On June 5, 2013, I had the opportunity to spend ten minutes on the phone with Chef Wolfgang Puck who is introducing a new countertop appliance, the NovoPro Oven. Chef Puck was able to speak a few minutes about his new oven (which he is selling on HSN this weekend), and I got the opportunity to ask him a few questions ranging from the theatricality of fine dining to eggs to barbecue.

There is a Chinese restauarant in San Francisco that is a hidden gem. As one dining companion said recently, "Jai Yun's chef could be the best Chinese chef in America, but no one knows about him!" I've had the opportunity to eat at Jai Yun three times (each a delight) and planned to write about the restaurant the first two times but never did because I felt the task was too daunting. After this last meal, I felt that I could keep silent no longer and had to tell as many people as I could about my unbelievable dining exeriences at Jai Yun.


Jai Yun
680 Clay Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 981-7438
Reservations also available through OpenTable

When we moved to Austin, Texas in 2009, the type of restaurant that we missed the most was a ramen-ya ("ramen shop"). Having spent well over a decade living in the San Francisco Bay Area, we had become spoiled by not only the availability of ramen, but also the quality and variety of ramen. Most people know ramen as the homemade instant noodle soup made from dried noodles and special powders that borrows the same name. However, real ramen is a truly satisfying, labor intensive, and difficult dish to make well. In the last year, ramen has finally arrived in Austin and it's not only good, it's great.

We attended the ninth annual Food Fête on January 21 in San Francisco, a media event showcasing specialty food and beverage products. There were quite a few cheese and snack purveyors among the 20 or so exhibitors and here are a few that stood out, for better or for worse.


Eleanor loves to eat and write and share her opinions to anyone who will listen. Her favorite food is ice cream.

I have long been a fan of LEGO. Over the years, I collected a few sets and built them (most recently a remote control excavator), but it wasn't until I read The Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder's Guide by Pawel "Sariel" Kmiec that I actually felt that I was learning how to really build and started to truly understand the mechanics behind it all.

This holiday season (2012), we're running one more giveaway contest! Anolon has generously provided an entire 10-piece set of Anolon Nouvelle Copper Stainless Steel Cookware for me to give away to a lucky reader. Read on to find out how to enter this contest!

For the last couple months, I've had the opportunity to cook with Anolon's Nouvelle Copper Stainless Steel 3-qt saute pan. We cooked with it in a variety of ways to get a good overall impression of the product.

I get a lot of recipe requests and many of them are for simple recipes, vegetable recipes, or basic recipes. I've decided to combine all these different requests into a simple example of how to saute spinach for a vegetable side dish.


Sauteed Spinach (serves 2 as a side dish)

Tim Ferriss, author of the immensely popular (as well as entertaining and, sometimes, mindboggling) The 4-Hour Workweek, has a new book out where he tackles my favorite subject, cooking. Tim has graciously provided us with an exclusive excerpt from The 4-Hour Chef which follows.

The 4 Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life is available in hardcover from Amazon.com.

Timothy Ferriss is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body. He has been listed as one of Fast Company's "Most Innovative Business People of 2007", Forbes Magazine's "Names You Need to Know in 2011," and is the 7th "most powerful" personality on Newsweek's Digital 100 Power Index for 2012.

Almost eight years ago, I did a test with some kitchen thermometers and came to the conclusion that the Thermapen was the best kitchen thermometer money could buy. A few years later, Thermoworks improved on their original design with an even faster thermometer that was also splash-proof. We're pleased to announce that this year, we're giving away one of these excellent Thermapens along with their oven probe thermometer to one lucky reader (valued over $100)! Read on to see how to enter the drawing which will take place on December 1, 2012.

The historic Fugazi Building lies in the heart of San Francisco's bustling financial district. Built nearly a century ago by the successful Italian banker, John F. Fugazi, it is a landmark in The City by the Bay. Today, it's home to Georges, a sustainable seafood restaurant, underground bank vaults and all. While Georges specializes in seafood, we threw a curve ball into this review by requesting the meal be fully vegetarian. With SF's notable vegetarian population, it seemed a good way to determine if Georges can satisfy both the seafood lovers and the vegetarians in a party.

Connie is an avid cook and writer who specializes in no-excuses vegetarian food for her omnivorous friends.

One question that I keep getting asked (and that I keep asking myself when standing in the produce section of the market) is whether or not a particular type of fruit will ripen at home. It turns out there are only a handful of fruits which get sweeter after being picked: apples, bananas, kiwifruit, mangoes, and pears. There are a dozen additional fruits that continue to ripen (through aroma or textural changes) and all the rest do not. I put together the following chart listing the fruits which do ripen after being picked as well as those which do not from a variety of sources including but not limited to On Food and Cooking, Cookwise, Modernist Cuisine, and The Science of Good Food.

Just before it was to be published, I was offered an opportunity to review LEGO Heavy Weapons by Jack Streat (published by No Starch Press). Even though it isn't part of what I normally cover on Cooking For Engineers, I did find the concept of the book quite interesting (I enjoyed building with LEGOs as a child and in a college robotics class, and I partake in several marksmanship sports including pistolry, riflery, and archery). LEGO Heavy Weapons provides build instructions for four classic guns with three of the designs fully functional (actually shoots LEGO blocks). I agreed to write a review and decided the best way to go about reviewing the book was to actually build one of the designs.

If you purchase LEGO Heavy Weapons at Amazon.com through one of these links, a portion of the sale will go to helping maintain Cooking For Engineers.

In January of 2012, we made a trip to Houston. On the way there, we made a stop at Brenhem, Texas to see how Blue Bell Creameries makes their popular ice cream products. The folks over at Blue Bell graciously let us take pictures and share with our readers so those of you who don't have the opportunity to visit one their three production facilities in Brenham, Texas, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, or Sylacauga, Alabama can get a chance to look behind-the-scenes.

In December 2011, Michael Ohene, author of the Analyzing a Baking Recipe article, sent me a new essay (on creating personalized cookie recipes) and a link to an online tool he wrote that generates cookie recipes on demand (Create-a-Cookie). I was immediately a fan of the flexibility of the cookie generator (Just tell it what type of cookie, how rich, and how sweet you want it and it randomly generates a cookie of the type you want. Don't like the ingredients? No problem, just generate another set of ingredients. Then have it display the detailed recipe in whatever units you prefer.) and agreed to publish Michael's article.

Real hot chocolate is made by melting chocolate into either milk or water. It has a richer and fuller taste than hot cocoa because of the extra cocoa butter present in the chocolate. There are plenty of internet recipes for hot chocolate, but all the ones I found ended up with a grainy (very fine sandy) texture. Making hot chocolate so it is silky smooth requires a little technique, but isn't difficult to do. Here's my technique for perfect hot chocolate.


Perfect Hot Chocolate (serves 1)


Perfect Hot Chocolate (serves 4)

Shopping for the perfect gift for someone who is analytical can often be difficult. Engineers and other people who like to specialize, research, and focus are often very particular about what they want to receive as gifts. If you or a loved one enjoys reading Cooking For Engineers, here are ten books sure to please!

A few weeks ago, I was tasting butter pecan ice cream (my favorite flavor) from Graeter's for the first time. Unfortunately, the carton had probably been mishandled before I got it because the ice cream was a bit icy, difficult to scoop, and had a weird almost artificial taste that I couldn't quite place. It was so disappointing that I wanted to run to the store and buy some butter pecan ice cream (this was just before our local grocery store started to carry Graeter's), but instead I ordered a copy of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home and made my own. This recipe is actually Butter Ice Cream with Honey Pecan Pralines and is one of the best homemade ice creams you can make.


Butter Pecan Ice Cream (makes about 1 quart / 1 L)

Pralines are nuts in candy form and this recipe makes crunchy toasted honey pralines that are excellent for topping desserts or blending into ice cream. This recipe only takes a few minutes to make and can be easily modified to use your favorite nuts.


Honey Pecan Pralines (makes about 1-1/2 cups)

In June 2011, we had the opportunity to visit Chicago for a week. In addition to visiting museums, tourist attractions, and parks, we ate deep dish pizza, toured the Vienna Beef Factory, dined at Rick Bayless's restaurants and the world famous Alinea, and much more. Here's what we did...