by Benjamin Lester | Aug 23, 2024 | Baking, Dessert, Pastry, Recipes, Video
Biscuits – from the Latin biscoctus, meaning “twice-cooked”– go back at least as far as the 1500s. The first biscuits were made from three basic ingredients – flour, water and salt – and cooked until they were hard, dry and tasteless. These compact bricks of bread,...
by Benjamin Lester | Jun 7, 2024 | Baking, Cooking, Dinner, Recipes, Uncategorized
Char Siu is a celebrated Cantonese dish made of honey-glazed roast pork marinated in red rice fermented tofu, hoisin sauce, five spice, soy sauce and honey. In the fast food industry, the red rice tofu is often replaced with red food coloring, but the traditional...
by Benjamin Lester | May 17, 2024 | Baking, Bread, Dinner, Lunch, Recipes
Like many of the world’s great sandwiches, the Báhn Mì was born on the streets, the child of two highly refined food cultures. In Vietnamese “Bánh” refers to baked goods, and “Mì” means wheat. The baguette arrived in Vietnam in the mid 1800s by way of French settlers....
by Benjamin Lester | Jan 20, 2024 | Baking, Bread, Cooking, Dinner, Recipes, Uncategorized
Like many of the world’s most scrumptious food inventions, this iconic sub, born in the city of brotherly love, inspires passion and debate. From its humble origins in the 1930s as “frizzled beef and onions” at Pat and Harry Olivieri’s hotdog cart, the Philly...
by Benjamin Lester | Jan 20, 2024 | Baking, Bread, Dinner, Recipes, Uncategorized, Video
These rolls contain just enough oil and sugar to make the crust thinner and softer than a baguette or other straight dough (without sugar or oil) but not as soft as a hamburger bun or sandwich loaf. This type of roll was popularized by Italian American immigrants, who...
by Benjamin Lester | Dec 21, 2023 | Baking, Bread, Dessert, Pastry, Recipes, Uncategorized
(Scroll Below for Recipe Book preview followed by Ingredient list and directions in text only) This recipe transforms a basic brioche bun into a fancy Italian pastry. In Medieval Rome, Maritozzi were the one of the only sweets permitted during Lent, because they...
