A Review of Tamasin Day-Lewis’ Simply the Best: The Art of Seasonal Cooking

The book is divided into sections based on the seasons, with brief essays at the start of each, which contain bits of reminiscence on Day-Lewis’ childhood, her experiences with foods, her feelings about and philosophy. Between each season are the columns, each addressing a different food, or local producer, followed by recipes either inspired by her experiences or by the artisan she writes about. There are handmade cheese companies, deer farmers, eel smokers, baby asparagus growers, bread bakers, fishmongers, trips to Italy for hand crafted olive oil, honey, slow food, and truffles, fresh country markets, handmade chocolates, small but perfectly run shops, trips to Ireland, exquisite restaurants, and guesthouses, and home cooked meals.

A Review of the film The Talented Mr Riply

The Talented Mr. Ripley is an Hitchcockian and blood-curdling study of the psychopath and his victims. At the centre of this masterpiece, set in the exquisitely decadent scapes of Italy, is a titanic encounter between Ripley, the aforementioned psychopath protagonist and…

Buxom Cakes and Homemade Sin: A Review of Death By Chocolate Cakes by Marcel Desaulniers

Desaulniers’ prose is nearly as seductive as his way with chocolate. No pedantic, chef-on-high stuff here: Desaulniers writes about baking with a wayward grin, assuring us that cake is not only food for the gods, but that it is, after all, just cake. Made in kitchens just like ours, with chocolate bought in the local grocery, using “conventional” bake ware and regular (not restaurant) ovens, Desaulniers’ cakes are ones we really can bake ourselves.