Playing With My Food ~
A journal about food, thought, travel, and life; by Chef & Raconteur Chaz French.

Eating Well For One On A Budget

Welcome to a new series here on how to cook for one person on a tight budget.  Over the course of the week I’ll be posting what I make with all of this. $9.55 all organic, from the Berkeley Farmer’s Market. Top: Bok Choi Blossoms $1.50 (I’d never heard of them before either). Snap Peas […]

My Heart Broken Open

Once upon a time a professor declared that I was a “Poetic Genius” …. Shortly after that I stopped writing.  It’s only been recently that I even tried to write poetry again, I’m feeling a bit rusty most certainly, but while my beloved Guru Ma Jaya lay dying of cancer slowly slipping away from this […]

Baked Sundays: Buttermilk Lasagna

Oh, hi there! I hope you didn’t think that Baked Sundays was all about cakes, cookies and sweet decadence.  It’s most certainly also about savory decadence! What you’re looking at is a lasagna made with a buttermilk bechamel, layers of baby spinach, mushroom, emmentaler , chevre, leek and garlic.  The noodles were made by my […]

Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati – In Memory Of

I can hear her screaming, shrieking wildly with joy and abundance, it’s the scream she would let out whenever one of her Queens arrived late, trying to slink in unnoticed, and then in her thick Brooklyn accent, she’d flatly state: “You’re late.” Oh those screams and the laughter in howls and huzzahs, a cacophony of […]

Pics, it happened.

A few photos from my weekend at Syd & Ken’s fabulous Mendocino hideaway.     Tweet

Baked Sundays: Recipe: Banana Bar Bites

This weekend I was away visiting my friends in Mendocino, pics from that to come.   While i was staying with Sydnee & Ken I got to watch as Ken made this recipe.  It’s strangely fascinating to watch someone else make something from my instructions.  As promised here’s the recipe for the Banana Bar Bites from […]

Getaway

Spring Break for the kids at school and the adults that work there too. I’m in a sacred place far from the likes of partying spring breakers and girls ‘gone wild’ a spot  in the ‘Emerald Triangle’ of California full of aging hippies, bikers, weed farmers, military types, and BnB’s. Of course I left the […]

Baked Sundays: Banana Bar Bites

I really have to apologize for going all ‘Food Porn” on my Baked Sundays posts, but here we are with another experiment that is almost perfect, but I need to verify the recipe works one more time before sharing it. My goal today was simple, bake something fresh with ingredients on hand, no trips to […]

Baked Sundays, a little early

Hola!  So while I will be baking on Sunday, the site will be undergoing some background maintenance and I won’t be able to post tomorrow’s baking until Monday.  And yes, I said a little early up top because, I have for you test 2 and 3 of the chocolate cake from last week’s BS. In […]

Misadventures in gluten-free baking

No, I am not going “Gluten-Free” or “GF” it ain’t happening. But I have friends with gluten issues from confirmed celiac, to people who just feeling better without gluten, so I’ve decided to see what’s involved in faking gluten.  So far what’s involved is a lot of money!  Baking gluten-free is fucking pricey. Ingredients from […]