Gherkins & Tomatoes

Gherkins & Tomatoes

Meditations and Photographs about Food, Cooking, and Life

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Dana Polan French Chef

Julia Child’s “The French Chef, ” by Dana Polan

July 17, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

“a history of early American television telescoped through the persona and history of Julia Child. . . . fascinating . . .” When you walk the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, you can’t miss the lingering traces of heroes and history. From the names of the men who brought you the Boston Tea Party to the dead in the Old Burying Ground near Harvard Square, the past perfumes the air. Nearly everywhere you’ll see pictures of a more modern hero, too. […]

Categories: Book Reviews, Cookbooks, Cooking, Food News, France, French Cooking, Uncategorized • Tags: Book Reviews, Dana Polan, Dione Lucas, Florence Hanford, Food Television, France, French Chef, French Cooking, Julia Child, Nigella Lawson, Paul Child

Macarons 3

Macarons – Food of Dreams and Fairy Tales

July 11, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Macarons. Truly an example of “Don’t try this at home.” But how I longed to recreate the taste and the crunch of the macarons I greedily ate as often as I could, when I passed that fairy-tale bakery on the Rue de Rivoli, close to the Hotel de Ville metro stop: Maison Georges Larnicol. Although they’re kissing cousins of a sorts, modern French macarons don’t much resemble American macaroons. The extra “O” has nothing to do with it. Macarons likely […]

Categories: Book Reviews, Cookbooks, Cookies, Cooking, Desserts, French Cooking, Uncategorized • Tags: Bérengère Abraham, Cookbooks, France, French Cooking, Macarons

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Photo credit: C. Bertelsen

Scenes from La France Profonde

April 15, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Categories: Apples, France, French Cooking, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: Advertising, Apples, Cuisine Francaise, Food Photography, France, French cuisine, Menus

Lemons – Tiny Cathedrals of Gold

April 6, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Lemons, their pitted, nay, prehistoric, skins secreting golden oil, Shielding sourness, evoking memories of a grandmother’s kitchen, A grandfather’s garden. Born in the East, fruitful India, A kiss of cold, albeit fleeting, spawns the yellow Immortalized  in stone, paint, and clay. A fruit reverenced, Blossoming from mountain and lake, Urging cooks to slice, pierce, and squeeze, Inspiring miracles among the pots and pans. Lemon curd … Lemon pie … Lemon chicken … Preserved lemons … Limoncello … Such richness! Pasta […]

Categories: Cooking, Italian Cooking, Italy, Lemons, Lent, Lit & Food, Photography, Poetry, Uncategorized • Tags: Food Photography, Italian Cooking, Lemons, Meditations, Mint, Pasta, Poetry

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Scenes from La France Profonde

March 25, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Categories: France, French Cooking, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: Cochon, Cuisine Francaise, France, French cuisine, Langue, Musseaux, Oreille, Photography, Pied, Pig Ears, Pig Feet, Pig Snouts

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Vitis, Vin: Gift of Life

March 16, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Reach out a hand and take the ruby fruit, gift grown of sun and rain. Vitis. Grapes. Gift too of earth, of chalky soil, sloping and stone-filled, redolent with vistas and vast horizons. Hard toil, yes — certainly this truth the hands of peasants knew. Cutting and pruning, trimming back. Thus, from that harsh care, life blooms and grows amidst the green of summer. Beneath lacy leaves and soft spiraling tendrils, tiny globes pregnant with sweet nectar lie, dormant, red […]

Categories: Agriculture, France, French Cooking, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Grapes, Photography, Vineyards, Vintners, Wine

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French Venn diagram

Culinary Bigotry? Pas nous, pas du tout!

January 21, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

So how do you perceive French cuisine? Katharine Shilcutt decided to find out what Texans thought of various ethnic cuisines popular in the United States. Here’s a Venn diagram from her October 27, 2010 article on the Houston Press blog. The left side of the diagram shows what foods Texans associate with French eating habits, the right side shows what French people think about their own eating habits, and the center shows foods common to both groups’ perceptions.

Categories: Uncategorized

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buchanan-portrait

All the Presidents’ Tables: James Buchanan’s Inaugural Extravanganza

October 30, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Named the worst of all U.S. presidents, James Buchanan — ironically boasting the most government-related domestic and foreign experience of any president prior to taking office — lived as a bachelor all his life. His niece (and ward) Harriet Lane became his White House hostess. She’d been with Buchanan in London when he served as U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James and subsequently absorbed a good many ideas about formal entertaining. She waited until she turned 35 to […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Cooking, Food, James Buchanan

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All the Presidents’ Tables: Abraham Lincoln’s Inaugural Menus

October 24, 2008 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In the throes of the 2008 election campaign, I decided to do a little looking into what the candidates, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, eat when no one’s watching. (Chili for Obama and ribs for McCain – hmmm, wonder if there’s any Freudian, Jungian undertones there?) Such musings lead, naturally, to a perusal of the various books out there about the presidents of the past and their food. In particular, the ostentatious inaugural dinners, with all the pomp and […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Cooking, Food

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Food forms the very essence of life, from the fruit fly to the elephant, with humans in between. So much of what we do revolves around cooking, eating, and the finding of food. Here you'll discover stories, meditations, and photographs celebrating the places that we call home. And, of course, the food that garnishes it all.

My book, due out September 15, 2013

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What’s Cookin’ Here

  • A Bare Table is Like an Artist’s Canvas
  • “Stew’s so comforting on a rainy day.” *
  • Singkong, Manioc, Mandioca, Mandió, Tapioca, Yuca: Singing the Praises of Manihot esculenta (Cassava)
  • The Promise of Apple Blossoms

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