My Faves for Foodies

Let's face it, we're all foodies to some degree. Have you ever met a person who doesn't enjoy food? My Faves for Foodies is just that. Information that I find useful, fascinating or worthwhile to share with people who like to eat. It could be a website or blog, a video or intriguing story, anything food related that should be passed on for entertainment, education or discussion. I have a confession. I spend hours of leisure time investigating the food world. From chefs to restaurants, professional food writers to food bloggers, if it's out there I challenge myself to find it. In my first installment, Five Faves for Foodies, only websites were featured. But, I found there's so much more interesting and fun info to pass on. And, you don't have to be a "foodie", in a strict sense, to benefit. Welcome to the journey!

Dan Barber, chef/owner of Blue Hill Restaurant in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in the lower Hudson Valley is passionate about raising the consciousness about the effects of our food choices and food sustainability. Blue Hill farm, a Rockefeller family operation, supplies the meat and produce served in both restaurants. Needless to say, everything is raised organically to the highest standards. Blue Hill at Stone Barns is both a restaurant and educational center, teaching visitors the importance of seasonality and how naturally raised meat and vegetables truly make a difference to our ecosystem. Can you imagine eating a salad of vegetables that were still in the ground just hours ago? Now that's passion!

In addition, Chef Dan is an extremely talented and entertaining speaker, as you'll see in the video. If your interested, here's some other Dan Barber video:

How I fell in love with a fish

A surprising parable of foie gras

Epicurious

Epicurious is, in my humble opinion, one of the most thorough food websites on the internet. It has partnered with Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Self and Parade magazines to create a recipe file so large that it would be difficult not to find what you were looking for. But, recipes are only part of what makes Epicurious great. The cooking video section is very extensive. Containing instructional as well as, holiday, entertaining, international food, chef profiles and wine guide videos. You can also join the community, subscribe to their newsletter and participate in the forums. Believe it or not, there's even a section, Tastebook, where the user can create his/ her own hardcover cookbook. Epicurious is very user friendly but be careful, you could kill a whole afternoon just browsing its info.

101 Cookbooks

We're all talking about eating more organic, natural and seasonal food because, well, it's better for you. I'm not a vegetarian, but this website caught my eye. 101 Cookbooks is an award winning chronicle of Heidi Swanson, a San Francisco Bay area resident, who believes in eating natural, whole foods that are good for you and the planet. In her words, "the premise of the site could be summed up in two sentences: If you own over 100 cookbooks, it's time to stop buying and start cooking". Thus, the name. Heidi is a photographer by trade and all the food styling is her work. The recipes are organized by both category (i.e. Dinner, Soups, Dessert etc.) and ingredient. I, personally, am trying to eat three or four vegetarian meals per week, and 101 Cookbooks has been a good source of inspiration.

Surely by now, you've heard of Jamie Oliver, of "Naked Chef" fame and his campaign against childhood obesity. His efforts in the UK have prompted the British government to apportion money into the school system to upgrade the school lunch programs there, offering a healthy low fat menu to the students. It also teaches the children to make healthier food choices outside of school. His new ABC TV series " Food Revolution" premiered Sunday, March 21st, to rave reviews. The series chronicles a small West Virginia town's battle with obesity, where 70% of the kids are overweight. For his efforts, he awarded the TEDprize ($100K) to further this cause. Well, I was swimming through TED.com the other day and ran across his TEDprize talk. It's very shocking, emotional and inspiring to say the least. Have a look and listen!

Update: 5/1/2010 Sign Jamie's "Food Revolution" petition to get federal funding for healthy school lunches. The movement already has almost 600,000 supporters. One million signatures are needed to get grants from the U.S. government to help improve the lunch programs here.

And now, not only has Jamie started revolutions in the UK and the United States, he has taken his food education program to another continent, down under in Australia.

Here's his website for recipes, cooking tips, videos and much more... JamieOliver.com

Chef Rene Redzepi of NOMA in Copenhagen, Denmark has been on a whirlwind world tour promoting his cookbook "NOMA: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine". NOMA recently took over the number one spot in Restaurant Magazines ranking of the World's Best Restaurants. He was in the Bay Area this week, oogling the abundance of produce American cooks have available. Can you imagine not cooking with tomatoes? Well, a tomato has never graced NOMA's kitchen. Why? Because this vegetable isn't available in Nordic cuisine. The San Francisco Chronicle interviewed Redzepi about his cooking philosophies and the future of world cuisine.

Copenhagen's Rene Redzepi visits S.F.'s Coi

Sophie Brickman, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, October 7, 2010

My Favs for Foodies will be constantly evolving. As a resource for current food world news, cool websites and culinary personalities, it's my intention to keeping you in the know.

Ciao!!!