Mouthing Off

My coworker Melissa Rubel and I are four-fifths of the way toward my goal of baking 1,000 cookies by the end of Tuesday. These cookies will be among dozens of offerings from top chefs at Philadelphia's Great Chefs Event on Wednesday night. The Great Chefs Event supports Alex's Lemonade Stand an organization that raises money and awareness for childhood cancer research and treatment. It's already sold out! That's more than 700 people clamoring for cookies. Time to get baking.

It certainly seems like every single New York City resident was at this weekend’s Big Apple BBQ blowout—and most of them have blogged about it. So let’s skip a comprehensive look at each of the 15 pit masters who worked so hard this weekend and move on to my three highlights:

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q; Decatur, AL
BBQ Plate: Tender pulled pork shoulder with coleslaw—arguably the best BBQ at the event from Chris Lilly (left).
VIP Area: None, unless you count the small open space next to a sparkling new Komodo Kamado smoker/grill on display. (It’s being called the next Big Green Egg.)
Typical VIP: A V.P from Bad Robot, the production company behind Star Trek.
Beverage: Snapple.

Hill Country; NYC
BBQ Plate: Pete Daversa and Elizabeth Karmel's succulent beef brisket (fatty burnt ends were especially amazing) and Cool-as-a-Cucumber Salad.
VIP Area: A small tent.
Typical VIP: Firemen from West Village Squad 18.
Beverage: Spiked Tea (though not for the firemen).

17TH Street Bar & Grill; Murphysboro, IL
BBQ Plate: Mike Mills’s smoked baby back ribs with awesome baked beans.
VIP Area: A big tent with picnic tables and a barbecue-sauce fountain that transfixed a Japanese TV crew. (A jealous pit master called it the red carpet of Big Apple BBQ.)
Typical VIP: Legendary food writer Calvin Trillin.
Beverage: Very potent Pink Pull Your Panties Down Punch.

With one of my coworkers planning a wedding, a hot topic in the Test Kitchen has been catering companies and all the add-ons they offer. There's the ubiquitous chocolate fountain (which has grossed me out since I learned that it takes gallons of oil to keep it flowing properly) and the late-night coffee bar. My colleague Kate Heddings has not stopped talking about the mashed-potato bar she encountered at one wedding, with toppings ranging from chili to caviar. The latest add-on in Austin? Snow cones. But instead of flavoring the shaved ice Snoopy-style, with artificially colored, faux-fruit-flavored syrups, local event-planning company Caplan Miller uses liqueurs like Kahlúa and Baileys Irish Cream.

Nine days left until the world's premiere food event, the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, June 19-21. For those still looking for tickets, F&W, QVC and KitchenAid have partnered up to offer an exclusive package to Extra viewers that includes round-trip airfare for two, a three-night hotel stay, tickets to the Food & Wine Publisher's Party, front-row seats to the Classic Quickfire Challenge, a QVC gift card worth $1,000 and amazing appliances from KitchenAid. Check out Extratv.com to learn how to enter the contest, and tune in to QVC at 11 a.m. (EST) on June 21 for a live broadcast from Aspen.

Here's one way to work on your barbecue-eating stamina before the Big Apple BBQ in NYC next weekend. This Saturday, June 6, Manhattan's Hill Country restaurant is celebrating its second anniversary with a rib-eating contest. You can still be one of the eight rib-eating contestants-just write a less-than-250-word essay or submit a 1-minute video demonstrating your rib-eating skills by the end of the day Thursday (send it to ribs@hillcountryny.com). Or just come as a spectator--$5 will buy you a ticket to the event, which starts at 2 pm; benefits go to Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Hill Country's excellent pit master, Pete Daversa, has some tips for competitive eaters (and for those who really want to maximize barbecue consumption at the Big Apple BBQ).

* Don't starve yourself before the contest. Your stomach will shrink.

* Prior to the contest, eat lots of plain lettuce, celery or boiled cabbage. They're made of mostly water and will help stretch your belly without filling it up.

* Once you're full and can't eat any more, call it a day; don't risk choking or suffering what professionals call a "reversal of fortune."

I know plenty of food writers, but not very many historians. So I was excited to meet British writer Tom Standage, who spoke at a dinner at NYC's Bouley last week to promote his most recent book, An Edible History of Humanity. Standage’s day job is business and technology editor at the Economist, but he's also fascinated by history and food, and all his passions come together in this book. Some topics he tackles: how the spice trade led to the discovery of the New World, how Napoleon's inability to feed his army brought about his defeat in Russia, and how Britain's decision to import food instead of grow it led to the Industrial Revolution. The book isn't exactly beach reading, but I’d recommend it to those who are looking to broaden their culinary horizons.

How cool is the Society of Gentlemen? For starters, it promotes civility, respect and other gentlemanly behavior and awards scholarships to college-bound high-school seniors. (Its founders include my friend Peter Lindberg, editor-at-large for F&W’s sister magazine Travel + Leisure; director Spike Jonze, who designed the goofy logo of a man who needs help finding his arm; and actors Mike Myers and Dermot Mulroney.) And it quite possibly reached the zenith of coolness on Saturday, when they hosted a Night of Toasts—an Evening of Cocktails and Conjecture at New York's Player's club. There was a presentation about the history and trivia surrounding toasts: Why raise your glass? Why clink? There was a special guest toastmaster: Rachel Maddow. There was an equally star-packed audience (Catherine Keener, Samantha Mathis, Keanu Reeves looking like Serpico with a beard). And yes, there were drinks to toast with, including Manhattan on Toast (Manhattans with flamed lemon peel) created by legendary mixologist Sasha Petraske and the Jack Rose, Maddow’s favorite cocktail, which just happens to be featured in F&W’s brand-new Cocktails 2009.

Unlike my healthy colleague Jen Murphy, I’m not planning a Blueprint Cleanse anytime soon—lucky me. Because I’m just hearing details on Jacques Torres’s new NYC ice-cream store and it’s making me crazy. Starting on Friday at his Hudson Street location—doors open right at 9 am—Jacques will be selling scoops of his fabulous ice cream in cups and homemade cones. Ice-cream sandwiches will be made to order. The marquee ice cream parlor itself will open on May 30th in Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood at 62 Water St., next to the original Torres store. (Time Out's The Feed has details on Torres's ice cream carts which he'll deploy at his other NYC stores.) There you’ll eventually be able to choose from among fourteen flavors of ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet. Think wicked chocolate flavored with chipotle and ancho chiles exactly like his hot chocolate (but, well, frozen), as well as an outrageous rum caramel ice cream and a very refreshing raspberry sorbet. He’ll also make Belgian waffles and hot fudge—in short, I’ve got a good chance of fulfilling every ice-cream dream I've ever had. I plan to get started at nine am on Friday.

First came the blog, the Julie/Julia Project, where Julie Powell documented the trials of cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Then came the book, Julie & Julia, based on the blog. And now, this August, comes the Nora Ephron movie based on the book starring Meryl Streep as Julia and Amy Adams as Julie.

Julie Powell and I have recently become friends, at least on Facebook, where I follow her hilarious daily musings. I decided to ask my new “friend” what it’s been like to see her words go from the computer to the big screen.

Powell says the most surreal part has been the paparazzi shots of Amy Adams in a Julie wig in front of her old office, at the Strand and a block away from her apartment. “The Julie of the movie bears some resemblance to the Julie Who Is Me,” Powell wrote me. “But, she’s definitely a fictional character.” For one, the movie Julie doesn’t curse as much as the real-life Julie!

Julie & Julia follows the basic plot points of Powell’s book, but is a very different creature. The voice is more Ephron than Powell. According to Julie, “The movie is very much Nora’s baby.” But, “Nora’s done an amazing job of weaving together the parallels between my and Julia’s stories, and how this is about two women finding themselves.”

The highlight for Powell: meeting Meryl Streep, who stayed completely in character—voice, wig, and dress—throughout their conversation about high heels.

Powell second book, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession, is due out in December. Always busy, she’s got irons in the fire but says she’s giving up memoirs for now—“while the gettin’ is good.” 

 

Dove has come up with a new way to sell their delicious confections:the Dove Chocolate Discoveries party. It's similar to a Tupperware party, except you can actually have too much Tupperware. And unlike an Avon or Mary Kay party, you don’t have to lie to your friends and tell them they can’t live without that blue eye shadow that somehow makes their muddy brown eyes just pop! Anyone who decides to have a party can either be the host (and receive free treats) or take on the role of Chocolatier. The Chocolatier earns commissions on everything sold at a party, like the addictive chocolate-covered almonds and pretzels and baking mixes (which make things like chewy chocolate chip gingerbread cookies or chocolate cupcakes). Maybe they’ll even add a chocolate-brown car as incentive, which I would drive over an eye-roll-inducing pink Cadillac any day.