiled together with added flavorings. The icings would harden on the cakes and create a sugary, candy-like coating, but around the very early part of the 20th century, buttercream icings began to appear in cake recipes, and over time, many cultures adapted their own versions of buttercream icing for their pastries.

Today, classic buttercream is known to contain a sweet, short, and simple list of ingredients: definitely sugar, almost always butter, possibly eggs, and sometimes milk or cream.

Various versions of buttercream icing are created by using a combination of these ingredients in a multitude of ways.

Let's go down a stellar and fascinating list, shall we?

• French Buttercream (aka pâte á bombe): This icing is made by making sugar syrup from boiled sugar and water and beating it into egg yolks until the mixture is very cooled, airy and creamy. Butter and any flavor extracts or oils are added to the creamed yolk batter to make the final result.
• German Buttercream (pastry cream-based) : This icing base uses pastry cream (same filling used for choux pastry desserts such as profiteroles, eclairs, and cream puffs) or other custards. Butter is beaten into the pastry cream along with any additional flavors to create the icing. Extra sugar can be added to make the icing even sweeter.
• Russian Buttercream: This is also a custard or pastry cream-based icing fused with soft butter, however it is further thickened with cornstarch or flour. 
• Roux Buttercream (aka Heirloom Icing): This is a flour-based buttercream icing. It is made by cooking milk and flour together (roux) and then cooling the roux. A creamed combination of sugar and butter are then added to the roux to make a roux buttercream. 
• French Meringue Buttercream: This is a meringue-based icing. Meringues icings are icings that incorporate egg whites. This icing is traditionally made by whipping egg whites, powdered sugar, and cream of tartar together to form a creamy meringue base. Butter and flavors are then beaten in to finalize the recipe. Some recipes call for the use of whole eggs.
• Italian Meringue Buttercream: Italian meringue buttercream is made by adding hot sugar syrup to beaten egg whites. The sugar syrup's heat cooks the egg whites, and the mixture is then beaten until it cools down to 100 degrees (Fahrenheit). Butter is then added for completion.
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream: Swiss meringue is somewhat similar to Italian meringue, however, sugar (can be brown or white sugar) is cooked with egg whites on a double boiler (bain marie). The mixture is taken off the stove and whipped into stiff peaks. Butter and other flavors are then added to create a Swiss meringue buttercream.
• American Buttercream: American buttercream is also called classic or decorator's buttercream. It is one of the longest-lasting buttercreams, especially if shortening or margarine is used over butter. It's also the simplest to make and no cooking of the ingredients is required. It's made by mixing together butter and powdered sugar. Milk is often added to further cream the base, and buttermilk, cream, nut milks, coconut milk can be substitutes. Cornstarch is sometimes used to further stabilize the icing and in some cases, small amounts of whole eggs, egg yolks or egg whites are used to compliment the texture and taste. Some people still argue that American buttercream made with margarine, shortening or lard is not real buttercream.
• Buttercream Fondant (also called Rolled Buttercream): This icing is great for topping cookies and for creating decorations on top of cakes, as the icing can be shaped and cut with cookie cutters. It is sometimes also used to cover cakes as a tastier, albeit shinier, alternative to traditional fondant. It is made by combining a very large amount of powdered sugar with vegetable shortening, glucose or corn syrup, and any flavors, to create an "icing dough,"which can be molded and kneaded.
• Fruit-based Buttercream: This buttercreams is similar to classic or American buttercream and is sometimes best used as filling or spreads. The icing base is structured around a fruit juice, jam, puree, and the like. Fruit juice, butter, powdered sugar are creamed together to create a fruit buttercream with a strong fruit flavor. Jams, purees, and spreads give fruit buttercreams a fabulous texture. These are especially great used as filling in cake rolls.

Creamy Vanilla French Buttercream Icing

1 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
4 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1/2 cup butter, cubed and cold (4 oz. / 1 stick)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

1. In a saucepan, pour in 1 cup of water and 1 cup of granulated sugar and bring to a boil for about 10-15 minutes or until sugar syrup is reduced by half and thickens.
2. Turn off heat for sugar syrup and set aside.
3. In a large bowl with a stand or hand mixer, beat 4 egg yolks until they are blended well. Beat on medium speed.
4. Add in 1 whole egg and continue to beat the eggs.
5. Take the hot sugar syrup in the saucepan and slowly pour it into the eggs as they are beaten. Beat approximately 10 minutes until the eggs and syrup mixture is cooled, creamy, and light.
6. Add in 1/2 cup of cubed, cold butter and continue to beat the buttercream into smoothness.
7. Include 1 tsp. of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste and blend into the buttercream icing.
8. Use right away for cake, macarons, or cupcake icing or fillings. Store icing in the fridge if used for later. Also great for layers in sponge cake parfaits or trifles.

Photo of buttercream icing from Baking Bits & Bobs

As you can see, the world of buttercream has many citizens, and although what I listed covers most types of buttercreams, there are still more varieties out there to explore.

I, for one, am glad that buttercream fans have so many styles to choose from. Every person will come to have their favorite by trying different ones.

So, buttercream addicts, what's your favorite kind of buttercream? 

Do you know of any other buttercreams that I haven't listened? I'd love to know!

7 Dessert Trends for 2011

Allyson N. Jason ©

What will fall out of dessert heaven for 2011?

The is the hot topic right now.

I have my own predictions about what dessert trends will develop this year, and although some of these predictions might turn out to be wrong, it's still very fun to play Prediction Faery.

Let's take out my large, candy-colored, crystal, jawbreaker globe and talk about the sweetness of the near future.

Doughnuts from Doughnut Plant

1. Doughnuts - Doughnuts will come back into the fold. They never really left, but cupcakes took over and slapped doughnuts out of the spotlight. The low-carb diet craze that peaked during the early 2000s is also to blame, but that diet trend has long since died down, and sugar and dough addiction have come back in the game, full throttle.

I am specifically thinking of gourmet, artisanal, and wedding doughnuts. We'll probably see doughnuts in many novel shapes such as squares. Doughnut Plant, a stylish and popular doughnut shop in New York is creating a lot of buzz with their delish and large square-shaped doughnuts.

In doughnuts, we'll also see new and innovative glazes and fillings (think of doughnuts that resemble macarons!) and doughnuts that feature original and toothsome flavor profiles.

The doughnut will be redressed and embellished. People will become more creative with these classic treats and rediscover their greatness. Wedding and event planners will have a lot of leverage here in helping to bring back the fame of doughnuts across the nation. For weddings, cake doughnuts will bring more versatility for decoration and flavors.
 

Dessert Display by Amy Atlas

2. Dessert Tables - I know what you're thinking. Dessert tables are already commanding the scene, you say, but I feel that dessert tables will continue to soar in popularity, and we'll see even more edgy and imaginative concepts blossom.

Dessert table pioneers like Amy Atlas have shown how brilliant these displays can be. Dessert tables are dream vessels for many artists to showcase their professional skills and talents in the culinary and event planning society. They are a gateway for connecting numerous people from different industries with one another.

Desserts tables command the help of event planners, bakers and cake-makers, graphic designers of many stripes (including arts-and-crafters), illustrators, confectioners, food photographers, specialty food ware shop owners, even food writers, and more. So much goes into planning and setting up a dessert table for any event and the level of creativity that can go into constructing them presents endless imagineering possibilities.

photo by Cake Monkey Bakery

3. Bite-size Treats - We'll see more culinary artistry in the realm of bite-size or individual desserts. New bakeries such as Cake Monkey, which is known to specialize in small desserts with packaging that evokes childhood memories, are becoming more pervasive and trendy.

People love having something special made just for them in cute, little, custom, sugary packages.

Not everyone is always ready to buy an entire cake or a pie, so (big inhale) tartlets, macarons, cookies, cake balls, the ongoing fame of cupcakes, little muffins and teacakes, truffles, petits fours, puff pastry miniatures, chocolates, gourmet candies, parfait cups, and many more tiny delights will continue to present colossal appeal for the masses as they explore both old and new bakeshops while looking for their dessert fixes. (exhale).

Photo from Cook Your Dream

4. Artisan Desserts - There will be an increase of popularity in artisan desserts such as ice creams (big time!), gelatos, frozen yogurts and custards, pies, dessert breads (sweet rolls and sticky buns), chocolates, and other candies.

People everywhere are starting to appreciate more quality ingredients in the foods they consume. More artisan dessert shops and bakeries, such as Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream, are opening up across the nation and they're becoming both more affordable and accessible to many large metropolitan locations, which promise bigger target audiences and opportunities for businesses to catch on and grow. The strong growing support of fresh local ingredients chiefly contributes to this growing trend.

I, for one, hope that it's a trend to stay. High quality should never be a fad.

Photo by Cannelle et Vanille

5. Seasonal Sweets - Many assume artisanal is interchangeable with seasonal. Although sometimes both terms go hand in hand, they are different. Therefore, I feel that seasonal desserts deserve mention in their own category.

Artisanal, to me, means handcrafted and made with natural rather than processed ingredients. However, seasonal desserts are made when ncessary ingredients are in season.. This means the ingredients will be at their best in texture and flavor, thus giving desserts a higher quality in taste when they are served. This also means that specific desserts and flavors won't always be available year round and their prices will be cheaper and fresher when they are season.

These days, more bakeries are offering seasonal desserts and customers are more than happy to wait around for their favorites. Customers also enjoy the diversity and intrigue of seasonally-based menus. Menus in such shops are switched up often and seasonal desserts are appreciated even more when they are finally featured again.

I must mention that fruit jams, jellies, spreads, and dessert relishes are becoming popular as seasonal items that are preserved for year-round purchase from small food shops and housemade dessert sellers. Blogs such as Punk Domestics are showcasing just how starchy this trend in preserved seasonal foods is becoming. I could even give canning and preserves a category of its own as a dessert trend prediction, but I'll keep my list of predictions to lucky number 7!

Chocolate fondue at The Melting Pot

6. Fondue Bars and Parlors - Fondue-centric restaurants and dessert bars will pick up in popularity.

I feel that in 2011, more people will have a desire to explore and seek out new dining experiences. Fondue bars and parlors offer patrons the ability to be super tasteers and entertain their palettes with mix-and-match flavor options..

This year is the best time to open up a fondue dessert bar or visit one in your local area, because the distinctive and fun dining style provided in most fondue places is catching on.

Fondue joints are not only known for providing places for people to uniquely socialize, they also provide a do-it-yourself eating experience for customers.

Usually diners in fondue restaurants are expected to cook their own foods at the table, but since we are discussing dessert, diners can expect to serve themselves from an array of fresh slices of fruits, pieces of chocolates, cubes of brioche breads, and various other sweet items such as marshmallows, with an assortment of stimulating dipping sauces. Menus are usually open and they vary from one fondue place to the next.

Popular sauces are caramel, chocolate, butterscotch, marshmallow cream, hot fruit glazes, and warm puddings, custards and creams. In fondue eateries, diners can be as creative and experimental as they wish to be with many possibilities of creating custom flavor combinations. Again, this is a tasteer's fantasy.

It might be hard to find a place in your neck of the woods that specializes in just fondue, but fondue restaurants such as The Melting Pot are giving people a chance to see what the fondue dining experience is all about.

Pie from Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Shop

7. Pies and Tarts - We've seen a lot of cupcake, doughnut, and ice cream, frozen yogurt, and gelato shops, but pie shops are becoming the new kids in dessert town.

These are bakeries completely or mostly dedicated to serving pies and tarts -- bakeries such as Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie shop, located in Brooklyn, New York.

I like to call them "pieries" [PIE-uh-ries] or [PIE - rees]. Don't you just LOVE the way that word sounds? I do!

Some pieries serve pies based on seasonal ingredients, but most up-and-coming pie shops tend to be artisanal. This means that pies are handmade, served with fresh, quality ingredients and customers can either dine in and share a pie or large tart around a table in a gathering or order for take out or special events such as weddings and parties. Event planners are hearing more about weddings that request themed tarts and pies, rather than cake or cupcakes, as the dessert focus.

---

Well, my fellow sugar adventurers, this spells the end of my predictions for 2011 dessert trends. I based on my predictions on intuition, paying attention to what seems popular in the food and dining industry, lately, and on what I feel would be cool to see more of in this promising new year.

So, what do YOU think?

Do you have any dessert trend predictions for the New Year?

If so, do tell!

Baking Adventure 20: Old-fashioned Glazed Buttermilk Doughnuts

Glazed Buttermilk Doughnuts!

First, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

I hope everyone's year is getting off to a good start, as mine surely is.

It's been awhile since I've posted an update to my food blog. A lot has happened since my last entry in early December and I am feeling recharged and rejuvenated for 2011. There are lots of foods I'll be exploring, learning, and sharing, so I hope you guys are ready to continue this journey with me. :)

Although not technically a BAKING adventure, I finally got around to making doughnuts!

I love doughnuts, have always wanted to make them from scratch, and these days, it's hard to find a really good doughnut in most bakeries. Buttermilk doughnuts have always been my favorite amongst the vast assortment of doughnut types.

Doughnuts are as iconic as cupcakes, but the popularity of doughnuts has died down a bit in the last few years.  Before the cupcake craze in North America, there was the doughnut craze, thanks to the influence of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and various other doughnut chains. Although Krispy Kreme was established in 1937 and doughnuts have long been enjoyed by so many, widespread and rabid consumption of doughnuts began in the late 1990s and peaked in the early 2000s.

There are a bunch of ways to prepare and make doughnuts, and many cultures have their own spin on doughnut-making techniques and doughnut flavors.

Cake doughnuts and yeast dough doughnuts are the two prominent categories of doughnut types. Cake doughnuts can be fried or baked, but traditionally doughnuts have been fried for the best of taste and texture. I personally enjoy fried doughnuts over baked, and yeast dough doughnuts over specialized cake batter doughnuts (although beignets in the U.S, which are French New Orleans doughnuts, are traditionally made from choux pastry dough like éclairs).

What Do You Know?: Canadians consume the most doughnuts and have the most doughnut shops and bakeries per capita, compared to other regions globally.

Doughnuts can be made with honey, various fruits, custard, and cream fillings, buttermilk, butter, shortening (animal or vegetable), maple syrup, brown sugar, and so on. The list seems endless.

Doughnuts also come in a variety of shapes but the most common and traditional shapes are:

• rings (the most classic shape of all, round with a hole in the middle)
• twists (think of crullers; ring-shaped doughnuts made from twisted dough)
• rectangular bars (these resemble flattened éclairs and are sometimes called Long Johns)
• rounded squares (with or without holes)
• round, flattened spheres (usually made to inject with different fillings)
• knots or bits (usually doughnut holes removed from the middle of ring-shaped doughnuts)

I personally feel that a good old-fashioned glazed doughnut can never go out of style. The taste and texture is classic and this is the first doughnut recipe I decided to try. I plan to go on a "great doughnut expedition" in the next month or so, trying out various recipes to document and compare.

So let's start talking about my adventure in making glazed buttermilk doughnuts.

A Look Into Cupcake Camp LA 2010

The closeup shot of the Cupcake Camp LA poster!

I finally attended my first local food event. Well not literally, but I mean in an industry-related sense -- an event totally related to food and for dessert lovers of the cupcake stripe.

There are so many food events going on annually but I haven't been able to afford some of them because many are out of state and even out of the country! The long distance of these events raises the financial investment of going where I'd be concerned about not only cost of admission, but hotel stay and airfare pricing. However, I am lucky in that Los Angeles, a food city in its own right, has so much going on food-wise.

Many of you have probably heard of Cupcake Camp, started by Ariel Waldman, Lynn, Marianne Masculino, and Cindy Li. The original and first Cupcake Camp started in San Francisco in 2009 (hard to believe it wasn't that long ago!). Since then, there are over 40 different locations that host Cupcake Camp events annually. Some of those hosting locations are even beyond North America.

Los Angeles finally had its first Cupcake Camp, produced by Bakespace.com and spearheaded by Babette Pepaj. I decided I was going to attend and I bought a VIP ticket through a club discount. I figured why not buy the best admission to get in and show my support for the sponsors and charities that helped make the event possible since it's charity-driven.

The sponsors and charities at the event were:

• Bakespace.com
• Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker
• Invisible People
• Angel Acres Horse Haven Rescue
• American Tortoise Rescue
• Wilton
• Groupon
• HINT (their drinks were served at the second floor bar for free, of course!)
• Jelly Belly

 The event took place at the Music Box. 

It was my first time going there, so I was excited about that, too. Just a few nights before, Blonde Redhead (a band I adore) was playing.

Although I know my way around LA reasonably well in various parts and I'm a native, sometimes I get tripped up with directions if I am looking out for a particular venue. As a result, my drive to the Music Box was kind of an adventure, driving all around West LA, and taking a sightseeing drive toward Hollywood. One I enjoyed and needed.

Fitness and the Foodie

"Never trust a skinny chef."

I've heard this phrase a thousand times and up until recently, didn't give it much thought. I think it's a cute and amusing phrase (still) that simply implies that the best cooks, chefs, and/or bakers are those who LOVE food so much that there's no way they could be skinny. They need to bring this zealous, culinary spirit into the kitchen when preparing foods so that flavors pop and perform, smells intoxicate and arouse, and the profound presentation of plates dramatically kidnap breath from many throats that can barely muster "ahhhh!"

Basically, the phrase says skinny chefs are those who restrain themselves far too much to enjoy and make good food.

Hmm...well...

Let's be honest. There's some truth to that, but it's not completely true.

I do believe that foodies are people who naturally and avidly enjoy all things food and drink, even given each of our various approaches and distinctive leanings toward particular cuisines and flavors, and our specific areas of focus in the realm of  food mania.  It's hard to be a strict disciplinarian with one's waistline when there's so much love going on here.

The love of food naturally spells out passion. That's obvious. Foodies don't just eat to function and to satisfy hunger. And, we often know that passion, in any form, should be unbridled and uninhibited. At least, that's what most of us think about passion when pondering over the nature of it. Passion is not passion unless it's intense, deep, and obsessive...and free.

Passion, like anything else that's exhilarating, can become warped and darkly baroque and lead to irresponsibility and addiction. There always has to be a checks and balances on most things, right? I shall say that food is certainly no area exempt from this supposition.

So, when it comes to the phrase "never trust a skinny chef," I think some foodies do realize that unchecked passion with food can lead to bad health over time. The body has its limits and we each should know our own. Every person is different.

I believe strongly in the philosophy of HAES (Health at Every Size). This acronym means that what is healthy for one person weight-wise might not be so healthy for another and that intuitive eating is the best way to achieve and maintain good health. The goal should not be to become skinny, but simply healthy, and a person can be healthy with extra weight given their unique body dynamics and limitations. This is fact.

It's only been recent that North America's body ideals have related to being at the lowest end possible of BMI. And let's face it, that BMI system itself is not so accurate for some. I'm one of those people.

So some bona fide foodies can indeed be "skinny." I think some people either have very fast metabolisms (although most people are average this way) or they find ways to incorporate a good degree of physical activity and balance in their eating into their lives to where they work off any excess weight, whatever the motivations are behind their actions. They allow themselves to eat whatever they want, but in moderation and sometimes perhaps with substitutions.

I do think that women in the food industry are under even more pressure than average to remain visually appealing, conventionally, and still exude this orgasmic attitude about food. Food is everywhere in the food biz, so there's more to watch out for if one doesn't want to fall out of popularity, given what they are known for.

Over time, as I've observed some of the most conventionally attractive celebrity chefs on Food Network and The Cooking Channel, I've seen there have been periods where they were a bit pudgier or heavier. Giada De Laurentiis' weight can fluctuate at times, I've noticed. She is very petite but she's been chunkier during certain seasons of her shows. This wasn't just when she was pregnant. The woman enjoys food and if she didn't work out to maintain her weight, I can easily seeing her being naturally chubby. In my book, she'd certainly still be cute as I am not at all fat-phobic like I used to be and as the average person tends to be, but I know viewers would give her tons of criticism for "letting herself go."

Some others chefs have even been criticized for their weight gain (Nigella Lawson comes to mind), but I notice that in this industry there's still a bit more acceptance towards plus-sized bodies than in others, overall.

To name a few...

• Guy Fieri
• Sunny Anderson
• Anne Burrell
• Ina Garten
• Paula Deen
• Emeril Lagasse
• Nigella Lawson
• Jeffrey Steingarten
• Mario Batali
• Rachael Ray (her weight fluctuates)
• Alex Guarnaschelli

 If you take a good look, all of the average-sized chefs have their chubby or pudgy moments as well. Not many are very thin naturally. You can tell most work out to keep up appearances. Even Bobby Flay has indeed been far more stockier than he is at the moment.

The reality and what viewers must realize is chefs and food hosts aren't on their shows showing America how to cook and how to masturbate at the same time. It's not meant to be any porn but food porn.

Also, who wants to see someone completely anorexic-looking cooking? Not me. You know that just doesn't look and seem right. I understand we want people to look somewhat attractive while they cook, even if that for some people means thinner, but seriously, these food channels aren't substitutes for the Playboy channel so I often find it incredibly ridiculous when certain food celebs are put down for any weight gain or any change in their physical appearance. It's often female hosts, too.

In the everyday life of a chef, it is best for chefs to be in shape. I am aware of this. Cooking in commercial kitchens in food establishments is hard work. You stand on your feet all day without many breaks, you are moving about doing a variety of chores and tasks, you are lifting and cleaning a lot of large-scale commercial equipment, you endure repetitive movements, and you must be quick, efficient, and agile. If you are out of shape, I can't see this kind of career being anything one would endure for long, if at all.

But, all foodies aren't commercial chefs and there are such people as fat chefs, cooks, and bakers who make magic in the kitchen and manage to hold their own very well.

I hear that bakers tend to be less lean than their savory cook counterparts. Not sure why this is or if this is really true. In some bakeries, activity can be quite hectic, especially if there are long lines and lots of little tasks to do with a multitude of pastries and desserts. I think some people might think that because baking is more exact in nature than cooking, standing for a longer time concentrating on the precision of design or a technique is far more common than in a savory kitchen. Point taken.

As a foodie, I realize that I need to keep a watch on my personal obsession with food, especially desserts.

Recently, I've gotten back into a daily gym schedule because as I bake often, I know that being around so much decadence is tempting. I have such a high tolerance for sweets and if I don't control myself, that passion turns topsy-turvy and like any good carousel ride, it's fun for the time being and you want to come back intermittently for the thrill, but you never want to stay on forever nonstop or find yourself strapped down on a candy-colored faux horse as the carousel moves into surreal warp speed until you are violently sick and put out commission completely.

OK...that was rather disturbing...

Well, anyway, what are your thoughts on the phrase: "Never Trust a Skinny Chef"?

Do you feel it has truth or merit?
Are you a foodie or a cook in any manner and if so, how do you personally relate to this phrase?

A Slow Roast Break

What a wonderful idea for a cake...

In a week or so (hopefully a little less than a week), I will be back to regular posting, but I wanted to give you guys an official notice about my decision in taking a break. Don't worry, it's just a short one! So stay tuned, I will be back soon.

There are some family issues that I must tend to among other a few other things. While I am on break, I will certainly be planning more entries and future activities for this blog such as:

• more documented baking adventures (I have lots of recipes in mind, also feel free to send me any ideas)
• some cooking adventures (savory foods which you haven't seen here yet)
• changes in layout and a possible move to Wordpress format 
• new site title and logo design (have a couple of names in mind)
• creative, food-related info session and random thoughts entries
• updates and reviews (ingredients, bakeries)

If you wish to contact me about anything, take a look at my contact page on my site menu, located on the left sidebar. :)

A Paperless Literary World

Digital print: Completely replacing traditional publishing?

I've yet to get an iPad, a Kindle, or any of the other eBook readers or related gadgets that are out in stores. I don't have anything against them, personally, it's just a matter of what my fiances will allow nowadays, and not yet getting around to buying any of this stuff.

It's hard enough to keep track of the lightning fast changes happening in digital technology every minute, especially in the realm of publishing.

For dessert, food, and beverage magazines, I tend to prefer a traditional magazine format. Well, I tend to prefer a hard copy for most of my reading. There's something very rewarding and visceral about holding a copy of a book or magazine in one's hands. Additionally, I love the smell of the pages and the sounds of flipping them over.

In the last few years, more print magazines have either folded entirely or gone totally digital...or they continue to fund both digital and hard print format if they and their sponsors can continue to afford it and evolve with changing dynamics in their core audiences.

Gourmet Magazine comes to mind. Gourmet's print magazine was taken off the market by Conde Nast at the end of last year. Why did they fold? Rumor has it that they just could not compete well with a changing audience that reflected recent economic changes and with increasing digital print publishing demands. They simply became out of sync and a lot of their advertising support was also tied into newspaper publications, which were also going out of print.

I recently discovered that there is going to be a digital app called "Gourmet Live" for the now defunct print magazine. The application will be available for iPad and other mobile gadgets. These app will allow users to download digital content, view videos, read articles, browse menus, and look at tons of photos. So it seems that digital apps are another new tangent that magazines, both current and former, are looking into to transition from or broaden to hard print to soft.

So what do my purchasing trends reveal? Well let's just say I have such a huge collection of food and dessert magazines that it's mind-boggling. Stacks of magazines and books dominant a great deal of my closet space and book shelves. I especially love collecting special editions of select food and dessert magazines whenever they are released. I find them to be visual and text-laden treats to gawk at, study, savor, and share with others when I am out of the house and about. I also appreciate the combined technical skills, layout and editing artistry, and literary contributions that go into developing a print magazine. The process behind this creative mosaic of expressed efforts should not become a lost art. So, my purchasing power also reflects a personal desire to support.

One of the magazines I read is Desserts magazine, which is exclusively an online publication. It's a fascinating and very informative magazine with tons of eye candy featuring dessert trends and recipes from all over the world, but I wouldn't mind an actual hard print copy of each edition or certain ones that I've greatly enjoyed in particular. 

Making it so that hard print versions are available for purchase is great for building a physical collection of magazines to thumb through anytime I want without having to log onto the computer.

With that said, of course there certainly are benefits to being paperless, too. No byproducts or waste, no clutter or ever-growing stacks of magazines taking up space in one's house or apartment, and magazines basically are non-destructible when they are in a virtual/digital format. You can get unlimited copies from an original soft copy source.  

So, what do you think?  

Do you prefer to read your culinary magazines or books on a Kindle, iPad or any other eReader?

Would you ever go out and buy any of those new apps for your mobile toy?

How do you feel about the changes that the publishing industry is going through? Should all reading eventually become paperless?

Baking Adventure 19: Nomtastic Chocolate Eclairs

Photo of some of my chocolate eclairs with vanilla pastry cream

Who dares to say they don't like eclairs?

Not me!

I've totally developed a new-found appreciation for eclairs. I've always seen and had these lush French treats at gourmet bakeries, once in a blue moon.  For that reason, up until recently, I regarded them as an exclusive treat, something I didn't get to have anytime I wanted, unless I was wiling to go out and search high and low for the best offerings of them around town.

So I thought to myself, how cool would it be to make these sweet pastry logs of decadence at home!

Eclair in French means "lightning," although no one is quite sure how the meaning ties into the dessert. (Maybe because they don't last very long on a platter or they always light up faces in a room when finally presented in full glory on a dessert tray? Just sayin'. LOL)

Eclairs are heavenly French pastries made with a choux pastry dough and are the cousins of cream puffs, beignets (which are fried rather than baked) and profiteroles, also made with choux paste. Choux paste is usually made with eggs, flour, butter, water and sugar (if it is for a dessert as choux pastries can be savory, too). The choux paste is piped out, through a pastry bag affixed with a large round tip, in long 4-6 inch strips on a baking sheet to make the characteristic hot dog bun shape of the eclairs. Eclairs are split in half lengthwise, hollowed out, or punctured at the end to make a filling hole and then they can be filled with puddings, custards, pastry creams, fruit preserves, whipped cream, mousses, curds and icings. *exhales* The tops of eclairs are usually dressed with a coat of chocolate ganache, chocolate glazes, chocolate poured fondant, chocolate icing and sometimes alternative toppings like caramel and butterscotch sauces. Yum! 

Through my research, I found that eclairs are rather easy to make, but you must set them up in 3 stages or what I like to call "dessert scenes."

Little Pink Dictionary: Desserts scenes are distinctive parts or stages in a dessert recipe. They are different than merely steps. For example, basic butter cakes often have 2 dessert scenes -- the cake batter-making scene and the icing-making scene: two parts that come together as a whole to create an exhilarating dessert "cinematic" experience on the taste buds and in the mind. When you think of dessert scenes think of a movie totally made out of sugar, sweet spices, and sprinkles comprised of fun and sparkly dessert scenes.

The three dessert scenes for an eclair are the scene for the dough, a scene for the filling, traditionally a pastry cream, and a scene for the topping.

I began my chocolate eclair adventure by doing the dessert scenes in this order and I gathered up the initial ingredients for my choux paste.

Concepts: Pop-Up Bakeries & Bakery Crawls

Bake sales have been going on for quite some time, so they are nothing new, but along with the recent explosion of food truck eateries and secret, closed-door restaurants, pop-up bakeries have become quite the trend.

What is a pop-up bakery?

A pop-up bakery is a temporary bakery, often featured as a scheduled "bake sale" event by an established bakery that either has a dedicated storefront (otherwise) or only presently caters and offers its products in various shops or online.

Some bakeries will host pop-up bakery events in random places to keep customers and fans guessing where the next bake sale will be. Others will host pop-up bakeries at special events, in a temporary space for an extended period of time, or at other eateries, such as restaurants or delis.

In LA, bakeries such as Cake Monkey Bakery and Platine Cookies have participated in pop-up bakery events. Cake Monkey opened up a pop-up bakery in Silver Lake a few months ago and scheduled bake sales on the weekend. Platine Cookies hosted a pop-up bakery with British fashion designer, Anya Hindmarch for a fund-raising benefit.

Although bake sales aren't known to rake in big bucks, they are great for cross-promoting and networking with other businesses, increasing exposure for bakeries, and expanding a shop's fan base by bringing in a larger local target audience. Overall, they bring excitement, engagement, and adventure to a company's profile.

As for bakery crawls, I'd like to think of bakery crawls as a gathering of pop-up bakeries, where various bakeries will show up at a mutually agreed upon spot or space (indoor or outdoor), within a collaboration, and all participate in offering their sugary wares to voraciously, sweet-toothed customers. Bakeries will sell for a few hours or until everything runs out. If a bakery has a dedicated storefront or a website, this is the best time for businesses to pass out business cards and stylish take-home menus (usually showing other goods that are for sale online or in their usual shop), and spread awareness in general.

Some people might consider bakery crawls in the exact same context they view pub crawls, which means that a bakery crawl can also simply be a themed outing for a group of people, in an area around a city where there's likely to be a string of bakeries in close proximity to one another that everyone can visit back to back. A lively social day out, basically.

That definitely sounds like my kind of fun.

Little Pink Dictionary: I have this term that I coined for a day filled with adventure and fun from very early in the day to late in the night: Candy Day. A candy day is a day where one continuously delights the senses by partaking in enriching, often soul-warming, and spirited, pleasurable activities. A candy day can be had alone, with a like-minded and equally enthusiastic romantic partner (my favorite), or a group of fun-loving friends and acquaintances.

Baking Adventure 18: Extreme Chocolate Cheesecake

Half-view of Extreme Chocolate Cheesecake (click on all photos to enlarge)

How often do you book time for a chocolate vacation?

What's a chocolate vacation, you wonder?

A chocolate vacation can be literal, as there are many exotic and brilliant places to travel to in order to research and explore pure fine chocolates and fantastic chocolate dessert creations, but a chocolate vacation can certainly be a traveling-without-moving experience, too...and often is.

For those lucky people, chocolate induces a lush and addictive state of euphoria when consumed, placing them into a lulling chocolate coma which can last for hours. That's a chocolate vacation, my cacao cohorts.

Inside Info: Unfortunately, as much as I LOVE chocolate, I don't enjoy the effect it often has on my system. The darker and more concentrated the chocolate is with cacao, the stronger those effects are for me. There are others like myself who experience the same averse reactions from consuming chocolate and more research is coming out on this as I type. The rewarding, drug-like, euphoric effects only last a brief time for me, regardless of how much I adore the flavors of chocolate. After chocolate consumption, that short spurt of joy passes for me and my moods crash and send me into the land of chocolate nightmares or perhaps a down state worthy of being called "chocolate psychosis." I'll allow myself to have chocolate on a rare occasion knowing they'll be consequences, but that doesn't stop me from experimenting with chocolate desserts and recipes. OK, I am lying, those consumptive occasions aren't so rare. I can be hardheaded at times, you know...

So, let's move onto cheesecake and how it all ties in with the talk of chocolate...

For starters, I'll mention that I've had a weird love affair with cheesecake over the years. I used to be absolutely bonkers about cheesecake when I was a little girl. It was one of my favorite desserts, then by the time I entered my teenage years, my love for cheesecake waned. I could take it or leave it but, of course, never hated it. I just became picky.

I began to think that most cheesecake batters either created a peculiar flavor in the mouth the longer I kept a forkful on the tongue or left a weird aftertaste in the mouth that I didn't care for. As my mid-twenties approached, my love for cheesecake picked up again because I began exploring a variety of cheesecake flavors and styles in restaurants and deli bakeries and found types and batters I preferred more. Some cheesecakes definitely taste better than others depending on what is used in the batter.

♥ I'll have to do a info-focused cheesecake entry someday because there are so many different ways to make a traditional cheesecake according to custom and region and it's tremendously fascinating to learn about.

I've made cheesecakes before, but my play was limited and they were mostly no-bake cheesecakes or those made in pie crust pans without a really stable batter.

Vanilla Peach Cheesecake with fresh peach preserves

In the last couple of weeks, I've been busy experimenting with cheesecake-making again and after making a tasty vanilla peach cheesecake, I moved on to visions of "Cheesecake in Chocolate! Now playing at your local theatre!"

I love that cheesecakes can come in so many different colors and flavor profiles other than the traditional, plain, cream-colored variety. A hyper chocolate cheesecake made from chocolate through and through sounded superb and I couldn't wait to try it out.

I took it upon myself to research a lot of different recipes and come up with what I think is a good cheesecake recipe to experiment with as a base batter. Most of my research finds recommended baking cheesecakes in water baths for a smooth, evenly-baked, creamy consistency that didn't crack. This is something else I'd never done when making cheesecakes.

The Business of Breakfast

"Pancakes & Juice" Allyson N. Jason © 2010

I've never been much of a breakfast foods person, but I do love that there is a distinct category of foods deemed ideal for early morn eating.

The tradition of breakfast has been around for a long time all across the globe and each culture has their own brand of established "breakfast foods." Over time, I think each culture has come to see certain foods as customary for breakfast based on influences such as physical labor patterns, accessible native ingredients and crops, nutrition beliefs, and family customs. Breakfast is still considered the most important meal of the day, second to dinner, because it's a starter to a full day which usually involves a work schedule and some form of long-standing labor in most societies. In the past, fueling up during breakfast was far more crucial because a lot of work consisted of physical labor over modernity's trend of desk/office labor.

For North America, our breakfast culture is hugely inspired by English traditions. Yes, we have a mosaic of other cultural influences on breakfast eating, but by large, the influence seems to be English. The English would traditionally eat full meals (meaning involving several courses in one) during mornings (in some regions, meaning only weekend mornings) consisting of foods and drinks such as biscuits, porridge, tea, bacon, potatoes, grilled tomatoes, sausage, eggs, toast, black pudding and even baked beans. Occasionally, fish would be on the morning menu. This could possibly explain the tradition of fish and grits developing in southern U.S. states over time, although I am not entirely sure of the origins of eating grits with some type of fish (shrimp and grits is popular, too!).  Grits and fish together might also have mixed influences from African and Native American cultures, since grits (similar to English porridge) are Native American in origin.

"Eggs & Sausages" (part of "Full Breakfast" illustration) Allyson N. Jason © 2010

Breakfast, regardless of cultural variation and style, universally brings about tradition, community and...memories.

I might not care for the typical breakfast sausage, side of bacon, bowl of grits or fried egg saucer/plate-display, but the smell of breakfast undeniably reminds me of my childhood -- of being young, being around my family, and simplicity.

I remember those times when my mom would wake me up to get ready for school and she'd have a plate of grits, bacon. and fried eggs ready for breakfast with a large, tall, glass of pulpy orange juice. I would always arrive to school either smelling like a mix of peppered and salted fried eggs and fried cured meats or the sweet smell of faux-maple syrup (because most American syrups are really corn syrup concoctions with little to no actual maple syrup in it) and pancakes. On luckier days, I'd see a fresh plate of waffles and I'd douse them generously with butter, syrup and whipped cream. Sometimes, I'd show up to school with faint oatmeal breath and some overlooked drops of brightly colored fruit juice splattered on my school dress or shirt. The smell of breakfast was always tied to routine, starting the day,  morning, and family.

Other nostalgic mornings, usually weekends or weekdays I'd stay home from school sick, would involve waking up early to catch my favorite morning cartoons. Saturday morning cartoons were the best, in particular. I loved cartoons back then and I love them madly today, but watching them during my childhood brought about the most special and cherished moments. You just can't mimic those times --true innocence, the world seeming larger than ever, and hopes and dreams totally laden with charming, sweet, and quixotic naïveté.

The smell of breakfast foods brings all of that back for me. This is why I cherish continually cultivating the tradition of breakfast, although I find myself being quite picky over what I'll have, especially given my mood. I sometimes go "maverick" and have foods normally considered proper for lunch or dinner, such as salads, hot and savory soups, noodle dishes and stir fry meals. I occasionally get comments from others telling me how strange my choices of foods are for mornings. I mean who eats a spicy, three-cheese burrito for breakfast? Who considers sushi and sashimi in the morning? Who wants that leftover penne pasta with homemade pesto sauce from last night for breakfast? Who in their right mind eats a heavy slice of cheesecake drenched in caramel sauce for breakfast?

I raise my hand and casually answer "me" to all of those questions amid bewildered looks of distaste and odd gag-enriched reactions. In an effort to defend myself, while still holding pride in my choice to be so "unique and daring," I must say I don't eat those things often for breakfast, but yes I do jump off the breakfast foods train once in awhile to go and "explore the wild bustling city." Sometimes, I don't board any train at all and I just stay inside my lone, quaint cabin with a growling protesting stomach until evening sets. Yes, I know, I can be very bad and *gasp* skip breakfast.

I think skipping breakfast naturally comes with being such a night owl. I know breakfast is important to start the day and it is never my intention to not eat a good starter meal, but if you're nocturnal, nothing about your schedule (and the details involved in defining it) is normal to begin with.

With all of this breakfast talk, I am actually inspired to go and get a new waffle iron . My old one is long gone and even if I knew where it was, its condition would be too far gone for proper use. I hear that pizzelles are all the rage now, so someday I'll try my hand at preparing those. Pizzelles seem like a sophisticated way to have waffles for those romantic, European-inspired bed and breakfast goers who want something special. As with so many things, they are on my culinary to-do list, too.

What do you enjoy having for breakfast and what kind of associations does breakfast bring about for you?

"Are the Cameras Rolling Yet?"

A set of cooking utensils in a commercial kitchen at Surfas

What does it take to have one's own cooking show? Would it be an easy thing to do? Have you ever thought about it?

I sure have! I've always wondered what it would be like to have my own cooking show. Online media has expanded and developed so much, that now it's very possible for just about anyone to build an online presence in so many ways. Video presentation is exploding and the trend is not one that seems like any fad. I think sites like YouTube have truly revolutionized the way that people browse, socialize, and tune in online. Anyone can have a voice.

I've daydreamed about having a cooking show for a long time. I think  if I were to really analyze my strengths and weaknesses objectively, with the right resources and much practice, I'd be great at such a venture.

In workshop with Clemence teaching her baking workshop with macarons and being filmed for a local Asian channel

The reality? I don't feel I am in any current position to start such a venture, at least not adequately, but as inferred, it's long been on my to-do list. The steps I am taking now are all building up to that particular plan. I started an entry a while back on wanting to set up a food-based site with all things I do related to food featured on the site. Well, I am still working on that behind the scenes and it will take awhile because, at times, it can actually feel like a daunting task. Doable, but lots of work. The vision is there but there's so much content that I have to build and work on in order to make sure the site has substance. It might be that I'll have my site up with everything else and plan to incorporate the video section later, when I am ready.

I haven't even come up with a title for the site or even my persona. Do I go by my own name or do I create something very catchy and stylish? If it's the latter, then it must be something that captures the essence of my voice and personality. That's one of the harder things to do.

So where does a cooking show fit in with all of this? Well, it's one section I'd be thrilled to have on my food site. I'd want viewers to be able to learn from things I discover and feel passionate about. I'd want viewers to be able to get to know me in an intimate but professionally down-to-earth sense. When you put an actual voice and face to an online presence, you get multidimensionality and that's what I'd like to offer eventually.

So what would be needed to start my own cooking show? I've taken time to think about this and these are some necessities that stand out right away:

1. First and foremost, a solid plan which addresses cooking show angle and theme, title of the show,  filming schedules, recipe line up, tutorial set-ups, target audience, budget, and so forth; basically the entire vision detailed in all of its glory.
2. A reasonably authoritative knowledge in food (whether it is with desserts or savory cooking or some subset of either of these two broad categories or both. One doesn't need to be Alton Brown, but a cook show host should certainly know what they are doing and talking about in order to build plausibility and a good reputation)
3. An authentic personal style in front of the camera; a unique voice and point of view
4. A dedicated kitchen or any other related filming location that will be steadily used for filming of the show
5. Video recording equipment and film editing software (definitely something like Final Cut Pro), props, and lighting. (Good thing I do know Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Flash, LiveType and the like; a bit rusty in some of these, but the knowledge foundation is there)
6. Weekly rehearsals and practice sessions in front of the camera before final filming
7. Good short scriptwriting or storyboard skills
8. A lack of inhibition, or a willingness to overcome performance and social inhibitions over time.
9. Assistants and small, accessible work crew; people who can help film, set up, prep during cooking edits, and cue (can't do everything on one's own; well maybe, but why make things harder?)
10. A marketing and social platform to upload videos and promote the show online in a viral fashion
11. Friends who enjoy food, both cooking and eating it. (It's great to have people on the show as guests or as other personalities to mix the viewing platform up a bit)

These are just some of the things I can think of that are must-haves for starting a cooking show.

As for the inhibition item, I think that's quite important to consider. I certainly have my own inhibitions and I look forward to a chance to overcome them and to grow. It's part of getting to know yourself and to see how you thrive. I feel you can't truly find your place and footing unless you stick your neck out there like a turtle and take a risk. All of those cooking personalities we see on TV had to overcome a lot of uncertainties and shyness.

I think it is also good to network with a bunch of people in the food industry. The more people I know, the more I'd be able to do video interviews, which people love watching. I naturally enjoy asking people questions about their motivations, their backgrounds, their passions, and their interests. I would certainly have fun doing some videos like that.

Not all of the videos would have to be cooking show tutorials or how-to's. Some of them, as already mentioned, could be interview sessions with various restaurants owners or bakeshop entrepreneurs. Some videos could be simple info-sessions about the nature of a particular ingredient or culinary travel location. I think it would be quite entertaining to feature and film a small dinner party or get-together around a table. Everyone could bring food they've cooked to feature on the show. The video would capture comments on food around the table, entertaining chit-chat, lively interaction and basic interpersonal chemistry between everyone at the food gathering. We see a bit of this in Giada at Home, and with certain episodes from Barefoot Contessa when Ina cooks for friends and her husband.

I was thinking a few months ago that if I had the means, I'd fancy having a get-together that involved a few people in a mock-Chopped competition. The rest of the gathering would be a mix of judging and watching but two to three guests would be chosen for competition in the kitchen with randomly matched ingredients in a box. I guess the challenge of such a video would be that, unlike on the set for Chopped, each competitor wouldn't experience the luxury of having their own cooking station, so that everyone could cook simultaneously and effectively.

There are a bunch of platforms for uploading videos and creating viewing channels for them. Vimeo is still going strong, but YouTube is most popular. I really dig iTunes because of the video podcast (or vodcast) sphere it provides. There's an insane amount to discover in podcasting. I think once you get used to video subscriptions for anything food-related, you just don't go back to simple voice. I think it makes sense, in most cases, to provide something visual for the audience for a podcast cooking show.

Who wants to learn about roasting a turkey without seeing anything? Doesn't make much sense and I bid any subscriber trying to painstakingly learn from that, a hefty dose of good luck. LOL

But if someone were to provide a show merely about food triva, food-related commentary, or food facts, video might not be so necessary. It still never hurts, though.

I am not sure when I'll be able to accomplish such a goal: creating my own cooking show. But I'm working on it and building up to that point. I am getting all of my ducks in a row so they can begin quacking in harmony and in beautiful rounds.