"dean and deluca" news and stories

Oh, how I love a good DIY, and it's not that I happen to love sitting in my garage all weekend making things. It's that I am now on a very strict budget and can't go around dropping $150 at Dean & Deluca on a highly coveted spice rack!

A reader over at Apartment Therapy sent the blog her DIY Spice rack project that in the end, cost all of $40, and that's with the spices included! The shelving is from Ikea, the metallic tins are from Bed, Bath & Beyond, and the spices from a local spice store. I am sure that any of us could put something like this together, and what makes this even better than the Dean & Deluca version (aside from the incredible price differential) is that you can customize it to exactly what you like.

Oh dear, did we miss a few days of our Burger of the Day in honor of National Burger Month? Don't worry, Slashfoodies, I am here to serve...fries with that.

Not that you need any fries with today's Burger of the Day, the Foie Gras Burger from Dean and Deluca. You think paying 12 bucks for a burger in a restaurant is a big deal? Okay, what about $20? Please. This exclusive bit of decadence is ground beef filled with Fabrique Delice duck foie gras costs $50 for four patties. Obviously, that's a mere $12.50 a patty, genius, but that's only a patty. It comes to you in a box. You get to cook it. You get to add all the other ingredients (Though, would you? To a foie gras burger?)

Don't worry. The pack of four patties includes four freshly baked buns.

It is a myth that only women want chocolate - guys like it just as much. Dean & Deluca must have someone working for them who knows this and came up with a cute way to package chocolate up as a suitable Father's Day gift. While most dads are getting ties or yet another set of socket wrenches, you can get your dad some tools that he'll really enjoy: chocolate tools. The "set" includes three wrenches, needle-nose pliers and a couple of nuts and bolts. All are made out of 56% cocoa chocolate, which should be pleasing to the taste buds of both milk and dark chocolate lovers. The tools are also dusted in cocoa powder, which D&D says gives them a "rusty" look, though most chocolate fans would probably just say it makes them look even more delicious.

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 Peeps and grocery-store chocolate candies are all well and good, but the end of Lent calls for something of a splurge. Fortunately, the purveyors of fine chocolate and other goodies are more than happy to oblige the impulse to celebrate the season. Here at Slashfood, we are happy to indulge whenever the opportunity arises, but these luxury Easter chocolates are really ideal for a special occasion.

1. Harry and David may not be the "go-to" chocolatier for some, but their Chocolate Praline Eggs are somehow shaped inside a colorful, real eggshell and need to be broken out before eating. A half dozen eggs are $29.99.
2. Robert L. Strohecker's Assorted Rabbits are chocolate bunnies designed to have three different flavors of filling inside different parts of the rabbit: toasted almond ears, an almond butter crunch head, and a caramel pecan body. Available in both milk and dark chocolate, this is one bunny you won’t get bored with. They are $30.95 a pair.
3. Neiman Marcus' Chocolate Easter Bunny is hand poured, hand decorated and hand wrapped. At nearly 5-pounds, it is one very big, but festive, bunny. Use it as a centerpiece, then serve it for dessert. Each bunny is $99.

 

I will admit that both of these were gifts, but I am a big fan of chocolate covered coffee beans and often buy them as snacks for myself. I love the smoothness of the chocolate with the crunch and flavor of a coffee bean - sort of a deconstructed mocha. But how do the more than twice as expensive Dean & Deluca beans stack up to their Trader Joes counterpart?

Dean & Deluca's confection had excellent chocolate surrounding a large bean. The flavors blended amazingly well and the whole thing had a distinctly caramely tone to it, though the coffee bean flavor was evident. Excellent ratio - a bit more than 1:1: - of chocolate to bean.