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How to Spot a REALLY Fresh Fish

One of the most common complaints among seafood-haters is that they don’t like the “fishy” taste.  Well I’ve got news for you: if it tastes fishy, it’s not fresh!  Trust me, if you passed judgment on the entire seafood category based on a crappy carp fillet that you got from the clearance bin, you are [...]

5 Ways to Increase Your Chefitude

Chef hat and arrow? Or ghost and pine tree?

Note: Chefitude = Chef + Aptitude.  (Not chef + attitude, that is a subject for a different post).

The following list contains five sure-fire ways to increase your cooking abilities and general “chefiness”.  I am not legally able to guarantee the following, but [...]

Culinary Journal - French Onion Soup and Tomato Sauce

Synopsis: Today my culinary team cooked large batches of French Onion Soup and Tomato Sauce.  As always, I write the recipes exactly as we made them – but I write ideas for improvement in the synopsis, so keep an eye out for them!  The french onion recipe here was, well, acceptable.  One of my fellow [...]

Culinary Journal - Pork Loin with Sage and Black Forest Ham

Synopsis: Today we made a delicious pork loin recipe that can be easily duplicated at home (with the right ingredients).  It’s quick, flavorful, and goes great with a lot of dishes.  We were forced to substitute Black Forest Ham for Prosciutto, which the recipe actually called for.  (So if you have Prosciutto instead, use it!)  [...]

5 Reasons Why Your Bread Sucks

- or Baking Better Bread for Fun and Profit

Breadmaking is a complicated science.  In my culinary school’s bake shop, our chef likes to say that ten people using an identical recipe will produce ten completely different products.  I have seen this come true with my own eyes – there are [...]