by Dianne Boate
(Updated November 23, 2024)
Several years ago, I watched apprehensively as eleven people took forks in hand to try their first bite of my new Pecan Pie. Then, silence. Not one word. Color was coming and going on my face as they sat silently, chewing. My brain was bursting with all the arguments against making pie in the first place, and wishing fervently I could disappear on the spot. Continue reading
Dear Friends,
There’s an art to writing well – about food, film, or anything else that sparks a person’s passion. For Jonathan Gold, it’s the cafes, restaurants and food trucks, the sights, sounds and people of Los Angeles that inspire. The only food critic to win a Pulitzer Prize, the popular writer serves as the genial focus of the aptly yclept new documentary City of Gold. Gaetano Kazuo Maida and Patricia Unterman, Bay Area writers and Renaissance sorts, offer their insights into the film and its centerpiece in Critics Corner in this week’s edition of EatDrinkFilms. Continue reading
[Read Gaetano Kazuo Maida’s review here.]
There aren’t very many of us who actually have worked as food critics for print publications. I did it for 15 years at the San Francisco Chronicle and for about 15 more at the San Francisco Examiner. Way back when I started, no editorial wall stood between advertising and criticism, at least when it came to restaurants. If a restaurant advertised, it got written up.
[Read Patricia Unterman’s review here.]
Actress Mindy Kaling (The Office) once famously tweeted: “One slice of pizza in the Hollywood area? Don’t Jonathan Gold me and tell me to go to the San Gabriel Valley goddammit ….” Continue reading
by Risa Nye
March 14 is π Day. You remember π (Pi) right? (Hint: It’s the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. For any circle, dividing its circumference by its diameter will give you exactly the same number every time: 3.14159…, π. Last year π enthusiasts were very excited to be able to celebrate the once-in-a-lifetime epic event on 3-14-15, at 9:26:53.) In any case, on March 14, the sets of math geeks and pie lovers overlap in a deep-dish, double-crust Venn diagram, piled high with whipped cream. In honor of π Day this year, I set out to explore the art and science of pie-making with a few of the local masters — all conveniently located within a several-mile radius of my house. Continue reading
Celebrate Pi π Day (and Einstein’s birthday)at the Exploratorium in San Francisco on Monday, March 14. There is an afternoon filled with activities or you can join the fun online at Second Life. Pi Day was founded by the Exploratorium’s own Prince of Pi, physicist Larry Shaw and has become an international holiday. Continue reading
Recipes by Ken Forkish
A follow-up to the James Beard and IACP award-winning book Flour Water Salt Yeast, featuring an unprecedented look into the mechanics of pizza-dough making, plus scores of recipes for pizzas in every style: Neapolitan, Roman, American pan pizza, New York-style, creative flat breads, gluten-free pizza, and more. Continue reading
Monday, March 14 is National π Day and we thought it would be fun to have a special Pie edition of Eat My Shorts.
In late 2015 it was reported that the long-thought-lost complete Laurel and Hardy two reeler The Battle of The Century had been found. Bay Area collector Jon Mirsalis acquired a large film collection and has been working his way through the prints. When he came across a reel marked “Battle of the Century, R2” Jon assumed it would be the same chopped up version of the movie’s famous pie fight that people have seen since the 1950s. But to his shock and delight it included all the missing footage. Jon worked with Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films and they have done a total restoration –and we have it on good authority that it will screen at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in June.
The Battle of the Century (1927) excerpt
Read about the discovery in the New York Times. Continue reading
by David Cairns
Splat!
Custard pies made the news last summer, as a long-lost Laurel & Hardy film, the aptly-named The Battle of the Century (1927), was rediscovered. Containing the legendary double-act’s most extensive pie fight, the movie has been seen only in severely truncated form in recent decades, and the rescued footage is a welcome addition to a filmography whose tantalizing gaps have slowly been disappearing.
The fight itself is a classic, a reminder of how funny and detailed and varied such an activity can be, in the right hands. The first pie is slung by diminutive Charlie Hall, hitting Ollie’s big baby-with-a-tiny-mustache face. The second, Ollie’s retaliatory attempt, goes wide of the mark, according to a long-standing tradition, and explodes over Dorothy Coburn’s shapely ass. She turns to remonstrate and, in accordance with an equally venerable tradition, is hit full in the face by a second crust-load. From here, escalation to total whiteout is as gradual but inevitable as a marital argument or a world war. Soon, an entire street is bustling with gooey combatants, frantically pasting each other with pastries.
Sweeter off the Vine! is Yossy Arefi’s first book. Celebrate the luscious fruits of every season with this stunning collection of heirloom-quality recipes for pies, cakes, tarts, ice cream, preserves, and other sweet treats. Ruby red rhubarb is roasted to adorn a pavlova, juicy apricots and berries are baked into galettes with saffron sugar, and winter’s bright citrus shines in Blood Orange Donuts and Tangerine Cream Pie. Yossy Arefi’s recipes showcase what is fresh and vibrant any time of year by enhancing the enticing sweetness of fruits with bold flavors like rose and orange flower water inspired by her Iranian heritage, bittersweet chocolate and cacao nibs, and whole-grain flours. Accompanied by gorgeous, evocative photography, Sweeter off the Vine!, is a must-have for aspiring bakers and home cooks of all abilities.
[We most often think of writer David Thomson as one of our most perceptive writers about the movies. When EDF asked him if we could publish an excerpt from his newest book, How to Watch a Movie, he offered, as a bonus, the following piece that he was writing when we called. It is both touching and witty, reminding us that he should step outside our expectations more often in addition to enlightening us about cinema.
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