I first encountered truffles last summer — after reading about them, wondering about them, gazing at the listings in food catalogues and wincing at their cost, occasionally sprinkling some drops of truffle oil onto a dish of rice — when I spent a couple of weeks at a writers’ conference…
Mark Monette, Flagstaff House: “It’s not real. I think it’s an invented thing. When I’m balancing taste, I go back to the things I know work well together.” Joe Schneider, Rhumba: “Never heard of it.” Andy Floyd, Cooking School of the Rockies: “It’s natural MSG. It’s in mushrooms, medium-rare meat,…
The first thing that hits you is the scent: chocolate. Subtle, not too sweet, but permeating the air in the spotless Boulder kitchen where Chris Widlar produces her Concertos in Chocolate. At the moment, she’s pouring great swirls of the stuff over a sheet pan on which she’s scattered dried…
Here’s what Boulder chef and Slow-Foodie James Moore suggests you do when confronted with a bottle of olive oil: Pause to consider the color — is it greenish, yellowish, somewhere in between? Inhale. Assess the aroma. Pour a little oil onto your hands, rub them until they feel warm, cup…
Victor Saouma carefully shapes his sentences, at pains to be accurate. Part Lebanese, part Colombian, he holds himself with dignity. A professor of civil engineering who earned his doctorate at Cornell University and did post-doctoral work at Princeton, Saouma once thought of his employer, the University of Colorado, as a…
Joe Schneider had already graduated from culinary school and spent time in professional kitchens when the Caribbean cookbooks started calling to him. They told of a complex and infinitely variable cuisine that incorporated the native fruits and vegetables of the Caribbean islands (Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Trinidad, Puerto Rico,…
The students stand around the steel tables of the Cooking School of the Rockies’ professional kitchen. Before them are rows of plates containing the preliminary versions of dishes that will be served at the school’s biannual gala — designed as both a fundraiser for Boulder’s Community Food Share and a…
Robin Haig and I are sitting in Boulder’s Dushanbe Teahouse, eyeing a large triangular slab of pastry. It’s been identified by our waitress as a scone. We break off pieces and nibble. They’re very sweet. We try the scone with a bit of the teahouse’s lemon curd — not bad…
James Mazzio is racing toward chef stardom with dizzying speed. He had presided for less than a year over his first kitchen — Boulder’s Fifteen Degrees — when Food and Wine magazine named him one of the ten best young chefs of 1999. His subsequent appearance on the Food Network…
The last Boulder County Farmers’ Market of the year takes place on a bright fall Saturday that has somehow slipped its way into a damp, murky week. At this late date, the market, recently named one of the best in the West by a national magazine, is a shadow of…
It’s November 3, and in the Boulder County Courthouse, Judge Daniel Hale is about to rule on a motion filed by Joshua Beckius, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder five years ago at the age of sixteen and was sentenced to forty years in prison (“This Boy’s Life,” March 23)…
Linda White and her daughter Clara have arranged several cheeses on the table in front of us, along with spreaders, knives, small plates and slices of a baguette. English cheeses predominate: Cheshire, Wensleydale, double Gloucester, Caerphilly, Lancashire, cheddar and that king of British cheeses, Stilton. Jason Hinds, who works with…
The race for Boulder County District Attorney is taking place under the shadow of Alex Hunter, who has held the job for 28 years. For the past four of those years, Hunter and his previously off-the-radar office have come under glaring public scrutiny for the DA’s handling of the murder…
Patsy Ramsey: I want you to look at me and tell me what you think happened. Steve Thomas: Actually, I’ll look you right in the eye. I think you’re good for this. I think that’s what the evidence suggests. — Larry King Live, May 31, 2000 For Steve Thomas, an…
On this blazing summer day, you need a sweater to sit in Bruce Healy’s Boulder kitchen, a long, narrow room where the temperature is minutely controlled and every element designed to support baking. Implements hang in rows from a pegboard wall at one end: pastry bags and tips, lids, an…
At the age of six, Raymond Rodriguez decided he wanted to dance. Specifically, he wanted to tap dance. His family was against it but relented when parents of a friend gave him tap shoes for his birthday. “They said, ‘He already has the shoes, so I guess he can take…
Milda Scalise had no idea that March 15 would be her last day with her 69-year-old husband, Frank. The two of them had eaten lunch at the Washington Park Grille and then gone to see Fantasia 2000. “We always had a lot of fun together,” she says. On the way…
Ted Conover is a writer who immerses himself in his subject. He has traveled with hoboes, investigated the lives of illegal aliens and hobnobbed with the rich and vacuous in Aspen. Three books came of those adventures. But the scariest assignment he gave himself is the topic of his latest…
Everyone will tell you that Edward Bryant is the nicest guy in the world. Responsible, a good friend, kind to his cats, endlessly helpful to other writers. So where does this come from: “The muzzle of the .357 belched flame and the back of Mrs. Hernandez’s skull exploded outward, the…
Spring is the traditional time for protest, and with opposition to the activities of multinational corporations mounting, the U.S. left is stirring again. So it’s only fitting that a new feature film detailing the life of Abbie Hoffman, an icon of the rebellious ’60s, will preview in Boulder next week…
In charging a petty thief who attempted to rob a Safeway with felony murder, Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter is making use of one of a DA’s handiest tools. He’s also stretching the definition of felony murder as far as it will go — and possibly further. In March, Kenneth…
In a long, silent scene at the end of Big Night, a man expresses his deep and conflicted love for his brother by cooking an omelette and placing it in front of him. In American Pie, a horny teenager masturbates into an apple pie his mother has left on the…
