Until this Monday, Babbo Pastry Chef Gina DePalma was the Kate Winslet of the culinary world, earning six James Beard Award nominations for the honor of Outstanding Pastry Chef but never taking the cake. The seventh time, though, proved to be the ... er ... icing. We caught up with DePalma this morning to chat about victory, pastry, her battle with ovarian cancer and her boss, the boisterous Mario Batali (aka Mr. Fanta Pants).
What did it feel like to the finally win a James Beard Award? I tried not to break down into tears. I tried to keep myself together up there. After seven years, you try to emotionally turn yourself off. In past years I thought it was such a big deal to win, but it still felt good.
Is that why you were emotional on stage? That was part of it. It's also been a very tough year for me. I don't know if you know, I have been battling ovarian cancer. I was diagnosed four days after my sixth loss. I had a huge operation and went through chemo and lost all my hair. I am still in treatment. It was stage four. It was end of the line, but they got it all in surgery.
Hear why salted caramels should die and why DePalma is afraid to rock orange crocs after the jump.
Hooray for the Dairy Queen Blizzard, the dessert that combines ice cream, candy and sometimes even cookies all in one (swiftly melting) creation.
The sweet treat is given even greater pride of place on the DQ menu thanks to its "Blizzard of the Month" feature. Former BoMs have included caramel cheesecake and turtle Oreo (pictured), but it's the divine midnight truffle -- a blend of vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and truffle bits -- that's enjoying an April shout-out.
If contrasting crunchiness is preferable in the creamy Blizzard, then the softness of the truffle chunks are a bit of a letdown. But if maximum richness is the goal, then their melt-in-your-mouth texture works quite nicely with the smooth chocolatiness of the ice cream. Fight the current heat wave to slurp this sucker down before it turns from a Blizzard into slush.
This may be the cherriest piece of cherry pie we've ever laid eyes on.
The cherries are so big and bright and alive they're practically winking at us. We know food porn when we see it, and in this case we applaud Danny from Food in Mouth for going there somewhat fearlessly, transforming a slightly garish-looking slice from the Little Pie Company into this bit of in-your-face decadence. The best part is the plastic fork: Actual silverware would have implied that the pie was consumed in a delicate and restrained manner. If this photo is any indication, it certainly was not. "This," the photo seems to say, "is pie made for gobbling." Preferably on a checkered picnic blanket, crumbs flying everywhere, or standing in front of the fridge scooped into the palm of your hand when silverware just seems too far away.
These gorgeous, golden-brown churros look so enticing we can practically feel their crinkly, sugar-studded skins melting on our tongues. Though their shape deviates from that of tubular churros -- traditional Mexican treats of deep-fried dough rolled in cinnamon and sugar -- we can't really say that we care. What matters is that they look sweet, crunchy goodness personified ... or like history's most gloriously demonic matzoh balls.
The Amateur Gourmet's Adam Roberts describes these beauties as "The Churros That Saved The Dinner Party." We think he's being too modest. These look like the churros that could save the world, or at least a small principality.
Ok, we know it's a little early to talk about apricots, but it's starting to warm up out there and with peak season just around the corner (from May to September depending on where you live) we just can't help ourselves.
The plump, golden-orange fruit is one our favorite farmer's market finds. A fine snack in its dried incarnation, it also makes for stellar tarts and preserves.
Keep it simple with fresh apricots. Drizzle them with honey and pair with ricotta or goat cheese or toss them on the grill. This season we have an eye on Food & Wine's simple recipe for broiled apricots caramelized with honey, an ideal foil for sweet vanilla ice cream. Below are eight tempting recipes to choose from:
On a recent trip to Singapore I fell hopelessly in love with the unholy, neon-colored love child of a Sno-Cone and a Jell-O salad, also known as the ais kacang.
The ais kacang is wildly popular in Singapore and Malaysia (where it's sometimes called an "ABC"), served in outdoor food centers and in mall food courts countrywide. In its most basic iteration, it consists of a scoop of roughly shaved ice drizzled with varicolored sugar syrups and evaporated or condensed milk sitting on a nest of corn kernels, red beans and cubes of herb jelly or gluey sago pearls.
It's the hyperstimulating carnival of desserts, with every texture -- Crunchy! Chewy! Icy! Glutinous! Creamy! -- and dozens of flavors exploding in your mouth all at once. Some versions even include a scoop of ice cream or a pile of fresh mango or (eeek!) durian. More is more, right?
Never mind that it's still 45 degrees and raining here; I've been craving ais kacang as if it's midsummer in Southeast Asia. So I decided to make my own. I simply ground up ice in my food processor and doused it with Torani raspberry syrup (the kind you use to make Italian soda) and a milk syrup I'd made by cooking evaporated milk with brown sugar. I omitted the corn and beans, but next time I'll try adding some sago pearls or chopped fresh berries.
When I was in Mexico, I tried a simple sweet and spicy dessert - chunks of pineapple sprinkled with dried chili flakes and salt, and drizzled with limes. A pineapple can be prepared for a complicated dessert or for something as simple as fruit salad.
This exquisite tropical fruit can be grilled or roasted. Recently, I tried Martha Stewart's recipe for grilled pineapple with coconut sorbet. It's the perfect antidote to the cold wintry weather. Pineapples work well in desserts due to its unique tropical sweetness and its bright yellow color. I'll never forget the light fluffy cake toppled with pineapples that I tried last May at Pierre Hermé in Paris.
When I think of pistachios, I automatically think sweet. Perhaps, this is due to the Egyptian and Syrian side of my family. From an early age, I associated pistachios with sweet syrupy nutty baklava and pistachio ice cream. We would alternate between pistachio baklava and the traditional one made with walnuts and almonds.
As I got older, I started to explore other pistachio flavored desserts. On a recent culinary adventure to Café Sabarsky in Manhattan I discovered the Austrian cake Mozart Torte. This one was made with pistachios, chocolate, and nougat cream. I haven't had any luck yet finding the recipe.
Below are 8 delicious pistachio recipes that are sure to fulfill your craving for something sweet and nutty:
I'll never forget the numerous pastry shop windows I'd walk past while living in Paris that had Bûche de Noël, a traditional Christmas cake served during the holidays in France and several christian-populated francophone countries, such as Canada (Quebec). "Bûche" in English means "log;" hence, the shape of the cake. It's often a sponge cake filled with chocolate buttercream.
After living in Paris, I became fascinated by the different takes not just on the Bûche de Noël, but on the Christmas cake. It seems to me that nearly every family has their own traditional cake that they bake for the holidays.
Below are 8 fabulously festive cakes for this holiday season:
Quince, a firm, chartreuse-skinned fruit that looks like a combination of an apple and a rather knobby pear, is an oft-overlooked fall fruit. Unlike apples and pears, it's too hard and astringent to eat raw, but a little TLC can transform it into a sublime autumn dessert.
Poached quince pairs perfectly with a heady blue cheese, making for a bright, crisp ending to a massive Thanksgiving dinner. Try warm quince with honey as an ice cream topping, or served with a scoop of fresh sweet cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Chocolate and Zucchini has a simple, delightful recipe for vanilla-poached quince, which would make a lovely, unusual addition to a table already loaded with pies.
Bea of La Tartine Gourmande is one of the most talented food photographers going these days. Her blog is a continual source of inspiration for food bloggers and photographers (and I include myself in that inspired group) and her recipes are reliably delicious. The tart you see above is a fairly simple one, but the way in which she dresses it up turns it into an absolute show stopper.
Bea, many thanks for adding this (and so many of your other lovely images) to the Slashfood Flickr pool.
When I think back on my childhood and I recall fall desserts, sweet potato pie comes to mind. Every Thanksgiving, I remember looking forward to my aunt's luscious delicious cinnamon-flavored sweet potato pie that had marshmallows melted on top. As an adult, I've come to appreciate the many different varieties of this succulent autumnal dessert.
Fall is the season for eating sweet potatoes and for transforming them into sweet pies. Last fall, I tried the most incredible decadent version: sweet potato rum pie with walnut-gingersnap crust. Recently, I tried a sweet potato pie with a marshmallow meringue. What are some interesting ones that you've tried?
Parfaits are truly the anytime dish -- breakfast, lunch, snack, dessert. Dinner? Maybe even that. Here are some ideas for both usual and unusual (and hopefully, unusually delicious) takes on this yummy yogurt-based delight.
1. Apple and Walnut parfait with maple syrup 2. Greek yogurt parfait with mangoes and honey 3. Classic fresh raspberry parfait with granola 4. Parfait with yogurt, granola, and cooked cherries 5. Trail mix parfait with yogurt, mixed nuts, and dried fruit 6. Cereal parfait with yogurt, dried cereal, and fresh strawberries 7. Frozen yogurt parfait with frozen or fresh berries 8. Pina Colada parfait with dried pineapple, dried coconut, and vanilla yogurt
Anyone have favorite combos for beautiful layered parfaits? Share!
I know chocolate is a pretty darn popular flavor any time of the year, but it seems that I've seen an unusual amount of chocolate recipes on the blogs this week. There were two on one blog that generally focuses on bread! Here are some of the interesting chocolate dessert recipes circulating in the blogosphere.
1. Chocolate cake made from sourdough starter I found at Bakers Banter! 2. Zucchini and chocolate cake also from Bakers Banter. 3. A spiced up brownie from Smitten Kitchen. 4. Bacon peanut butter chocolate cupcake from Serious Eats. 5. Not quite a recipe, but some vegan chocolates from Almost Vegan. 6. Ok, the recipe is from Chocolate and Zucchini from 2003, but the post is from this weeks the Kitchn. 7. I guess chocolate whirligigs aren't that unusual from a site called Chocolate Gourmand. 8. Though technically not a chocolate recipe, this cute butterfly cupcake uses chocolate as a decoration.
Anime, Japanese-style animation, has become increasingly popular over the years. I remember watching bootleg copies of Dragon Ball Z movies with my friends in high school. A couple years later I was delighted to see whole (albeit small) sections of anime at video stores like Suncoast. I was pleasantly surprised, and very amused, to find this list of the top eight foods in anime from Cosplay Classes.
1 Number one is ramen. I guess it's iconic to show characters slurping up the noodles. 2. Sushi, the quintessntial Japanese food. 3. Dessert is probably more prevalent in shows geared toward women. 4. Curry sure has made it's mark. 5. I had no idea pasta was so popular. 6. Apparently hamburgers are getting a lot of screen time. 7. The Japanese hot pot is a derivation of a Chinese dish. 8. Onigiri are simple to make and all kinds of anime characters put it in their bento boxes.
Until this Monday, Babbo Pastry Chef Gina DePalma was the Kate Winslet of the culinary world, earning six James Beard Award nominations for the honor of Outstanding Pastry Chef but never taking the cake. The seventh time, though, proved to be the ... er ... icing. We caught up with DePalma this morning to chat about victory, pastry, her battle with ovarian cancer and her boss, the boisterous Mario Batali (aka Mr. Fanta Pants). 
Quince, a firm, chartreuse-skinned fruit that looks like a combination of an apple and a rather knobby pear, is an oft-overlooked fall fruit. Unlike apples and pears, it's too hard and astringent to eat raw, but a little TLC can transform it into a sublime autumn dessert. 
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