STEPHEN LYLE

This blog will attempt to share with you what especially turns me on when eating in New York City, where I live and work, and anywhere else I may go. I will also write about things I make that I think are worthy of mention. I will always try to pass along what makes it so good, if I can figure it out. My aim is to make you want to eat it, to cause you to go find it or cook it yourself, rather than just sit there and read about it. My current preference is for food that is powerful - yet not expensive or self-conscious - so I often end up pursuing ethnic cuisines rather than chefs.

Beyond recipes, and authoritative reports from overseas, I don’t spend a lot of time reading about food and I don’t expect you to.* There are no professional critics I really trust, and unless the piece is going to yield something I can use, I’d rather be cooking. That said, I am always delighted to learn about something new or about a particularly good example of something familiar.

People love to repeat the idiotic phrase “there is no accounting for taste”. This is balderdash. The existence of preference does not make all things equal. Tasting is an accounting and a form of judgment, and judgments are based on reasons. The great dishes that get handed down are precious, collective accretions of these reasons. What is most timeless on your plate is the result of a long and thoughtful time-“fullness”. Traditional preparations are avatars of sensual objectivity regarding which there is very broad agreement.  The greatest joy in culinary life is in sharing what is good, and making it better. Now please go get the anchovies. Oh, and can they be the Spanish ones, in salt?

 * I do recommend knowing the classics, and therefore Escoffier, Guerard, Joy of Cooking,   Marcella Hazan, etc. (I will add to this list)