Damon Lee Fowler

We've all encountered those cooks who operate on the maxim "if a little is good, a lot will be better," who never seem to know when to leave well-enough alone and quit while they're ahead.

If we're honest, most of us have been that cook at one time or another, taking a dish one step, one minute, one ingredient (or two or half-a-dozen) too far. But if we're paying attention, these moments of going too far can inform us and make us better cooks in the long-run.

But then there's the other extreme, the cooks who never go far enough, who've gotten fixed on a number. Read More 

[Nathalie Dupree, the undisputed Grande Dame of Southern Cooking, died on Monday, 13 January 2025, at the age of 85.]

Nathalie Dupree was the big sister I never had. And while I was never one of her "chickens" (her nickname for the many young interns and students that she mentored), over the more than thirty years that we knew one another, she was indeed a mentor that I was lucky enough with time to know as my colleague and friend.

Our acquaintance began when I was still trying to practice architecture while working on my first cookbook. I'd written to her about her then new book  Read More 

We woke up this morning to one of the prettiest snow coverings we've had since we moved to Virginia. But this season, the beauty is tempered more than usual. While we're cozy in our well-heated home, as always we think of the many who have inadequate shelter—or none at all.

And then there are those images of the wildfire devastation on the other side of the country from us, not to mention continued heartbreak, illness, and just plain disappointment among our family and loved ones here at home.

Right now all those people with short fuses for food "bloggers" who go on and on with convolutions of memory before they get to a an equally convoluted and overwrought recipe are tuning out. Well, if that's you, bless your heart and bye-bye.

But seriously, all that Read More