Recently, I had the pleasure of helping to plan a San Francisco food education tour for eight journalists from China, who were visiting the country as guests of the U.S. Potato Board. They were on the last leg of their American discovery journey and we had just two days. With so many fabulous food-related places to visit, we had to make some difficult choices.

We started at public relations agency Ketchum’s San Francisco office, where I gave an overview of food trends, including a look at the evolution of Chinese cuisine in the United States. [more…]

I’ve always loved grilled food and we have certainly grilled our share of ribs, steaks, burgers and hot dogs over many summers. But until recently we fell short of the 26 times per year average grill usage per household, as reported by the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association.

We just purchased our first gas grill last month and now I get it. Almost-instant heat. Minimal food prep. Nominal cleanup. Delicious, healthy meals. What’s not to like? We’re now grilling several times a week, weeknights included.

Gas grilling is hardly different from broiling in the kitchen. Which may be why, although still a heavily male activity, more than 35 percent of women are now grilling, according to the same survey. [more…]

Renovating a kitchen is a lot like giving birth to a baby. It seems agonizingly slow, you encounter various setbacks, but when it’s over, you forget the pain and take joy in the result.

The kitchen featured on my Web site is my own, and was born after years of dreaming, more than a year of planning and another year of construction. The kitchen serves as my work test kitchen as well as a home kitchen, so it has some features specific to a professional kitchen, but also a number of features that make a consumer kitchen more functional. [more…]

I just returned from a business trip to Ireland with my client, the Irish Dairy Board, hosting some VIP guests on a culinary tour of the Emerald Isle. For people who plan their vacations around their passion for food, it’s the perfect place to visit.

Contemporary Irish chefs who have worked at high-profile restaurants abroad are returning home to apply their talents to fabulous food using local ingredients — lamb, salmon, duck, fresh garden vegetables, dairy products and grains. Traditional Irish breads are stellar, and there is nothing more satisfying at breakfast or any time, than hearty Irish brown bread slathered with Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter.

So hot is Irish food today that Saveur devoted most of its March issue to Ireland. “With its wealth of raw materials, its burgeoning artisanal food scene, and its innovative chefs, Ireland is fast growing into a food lovers’ paradise,” the magazine raved. [more…]

Why am I blogging so infrequently? My original plan had been to write fresh content once a week, but sometimes, my work gets just too hectic to take the time. This week, however, I’ve been spending literally hours with T-Mobile tech support, beginning Sunday afternoon, trying to get my Palm Tungsten E2 PDA to connect with the bluetooth from my Motorola Razr cell phone so I can get e-mail and Internet Access from my PDA. This way, I can go on short business trips and not take my laptop.

I depend on my handheld as my datebook and directory — I love it because it’s so light and easy to transport. I’ve had a PDA for years, updating each time to a newer models with richer features. The Tungsten is my fifth PDA, and I thought it would be the answer to all my technical dreams. [more…]

Food is about culture, nourishment, politics, science, nutrition, craft, art, society, geography, science, economics, health, emotion…there are so many aspects to food, sometimes we forget that food can simply be fun. Here are ways to play with your food.

Set the Japanese Table
My cousin Lori who lives in Hawaii e-mails me fun food links from time to time. Here’s a quick game with silly music and very cute graphics that will make you smile. The game is called Put the Dishes on the Table. Memorize the location of each dish, click on the “memorized” button next to the time clock (the long oval button to the right containing Japanese characters) and put the dishes back in their places.

The Iron Chef — in LEGO Land
Whose cuisine reigns supreme? For a wacky spoof on TV’s cult Japanese hit, Iron Chef, check out this six-minute video that captures the music, sounds and flavor of the original — all with LEGOS — called LEGO Chef. With LEGO people outfitted in toques and smocks and LEGO judges including the classic characters (the giggly starlet and the fortune teller), it’s a hoot. The actor on the judging panel is “Sean Connery.” This is the brainchild of Steve Iervolino and is distributed by IFILM. Be patient — you have to view the commercial before you can get to the production. [more…]

Friday’s Washington Post featured an interesting article about the need for corporate test kitchen home economists to dumb down recipes because today’s younger Americans don’t know how to cook. The article points out that Kraft Foods no longer uses “dredge.” And Betty Crocker avoids “braise.” Land O’Lakes works around “fold” and “cream,” while Pillsbury has eliminated “simmer” or “sear.”

As a recipe editor for my own business and the Ketchum Food Center, I also eliminate words that have the potential to confuse. Our goal is to create recipes that motivate consumers to use our clients’ products. When our precise culinary terminology obfuscates, it’s better to simplify to ensure that consumers doesn’t walk away from the recipe because they are too confused to follow it. [more…]

When I launched one of the first food Web sites in 1995 called recipe.com, it was a breakthrough effort that was covered by C/Net, Web Watch and other tech publications, as well as by the food and PR trade media. It was designed as a comprehensive site that would be updated weekly.

“How much time do you expect to spend writing the Web site?” I was asked by a reporter. “Oh, about a quarter of my workday,” I replied naively. Of course it was much more demanding than I had envisioned. Beleagured each week to keep the updates going, I began to call the process, “feeding the beast.” [more…]

Unlike the Chinese, who celebrate the lunar new year, January 1 is the start of the year for Japanese and Japanese Americans. For my family living in Hawaii, the week between Christmas and New Year’s was a time of frenzied activity — cooking and cleaning in preparation.

We wiped down cabinets, washed windows and screens, did all the laundry and made our house sparkle. We decorated the front porch with bamboo and pine branches.

New Year’s Eve was the thrilling start of the celebration, with firecrackers exploding sporadically from every front yard. Kids and adults set off Roman candles, sparklers, cherry bombs — a cacaphony of noise and sulphrous smoke filled the air — culminating in a mighty roar at the stroke of midnight.

And there was the food. [more…]

Recently, my 86-year-old mother lost her balance getting out of the car, fell and fractured four ribs. Which is why I wasn’t blogging last week. It’s made me think about the challenges we are going to face when 76 million Baby Boomers find themselves battling the aging process.

The first of the Boomers turn 60 next year. Last week, the White House Conference on Aging tackled the issues of aging by exploring cutting-edge technologies. Some of those technologies have to do with food. [more…]