Word: souped
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Mario Batali grabs a brawny handful of parsley leaves and tosses them into the pot without looking. Onstage before a crowd of 400 at the International Home and Housewares Show in Chicago, Batali is demonstrating how to make fregula soup with clams. It's a simple recipe--fregula is just a kind of pasta--but the soup looks a mess. An intemperate amount of chili flakes has gone in, as has what seemed unadvisedly large pinches of saffron, which has a neat but metallic flavor that can overwhelm. As Batali stumbles over a loose cord onstage, it occurs...
Something has to give, right? The man is 45. His girth is so magisterial that the inevitable Falstaff comparison seems inadequate. All that saffron in the soup--that's where he's showing weakness, I decided. So busy being a star that he's sloppy in the kitchen. To test the theory, back in Chicago I had sneaked into the prep area after Batali had left the crowd standing in applause. I found a cook named Kirsten West who had prepped the ingredients for the demo. "How's the soup?" I asked...
...grabbed a spoon. The soup rocked. The chili balanced and electrified the saffron; chicken stock and the fregula smoothed everything out. Seeing my surprise, West shrugged. "The man knows how to cook...
...absurdity: tikka (oven-roasted meat), is meant to be eaten without masala (gravy). This oxymoronic creation dates back to the fateful moment when a long-suffering Indian chef in Britain grew tired of explaining the basic facts about the tikka to his barbaric customers, mixed Campbell's tomato soup with some spices and gave them the gravy they craved. The result was magic, at least to British palates...
...front of the issue. McDonald's did away with supersizing. Coca-Cola no longer advertises on television programs aimed at viewers younger than age 12. In its ads on children's television, Kraft pitches white-meat chicken Lunchables rather than Oreos. Food packaging, from mac-and-cheese to soup and pancake mix, offers tips for more healthful preparation...