Movie Review : Big Night

Big Night is a great film from the mid 1990s written by Joseph Tropiano and Stanley Tucci. (A quick Google search didn't turn up a whole lot for Joseph Tropiano, but I did learn that he's Stanley Tucci's cousin.) Campbell Scott (now on USA's Royal Pains) and Stanley Tucci directed the picture.

Anyway, the film, set in New Jersey in the 1950s, follows two brothers; fantastic chef Primo, played by Tony Shalhoub (Monk, Wings, that guy in the X-Files episode whose shadow disintegrates people) and Secondo, portrayed by Stanley Tucci (recently, Julie & Julia, The Devil Wears Prada, and, unfortunately, The Core). The two brothers operate a struggling restaurant, Paradise. Primo refuses to compromise authentic Italian cuisine by catering toward the unrefined American palate.

Ian Holm, (Ratatouille, The Fellowship of the Ring, Alien), successful restaurateur and owner of Pascal's, and eponymous restaurant that serves spaghetti and meatballs, steak and French fries, wants the brothers to come work for him. While the brothers struggle with the choice of staying in the U.S., returning to Rome to work for their uncle, or working for the other restaurant, Pascal offers to invite his good friend, jazz singer Louis Prima, to dine at Paradise and catapult the restaurant to a premier and exclusive establishment. So, the two brothers invite their friends and prepare for their Big Night. Minnie Driver, Marc Anthony, Allison Janney, Isabella Rossellini, and Liev Schreiber also appear.

Book Review - A History of the World in 6 Glasses

Tom Standage, British journalist and author, put together A History of the World in Six Glasses, which chronicles the historical and social impact of 6 different beverages throughout known history. The book chronicles our relationship with beer, wine, spirits, tea, coffee, and Coca-Cola.

Spanning several millenia and about 300 pages, and several continents, the book both entertains and informs the reader with historical anecdotes and contextual analysis. Standage dedicates around 30 pages to each of the six beverages that nicely divide the book into sections comestible on a commute. Standage maintains an interesting and erudite narrative voice and breaks up the text with the occasional relevant image. The book is full of tidbits sufficient to whet the appetite of any history or trivia buff.

So that's why...

Ever wonder why some recipes call for baking powder instead of baking soda? Or why water gets cloudy when you ad salt? Or the difference between brown sugar and "natural" sugar? While Professor Robert L. Wolke's What Einstein Told His Cook has nothing to do with the late physicist, the book contains a series of interesting pieces on the "why," and often, "how," of the kitchen.

Wolke, a professor emeritus of Chemistry at University of Pittsburgh, penned a Food 101 column from which I assume comes the preponderance of the material used in the book. Grouped into sections, What Einstein Told His Cook contains informative and semi-anecdotal essays on what's actually happening when you cook.

The book doesn't read like a chemistry textbook, but rather like a series of explanations ported into terms the everyday layman can easily understand and remember. Full of good tips, and complemented by recipes (from Wolke's food-professional wife) that demonstrate the expounded principles.

Wolke writes in an engaging and accessible style, eschewing the esoteric and abstruse, which often mire these scientific treatises with unnecessary jargon and shibboleth. The judicious application of parentheticals that contain the actual scientific terms preceded by the word "techspeak." For example, writing on fats and acids, Wolke, stating, "To chemists, and apparently to our bodies as well, the exact position of the unsaturated parts of fatty acid molecules (Techspeak: the double bonds) matter," (Wolke, 67), contains enough information for both the science buff and neophyte to understand the matter discussed. I chose this as one of the more technical examples of scientific discussion in Wolke's book. Essays cover a range of topics from "What does 'caramelize' mean?" or "What's so special about sea salt?" to "How do non-stick cooking sprays work?" or "Why do crackers have those little holes in them?"

While I liked the parenthetical "techspeak" sections at first, several concomitant essays contained the same explanations, which I found repetitive and irritation. Then again, I read the book over the course of a few days. Had I pieced my way through it, I'm sure I would have found myself grateful for the thoroughness of the explanations.

I have yet to produce any of the recommended recipes, I successfully have applied some of the lessons Wolke espouses. While I wouldn't say that What Einstein Told His Cook is a must read, it's certainly an interesting book and a great backup book since it's divided into sections that allow the reader to devour a few passages while waiting for a bus or riding the subway.

(image from http://images.indiebound.com/421/329/9780393329421.jpg)

Science in the Kitchen

Ever wonder whether or not you should season a steak before, after, or during cooking to keep it at its juiciest? Have you pondered the predilection of the hard boiled egg to push its yoke off center? Want to know how to get the airiest soufflé?

These are some of the questions that Hervé This, father of the movement known as Molecular Gastronomy tries to tackle with a series of experiments in the kitchen in his book "Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History)" (Hardcover, 392 Pages, Columbia University Press 2005). Pictured left from amazon.com.

I've poured through most of the book at this point, and, like any scientist, This does a phenomenal job of documenting his experiments, explaining his assumptions, and going over the results. However, I was disappointed in that the book, although it appeals to my unquenchable thirst for the arcane and obscure, comes across more like a laboratory book of experiments you can do at home than a book that can make the reader a better cook. Sure, there are a few wonderful tips to be extracted, but overall, in regards to a book on cooking, I found Molecular Gastronomy and interesting non-fiction read, but nonetheless, a volume for the bookshelf in the study, not the kitchen counter.