An evening at the James Beard Awards

Last Friday I took the train down to New York City to attend the 2012 James Beard Federation Awards dinner as a nominee at the Books, Broadcast and Journalism awards. It is the JBF’s 25th annual awards celebration. When I heard my name announced over the livestream broadcast from the press lunch in Las Vegas [...]

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James Beard 2012 nominee: “The Big Stir”

I’ve got some thrilling news! My cover story for The Christian Science Monitor has been selected as a James Beard award nominee under “Food Coverage in a General-Interest Publication,” a new category this year. “The Big Stir” was the title on the cover of the July 11, 2011 magazine, but you can find it online under [...]

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Are you an urban homesteader?

This past summer I visited my college friend Enicia who is a “homesteader” in Wildomar, Calif. What makes my soft-spoken, gentle friend a homesteader? Maybe it is the 14 variety of heirloom tomatoes she grows, the flock of heritage breed chickens that scratch around her porch, and the .22 handgun that she used to blow [...]

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Foodie Nation

Update: This cover story just got nominated for a James Beard Award!! Do you know what amuse bouche means? Do you know how to emulsify? Do you cheer on chefs while watching the Food Network as you eat handfuls of popcorn seasoned with nutritional yeast? Do you chase food trucks on Twitter? You know who [...]

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A real English breakfast for a royal wedding

When Prince William and Kate Middleton exchange vows on April 29 in Westminster Abbey there will be millions of pajama-clad Americans tuning in to watch and I am not ashamed to admit that I will be one of them. I am not a huge Royal follower. But I was a Diana follower. As a fifth [...]

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Taste Test at Perkins School for the Blind

It goes without saying that a dish of food may smell good but if it doesn’t look good, you don’t really want to eat it. Decadent, delicious photos of food have captured the public’s attention to the point that this kind visual stimulation has spawned two 24-hour food networks, more than 11,000 food blogs (ahem), [...]

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Movie review: “Fresh”

The two repeating drumbeats being sounded by sustainable food advocates are: 1. Industrial farming has grown too quickly to produce safe and humane food. 2. Inner-cities with their lack of access to fresh, locally grown food have become food deserts. If this is a topic that you have been following, and have seen “Food, Inc.,” [...]

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Keep a ‘Sense of Wonder’ on Earth Day

There are plenty of references to Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” on Earth Day every year, but it’s Carson’s poetic book, “The Sense of Wonder,” that sits on my list of all-time favorite reads. Originally written as an essay for Women’s Home Companion, Carson urges parents to take their children to the wild places to teach [...]

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News Buzz: Food Channel Cravings

I have been without cable for more than a decade so I haven’t yet fallen into the consuming habit of watching people make food on television. Across the United States, however, viewership is on the rise. When the season finale of “The Next Food Network Star” aired last August, 4.7 million viewers tuned in to [...]

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Uncomfort food

One of my swim team mates sent me this link today (I’m pretty sure he only thinks of food as fuel). Remember all those weird jello and soup dishes that were designed to sell as many boxes of gelatin-sugar and cans of Spam as possible? Food blogger Robin Wheeler mined cookbooks of yesteryear and chronicled [...]

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