To die for.
When you first step into the kitchen and prepare a dish you love for the first time, things can be a little overwhelming; often the last thing you want to do is translate what a technique actually means as you're knee deep in the kitchen. I get it: there are some French cooking methods and terms that scared me so much when I started cooking that I let go of the dream of creating a certain recipe Read more
Tournée (pronounced tour-nay) is French for the word "turned." The term refers to a method of cutting and peeling root vegetables into oblong, seven-sided football-like shapes. Aside from its aesthetic element, the classic French technique helps vegetables like carrots, turnips, and potatoes to cook evenly. Learn how to achieve a tournée cut. Read more
I've always been enamored with French technique. Why? Because French technique is to cooking as ballet is to dance: classical, and foundational for everything else in the Western culinary world. Unfortunately, I don't know nearly as much about classical French sauces and knife skills as I wish I did. So, I decided to put myself up to the task of tournéeing, or turning, vegetables into even, Read more
Balayage is a beautiful, natural looking take on highlights (thanks to the French), but better yet, the technique is easy to try at home. Check out the steps necessary for channeling your inner colorist, and impress your friends with your DIY efforts. Sun-kissed, buttery-blond strands await you. Read more
When I visited the Louisiana set of The Lucky One, which is out April 20, I had a chance to chat with star Zac Efron about the Nicholas Sparks adaptation with a few other reporters. Efron plays Logan, who falls for a girl (Taylor Schilling) he finds after first seeing her in a photo, so when we sat down with the actor, he talked about being able to relate to that kind of romantic gesture. His Read more
French braids are popular the world over, but they certainly aren't emblematic of France. It's unclear what about them, really, is so Gallic. As it turns out, "French" braids aren't French at all. So who's really responsible for the technique? The style's history is much cooler (and longer) than you might imagine. Learn how your favorite braid got its start below. Read more
Since rekindling my love affair with parchment paper dinners, I couldn't help but dream up more delicious mess-free recipes. If you aren't familiar with the technique, cooking en papillote (French for "in parchment") is a method of hand-sealing protein and vegetables in parchment paper, then oven-roasting them. Cooking this way is simple, healthy, and versatile: while liquids aren't typically Read more
The Hunger Games won't be in theaters until March, but thanks to the movie's lead stylist, Linda Flowers, you can get Katniss Everdeen's signature undone braid right now. "The key to pulling off this style is being creative," Flowers says. "Her character is fierce yet feminine, so her hair is meant to have texture and look effortless." Ready to get just as inventive as our District 12 heroine? Read more
Leave it to Parisian haute couturiers to take something as timeless as the French braid and turn it into a piece of avant-garde hair art. Couture Week just kicked off, but already the Christophe Josse show debuted this amazing conch shell braid, which winds around itself and incorporates various plaiting techniques. If precedent is any indication, we can expect more hair-raising coiffures to Read more
The Artist, which is now out in wide release, is mostly silent, set in the '30s, and doesn't have a great deal of huge stars (John Goodman and James Cromwell are two of the biggest names, and they're only in supporting roles). That may not sound super appealing to the majority of the movie-going public, but after being delighted by the film, I hope that people won't shy away from seeing it. The Read more
