Wednesday Fun #85 - Introducing "The Wednesday Chef"

Ok, people, it seems to me as though we need a bit of a break from the question-y Wednesday Funs because, well, they haven't been especially answer-y lately. Fine and good, I say, for I shall take this opportunity to begin the food-related website sidebar dealie which I proposed a few weeks ago.

I don't know quite how I stumbled upon The Wednesday Chef, which foodie sites led me to which links which led me to hers, but oh, I know why I stay. Luisa introduces her recipes with such elegant, inviting writing, such poetry, with descriptions that make me swear I'm going to try that recipe, no, this recipe, no, oh, did you read this recipe?*

I mean, listen to this excerpt from her post on Florence Fabricant's Moroccan Carrot Soup with Mussels:

This soup! So unassuming. So simple. And yet. With just one spoonful, something steals over you. A strange and piercing Wanderlust, almost impossible to battle with. You close your eyes and as you eat, you feel yourself transported to a cool, tiled courtyard, with a tiny fountain babbling quietly and the scent of rose petals in the air. It was all I could do, once my spoon scraped the bottom of my bowl, to keep myself from booking a flight, right then and there, to Morocco.

Or listen to this, from her recent trip, April in Paris:

If you don't already know about the cheese course at Astier, in the 11th, consider this your nudge. When you're in Paris, have dinner there. Skip the desserts, they're nothing special. But whatever you do, don't skip the cheese. The waiter, winking, will bring you this straw platter covered with...can you count how many cheeses? With a few knives and a nub or two of bread, settle in until he comes by again, cluck-clucking, to take the cheese away and bring it to another deserving table.

Or, for a non-travel-y excerpt, she write about her uncle's way with artichokes:

And, lastly, my uncle - as I think I've mentioned before - is an artichoke whisperer. He closes himself into the kitchen with a sharp paring knife and a bowl of acidulated water and, and meditates or something, goes into a fugue state, cleaning big mountains of thorny little artichokes, transforming them into silky, delicious dishes that make me want to park myself with a fork at his table and never, ever leave.

And her pictures? Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.

Inspiring, huh? So go, check out The Wednesday Chef...

...and then, when you make something from there, let us know just how poetically it turns out, m'kay?

*Ok, I must confess I actually haven't made any of the recipes from her blog yet, but that's only because I forget to go look at them whenever I make up my weekly menu plan. But, oh, they sound so good!!!