Friday Food Finds
Edition 11
Greetings! Wow, has it felt like forever since I’ve last been in touch. But I’m returning fully stimulated by everything I learned and experienced at the conference I went to (the 44th conference of the International Association of Culinary Professionals) and will share a little bit here (and in subsequent editions) with you. In fact, some of the recipes in today’s “Friday Food Finds” are inspired by the great work of a few of the people I met at the conference.
This first recipe for Honey Olive Oil Loaf Cake (scroll 2/3 to 3/4 down the page to find it) is from Vallery Lomas, the woman who won the 3rd season of the Great American Baking Show.1 It’s a lovely, moist snack cake perfumed with the subtleties of its ingredients (honey, lemon, and olive oil) , and I enjoyed eating it just as much for breakfast as I did for dessert. If I were to make it again, I might swap the amounts of baking soda and baking powder. I found the baking soda to be a little strong, and it sometimes overpowered the other flavors.
At the conference, Vallery led a conversation on “How to Make Cookies Your Business” with a handful of other great bakers. It was an interesting discussion that veered partly in the direction of creating cookbooks and photographing cookies and partly towards just how accessible and fun cookies are. There’s certainly a lot of innovation happening beyond the beloved chocolate chip cookie, and the buffet of cookies that we enjoyed after the talk was proof of that!
Another woman I had the privilege of hearing speak at the conference was Toni Tipton-Martin, the Editor in Chief at Cook’s Country.2 I’ve mentioned and cooked from her book Jubilee a couple of times in these “Friday Food Finds” editions, and I admire her advocacy and activism work tremendously.
Toni spoke during two sessions at the conference, “How to Translate Your Culture Into a Cookbook” and “Return to the Family Table; What’s Going On?”. I have pages of notes from these conversations, but I’ll consolidate it down to these two takeaways:
Working with food is culture work, and cookbooks and recipes are forms of cultural currency in the way that they tell a story and/or share a narrative. There needs to be room for everyone’s voice at the table, and Cook’s Country is working to reduce the barriers these voices encounter.
The family table — no matter what that looks like for each individual family — plays a pivotal role in identity formation. It can be easy to get caught up in the labor and wrangling that sometimes goes into bringing a family together to eat, but its monumental impact lasts lifetimes and generations.
And with that, I’ll move into this next recipe, which is actually not one of Toni’s, but it is from the current (June/July) issue of Cook’s Country.3 This issue is full of amazing recipes and content, but this recipe for Potatoes with Sauce Gribiche by Mark Huxoll (apologies for the paywall if you aren’t a subscriber) grabbed me first.
I grew up eating my mom’s sauce gribiche when she made boiled beef or veal tongue, so I love seeing it used in creative ways like this. To prepare her sauce gribiche, my mom would make a vinaigrette then stir in herbs, cornichons, and chopped hard-boiled eggs. In Mark’s recipe, the hard-cooked egg yolks are turned into an emulsified sauce, and the whites are chopped and stirred into the final dish.
There are some great flavors and textures going on in Mark’s dish between the crisp roasted potatoes, the soft eggs, and the various garnishes and additions. I made a half batch of the recipe this time around (I’m still trying to get my kids excited about potatoes), but I’ll definitely be full-batching it for future summer picnics and other gatherings. I think when the season’s first potatoes start showing up, this dish will be even better!
The final two recipes I want to share actually have nothing to do with the conference. But before I get to them, I just want to highlight one final (for today) conversation I attended called “Bakers on the Rise: The Kick-Ass Ladies Leading the Modern Bread Movement (Goodbye Sourdough Bros!)” This talk was led by Kelsey Youngman, an editor at Food & Wine Magazine, and featured Laura Lazzaroni4 and Sarah Owens,5 two incredibly talented bakers and leaders of this female bread/grain/sourdough movement.
This conversation — and the Food & Wine article that inspired it — exemplify exactly the approach to baking, food, and this newsletter that I myself would like to take. These women are thinking about food and culinary systems in a way that’s holistic and multidimensional. They are social and environmental activists in addition to being skilled and knowledgeable bakers.
Throughout the conversation Laura and Sarah shared videos of some of the women involved in this movement. One woman is Ukrainian and was speaking from Portugal, where she escaped to with her infant son when Russia invaded Ukraine. She and her partner (who also escaped to Portugal with her own infant) own a bakery in Kyiv and amazingly have been able to keep it running throughout the war. It’s truly just incredible what all these women are doing for their communities.
So with that, I’ll share my discovery of whipped ricotta. Formerly someone who was rather disenchanted with ricotta — it’s a texture thing — I now might be its #1 fan. I discovered whipped ricotta by way of this recipe from Peanut Butter & Fitness for Spring Green Salad with Whipped Honey Ricotta, and have since used it in an adapted version of this Miso Ramp Ricotta Crostini recipe from OhCarlene.
I will say that the first recipe is quite a production. Being the poor planner that I am, I ended up cutting corners to ensure the dish got to the table in time for dinner. With different preparations for the various vegetables and the cooking of a very tiny amount of farro, this recipe is certainly not the most energy or dish efficient. If I do another variation on it, I would omit the farro — it’s just not worth it — and perhaps use a different selection/variety of vegetables. In any case, the finished dish was absolutely stunning as prepared, and the whipped ricotta was the shining star.
For the crostini I prepared the recipe as written, but I chose to whip my ricotta before smearing it on the toast. I wasn’t sorry, and will recommend you do the same if you choose to make the recipe. And you should! It’s a great way to feature ramps, which are at their finest right now in the Northeast, and it presents a verifiable medley of flavors. Between the miso and ginger in the dressing and the red pepper flakes you sprinkle on as a garnish, there’s plenty to keep your mouth entertained with every bite.
Well, that’s it for this week! I hope you got something out of the few conference highlights I shared, and that you discovered a dish that will get you into your kitchen in the week ahead. As always, feel free to share feedback or any dishes you’ve particularly loved making recently.
Also, if you know someone who would enjoy this newsletter, please share it with them!
Despite never actually getting her moment in the winner’s spotlight — the season was cancelled after judge Johnny Luzzini was accused of sexual misconduct — Vallery Lomas is now a published cookbook author and a fantastic baker and recipe developer. Her beautifully written Life Is What You Bake It is absolutely worth purchasing or borrowing from your library, or you can follow Vallery on her blog or website for other great content.
In addition to her role at Cook’s Country, Toni Tipton-Martin is an award-winning journalist and author of two books, Jubilee and the Jemima Code. She has been featured in numerous TV shows and publications, and speaking engagements, including Bravo’s Top Chef, Best Food Writing of 2016, and Gastronomica - The Journal for Food Studies. Toni is also the founder of The SANDE Youth Project — a nonprofit working to combat childhood hunger, obesity, and disease by emphasizing the connection between cultural heritage, food, and a healthy community — and cofounder and former president of Southern Foodways Alliance and Foodways Texas.
The cover of this issue features a ruby red Hibiscus Iced Tea, crafted by Tiffanie Barriere. This tea commemorates independence and the first anniversary of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. In the magazine, Tiffanie writes about the significance of red drinks and her recipe’s ties to West Africa and the first Juneteenth celebration in 1866.
Laura Lazzaroni is an award-winning journalist, food writer, author, and the first Editor in Chief of Food & Wine Italia. Her most recent book, The New Cucina Italiana, explores the new culinary landscape in Italy. For more about Laura and her book, this article is a great place to start.
Sarah Owens is the award-winning author of three books: Sourdough, Toast & Jam, and Heirloom. She’s the baker behind Ritual Fine Foods (now relocated from NY to California), a professional gardener, and culinary instructor. Sarah has also helped develop the Sadalsuud Bakery in Tripoli, Lebanon. Sarah’s recipes can be found across the internet, including on Food52, Bake From Scratch, and the National Post.