Suzi's Blog

The Whole Food Photography Policy

I live in Tribeca, a few blocks from a large Whole Foods. Suzen shops there for Cooking by the Book. We spend a LOT of money there to get the greatest ingredients.

We appreciate the quality of the ingredients. The prices at Whole Foods have been the subject of many conversations. You’ve heard of Whole Paycheck.

I was just there photographing apples when a security guard told me stop.

I went to the Customer Service Center and explained. I live in the area, I shop there daily, I write a blog, I want to spotlight their quality. They told me no pictures. That the owner won’t allow pictures because celebs shop there. I explained, to no avail, that none of the apples in my shot were individually famous.

I think the policy and inflexibility of Whole Foods is stupid. I encourage you to spread the word. You can spend your money at Whole Foods but your right to express your opinion through a photograph is banned. I suppose it is questionable whether it is a violation of free speech, but it sure as hell is dumb.

Brian

What Is the Best Roast Chicken Recipe: A Comparison from Eleven Experts

It’s Thursday. I can guess two things are going to happen for you between now and Monday.

First, you are going to go shopping.

Second, you are going to buy a chicken.

But what will you do with it? And what do you wish you could do with it?

Sometimes reality swamps ambition. You can have that chicken on your kitchen counter and you want to do something good, something different. You wonder how Thomas Keller would do it. Or Alan Ducasse. Or one of the other star chefs. You might even have their books on hand, but do you have an afternoon to sit and compare and decide?

You don’t have to. There is a great website call greenmarketrecipes.com. And buried there is this page:

http://greenmarketrecipes.com/poultry/best_roast_chicken_recipes.htm

There you will find a table with the roasted chicken techniques from 11 very famous, very good sources. Mr. Keller and Monsieur Ducasse and Tom Colicchio and other very talented sources.

The table describes the prep work, the cooking technique, and some after cooking comments and ideas. There is detail here, but not too much. In a cup of coffee, you can read, consider, and decide on how that chicken is going to come out. Maybe your mom’s technique is still the one you need to use. Or, maybe, you can explore new territory, new worlds.

I always wondered what they did on Star Trek. I mean they are out there for years, there is no chicken ranch on the ship, so they need to fashion chicken from the molecule up. I, I just don’t know if I would ever volunteer for Star Fleet Command with that culinary future before me.

Fortunately, the current president has effectively canceled the United States manned space program so none of us will be faced with such a difficult choice. Of course, when the aliens land and ask why the hell we have not shown adventuresome spirit, I don’t know what we’re gonna say. We’ll just probably chicken out.