soupnancy

Smoking Cooks!  It appears that Smoking and Cooking careers correlate - Big surprise. 

In Quebec, this is even more of a reality than this San Francisco crowd could imagine.  Yes, it comes down to the kind of strung out person that is drawn to the business in the first place, and more importantly, yes, it’s the stress in the kitchen.  Finally, yes, a cook is lucky to get a 10 minute break in a non-stop ten hour shift, so can you blame him/her for making it count and taking a drag?  And I say humph to those who speak of deadened taste buds, because when you taste for a living, your taste buds become more attuned and acute, like with practicing anything, developed senses – talented ears for music, touch for the blind.  Taste is a relative thing anyway; you adjust to the gustatory environment you have (if the background is smoke or garlic or whatever your mouth smells like, it gets cancelled out when you’re used to it; we all taste subjectively and against the backdrop of our lives.)  Not to mention the fact that many cooks are super-tasters.  Like a commentator said in response to this post below, I too would be overwhelmed by any more – it would make my life unbearable.  I already taste and smell too much, more than any of my non smoking friends, by the way. So, I find this correlation funny, relevant, and not hurtful at all.  Still, I think it’s silly to make it news, like people should be worrying about the fact that the people cooking their food might, probably smoke cigarettes (one butt in a 10 hour shift!). Big fucking deal.  But it’s true.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/mbauer/detail?&entry_id=48741

So, Love enhances the creative mind, and sex impedes it, favouring analytic processing instead.  Which means sex is practical, where as love helps stimulate and expand the mind.  I know that cooking has brought out the lover and artist in me.  I think anything that keeps you in touch with your senses and nature, while forcing you to suspend logic and appreciate magic, or act like an animal from time to time encourages creative thinking, so of course love does the job.  I would think that sex would fit in there too, but that doesn’t seem to be what these scientists are saying.  Maybe because like in that Seinfeld episode, the physical part is just like taking out the garbage, it has to be taken care of to let you get on with the rest of your life..  Practical, not creative.  Science meets Seinfeld, gotta love it.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=does-falling-in-love-make

Copy and Clone, a web video on industrial food by louis rigaud on Vimeo – clever and on the mark, worth watching..

http://www.gourmet-galopin.com/lelevage-a-lheure-des-biotechnologies/

A list of reasons why you should avoid farmed shrimp - Yes, those cheap ones from Asia that adorn just about every restaurant menu in Montreal.  Luckily, we have our little wild Nordic shrimp to make up for it, that are widely available (for another month!).  

http://www.chow.com/media/8226

Quebec cheese contest winners  My fave Alfred comes out on top

http://www.fromagesdici.com/tout/prix_caseus.asp

Fish faux pas, Poor Obama with all he has on his plate.. But still, he is supposed to have the staff, watchdogs and resources to cover it all.  How come the default is the most harmful and controversial of scenarios? F-ing big business and small print. http://www.gourmet.com/foodpolitics/2009/09/obama-fish-farm-policy

Is Julia passé?  A gathering of Montreal food writers and cooks say no.

I agree.  In Julia’s time, these French dishes were exotic; whereas now they are familiar, fancy restaurant-bistro fare from the past decades we know to be delicious.  But now, we can buy the ladyfingers for the Charlotte and skip a step or two too. Green, modern cooks would probably be better off with Mastering the Art of French Cooking than with the zillions of other half-assed cookbooks out there today.  And for seasoned cooks and foodies, it is tops for inspiration or some back-track grounding.  To rediscover delicious classics like this gang did.  http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/food-wine/Critic+Notebook+Julia+pass%c3%a9/1964049/story.html

Buddha shaped pears, from the same guys with the square watermelons.  For those of you way back who didn’t even believe my ‘true’ poire Williams story – look what is being done with the poor pears now.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/04/pears-grown-in-the-s.html