All posts tagged: Chefs

Eat better with less stress—a chef’s simple guide on how to start meal prepping this week

Eat better with less stress—a chef’s simple guide on how to start meal prepping this week

Published by Jenni Sidey

People often avoid meal prepping because they assume it takes too much time. In reality, it can be one of the most efficient ways to cook—saving both time and mental energy across the week. Private chef and NASM-certified personal trainer Jane Olivia says meal prepping is a simple strategy for busy people who want to eat well without overthinking it. Having food ready in advance can make it easier to avoid last-minute, less healthy choices—helping create more consistent eating habits. “Life is busy, and people often fall into poor food choices simply because nothing is prepared,” she says. “Meal prepping removes that daily decision fatigue, when the food is already there, you’re far more likely to eat well.” Article continues below You may like It can also save time, reduce food waste and make the most of your budget. Rather than cooking from scratch every day, preparing meals in batches means you spend less time in the kitchen overall. “Most people spend time each day figuring out what to eat and cooking it,” Olivia explains. …

Violet Oon and the legacy of Singapore heritage food

Violet Oon and the legacy of Singapore heritage food

Published by Sam Flores

Their first restaurant, Violet Oon’s Kitchen, was a casual eatery along Bukit Timah Road serving Peranakan food with a few Western twists. It wasn’t until 2015, when the National Gallery Singapore invited them to set up a restaurant in its new premises, that the family were able to realise their goal of spotlighting Singapore’s culinary heritage. The historic venue, in what was once City Hall, was the perfect site and particularly meaningful to Oon. As a young music and arts journalist in the early 1970s, she had spent much of her time in the Ministry of Culture offices on the building’s third floor. “That was exciting for me, but also a great responsibility, because how do you interpret national food?” she recalled. “Is it hawker food? Home food? Or restaurant food?”  The short answer is, of course, all of the above.  “So I went to learn to make idlis from scratch from Indian housewives. We made chilli crab, because that’s what’s national to us, and then we had fish head curry,” she said. “Food is not only …

‘Morning Baker’ celebrates pastry chefs who opened L.A. bakeries

‘Morning Baker’ celebrates pastry chefs who opened L.A. bakeries

Published by Sam Flores

The sky is still a dark indigo-purple at 5 a.m. over this eastern stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, where Thai Town and Little Armenia overlap. Located directly across the street from Jumbo’s Clown Room, neighborhood bakery-cafe Friends & Family looks blue-hour quiet. But the morning crew is nearly two hours into the week’s biggest “bake.” That means preparing a thousand baked goods of nearly 50 varieties, most of which will fill the pastry case by the time the doors open at 8 o’clock. Co-owner and baker Roxana Jullapat — who has just published her second cookbook, “Morning Baker: Recipes and Rituals for Breakfast and Beyond” — watches over a rotating oven that holds two nearly six-foot racks of 30 sheet trays filled with croissants. She left behind a career as a fine-dining pastry chef to open Friends & Family nine years ago with her partner, Dan Mattern, and helped lead a whole-grain baking revolution. Croissants fill the bakery case at Friends & Family, which baker and co-owner Roxana Jullapat opened with her partner nine years ago. …

How to save limp herbs | Chefs

How to save limp herbs | Chefs

Published by Sam Flores

What can I do with herbs that are past their best?Joe, by emailHappily, Joe and his on-the-turn herbs aren’t short of options. “The obvious choice for hard herbs is to chuck them in a sandwich bag and freeze them for future stock-making,” says Alice Norman, founder of regenerative bakery Pinch in Suffolk. Alternatively, Sami Tamimi, author of Boustany, would be inclined to dry his excess herbs. In summer, he’d simply pop them on a tray and put them outside in the sun, but right now he “dries them in a 60-70C oven, then packs in containers, ready for the next time you’re short of fresh herbs”. Norman’s current MO is to blitz languishing herbs (“rosemary and/or thyme work best”) with a 3:4 ratio of fine salt. “You don’t want too many herbs, because that will throw off the moisture content and turn the mix black, but you need enough for the blades to catch and break down the rosemary properly.” Pulse until fine, then store in an airtight jar in the fridge (where it’ll keep …

‘A good little hack for giant yorkies’: top chefs on everything you need to make the perfect roast | Food

‘A good little hack for giant yorkies’: top chefs on everything you need to make the perfect roast | Food

Published by Sam Flores

Crispy roast potatoes, golden yorkshire puddings and perfectly cooked meat (or a vegetarian centrepiece) – there’s nothing like a good roast dinner. But making a roast can be quite a balancing act in the kitchen. There’s a fine art to juggling all the elements: you want to make sure nothing is over- or under-cooked, and that everything is still warm when you come to serve it. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. To refine your techniques and help you feel like a pro in the kitchen, we asked top chefs from around the UK about the cooking equipment they rely on to make the perfect roast. Featuring life-changing peelers, roasting tins that make the crispiest potatoes and a temperature probe to help you cook to perfection, these are their recommendations. Everything you need to make the perfect roast dinner Knife sharpener Vogue ceramic steel knife sharpener £41.98 at Nisbets £41.99 at Amazon One kitchen essential I couldn’t do without is a Vogue …

Ways to use mint sauce without having to roast a lamb | Chefs

Ways to use mint sauce without having to roast a lamb | Chefs

Published by Sam Flores

My wife adores roast lamb with mint sauce. However, after an online purchasing blunder, my larder now contains six jars. How can I make use of them apart from serving roast lamb every Sunday from now until the crack of doom?John, by emailAs is so often the case, it all starts with a shift in mindset. “When you see a jar of sauce, there’s a real tendency to think, ‘I must use this as a sauce,’” says Kate Young, author of Dinner at Mine? Start treating that surplus mint sauce as an ingredient instead, however, and your life will be a whole lot easier. “If John is planning on using chopped fresh mint with, say, meat, cheese or veg, then consider how you might use mint sauce in its place,” Young adds. Case in point: pea and mint soup, says Sally Abé of the recently opened Teal by Sally Abé in east London. “Stir in the mint sauce at the end of the cooking, then blitz with the peas.” Obvious, maybe, but it’s also worth …

Tarte by Cheryl Koh to close after 11 years on Apr 26

Tarte by Cheryl Koh to close after 11 years on Apr 26

Published by Sam Flores

Sad news for tart lovers. Tarte by Cheryl Koh will be closing down after 11 years, with its final day of operations on Apr 26. The brand is helmed by Singaporean pastry chef Cheryl Koh, who is also the pastry chef of three-Michelin-starred French restaurant Les Amis, currently ranked No. 38 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026 list. It first opened at Shaw Centre in 2015 as a casual but chic spin-off of the Les Amis Group, focusing on artisanal French-style tarts made with premium seasonal ingredients. Source link

Blades of glory (or not): what makes a chef’s knife truly great? | Food

Blades of glory (or not): what makes a chef’s knife truly great? | Food

Published by Sam Flores

Many budding chefs among us have blamed a bad knife for a poor dinner. But how do you know which ones will make light work of slicing tomatoes gossamer thin – and which will leave you hacking away at the waxy skin? The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Here at the Filter, we decided it was high time to find the best kitchen knives. In collaboration with the newly launched Guardian Food Quarterly, we recruited a professional to put 14 knives through their paces. The professional in question was Ben Lippett, former chef turned home cook and food writer, and author of How I Cook, who describes himself as “opinionated”. “I know what I like, and I’m not a sucker for style over substance,” he writes. Ben “ensured each knife saw a similar amount of action, focusing on one or two key ingredients – onion or shallot, waxy-skinned tomatoes, herbs – to see how each one handled fine work as well as …

‘Buy this, and you’ll be set for life’: the best (and worst) chef’s knives – tested | Food

‘Buy this, and you’ll be set for life’: the best (and worst) chef’s knives – tested | Food

Published by Sam Flores

A great chef’s knife is less a tool and more an extension of the person holding it. In the kitchen, your knife effectively becomes your right (or left) hand. Balance equals control; good steel spells confidence and longevity; a sharp edge means ease. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. I’ve put a handful of knives through the only trials that matter: shallots diced to translucence, tomatoes sliced gossamer thin, herbs chiffonaded to perfume. I’m looking past marketing into geometry, materials, grind and ultimately how each knife feels – at minute one and hour 10. Does it bite eagerly, or wedge and bruise? How does it feel in your hand – is it perfectly balanced or too blade-heavy? Does it sing on the board, or thud? Will this knife need lots of TLC, or will it look after itself? Here are my sharp, unsentimental findings on performance, longevity, comfort and value, so you know exactly where to spend your cash. At a glance …

Three ex-Horses chefs have created L.A.’s true pop-up of the moment

Three ex-Horses chefs have created L.A.’s true pop-up of the moment

Published by Sam Flores

My first dinner at the Bruce pop-up happened last month out of desperation. I’d planned with a friend to arrive extra early at one of L.A.’s current impossible-to-book restaurants in hopes of snagging a couple of unreserved seats. Then: ugh. I’d forgotten I had a late afternoon doctor’s appointment. By the time I was free, we were scouting possibilities in different neighborhoods. “Wilde’s isn’t taking any more names for the night.” “At Hermon’s. Quoted a 90-minute wait for the bar.” “Now at Vandell. About the same thing.” It dawned on me: My colleague Stephanie Breijo had written the previous week about a pop-up formed by three chefs — Brittany Ha, Hannah Grubba and Alex Riley — banding together after they’d lost their jobs at Horses, which closed suddenly in December. Bruce is the name of Ha’s infant son. The trio had taken over the tiny open kitchen at Cafe Triste in Chinatown three nights a week through February. This is the L.A. pop-up to try right now The reservations had been snapped up for the …