chef

SousChef is a sleek, easy-to-use cooking tool for collecting, organizing, searching, modifying, and sharing--and even blogging about and cooking from--your recipes. SousChef provides a very straightforward interface for navigating your recipe collection, but its stand-out features are its import tools and full-screen Cook mode. If you paste in recipes as text, SousChef prompts you to drag boxes over the different parts of the recipe, so it can automatically organize ingredients, instructions, notes, and so on. If you want to cook from a recipe, SousChef has an easy-to-read, full-screen "10-foot mode" that lets you keep your computer at a … Read more

You know the scene: A hot summer day, friends and family gathered in the back yard, perhaps a football being tossed around, laughter and good times in the air. Of course, this scene would not be complete without the grill fired up, permeating the air with the scent of delicious foods cooking. Survey the grill-top, and we find hotdogs, hamburgers, steaks, and chicken. But where are the vegetables?

No longer must vegetables be relegated to "after-the-meat-is-done" status. The Mesh Grill-Top Chef's Pan is perfect for cooking up a batch of healthy vegetables on the grill. The heavy-gauge … Read more

For the past two years, several independent Mac software developers have teamed up to put together a bundle of award-winning Mac apps at a vastly reduced price--with 25 percent of the purchase price donated to the charity of your choice (chosen from a list). The whole thing takes place at a very well-designed site called MacHeist.com and over the past two years, thousands of Mac users have snapped up the limited time offer--it's really a great deal! The fun part about the MacHeist offer is the developers of MacHeist make it into a kind of scavenger hunt. They … Read more

Every home kitchen is different, and every home cook appreciates options. When kitchen appliance makers cater to choice while providing quality results, home cooks everywhere are free to perfect their craft without fear of unnecessary equipment failure. The first place to start in any kitchen is the oven. BlueStar Freestanding Ranges offer a multitude of options, while providing features that are designed to provide performance.

The freestanding ovens come in four categories, which can be broken down into three convection models and one standard oven. The Nova Burner models feature convection ranges, while the Culinary Series uses a more conventional … Read more

All cooks have things they'd like to try more often: one thing on my list as soon as the weather gets warmer is to try making more of my own salad dressings. As of now, I'm still using plain old vinegar or store-bought varieties.

However, making a great emulsion can be intimidating. Will I add the olive oil too fast? Am I going to waste a half of a cup of my good olive oil before getting it right? What if my arm cramps?

OK, so I'm exaggerating, but salad dressings do require quite a bit of … Read more

I'm a big fan of putting fresh garlic in just about every meal, but that means that I spend a lot of time chopping the stuff. I'm always happy to find tools that can make that repetitive process go a little faster. The Chef'n Garlic Zoom Garlic Chopper can: rather than using a knife, you can toss your garlic into this chopper, roll its wheel against the counter, and get chopped garlic immediately. There are no more worries about the knife slicing your fingers, getting garlic in your eye, smelling like garlic for ages, or any of … Read more

Sometimes it is simpler to think small. The size of my kitchen necessitates a certain amount of nimbleness to achieve delicious results when cooking. Everything must be laid out and a plan of attack formulated. Not thinking ahead sets up a potential domino disaster if I forget to check something off the list. For example, if I forget to chop the celery, plates and knives will have to be scattered and cleared to backtrack a few steps. The potential for burning whatever is on the stove at the time is too great. It is better to embrace the quirkiness of … Read more

I know you're still figuring out the details of your Thanksgiving meal, but it's actually already time to start thinking about the holidays. By which I mean holiday gifts. As in, start scouring the Internet and scoping out the stores, because every person on your list needs a thoughtful, perfect, chosen-just-for-you gift.

The good folks at Hammacher Schlemmer have some ideas, and we'll look at a few of them over the next several days. First up is the Chef's Remote Thermometer Monitor, a wireless meat thermometer and timer that lets you keep tabs on the cooking … Read more

When I showed an interest in baking, my mother got me a few utensils of my own. I had my spoon and my bowl. It was pretty cool not having to share, but it might have been cooler if she had given me the Head Chefs Kids' Posable Silicon Kitchen Utensils from the Harold Import Company. These five tools--a measuring cup, spoon, spatula, pastry brush. and whisk--are so fun that even grown ups will like them. Each implement has a pliable human-like body as a handle that you can fashion into different poses, complete with arms and legs, and suction … Read more