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Feeding Frenzy, 12/16/08

The 15th Annual Oldways Conference on the Mediterranean Diet was notable for several things, among them the report given by the eminent Boston scientist and professor Curtis Ellison of Boston University School of Medicine. (Ellison first coined the phrase “The French Paradox,” shorthand for why the French can gleefully eat and drink all the things we know are full-fat and therefore unhealthy — foie gras, runny cheeses, gallons of red wine — and still be leaner and sexier than we are.) The first fascinating tidbit is that sobriety is actually bad for you. Ellison’s recent research shows that those who don’t drink on a daily basis — be it wine, vodka, or beer — actually have a higher risk of heart disease than those who imbibe regularly, at the rate of several drinks a day. The French, for example, get pickled daily, and it seems this keeps their blood alcohol at an almost constant rate. Good news for you if you like to drink and worry about your health. The scientific explanation was lost on me, but here’s what I retained: drinking just enough alcohol to stay perpetually mildly drunk —  at least two glasses of wine, etc., daily — combats the negative consequences of high amounts of animal fat in your diet and keeps your arteries free and clear. Binge drinking doesn’t benefit you at all; it’s the daily dose that works. But a word of caution: the cardiac protection tapers off at five drinks a day. More than that and you’re in worse shape than those who never drink at all. Ellison calls for “intelligent drinking” to save your heart.

Forget geese and turkey; upcoming for Christmas is the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Many Italian and seafood restaurants serve this traditional Italian Christmas Eve meal. This year, Neptune Oyster and Sage (on December 17) are two of the local venues offering the feast. Check in with your other favorites.

Feeding Frenzy: 12.02.08

If you’re interested in becoming a chef, one of the best routes to the toque is to get a professional culinary degree and master the building-block skills you’ll need to succeed. For that, Boston has several excellent options. In addition to Newbury College (www.newbury.edu), the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts (www.cambridgeculinary.com), and Boston University (www.bu.edu/foodandwine), Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts (www.bostonculinaryarts.com) is coming on strong. The two-year professional school, an outpost of the Parisian academy where Julia Child got her start, is housed in Cambridge’s gorgeous Athenaeum Building, which has a dozen or so gleaming teaching kitchens stocked with every high-tech tool and toy a chef could savor. The school now has 240 students in its 15-month degree program and is ramping up to 450. It’s open enrollment, and new classes begin every six weeks. And good news for non-chefs: in March, Cordon Bleu will open student restaurant Technique to the public.

Feeding Frenzy: November 18, 2008

Feeding Frenzy: November 4, 2008

It's a reverse commute for Jacky Robert’s ultra-urban Petit Robert Bistro, as a third Eiffel Tower pops up in Needham. The menu and price point will be exactly the same as at the Columbus Avenue and Kenmore Square locations, which is extremely good news for pigs’-feet- and frogs’-leg’s-loving, price-sensitive, Euro-savvy suburbanites.

Cupcakes are the perfect indulgences: portion-controlled, immoderately sinful, and a grownup treat that always seems to bring back memories of a first-grade birthday party. And few are better than those seven-a-season flavors made by pastry chef Jennifer Warshaw at Sweet on Mass Ave in Boston. Fall flavors include S’mores, cranberry-orange, and caramel apple (an apple and spice cupcake dipped in caramel and served on a stick).

Boston Restaurant news, September 9, 2008

There’s a second location for entrepreneur Scott Herritt. The chefowner of Grotto, at the base of Beacon Hill, has opened Marliave, steps from the Park Street T station. Herritt is pitching Marliave’s menu as “New England–sourced food with Italian and French influences.” What does that mean? “It’s food you know — steaks, rack of lamb, steak frites — but not authentically Italian or French. Like, you don’t find shrimp scampi in Italy,” Herritt says. Upstairs, Marliave will be a finedining, Whitetablecloth space; the downstairs café is a more casual bistro, with a 15-seat marble bar.

There’s at least one more gasp of summer on September 14, when the Samuel Adams Brewery in Jamaica Plain, along with the Massachusetts Aquaculture Association, hosts a Shellfish Shindig celebrating local mollusks. The event features local chefs and shellfishermen demonstrating preparation and cooking and shucking techniques, plus plenty of local oysters, quahog clams, steamers to eat and Sam Adams beer to wash it all down. Admission is $10 and includes two beer tastings (or pay $25 and get six tastings); food is sold separately. Get tickets at www.massaqua.org.

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Feeding Frenzy: Chowhound.com