food

by Ari LeVaux A key ingredient in the harvest omelette is improvisation. It’s that time of year when all of the produce is ready. The tomatoes, corn, squash, beans and other typical harvest crops are piling up in the fields and…

by Ari LeVaux Sometimes the truth takes a moment to sink in before finally ringing true. Like when Chloe suggested that a sandwich is basically America’s version of sushi. At the time I happily took it as a compliment on the chicken…

by Ari LeVaux Who among us doesn’t have a trick or two up their sleeve for when they make instant ramen? A vegetable or egg in the pot, your special sauce or powder, and if you’ve got some game perhaps a garnish on top. All…

by Ari LeVaux Sometime in the mid-1990s, after a lifetime of servitude to the shriveled heads of garlic that I would bring home from the supermarket, I finally declared myself independent. As a cook and a garlic lover, I would no longer…

by Ari LeVaux It’s a noun. It’s a verb. It’s a way of life. “Creamy,” said my friend Luci Brieger, when I asked how her summer was going. Creamy has many meanings at her farm, Lifeline Produce in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, all of them…

by Ari LeVaux “Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?” asked then-Senator Barack Obama, during an Iowa campaign rally in 2007. There was no Whole Foods in Iowa at the time, and his gaffe, and the…

by Ari LeVaux When I go to the coffee shop, it’s usually not for the coffee. Only one or two spots in town can brew a better cup than I. They have expensive, well-maintained espresso machines, carefully roasted beans and baristas who…

by Ari Levaux Grilled pizza does not sound like the highest use of a grill or a pizza. Wouldn’t the bottom of the crust burn into a blackened crisp long before the cheese melts? Luckily, nobody told Johanne Killeen and George Germon,…

by Ari Levaux Across the Northern Hemisphere at about this time, garlic plants are reaching for the sun. Each clove planted last fall has divided and swollen into a bulb of cloves, while the flowers emerge in a circuitous path. Each…

by Ari LeVaux Hot peppers and cheese are a winning combination. Whether it’s red flakes on a slice of pizza, a spicy tray of cheese-drenched nachos or a serving of ema datshi (a Himalayan dish of hot chile and molten cheese), the action…