Too Many Cooks: Behind the Scenes

You'll be hearing from the staff at FOOD52 every week in Too Many Cooks, our group column in which we pool our answers to questions about food, cooking, life, and more.

We're sharing some of the best discoveries from our food lives. This week: We break coffee cups, eat fresh fruit in Mexico, and enjoy all kinds of desserts.

"On top: coffee siphons at the newly-opened Blue Bottle Coffee in Chelsea. The Paris Review gets its own Mast Bros. wrapping! Tad and I went to their annual benefit and this was in the goodie bag. Next is another few of the springtime asparagus-pea-artichoke mix from Walker and Addie's lunch (find the recipe there!). And can you guess what this is? It's a Delineator! It cooks bacon, toasts muffins, and poaches eggs all at the same time."
"
- Amanda

"Miniature spring flowers in our garden!"
- Merrill

"I stumbled on this store on East 9th on a walk home and went in because the window said "Rain Gear & Candy". Apparently amé in Japanese means both "rain" and "candy" (so the store is called Amé Amé). It actually has an amazing selection of rainboots and umbrellas -- you should all go here when you need new ones, and get some candy while you're at it.

Nom Wah Tea Parlor on Doyers Street in Chinatown turned out to be a great spot to catch up on some work: a respectable wifi signal, my own little table by the window (with an outlet and its own mini-chandelier!), and all the sesame balls and tea I could handle. A+!"
- Kristen

 
"Ramp butter on bread, with some more ramps (I can't get enough!) and an egg. And my first attempt at the NoMad-style radishes. If I had more radishes, I'd make another (and much prettier) batch. Plus, roasted carrot soup and some weekend reading."

- Kristy

"Despite a trip to the Manhattan cheese mecca known as Murray's (can you say Cremeux de Bourogne?) and a morning at the Brooklyn Flea, home to dozens of New York artisanal food purveyors, the only decent photo I grabbed was of this delicious rosemary lemonade. So you'll have to settle for a photo of something else delicious... 3-month-old Charlie (who really shouldn't be allowed to change his own diapers)."
- Peter

"I got home from work on Friday and decided that whisking up a batch of Pimentón aioli would be just the thing to start off the weekend. Apparently, I also decided that breaking one of my favorite coffee cups (a handleless black number we inherited from a Marxist poet friend who was moving back to England) would be just the thing to start of my Monday morning. And on Tuesday, I pulled my gorgeous ramp tart out of the oven, only to have it slide straight out of its pan and into the stove. We ate the crumbs as a sad "ramp pudding.""
- Nozlee

"These are desserts that Michael Laiskonis made for his IACP classes at ICE. One is chocolate mousse with maple, caramel and salt in an egg and the other is fancy tres leches cake."
- Stephanie

"Feta from cheese store in Sag Harbor, NY."
- Jennifer

"Griddled polenta cakes with caramelized onions, goat cheese and honey, and strawberry jam-filled doughnuts for a Saturday brunch with family."
- Anna

"A light lunch of radicchio, arugula, fresh peas, beets, chives, basil, and a lemon vinaigrette, and basil at the Greenmarket on a gorgeous, sunny day."
- Laura

"An insane sundae at Alla Spina in Philadelphia: fior di latte soft serve, candied pretzels, and chocolate-covered bacon. Then, making Saturday morning oatmeal pancakes."
- Brette

"Macaron Tower by yours truly, Dana's Bakery"
- Dana

 

"A Baja Morning Breakfast: Fruit that tastes like fruit! Steaming Mexican fresh-pressed coffee and long sunrise shadows to start the day. And homemade Meyer Lemon-Thyme Bread -- the beauty of multi-tasking while working at home."
- Christina