Eat All About It

Ivy Manning’s Farm to Table Cookbook made my top 10 list last year, but I was surprised by how little I heard of it elsewhere. It’s a combination of original dishes and recipes contributed by some of the Northwest’s top chefs (farro from John Sundstrom, sorrel-fig salad from Maria Hines, and so on). I liked its handful of primers — telling you the difference between Black Krim and Cherokee Purple tomatoes, for instance — and advice on how to select less-common ingredients, from ramps to lobster mushrooms. Some commenters on the Amazon site found the recipes too complex, but I liked the stretch (and easy counterpoints like the “Versatile Recipe For The Hearty Greens You Don’t Know What To Do With“).

In short, I thought the book was underappreciated, and I was glad to see this month that Manning was back with a new book, The Adaptable Feast: Satisfying Meals for the Vegetarians, Vegans, and Omnivores at Your Table. I think I’m seeing a convergence zone around this issue, cooking in a way that reduces meat consumption but provides options for those who love meat. I wrote about that at the Christian Science Monitor here, (and look out for Kim O’Donnel’s coming cookbook), and talked with Manning about how she adapted her recipes over at Al Dente, here. 

Which food writers or cooks are underappreciated in your book?

Reading Sam Sifton’s first restaurant review in the New York Times reminded me that I hadn’t shared details from the interesting conversation I had over coffee a few weeks ago with his predecessor, Frank Bruni (on tour for his book, Born Round), and Critic-to-Cook Leslie Kelly.  

We in the Ex Critics Club had a lot in common when it came to food (although Bruni, unlike me, said he never finds himself spearing food uninvited off the plates of friends; he had always passed around the dishes while doing his reviews). We all, in some ways, appreciated going out to eat more as civilians than we did when it was a job. In his first post-critic weeks at restaurants, Bruni enjoyed being “free to enjoy each of them according to my own mood, and my own terms, on the night I’m there.” But the big difference, of course, was that “I don’t think I’ve taken the accurate measure of any of those restaurants.” He wasn’t testing the corners of the menus, he wasn’t focusing on the food over the company, or making sure to sample a different dish than the time before.

Sifton will be doing that thorough work for the Times now, but not many others will. The number of newspapers and magazines who can afford to test a restaurant that way, “to explore and analyze…in an accurate and complete way,” is getting smaller all the time. (This was before we even heard of the death of Gourmet.) “I don’t yet see a sign that there’s going to be any halt of that, or reversal to that. Restaurant criticism is in big trouble purely in economic terms,” Bruni said.

Can the Yelps of the world fill in the gaps? “I can’t feel too optimistic about that.” It’s a potentially, wonderfully useful tool, but “you have no idea if these Yelpers are relatives of the chef, investors, (if they) did anything more than have the blue cheese burger and go on their way.” Consumers will need to cobble and patch together their own views from those itinererant sources.

I asked what Bruni thought about anonymity, which I’ve always believed is a crucial part of reviewing. He doesn’t think it’s as important as I do — and thinks “physical anonymity, in the digital age, is a long shot for any critic working more than a month.” (I don’t know — we’ve been pretty successful at laying low in Seattle — but perhaps we’d fare less well in the Manhattan fishbowl.)

He then made a point I don’t think I’ve heard articulated before (though he credited Eric Asimov with it), and which I hope other modern reviewers take up: Trying to stay anonymous still matters, whether you’re recognized or not. Don’t let a restaurant know you’re coming. Don’t accept public speaking engagements. Don’t accept free meals, or go to media restaurant parties or invite-only “friends and family” nights. To help preserve your autonomy, you make that clear statement to the industry that “you are not one of them.” 

Thoughts?

And, for the inevitable food questions, after our meetup at Caffe Umbria, Bruni was taken to a backroom lunch at Salumi, where he tweeted that “the “lardo lollipops” at Salumi in Seattle — grissini slicked with melting lardo — are the free snacks on Heaven’s bar.” That one, I would guess, is true whether they recognize you or not.

Seattle Metropolitan’s “Best Restaurants” list is heavy on tradition this year, with few surprises - the only one I see is that Serious Pie made the grade, rather than a more formal Tom Douglas restaurant. It’s still an issue worth sending any out-of-towner asking “Where should I eat on my trip to Seattle?”  Canlis made the 10 Best list, though it’s had a few subpar reviews elsewhere this year. Kathryn Robinson writes that Canlis is “the best it’s been in years.” (Nancy Leson also tweeted earlier this year that she’d just had the best meal she’d ever been served there. It isn’t often you get such stark disagreements among critics; I’d like to get them all in a room and hash it out.) Robinson also said Jerry Traunfeld is currently “the best chef in Seattle,” and also gave props to his Poppy pastry chef, Dana Cree. Boat Street Cafe sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of hot new restaurants, but Robinson is a longtime fan, and I was glad to see it still, deservingly, is on her 10-best radar. Check out the whole Seattle Met list here.

Those of us who keep calling Jonathan Kauffman of Seattle Weekly the best restaurant critic in the country were feeling good over the weekend when the national Association of Food Journalists agreed, awarding him first prize in that category in its 2009 contest. (Among his competitors was the also excellent Tom Sietsema of the Washington Post, who took second place.) I was also feeling good myself when AFJ awarded me the first and second place prizes in the category of Best Online Food Writing. (I call it a real victory for Kate McDermott, who taught me to make an apple pie, the subject of the first-prize post.) 

Want to do some voting yourself? You have a chance over at Foodbuzz, where the finalists for the 2009 best food blogs are up, and some super writers from Seattle are among them. Anticiplate is there under “Which Blogger(s) Would You Most Like To See Open Their Own Restaurant,” Cakespy is a finalist in both “Most Humorous Blog” and “Best Baking Blog,” Gluten-Free Girl for “Best Healthy Living Blog,” Lorna Yee (The Cookbook Chronicles) for “What Blogger(s) Should Have Their ‘Foodie Life’ Made Into A Movie” and “Best New Blog,” Orangette for “Best Visual Blog” and “Best Writing Voice,” Tea and Cookies for “Best Writing Voice”.  I’m glad to see so many talented local favorites on the list; you can vote for your choices here, through Oct. 29. If you have a favorite blogger who wasn’t among this year’s finalists, feel free to share your picks below.

I have a soft spot in my heart for crazy food challenges, so I was charmed by the idea of the guys from Bob’s Red Mill heading overseas to become the first American contestants in a Scottish porridge contest. As I said on Al Dente Blog, that took a lot of haggis — I mean, hubris! Story here.

A few years ago, I profiled a prizewinning pie-baker as she sought her 25th contest ribbon at the Puyallup Fair. Carol Lagasca was entering the contest with her sister, Barbara Dodenhoeft, and I tagged along for the excitement. I thought my heart would stop a couple times on the way:

“As the sisters approached Puyallup, a blinking road sign warned of “fair congestion.” The parking spot Dodenhoeft found just minutes from the entry line was declared off-limits by a guard. The flaggers in the $5 parking lot the next block down tried to wave her toward the far end precious minutes away.

“Can’t we park here? We have pies to enter!” Dodenhoeft exclaimed.

They made it to the entry line with seven minutes to spare.”

I returned to the fair’s Home Arts Pavilion this year, but, this time, as one of the judges. And the stress I felt was just the same, when I hit traffic and panicked that I might miss the deadline. I think I took the job doubly seriously, remembering how it felt to be in the audience, watching and waiting as the hours — yes, hours — ticked by, trying to pick up hints from the judges faces and the disappearing bites of pie.  I wrote about the judging debate and the winning recipe here, on Amazon.com’s Al Dente, where I’ve been a reader for some time and will now be a regular contributor. (It feels like a P-I reunion on that food page, meeting up again with former collegues Leslie Kelly and Tracy Schneider.) And, having now seen two sides of the contest, I think I need to practice my Art of the Pie skills and see if I can ever dream of being a competitor.