We call Georgia the "real" Jamie Oliver of food because she actually farms/fishes/hunts-to-table for her food adventures. She recently released her first book, Food Heroes that "tells the story of sixteen culinary artisans across the world, who are fighting to preserve their food traditions." It's SUCH a great book and it's all I hear about on twitter and blogland and she's nice enough to offer a giveaway to you!
Leave a comment of your favorite culinary adventure (even if that means only opening a box of canned soup) for a chance to win Georgia's book. Deadline is Sunday night at midnight. Winner to be announced Monday.
Georgia links: Website, Blog, Twitter, Book.
the night before worthie's wedding, we were punching confetti and getting blisters.
last photo © 2010 nicole hill gerulat, all rights reserved.
i don't want to be the first commenter but i also don't want to forget to enter. so maybe i'll get lucky and be picked. This is SO in line with my interests. I love learning about culinary traditions.
ReplyDeletemy adventure? probably when I taught myself to make my own french baguettes and they actually turned out. I was impressed and I kept it up for a while before I couldn't any more. My fiance eats a lot of bread. Also there was a time I screwed up a lemon meringue pie and threw it across the kitchen...
true story.
My favorite adventure was foraging wild figs and rosemary as I walked home through the outskirts of Jerusalem, then combining them with some fresh lamb for dinner. Nothing has ever tasted so good.
ReplyDeleteoh yey, this book sounds amazing! I remember the first time my homemade bread turned out... I was so excited! It's given me the patience to keep working at homemade food, even if it doesn't work out the first time around.
ReplyDeleteGreasy fish and chips in England. So salty, and I loved the malt vinegar. I still keep a bottle of it in my pantry because of that experience.
ReplyDeleteWhen I made three cheese stuffed shells in meat sauce for my boyfriend! It was so fun to try a new receipe and show off a little bit at the same time. Plus he loved it and has requested I make it for him again sometime!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite food adventure is after picking up some pumpkins at a local pumpkin patch, we decided to try one of the pumpkin recipes that they included with our purchase. It was "dinner in a pumpkin." Basically, a bunch of things, including ground beef, green peppers, onions, etc. all stuffed into a hallow pumpkin and baked for a while.
ReplyDeleteWe were very excited about our pumpkin creation, set the table all cute and fall festive, and tried our squash meal. It was terrible. Simply awful. But the adventure and laughter with friends made it one of my most favorite culinary adventures.
My biggest culinary adventure was probably my first thrust into "professional cooking" helping my Mom at her catering business. It was a relatively small job but a special one. 20 people from all over the country coming for their mother's 80th birthday. I was terrified of ruining what should be a perfect meal but it went off without a hitch, at least that's what they thought and 5 years later my Mom and I can crank out a meal for 20 like no one else. Although truth be told my Mom alone still does it better!
ReplyDeleteRamblings of a Small Town Girl
Growing up my sister and I went through a phase when we just made up recipes. Some came out okay and some....should never be duplicated. Enter "Pea Delight". We had fun though.
ReplyDeleteFried chicken by request for a group of friends. I'm more of a baker than a cook, and I had no idea it would be so time-consuming on top of messy. Another fun adventure has been going through my Martha Stewart cupcakes cookbook and trying several fun flavors. I highly recommend this cookbook.
ReplyDeleteI love going on culinary adventures, even if it means never leaving the comforts of my own kitchen. The one that stands out right now was when I first attempted to make homemade pasta from scratch. Instead of just doing one batch, I made three different flavors - spinach, roasted pepper, and traditional. Turned out DELICIOUS!
ReplyDeleteand I LOVE Chef Georgia Pellegrini.. she's on of MY food heroes.
I love trying to create recipes and it's even better when they turn out!
ReplyDeleteI love trying new recipes, especially for dessert. Today it's pumpkin bread pudding.
ReplyDeleteI love baking my Grandmother's sugar cookies.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite food adventure was fishing for wild halibut in Alaska! Oh the seasickness! But the fresh fish is so amazing to have tucked in my freezer! The halibut was the star of my first dinner party last month! Making halibut for 9 was nerve wracking!
ReplyDeletecanning food from my garden all summer has been my favorite food adventure to date. there's something about taking it from seed to table that is pretty special.
ReplyDeleteI once had this great idea when my husband and I were first married. I was going to make a simple cock pot soup. We had a variety of miscellaneous items in our kitchen, including peas and artichoke hearts. I put everything in the pot. My husband was so nice, he tried to eat the portion I had given him. When I finally sat down to eat I discovered that it tasted awful. I looked at him, eating away, and asked, 'Do you like this?' He looked back at me like a deer in the headlights. I told him he didn't have to eat it because it tasted horrible. The look of relief on his face made me laugh. I've never made the dish again.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite culinary adventure was when a few friends and I decided we all were craving waffles really badly. So we found a recipe and for some reason or another decided it needed to be double but somewhere along the way, the math got screwed up and they ended up being the worst waffles ever. I think the funniest part was the one of the girls and I were the first to try the waffles and both got about half way through our waffles before anyone else took a bite. We didn't want to hurt anyones feelings so we told them they were good waffles. Though, they soon found out they were not and we all had a good laugh. Maybe you had to be there...
ReplyDeleteI've eaten pizza in every country I've visited outside the U.S., which so far means Canada, England, France, Tanzania, Costa Rica, and Mexico.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite culinary adventure is Sunday dinner at my mom's house. Since I moved out she has become quite the foodie and I love trying out her new recipes! Every time I visit it is truly and adventure :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite culinary adventure was teaching myself how to cook once I got married. I like to eat, so I thought I better learn how to cook.
ReplyDeleteI made a dinner for my husband and I for our first Valentine's Day dinner as a married couple. I wanted the meal to be so perfect. I worked really hard on it. Well there was a bit of a mistake but my husband knows that I tried and put my best effort forward. I appreciate the fact that he was knowing of all that I did to show him a wonderful evening.
ReplyDeletemsgb245 at gmail dot com
I can't say that it was my favorite, but my biggest culinary adventure was recreating Magnolia's vanilla cupcakes. After about 150 cupcakes I am still cupcaked out. That was three years ago.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite culinary adventure isn't really an adventure, but more of a ritual: having a fabulous cheese platter with close family and friends. Always a treat, and always divine.
this isn't my biggest culinary adventure nor my most favorite, BUT it is the most recent in my mind and one for which i am craving again!!
ReplyDeletemaking the shortcake recipe from the restaurant the French Laundry... mmmm. the sauce... you can't help but LICK it off your plate and scoop yourself spoonfuls, even after you've already had seconds.... mmmm...
My biggest adventure has been growing my own garden and using the produce to create healthy, yummy food for my family.
ReplyDeleteI love coming home after a bad day of work and cook a pot of hot coq au vin and it makes the day all that much better <3
ReplyDeleteemail: nadia.h@alumni.ubc.ca
What a fantastic book! Almost all my memorable cooking adventures come from a cooking class I took in college. There was the time that I accidentally got egg shells in the homemade pasta noodles which meant there was an extra, unwelcome crunch in our meal. And not long after that I lit one of the recipes on fire...oops.
ReplyDeleteI love to cook, garden (herbs in my NYC apartment for now) and visit the farmer's market! My most recent favorite food adventure was taking a cooking class in Oaxaca, Mexico where we went with the chef to the local market, shopped and prepared a DELICIOUS 4 course meal! Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous!
ReplyDeleteAny time I'm nervous about cooking something that seems intimidating but it turns out delicious...almond roca, french bread, roast turkey, etc.
ReplyDelete(Back story) When I met my husband, I hardly cooked anything. Often my meals consisted of peanut butter & honey sandwiches or cheese quesadillas. My husband made chicken parmesan (Cook's Illustrated style) with salad and homemade croutons for our second date. Essentially, he's the cook/baker, and I was the novice.
ReplyDeleteSince I began cooking with him, we've made all kinds of amazing and difficult things such as: pasta primavera, pan-fried tofu, real orange chicken, grilled homemade pizzas, apple turnovers, challah, and homemade soft pretzels.
What I'm getting at is that everyday is a culinary adventure when I'm with my husband, and it's all really, really great.
My biggest cooking adventure has been making an entire Thanksgiving dinner for my husband and inlaws... while 36 weeks pregnant! I had to get help lifting the turkey, but I had a lot of fun :)
ReplyDeleteMy husband is great and encourages me to try making new things, but I'd love some new ideas to work with! Mahalo :)
We're currently doing whole foods. We're not usually vegetable people so this has been a big adventure for me!
ReplyDeleteMy adventure--getting my fruits and veggies through a food co-op weekly. I have ended up with some interesting ingredients-things I wouldn't normal purchase or that I've never used. It has been an interesting adventure and a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteTeresa
The book sounds great! Just made homemade ravioli the other night and it was a lot of fun!
ReplyDeletelast year i hosted thanksgiving, for the first time in my new house. that was a stressful event that paid off. even if it was buying "brine" at whole foods when i realized later i totally could have made it.
ReplyDeleteim the first to admit i am not the most adventurous with food. i'd rather make the table look pretty than make sure the food on the table tastes wonderful. BUT, i always try to be very aware of what my family eats and where it comes from. that has been very important to me so this book seems like a great read! one of the biggest changes for me was when i wanted to make pasta but since we didnt have canned pasta sauce on hand i made my own... and it tasted so much better! i've never bought canned pasta sauce since.
ReplyDeleteMy culinary adventure is finally stepping in my Mom's footsteps and making jam. I started last year with about 10 kinds and made about 25 different kinds of jam this year, mostly with self picked fruit.
ReplyDeleteI'm such a sucker for a good cookbook. I wouldn't call this a culinary adventure but something I came to crave this summer. Homemade pizza on the grill. So satisfying, I even believed it was my masterpiece. I was even thrilled to make it for my parents who came to visit one weekend... sad thing is I burnt the pizza, take out was in order :D
ReplyDeleteMy most recent adventure was trying to make Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead) for Day of the Dead. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself, but it was touch and go for little bit there. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know how adventurous this is, but I took a fun cooking class on pie making and made my very own Gelette. I'm not gonna lie...it was beautiful and delicious!
ReplyDeletei love trying to bake or find the best chocolate cake ever. i have come across several exciting recipes.
ReplyDeleteone time i made one and had it on cake platter that was taller, and my mom bumped it and fell flat over upside down. we managed to turn it right side up and kept eating off of it for the next few days.
i would love to read this book. it sounds like an incredibly adventure.
My cooking adventure... quite an expensive one. I decided, spur of the moment, to go to France with my boyfriend for 2 weeks in September. I needed to go inside Julia Childs' favorite cooking store. It was just as wonderful as I could've ever imagined. Aside from that we cooked in our tiny apartment and ate bread every day. It was glorious.
ReplyDeleteYou're so fun Nicole! *Hi Everyone!*
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago for Thanksgiving I tried to make my first, homemade pumpkin pie. I made the crust from scratch, rolled it out, whipped up my own pumpkin pie filling...all of it. This was the night before thanksgiving. Well, that night my lovely boyfriend decided to eat the entire pie! I woke up the next day to go to familys house for thanksgiving and my pie was gone.
ReplyDeleteHe's still in trouble for that one.
I love to make caramel at Christmas...it's a shame it only turns out every other year.
ReplyDeleteFavorite food adventure?...When I was an exchange student in Finland for a year in High School and decided to cook thanksgiving dinner for my host family and friends. Cooking Thanksgiving dinner on one's own at 16..difficult..But Cooking Thanksgiving dinner in Scandinavia without canned pumpkin, bagged stuffing, and canned cranberry...priceless!
ReplyDeleteMaking everything by hand was such an adventure!
My biggest cooking adventure was when I decided to host a going away party for my brothers without ever cooked for a large crowd. Needless to say, I underestimated EVERYTHING!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely tamale/lasagna day with my family. Both are recipes from the "old country" (Mexico and Italy) that literally take 18 hours to make, so we kick out all the men and cook alllllll day, then have everyone back in time for dinner!
ReplyDeleteI shot my first deer last year and made pastrami. That was fun.
ReplyDeletelearning to bake with my mom. those childhood memories are priceless and I wouldn't give up those times for anything
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Book!!
ReplyDeleteI love cooking..I like doing cookies and all kind of sweets!!!!
Making my moms famous apple dumplings. Brought back great memories of her as she passed away in 1993.
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited about this book. I love this food movement.
ReplyDeleteI have to say my greatest food adventure was this summer. I spent two months in Europe and the food simply blew me away, especially in Paris. I ate the most simple, most glorious food in Paris.
My favorite cooking adventures involve my little brother. He recently graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park and I always learn something new while we cook together. :)
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite culinary adventure would have to be finding new ways to use all the products of my farm and orchards. I recently made rose hip and queen anne's lace jelly!
ReplyDeleteFood adventure? Definitely having a Thai woman over to cook for us. I didn't know what she was preparing, and being a picky eater, that can be a scary thing. Luckily, even though some ingredients smelled a little strong, it came together in a fusion of tongue-tickling treats and I've been a lot more open to "new" things since.
ReplyDeleteAlso, recently, I devoured some candied orange peel strips atop a butterscotch pudding from Sutros in San Francisco. Wow. It is a somewhat incommunicable experience.
baking homemade cinnamon rolls with my great grandma (my job was to roll out the dough) as a 7-yr-old. lovely times.
ReplyDeleteWhen we bought our house 24 years ago, it was December and we were not certain what was growing in our neglected back yard. Spring came and revealed berry canes growing all through and around a huge shrub. Then, we noticed white blossoms turning into berries. Not being sure if it was safe to eat them, we asked our neighbors to come over. They immediately informed us we had boysenberries! That week I made what I now call My Very Berry Boysenberry Jam. Every spring I make as many batches of it that I can so I'll have enough to give away at Christmas time, and to those who return their jars asking for more. I couldn't be more grateful to have found these sweet little purple gems growing right in my back yard so many years ago. Can't wait for next spring!
ReplyDeleteMaking chocolate lava cake for the first time! It actually turned out and I've never been able to make it quite as good since :)
ReplyDeleteOne of my culinary adventures was the first time I made home made pasta. It tasted delicious but my whole kitchen was covered in flour.
ReplyDeletemia at jacobsracing dot com
Pie crust is always and adventure!
ReplyDeletei am so excited to check out this book!
ReplyDeletemy favorite culinary adventures include trying foods i would otherwise be too chicken to try, like escargot, octopus, pigs feet, et cetera and so forth.
My culinary adventure is baking tarts and pies. I just love a good pie!
ReplyDeleteI love getting interesting ingredients in my organic co op bin and finding recipes to use them in.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite culinary adventure was making Christmas dinner 2 years ago with my boyfriend. His mom came up to visit us in Seattle, and we were snowed in and couldn't drive anywhere. But we didn't have all our groceries, so we had to trudge through a foot of snow and walk to the grocery store to get the rest of the ingredients. Carrying a ham home in that weather was tiring. But afterwards, making the meal in a warm house (including homemade marshmallows for hot chocolate) was one of my favorite things ever.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite culinary adventure is...dreaming about all the lovely things I want to make! I love exploring new ideas and new recipes.
ReplyDeleteIt dates back a couple of years ago, a friend of my hubby visiting us in Paris, bought periwinkles at the fish market. He was curious to try them. I had absolutely no idea how to cook them, but I bravely tried. Once cooked, the smell deterred us and they ended up in the bin...
ReplyDeleteThinking of the memories from the many and hopefully future camping trips. The time spent cooking while camping is so much more adventurous and relaxing as the feeling of being rushed does not exist. It brings back the feeling of family dinner prep and time at the table when I was younger. Having my friends around a campfire and/or stove in a beautiful place and making fresh delicious meals. Cooking is just so fun.
ReplyDeleteI could easily spend my life eating grilled cheese sandwiches--provided they came with fabulous desserts--for me eating a meal is something I have to do to get to dessert. People think I'm exaggerating --but I went to school in London near Selfridges I used to eat lunch everyday in the cafeteria and it would be black forest cake, chocolate tort or chocolate mousse...anyways my greatest food adventure---
ReplyDeleteWe spent a few days in Paris over one summer and our deal was we couldn't ask what a dish was or what was in it--so we ended up trying all kinds of amazing things that normally we would be afraid of--for the most part it worked out really well---for me it worked best in the Patisserie --because I am at my best when I am pointing out which French pastry I would like to consume next.
kakihararocks@gmail.com
Dinner at The French Laundry on our honeymoon! I tried so many things I had never had and would never have the opportunity to try!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite food making memory was when I would make swedish cookies as a kid with my grandma. All the grandkids were in the kitchen hands messy, "helping" along the way and decorating with tons of sprinkles. Memories...
ReplyDeletemy husband and I bought a how to kit on making sushi....the experience was fun...the sushi tastes better at restaurants. Oh how I'd love to get this book!
ReplyDeleteTrying to keep myself from going crazy waiting to go into labor (baby was 1 week overdue), I decided to make an angel food cake from scratch. The instructions said to flip the baked cake over--in a bundt pan--then let it cool balanced on a tall glass bottle. Oh my, it was an adventure for sure!
ReplyDeleteSo the first time I cooked for my husband, I wanted to bring out a little of my culture. I've only made Chicken Adobo with my dad, so being hands on was watching it to make sure it didn't burn.
ReplyDeleteSo let's just say our apt smelled like garlic for a good 2 weeks after putting WAAAAY too much in. :)
It was a great experience, but I'm still scared to make it again!
Love your work Nicole!
I made the banana cream pie from Tartine Bakery for my cooking club...which took my 1.5 days to make. I had my husband pack it in the car and questioned him packing. While driving to the club it fell all over the car. ugh...
ReplyDeleteNext adventure - growing my own mushrooms. No they are not the magical kind. :)
am I too late?
ReplyDeleteMy adventure: learning to cook while spending the summer in the Italian countryside in a small town called Citta di Castello. I was 19 and my eyes and tastebuds have never been the same. Biggest lesson learned: freshness counts.
My favorite culinary adventure started after my husband and I started eating at our favorite Thai restaurant WAY too often. We decided that we HAD to find a good curry recipe. After many MANY dinner tries, we finally got it right. We LOVE it! We have it all the time, and I must say, it nice not only because we are at home, but saving the bucks is so nice too!
ReplyDeleteMy adventure: baking my first multi-tier true "celebration cake." One misstep with the frosting but with the second try, the cake was FABULOUS!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite adventure was cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 60 people in a commerical kitchen and not knowing where anything was. It took a lot of work but the dinner and socializing was definetely worth it.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite food adventure is flyfishing in Maine with my dad for dinner. For as long as I can remember, one of the highlights of summer and fall was eating fresh brooktrout that my dad had caught on a flyrod. Before cooking it, he'd be sure to show me the beautiful colors of the fish skin. Now he mostly does catch and release, though I still remember how special it was to join him and bring some food home for our family.
ReplyDelete