June and July 2022: YEAR 2 IN REVIEW
Moving into the second year means that paper infancy has gradually transitioned to a cotton anniversary. Cotton represents comfort, flexibility, and consistency- three traits I have tried to espouse and maintain in conceiving the ten monthly themes of The Kitchen Scholar and in creating articles that appropriately fit in with my personal time and the website.
Year 2 kicked off with a reconnection to Southeast Asia, particularly shrimp recipes from the seven countries of the Indochinese subcontinent. An outpouring of golden tributes at the end of August led this website to honor the fiftieth anniversary of Alice Waters’ Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse in the entirety of the second month. For the third and fourth months, respectively, The Kitchen Scholar rose to the challenges of defending and rationalizing the splendor in British cookery against misconceptions and rediscovering and remembering the life and covert legacy of original Le Cirque chef and co-owner, Jean Vergnes in his centennial. 2021 ended with an appreciation of Polynesian fish recipes, highlighting how the marriage between the fruits of the land and the sea can avoid the decadence brought by holiday gluttony. Halfway into the second year, applying white chocolate to mousses, soufflés, and cookies shows why the ingredient matters in its purest authenticity. Despite the brevity of February, it was Marion Cunningham’s posthumous turn to transcendently reach 100, and thus, her spirit and crusade for home-cooking deserved immortality. Finally, the last three months focused on ethnic cooking, with a culinary activism in support of Ukraine against Russian invasion, pintxos of Spanish Basque countryside at the privacy of home entertaining, and Hooni Kim’s Michelin-starred Korean cuisine.
Just like what I did to end the first year, the recipes of the yearender compensate for all months wherein I find inadequacies of content and meet my annual quota of 80 dishes. So enjoy cooking from these recipes and looking forward to starting the third year!
