“‘Ingredients are the new chefs on some level,’ Steve Sando, the founder of Rancho Gordo, summarized with a naughty chuckle as he bounced around Napa in his messy pickup truck recently.” – “Bean Counterculture” in The New York Times

Bacon, bacon, where’s the bacon? I smell bacon. Bacon bacon gotta be bacon. Only one thing smells like bacon and that’s bacon! Bacon bacon bacon bacon there. In that bag. What’s it’s say?! I can’t read! Please, please give me what’s in the bag. Chewy, yummy, smokey, bacon! Oh boy oh boy num num num num num it’s bacon! – Beggin’ Strips

Matthew Timms’ Bacon Takedown at Radegast Hall in Williamsburg was a greasy, delectable tasting of 30 bite-sized bacon noshes stuffed on a foam plate and eaten with some serious beer goggles. The winners didn’t exactly lumber up and body slam their 27 losing opponents onto the Hall floor in true takedown fashion, and the dysfunctional line of 300 meant up to a two hour wait for the $10 grub, but it was generally a friendly and delicious pork-filled affair.

I am rereading Kitchen Confidential mostly because it rules. I also had a desire to get back to that so-badass-it’s-cute depiction that Anthony Bourdain nailed before the whole food celebrity TV thing happened. Yes, it’s all fornication, knives, and dirty food, but with all the rock ‘n roll you could possibly conjure up in a small space with a bunch of illegals, a couple white dudes, and some pots and pans. In short: magic.

I am also enjoying his tips on eating out. Although the books is years old, it’s probably more poignant with New York restaurants closing or going over to the dark side. Eating out is an adventure, but it’s good to know your surroundings. Understanding the kitchen can give you a better chance of taking part in the pleasure and avoiding serious illness. For those who have forgotten (or are allergic to Anthony Bourdain), I have made simple, easy-to-digest bullets for you.

“Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride. Sure, it’s a ‘play you pay’ sort of an adventure, but you knew that already, every time you ordered a taco or a dirty-water hot dog.” – Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential

Recipes have a secret history. They’re filled with wisdom, tradition, stories, and many shared meals. They can help stir creativity, and make us bold enough to try something new. Most times, however, we see a page full of words broken out into descriptions, ingredients, measurements, and clinical instructions to be followed OR ELSE.

While we do follow them, we are also fond of thinking of the cuisines of the Mediterranean, where fresh ingredients dictate the daily menu. We think of spending the afternoon walking to local purveyors, sniffing lettuce, sampling cheeses, and cracking open fresh bread. And we all have the perfect image in our minds of learning something by hand from grandma.

The New York Times has a lot to say about food these days. Whether it’s analyzing the merits of Michelle Obama’s victory garden in Opinion, declaring another “food revolution” with rising sales in organic products in Business, chronicling New Yorkers need for sugary comfort or in N.Y./Region, or promoting a book that gives recipes for an almost vegetarian diet in Health, there’s more to read than recipes and restaurant critiques. While some writers may be misguided by overused words like “foodie” and “local” or only marginally aware of “food issues,” it’s good to see the Times stepping up.

In the past the newspaper’s reporting on food has been deliberately slow to trends, absent of the daily beat, and many times lacking in intellectual and political substance. If the Times can recognize that the larger subject of food should be a mainstay in our newspapers and on our minds, we can get beyond the hyperboles of those who “eat to live” or “live to eat” which divide our current news choices.

I was incredibly disappointed as we got onto the F heading into Brooklyn to find that we’d forgotten the camera. An afternoon outing to Stinky Brooklyn with no camera to document the goods? Travesty. Well, it turns out Stinky Brooklyn is more or less a copy of the condiment section of Zingerman’s with more “talk,” much less “know,” a couple of hooves, and some sleepy cheeses.

“I’ve got a lot of friends who say, ‘Hey, you’re a baker? I’ve got a bread machine. I used it once!’ Yeah, thanks man, we can relate.”

Sometimes I imagine yeast only blows in on the spring breeze. And so, it seems, do the bakers. They come in talking of the wild and ebullient yeast, growing all around us and living underneath our fingernails. This has been my experience with the spring sourdough classes, either at Murray’s, 92nd Street Y, or The French Culinary Institute. This year The Brooklyn Kitchen decided to celebrate bread for the month of March. Portland native, Watson Fellowship winner, and world traveler Nathan Leamy arrived in New York two months ago, praising the simplicity, patience, and Zen-like practice of baking sourdough. Nathan’s fellowship sent him around the world (i.e.: Mexico, India, France, Italy, and Egypt) in a year to document the changes of farming staple crops due to industry and politics. While I have listened to a couple of these classes now, I enjoyed Nathan’s friendly, frank, and practical approach to baking loaves. My takeaway? Bake, a lot. Taste, a lot. Mess up, a lot. A lot of fun is to be had.

If Brooklyn Kitchen does another set with Nathan, check him out. Or you can read my notes below. I have omitted the recipe but give a healthy description and those ever-elusive baker’s tips.

What’s more “local” than a vegetable garden? Michelle Obama is building one after all. The New York Times reports the new garden will be the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in WWII, which was roughly 60 years ago.

We consider WWI and WWII to be the catalysts for our modern food industry, resulting in the abandonment worldwide of practices of raising, cultivation, and preparation of foods by hand. During the Great Depression our grandmothers were still using the whole chicken, feeding the family, and growing some tomatoes in the backyard. But by the end of WWII the government had found a nationwide solution in the form of industry, giving the public a break from cooking and nutrition.

Even those willing to work for free are having a hard time. “Everybody’s on the edge, and I don’t need people hanging around my kitchen messing with the morale of the paid guys,” said Michael White, the chef and an owner of Alto and Convivio and, soon, Marea. “Let them go to Italy, learn to make pasta, and wash their clothes in a bucket like I did for seven years.” – Michael White for Julia Moskin’s “With Fewer Pots to Stir, Competition Rises Among Cooks” in The New York Times