Food Network Magazine April/May 2024

What Food Network show would you secretly like to be on? Sunny Anderson The Kitchen pg. 22 Gabe Bertaccini Ciao House pg. 93 Katie Lee Biegel The Kitchen pg. 38 Kardea Brown Delicious Miss Brown; Spring Baking Championship pg. 64 Anne Burrell Worst Cooks in America; Wildcard Kitchen pg. 22 Maneet Chauhan Chopped pg. 22 Esther Choi 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing pg. 94 Luke Deardurff Spring Baking Championship pg. 76 Ina Garten Barefoot Contessa; Be My Guest pg. 68 Alex Guarnaschelli Alex vs. America; Chopped; Ciao House; Supermarket Stakeout pg. 92 Jeff Mauro The Kitchen pgs. 22, 60 Michael Symon 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing; Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out pg. 22 Molly Yeh Girl Meets Farm pg. 59 Geoffrey Zakarian Chopped; The Kitchen pg. 62…

my mom has taught me many life lessons over the years, and this one will stick with me forever: Never throw away a mushy banana. She’s been obsessively turning near-black bananas into banana bread and muffins for as long as I can remember, and I guess I’m turning into my mother, because I find myself doing the same. I currently have a gallon-size bag of overripe bananas in the freezer at the ready. If there’s ever an apocalypse, I probably won’t have batteries or bottled water or anything actually useful, but I will have the ingredients for banana bread. My mom and I are not alone in this compulsion—banana bread has been beloved for decades. The budget quick bread took off during the Great Depression and became a quintessential American…

Chopped: Battle Italiano If you’ve ever wanted to take a food tour of Italy, this tournament is the next best thing! Host Ted Allen leads chefs through challenges inspired by the country’s regional cuisines. See if you can match each classic Italian dish to its home. 1 Saffron Risotto Saffron threads give this Northern specialty its distinctive earthy flavor. A Bologna 2 Ribollita This hearty soup, made with vegetables and bread, originated in a region with rolling hills. B Genoa 3 Lasagna The layered pasta dish is a specialty of a city that’s also famous for its ragù. C Tuscany 4 Pesto Pasta The popular herb sauce originally comes from a city in the center of the Italian Riviera. D Milan ANSWERS: 1: D; 2: C; 3: A; 4: B Summer Baking Championship When…

1 Which two ingredients are used to make ganache? 2 Which food is not made using choux pastry (pâte à choux)? A. Croissant B. Profiterole C. Éclair D. Gougère 3 Tarte Tatin is generally made with which fruit? A. Pears B. Apples C. Peaches D. Plums 4 What makes brioche dough different from other bread doughs? A. It’s made with baking powder instead of yeast. C. It’s made with potato flour. D. It’s enriched with egg yolks and butter. 5 A classic pie crust is made from this French dough: A. Pâte sablée B. Pâte sucrée C. Pâte brisée D. Pâte feuilletée 6 What kind of eggs go into macaron batter? A. Egg whites only B. Egg yolks only C. Whole eggs D. No eggs 7 What forms the crust…

1. B The simplest formula is a 1:1 ratio of hot heavy cream and chopped chocolate. 2. A Croissants are made with yeast; choux pastry does not contain leaveners. 3. B Tarte Tatin is basically an upside-down apple tart. 4. D Egg yolks and butter give brioche its rich flavor and yellow color. 5. C Pâte brisée, French for “broken pastry,” is an all-butter shortcrust dough. 6. A Whipped egg whites give macarons their signature airy and delicate texture. 7. C A layer of melted sugar hardens into a crackly crust. 8. (One point for each) Palmier: D; Madeleine: C; Financier: B; Canelé: A 9. D Tempering chocolate requires controlling the temperature as it melts. 10. A Laminated dough (like puff pastry) is extra flaky when baked. 11. F Baking…

Eric Adjepong is at the table! The chef has collaborated with Crate & Barrel on kitchenware and home goods that remind him of Ghana. “Gathering around a communal table is a defining part of my West African heritage, and I wanted to bring this sense of community to life,” says Eric. His line includes plates, linens, glassware and an asanka, a Ghanaian mortar and pestle. crateandbarrel.com Cool beans are a real thing. Beans haven’t been the most exciting ingredients in the pantry…until now. A line from new company Heyday Canning Co. includes cool varieties like Kimchi Sesame Navy Beans and Harissa Lemon Chickpeas. Molly Yeh reports that they’ve made a bean fiend out of her youngest daughter, Ira, who calls them “means.” $4.50 for a 15-ounce can, at Whole Foods…