Let's talk about glazes

November 27, 2020 by Lucia D'Ulivo

Glazes are one of those preparations which every amateur pastry chef will , sooner or later, face. Why glazing?

Panna cotta with agar-agar: the recipe

July 07, 2019 by Lucia D'Ulivo in Dessert

We’ve already talked about agar-agar here. From the chemical point of view, it is a polysaccharide and is extracted from an algae. Seemingly to gelatine (collagen) and starch, agar-agar can form a gel and, consequently, has found many application in cooking.

The substitution of eggs

February 24, 2019 by Lucia D'Ulivo

I left this topic as last purposely. The reason? Eggs are the most complicated ingredient to replace in traditional recipes. Anyway, it was an interesting riddle to solve, the one that has forced me to reopen the Stryer (one of the most popular study book for biochemistry).

All the truth about ribs and the recipe for some decent ones

September 02, 2018 by Lucia D'Ulivo in Main courses

I confess I never like the way Italians cook ribs (rosticciana, btw). Although they are a must of any respectable Italian bbq, honestly, I never found anything special in that piece of bone with that stiff meat attached, burn outside, raw inside :P As Neo, in Matrix, I felt there was something terribly wrong in those ribs, brutally thrown on the bbq and let carbonize with no mercy, but I never figure out what was the problem.

Additives and molecular gastronomy: a little clarification

February 27, 2018 by Lucia D'Ulivo

A few years ago, there was a huge debate on molecular gastronomy. Some people looked suspiciously at those creative dishes and complained about the use of food additives. What a terrible term. If, instead, it was said that molecular chef used vitamins and natural extracts, the perception would have been drastically different.