Expert Interview

Isa Chandra Moskowitz is famous for her fresh, bold approach to vegan cooking, with her inspiring vegan cookbooks and cooking videos, as well as her website Post-Punk Kitchen. But when we spoke with her about her five essentials for home cooks, she wanted to be sure we kept the emphasis on weeknight cooking — vegan or otherwise. “These tips and essentials apply to all cooks,” she said.

The holidays are here, which means the stores are flooded with a dizzying array of cooking tools, cookbooks and fancy ingredients meant to tempt home cooks. What’s the discerning shopper to do? We decided to talk to some of our favorite professional chefs — the people who spend serious time in their kitchens — to find out what can’t-live-without-it cooking tools and ingredients are on their holiday wish lists this year.

Small kitchen habits can make a big difference in your cooking, so we love learning about the everyday cooking habits of cookbook authors, chefs and other food professionals. What are the small habits they practice every time they step into the kitchen? This week we are talking to our favorite food experts to find out the simple cooking practices they rely on, and today legendary French chef and cookbook author Jacques Pepin shares his five basic habits for better, happier cooking every day.

Small kitchen habits can make a big difference in your cooking, so we love learning about the everyday cooking habits of cookbook authors, chefs and other food professionals. What are the small habits they practice every time they step into the kitchen? The Commonsense Kitchen If a habit is indeed “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up,” then I have many kitchen habits: Wash greens carefully.

Will you be cooking a romantic dinner for a loved one this Friday? Or perhaps treating yourself to a special solo meal, no partner necessary? This week we are talking to chefs, food writers and bloggers about their ideal Valentine’s Day menus, and whether you’re married, single, or it’s complicated, we’ll be sharing ideas for all kinds of cooks, from the hopeless romantic to the die-hard cynic.

If you are a fan of Ashley Rodriguez’s award-winning food blog, Not Without Salt, then you know she has a commitment to sharing date nights with her husband that are romantic yet realistic, and always special. It isn’t easy to create that atmosphere with a longtime partner, especially when you have kids, so we turned to Ashley for her advice on sharing a memorably romantic meal at home, even when you can’t find a babysitter.

Will you be cooking a romantic dinner for a loved one this Friday? Or perhaps treating yourself to a special solo meal, no partner necessary? This week we are talking to chefs, food writers and bloggers about their ideal Valentine’s Day menus, and whether you’re married, single, or it’s complicated, we’ll be sharing ideas for all kinds of cooks, from the hopeless romantic to the die-hard cynic.

Bryant Terry is making a big splash with his wonderful new cookbook Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean and Southern Flavors Remixed and rightly so, for this is more than a simple cookbook. After years of researching the foods of the African Diaspora, Terry has created a beautiful collection of vegan recipes based on his research, pairing each one with African and African American music and book recommendations.

Cooking, baking, and owning a business of your own are dream jobs to many, and for good reason. There’s a certain romance in stirring a big pot of fragrant, melting chocolate, or in early morning light cast upon a tray of bubbling apple pies on their way to a farmers market.

This past week we shared a collection of favorite lunch recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, and as always, his fresh, vegetable-forward, Mediterranean recipes were exactly what we wanted to eat all week long. I also talked with Ottolenghi about lunch in general — why did he go into the business of lunch, through his delis, from the get-go, and what, in his mind, characterizes a great lunch?

I have mad respect for Stephanie O’Dea. Not only does she own 14 slow cookers, but she’s also the author of two New York Times bestselling slow-cooker cookbooks (with a third book just published!), and she’s built her slow-cooker recipe site, A Year of Slow Cooking, to be an invaluable resource for those of us slow-cooker addicts.

This week’s meal plan has recipes from two of chef Jacques Pépin’s latest cookbooks, both of which were companion books to his popular public television shows. I’ve watched Jacques on television since I was a little girl and wanted to find out what this legendary chef, who’s cooked for presidents and with Julia Child, makes for dinner at home! I chatted with Jacques about his long career (he’s turning 80 in December!

Food writer Michael Floreak upgraded his knife four years ago and has never looked back.

The owner of an organic meal-kit service and mother of three leans on a knife that's a real workhorse.

Author, blogger, and stylist Anne Sage has a penchant for perfectly pared produce.

The spring of 1999 I was still in college, which meant that I was working in a restaurant. Nothing high-brow; a barbecue joint. I put myself through school with a few restaurant jobs, working the tables, running food, coming in on Wednesday afternoons to help unload inventory.

Toddlers are full of life and yet somehow they suck at eating: they flip out over former favorites, they don’t want to eat when you do, and sometimes they even think their plate is a hat for the dog. Totally normal. And yet. Yet. Feeding children can feel fraught. If you’ve ever wondered, Is my kid eating enough? How picky is TOO picky? How do I get maple syrup out of the dog’s ears? this is for you.

Ms. W, author of The Joyful Celiac blog and an old friend, stopped by the other night to eat decadent hunks of stinky cheese on Grindstone Bakery’s quinoa bread and talk about ways that she finds nourishment, joy, and deliciousness in her strictly gluten-free kitchen and life.In 2003, Ms. W was diagnosed with celiac disease which is a digestive condition triggered by consumption of gluten. (For more information, see the Mayo Clinic.

What do you drink at a bad bar? It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, I know, but we’ve all been there: stuck in a tired airport lounge, or at a restaurant hundreds of miles away from an artisanal cocktail menu, eyeing a bartender who doesn’t look old enough to drink. What do you order when you just don’t trust the bar (or the bartender)? What’s your safety drink? I asked 25 food writer friends what they go to when they want a drink but don’t trust the bar.

This week I’ve been sharing my first-ever freezer meal party — a small get-together where we cooked and assembled meals for our freezers. It was a totally fun and worthwhile way to spend an afternoon, but as it was my first time coordinating the many moving pieces, it certainly took longer than I expected! To improve my next meal party, I turned to Stephanie Eakins, who runs freezer meal parties as part of her business, The Retro Dinner Diva.

Mindy Segal, author of Cookie Love and owner of HotChocolate Restaurant and Dessert Bar in Chicago, is a lady with strong feelings about cookies. One of her biggest crusades? Bring back the cookie plate, and bring it back now. Mindy feels that a cookie plate is really the best way to end a meal, whether it’s a simple weeknight dinner or a fancy dinner party.

In a food science class I took a few years ago — a lab-based class held in a large teaching kitchen — the professor forbade the use of microwaves, though there was one at every station. “I just don’t feel they are safe,” she told us. Seriously? This instructor had a master’s of science degree, which says something about how widespread the fear and prejudice against microwave ovens are, and how deep the emotions run.

Your days of failed attempts and sad-tasting vegan ice cream are officially over: Ice cream mastermind Ben Van Leeuwen is here to help. Van Leeuwen is part of the trio behind Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice, which humbly started in a pale yellow truck on the streets of New York City, and has since expanded into brick-and-mortar shops in NYC and Los Angeles. They also released their first ice cream cookbook this past June.

There was a time when following a gluten-free diet meant saying goodbye to bowls of comforting pasta, but that has changed. Gluten-free pasta has come a long way, with many options that continue to grow in number. But while it’s easy to get your hands on gluten-free pasta, cooking up a satisfying spaghetti dinner can be another hurdle altogether.

Bred for durability, grown in the inhospitable Florida sand, exposed to any number of harmful pesticides, prematurely harvested by the hands of immigrants living in virtual slavery, and finally gassed to ripeness — or rather, redness — within the confines of a warehouse: This is the biography of the modern American tomato as told by Barry Estabrook in his 2011 shocking exposé of the tomato industry, Tomatoland.

Whether you’re cooking the big family meal or attending it, there’s one thing that everyone looks forward to the day after Thanksgiving (hint: it’s not Black Friday): the delicious leftovers! The last thing you want, however, is a queasy stomach (or worse), thanks to improper food handling. To keep your tummy happy the second — or third — time around, follow this advice from Deirdre Schlunegger, CEO of Stop Foodborne Illness.

I’ve been thinking a lot about water lately after a recent trip to Switzerland, where something like 80 percent of the water stems directly from natural springs and groundwater and lakes. Not only is it safe to drink from the tap, but it’s also actually considered healthier than the bottled water you’d buy in the store.

The best part of any camping trip (or even a backyard fire-pit gathering) is obviously the time you spend with your friends and family. The second-best thing? The s’mores, hands down. If you’re one to really rough it, chances are you’ve roasted your fair share of marshmallows on random sticks you’ve collected in the woods. While any specks of dirt and bark just add to the rustic experience, it’s hard not to wonder if what you’re doing is actually okay.

Everyone knows that person who refuses to recycle because they say it doesn’t actually do anything. Maybe you even are that person. Does recycling actually make a difference to our environment? We talked to top experts in the recycling space to find out what we can really know about the impact recycling has on our planet.

I am still quite a novice when it comes to baking sourdough bread, but fortunately I have lots of friends and books to consult. Community goes hand and hand with baking — from the neighborhood ovens of our past and present to the wide world of home bakers the internet has brought together. One of the best ways to learn about bread is to talk about it. So in that spirit, we went to the people who had something to say about baking their first loaf.

The holidays are a time for baking, and that means those who are gluten-free are still eager to get in on the action. While wheat may be out of the question, there are still plenty of cookies to be had this time of year. So if you’re planning on baking gluten-free, take some advice from a couple of seasoned experts to ensure you’re set up for success. Shauna James Ahern, of Gluten-Free Girl, feels strongly that you should let go of your measuring cups.