Restaurants | Gherkins & Tomatoes

The South is Rising Again: The 2013 James Beard Nominees

February 20, 2013 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In the culinary world, the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize or the Oscars comes down to the James Beard Awards. This year, the list of nominees includes a large number of Southern chefs, restaurants, and other food-related entities. What’s so fascinating about this list lies in the evidence of increasing diversity – it’s not all barbecue and fried chicken and French or Italian. A prime example of the mixing and stirring of cultures that’s been going on for hundreds of […]

Categories: American Cooking, Chefs, Cooking, Restaurants, Southern Food, United States • Tags: Chefs, James Beard Awards, Restaurants, Southern cooking, Southern Food

French Bistro: Seasonal Recipes

July 5, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

“A visual feast as well as a gastronomic one . . . Organized by ten essentials that any successful bistro must have, French Bistro almost reads like a graphic novel, thanks to the prolific and colorful photographs.” When you walk into a Paris bistro straight off the street on a cool fall day, the odd leaf rustling at your feet as you cross the threshold, you expect something almost magical to happen, don’t you? And, according to the authors of yet another […]

Categories: Book Reviews, Chefs, Cookbooks, France, French Cooking • Tags: Bertrand Auboyneau, bistronomy movement, Bistros, François Simon, France, French cuisine, Paris, Parisian bistros, Paul Bert, Restaurants

And to Think it all Started with a French Cookbook: Forty Years of Chez Panisse

August 23, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Alice Waters often said that Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking started the whole thing, meaning Chez Panisse the restaurant. And of course, the ensuing local foods movement. The following excerpt comes from a review I wrote, published today on the Web site of The New York Journal of Books: The many talented cooks and chefs she hired over the years—Jeremiah Tower, Paul Bertolli, Lindsey Shere, Joyce Goldstein, and Judy Rogers— went on to influence other restaurants and customers across the United […]

Categories: American Cooking, Chefs, Cookbooks, Cooking, Critic's Corner, Food writing, France, French Cooking, Restaurants • Tags: Alice Waters, Chez Panisse, Edible Schoolyard, Jeremiah Tower, Local Foods Movement, Restaurants

The Weird, Different, and Just Plain Interesting Restaurants of Paris: A Photo Gallery

July 18, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Like many of you, I dream about being in France. A lot. And, of course, I daydream about eating in Paris, in spite of naysayers who point their compasses at other, more culinarily au courant corners of the globe. I’m already making lists of culinary adventures in preparation for my grant-sponsoredjourney this fall, doing research in Paris and Aix-en-Provence. The following are but just a few of the places I’m imagining …

Categories: France, French Cooking, Photography, Restaurants • Tags: Food Photography, France, French Cooking, French cuisine, Paris, Photography, Restaurants

Scenes from La France Profonde

April 1, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Categories: Agriculture, Cattle, France, French Cooking, Mushrooms, Photography • Tags: Cattle, En plein air, Food Photography, France, French cuisine, Mushrooms, Restaurants

A Story of Shrimp

March 26, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Every night the roar of that “hog” outside announced her, foretelling the laughing and the clunk-clunk of feet plodding upstairs to the restaurant. Shannon always came to work astride her boyfriend’s Harley. Every night. Or nearly. In the little Gulf-coast town of Cedar Key, we knew everybody’s business before they knew it themselves, or so it seemed. Working in a fish shack, set in the middle of that tiny paradise — except for the gnats, that is, soon turned into […]

Categories: Florida, Southern Food • Tags: Cooking, Food, Restaurants, Shrimp, Southern cooking

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