SousChef Community

When I woke up and saw my hometown paper's food section was devoted to coffee, I was thrilled: I could skip it and go straight to gobbling digital doughnuts on Twitter. I can count the number of times I have ever had a better cappuccino out than we brew up every morning. Ours taste like Italy, the country where we have consumed more cappuccino ...

Holy. Screaming hot. Sweet hellfire. (May I have another?) Compartes 912 S. Barrington Ave., just south of San Vicente Los Angeles, CA 90049 310.826.3380 www.compartes.com twitter.com/compartes

If you ever had trouble getting a grip on the somewhat esoteric concept of ''umami,'' now it's much more accessible. By the tube, in fact. Umami, the so-called ''fifth taste'' (after the four basic senses bitter, salty, sour and sweet) describes the savory flavor found in usch varied ingredients as soy sauce, fish sauce, and Parmesan cheese. ...

Like many of you, I tote my own reusable shopping bags to the market to handle the big stuff and to aggregate all the smaller items. But when it comes to fresh produce, I still reach for the plastic baggies—even at the farmers' market. I realize using the baggies isn't considered very green of me but they do such a good job of separating my ...

A few weeks ago I attended a Spring/Summer preview event for the Museum of Modern Art's Design Store, and now that the products are available in stores and online, I want to tell you about one my favorite pieces from the new collection. Jean-Marc Gady's Gourmet Trio Plate is rather genius. Designed to be both a serving plate and a place setting, ...

While e-bantering with my Grocer the other day, I mentioned I was off to the Greenmarket and he e-scorned back: ''Kale.'' As if that's a four-letter word. I felt incredibly lucky to come home with a tiny bunch of the best kind, cavolo nero, for $3 (organic) while his mega-market is probably selling fat imported asparagus like lottery tickets. We ...

Are cupcakes too cute for men to enjoy? Well, now there's a new bakery just for dudes who may appreciate a diminutive cake, but bristle at pastel-hued frosting. If Magnolia Bakery's cupcakes became synonymous with ''Sex and the City,'' Butch Bakery's mancakes might be destined for the ''Entourage'' set. ''It was time to combine a masculine ...

One of the coolest little gifts my consort ever gave me was a special mayonnaise spoon like this, one that measures out a tablespoon and has a flat side for scraping the jar clean. And it was a true gift because I don't think he has ever used it; I'm Mrs. Sprat and he's Mr. Mustard when it comes to dressing salads or making sandwiches. It's not ...

As a lover of root beer, I was pretty excited when a bottle of Root arrived on my desk. This organic spirit, which is made by the Philadelphia art collective Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, is inspired by root tea, the alcoholic precursor to root beer. According to the Art in the Age Web site, back in the 1700's, root tea was an herbal ...

Nut oil is one of the luxuries I have to afford. It's like the honest cook's truffle oil: really potent, but the flavor and fragrance are natural. Usually I ration tiny amounts in vinaigrette, but at lunch this week at the dazzling home of my ''French Women Don't Get Fat'' friend, Mireille Guiliano, I tasted an even better idea. As the first ...