"Sur La Table" news and stories

For those of us who are enamored of cookware, mixers, bowls and cooking utensils, stores like Sur La Table are dangerous places. We walk in and are instantly taken by a shiny chrome pasta machine or the sleek mandoline. Often times, we plunk down our cash for these items, but once we get them home, intimidation starts to set in and we question whether the purchase was such a good idea. Frequently, these tools get shoved to the back of the kitchen cabinet to collect dust until, years later, you pull them out and sell them at a garage sale.

The new cookbook, Things Cooks Love, is setting out to help you make the most of those stove top smokers, fish poachers and tortilla presses. Written by cooking teacher and cookbook author Marie Simmons, this book starts off with the basics and moves on to the more glamorous and unusual tools and pieces of cookware.

In addition to being a useful and easy-to-follow book, this volume is also downright beautiful. It would make a wonderful gift for the foodie in your life, as it is filled with gorgeous photography and each page is designed to be interesting and eye-catching. It is definitely a winner.

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In French 101 in college, we all had to do individual spoken exams at the end of the term. The idea was to demonstrate that we could converse simply in the language.

We had been learning kitchen and food terms, and my professor asked me (in French) to describe my mealtimes.

"Mes amis et moi," I began, "Nous nous asseyons sur la table."

My professor looked confused. "Ellen, sur la table? Vous vous asseyez sur la table?"

I nodded happily. "Oui."

I'd told him that my friends and I sat atop the table at mealtimes.

Luckily, you don't have to speak a Français to appreciate Sur la Table's new cookbook, "Things Cooks Love". It's the company's first of several - "The Art & Soul of Baking" and "A Cook's Guide to Knives" will be available this fall).

The book covers kitchen tools and basics, as well as simple recipes to practice on tools and cookware. (What's a cookbook from a gourmet cookware store without a little self-promotion?)

(Pssst - the book is only $25 at the company's website until May 31, when it'll be $35. Get it while it's chaud.)

If anyone has tried to make chocolate at home, you know that it can be a little tricky, especially if you're not familiar with it. The secret to getting the chocolate to work out is to get the temperatures right. First melting it to 115F, then cooling it to it's working temperature (which depends on the type of chocolate used). Using a regular thermometer, or even a candy thermometer, can be hairy.

Well now you can try a thermometer specifically for chocolate. Courtesy of Sur La Table, this one is a combination spatula and thermometer with handy chocolate reference material right on the handle. This will make getting temperatures right that much easier, since now you can stir to get the reading.

I know, it seems like a uni-tasker (for all you Alton Brown fans out there). But I can see this having other uses. You could use it for cooking custards, for instance. If you give me a minute, I might be able to come up with some more. Any way you look at it, this device can help you out. It definitely takes a lot of the guess work out of chocolate, and that makes it all worth it.

[Via Baking Bites]

One of the continuing joys of my life is the practice of making lists with pen and paper. It gives me a moment to get organized, I get the opportunity to firmly cross the items off the list once I've completed them and there's something so satisfying about looking at a slip of paper at the end of the day and knowing that you accomplished a series of tasks or errands. I especially love making grocery shopping lists because in addition to my previously discussed love of lists, I also love food. It becomes the merging of multiple loves and that just makes my day.

That was a long way of saying that I totally don't understand this gadget, the SmartShopper Grocery List Organizer that "alphabetizes and groups items by where they're found in the store." You pay $149.99 for the privilege of using this electronic list maker to do a job that a $.19 pen and a piece of paper could probably do just (if not more) effectively. Oh technology. You claim to make our lives better, but sometimes I wonder.

[via Treehugger]

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There is blogger or two out there not entirely thrilled with Sur La Table. The posh kitchen supply store may have been responsible for firing a blogger who wrote about Rachael Ray. But you will be thrilled to hear they carry silver dragees, those lovely decorating balls covered with (gasp) a little bit of real silver.

I snapped this photo at the Portland, Ore. Sur La Table the day before Christmas. As Nicole noted in her post, the label clearly states "for decoration only." If you want to buy a bottle - not to eat, mind you - you may find them at a fancy-dancy kitchen store near you.

[Photo Sarah Gilbert]