SousChef Community

Last year we did a taste test on milk chocolate Easter bunnies. So it only made sense that this year we taste jellybeans, the candy that seems to overpopulate the pharmacy and supermarket shelves come late February, yes, February. We split our taste test into two categories, classic (whatever the brand defines as their no-frills flavor) and sour. ...

The Jewish holiday of Purim begins this Saturday night. I'll confess that, as a not-very-observant half-Jew (my mother's family is Christian) I've never celebrated this holiday. But, along with other less well-known Jewish festivals like Sukkot and Shavuot, I find Purim intriguing. My husband's cousins Miryam and Rachel, who live in Israel, have ...

Today is Mardi Gras, which to many people means beads, king cakes, and parties. But it also means that tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. At midnight tonight the parties on Bourbon Street will shut down and the season of austerity will begin. I'm not Catholic, but I actually like the idea of choosing to give something up for a ...

The Year of the Tiger begins Sunday, February 14, and here in New York City, there will be activities for residents and visitors alike, including a fireworks show and a dumpling-making workshop. But for me, a walk through the packed streets of Chinatown loses its luster and makes me crave the intimate setting of a homemade dinner with family and ...

Though most of us are probably looking forward to the coming long weekend as a time to relax, perhaps dig out from the big snowstorm, and enjoy not having to go to work, it's good to remember that we're supposed to be celebrating the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln on Monday. If you have kids, or even if you don't, this can be a ...

If my cranial sieve is trustworthy, the last time I made jambalaya was nearly half a lifetime ago, in my short-lived stint as an independent caterer while I was in restaurant school. I cooked it from Paul Prudhomme's then-revolutionary ''Louisiana Kitchen'' for a wedding with 50 guests, so it's no wonder I remembered it being a ''Avatar''esque ...

In honor of Mardi Gras we spoke to two chefs with serious ties to New Orleans. John Besh was born in the area and now runs six local restaurants (August, Lüke, Besh Steak, La Provence, Domenica, and the American Sector) while David Guas is a New Orleans-born pastry chef who lives and works outside of Washington DC. Both chefs have new cookbooks ...

I've been inundated with so many restaurant and food product promotions for Valentine's Day that February 14th is becoming one big seductive blur of oysters, chocolate, champagne, cocktails, and cuts of meat. Yes, I really did get an email from a butcher boasting that nothing could be more romantic than sharing a nicely marbled Frenched rib. Not ...

Valentine's Day is coming up and you're probably trying to come up with a great gift idea. A beaded necklace could convey ''I love you'' as would chocolates and flowers, but none of them are particularly original (and maybe you're not ready to say those three words?). So it's always best to go for something cakey and chocolaty, like brownies (a ...

February 14th tends to be a day devoted to couples, but as Megan Steintrager asks in our new guide to hosting a singles party, ''Why should having a great Valentine's Day be the exclusive right of 'smug marrieds' and cuddly new twosomes?'' Hoping to make the day a bit more enjoyable for the unattached, our Valentine's Day Singles Mixer shows you ...