SWEET BEAN is a deeply affecting tale of finding happiness by finding meaning. After watching this charmer, you might be tempted to try your own hand in creating a dorayaki, the pancake stuffed with sweet bean filling around which the story of three lonely people revolves. In fact, I defy you to resist. Cherry blossoms… Read More »
JEREMIAH TOWER: THE LAST MAGNIFICENT — Jeremiah Tower & Lydia Tenaglia Interview
Sometimes doing interviews on location, rather than in the studio, is like living on the edge. Even in an upscale hotel room such as the one where I spoke with legendary chef/restauranteur Jeremiah Tower and director Lydia Tenaglia on April 26, 2017. It was the day before the documentary, JEREMIAH TOWER: THE LAST MAGNIFICENT opened… Read More »
Jon Favreau is CHEF
Jon Favreau is very serious about CHEF. Its his baby, after all. He wrote, directed, and co-starred in this lovely fable about a chef who has to have the rug pulled out from under him to find out what it means to be successful. Hence his willingness to sit down for an interview at 6:45… Read More »
JULIE & JULIA
If Julia Child had not chosen the right moment to powder her nose at an embassy party in Paris, she might never have met Simone Beck, and there might never have been the classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. If Julie Powell, at the end of a particularly trying day as a government… Read More »
MOSTLY MARTHA
As Martha, the heroine-chef of the German film, MOSTLY MARTHA, explains it, she’s not obsessive. She’s precise. Being the chef at a trendy restaurant in Hamburg requires split-second timing and an attention to detail that to the untrained eye might seem obsessive, but isn’t. At least according to Martha. Of course, she’s explaining this to her therapist, the… Read More »
Edward Espe Brown Explains HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE
I’ve owned a copy of the Tassajara Bread book for over a decade and so it was pretty much inevitable that when I spoke to its author, Edward Espé Brown, on October 8, 2007, the subject of baking the perfect loaf would come up. But first, I needed to cover the illusion of perfection, the metaphor… Read More »