Okay, so we’re pushy. We admit it. We like to stick our cyber noses into other people’s pots to find out what they’re making for dinner. And ‘fess up, aren’t you just the tiniest bit curious, too?

That’s what we thought.

So we want you to think of this page as required mid-afternoon reading everyday (especially during the week) to find out what your fellow cooks are making, to get ideas, to share tips, and basically to make it through the week with some semblance of élan and poise at the stove. Sure beats pulling your hair out at the grocery store. Just add your comments and suggestions below.

The judges have, well, passed judgment, readers have voted, and we’ve tabulated the results of our first-ever food photography contest.

Congratulations to Yue Edwards, first place winner and the recipient of a $300.00 gift certificate to B&H Photo; Dita W. Ichwandardi, second-place winner and the recipient of a $200 gift certificate to B&H Photo; and Kriswirata Ngoei, third-place winner and the recipient of a $100 gift certificate to B&H Photo. Shaby Sajid snagged the People’s Choice award as well as a $100.00 gift certificate to B&H Photo. Click here for a full list of finalists.

Until next time, we’d like to thank all of you who voted for the People’s Choice and a special thanks to our inimitable panel of photography judges, Aran Goyoaga of Cannelle et Vanille, Ben Fink, Erika Oliveira, former art director of Gourmet, and Karen Mordechai of Sunday Suppers. They went above and beyond their judgely duties.—LC Editors and Staff

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FIRST PLACE: Chicken Coconut Noodle Soup by Yue Edwards

SECOND PLACE: Chocolate-Ginger Crinkle Cookies by Dita W. Ichwandardi

THIRD PLACE: Mini Muffin Strawberry Financiers by Kriswirata Ngoei

PEOPLE'S CHOICE: Katharine Hepburn's Brownies by Shaby Sajid

Well, we’re bleary-eyed, but we sifted through all the entries over and over again to pick the 10 finalists for our first Leite’s Culinaria Food Photography Contest. And what finalists they are. Some are bloggers, others are food lovers, still others are photography aficionados. But in all cases, the images they took are arresting.

While flipping through the photos a few facts became clear: 1.) More than 90 percent of the images were of desserts. So, apparently, there are a lot of sweet tooths out there.  2.) Entrants weren’t interested in entering just once, but rather several times. As one photographer wrote, “Once the camera started clicking, it was hard to stop.” 3.) Images came in from countries all over the globe, including France, Australia, Canada, and Italy—making it a truly international contest.

Starting today, our esteemed panel of judges, Aran Goyoaga of Cannelle et Vanille, Ben Fink, Erika Oliveira, former art director of Gourmet, and Karen Mordechai of Sunday Suppers will evaluate each of these images to name the first, second, and third place winners. But you get to vote for the People’s Choice Award. Pick the image you like the most and vote below! You can vote only one time per e-mail address. Check back here on August 30th for the winners.

To all the entrants, thank you. And to all the finalists, congratulations and good luck!–LC Editors and Staff

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Cream Puffs with Pearl Sugar by Sandra Avital

Brigadeiros by Arfi Binsted

Madeleines by Catherine Côté

Curried Devil Eggs by Yue Edwards

Chicken Coconut Noodle Soup by Yue Edwards

Sweet Tea by Shanti S. Febrianto

French Chocolate Macarons by Melissa Hom

Chocolate-Ginger Crinkle Cookies by Dita W. Ichwandardi

Mini Muffin Strawberry Financiers by Kriswirata Ngoei

Katharine Hepburn's Brownies by Shaby Sajid

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Oops! We could not locate your form.

It’s simple to enter. Find a recipe on Leite’s Culinaria that looks interesting to you, whip it up, make it strike a pose, and e-mail us your money shots. We’ll pick ten finalists, which will be posted on this site and scrutinized by a distinguished panel of judges: cookbook photographer Ben Fink, former art director of Gourmet Erika Oliveira, and food bloggers and photogs extraordinaire Karen Mordechai of Sunday Suppers and Aran Goyoaga of Cannelle et Vanille. The judges will choose three winners. Each winner will receive a gift certificate to B&H Photo. The first-place winner will receive a $300 certificate, the second-place winner a $200 certificate, and the third-place winner a $100 certificate. In addition, the public will have a chance to weigh in for the People’s Choice Award, which snags a $100 certificate.

Read the official rules below, then start cooking and shooting!

Important dates
July 31: deadline for entries
August 5: ten finalist photographs will be posted
August 30: winners will be announced

JUDGES
Aran Goyoaga, originally from Bilbao in the Basque region of Spain, is the writer, stylist, and photographer behind the award-winning blog Cannelle et Vanille. Her love of food began while growing up in her grandparents’ pastry shop, and she has always been inspired by her father and brother who are artists and avid photographers. She studied business and economics, but left that field to pursue a career in pastry. After working in professional kitchens for years, she now works as a freelance food writer, stylist, and photographer. She is the mother of a 3-year-old boy and a 5-month-old girl, and works out of her South Florida home studio.

As a commercial photographer and exhibiting artist, Ben Fink is a master of visual harmony. Both his culinary and his landscape work blend light, texture, mood, and depth to empower and heighten the viewer’s senses. Ben has photographed more than 270 cookbooks and has worked with top culinary celebrities like Jacques Pepin, Bobby Flay, Ina Garten, and Rachael Ray. Although he lives and works in NYC, Ben’s culinary clients have sent him to a number of locations worldwide to photograph the connection between food and people. Ben is also an exhibiting artist in 14 fine-art galleries for his landscape work, and is rapidly gaining the attention of prominent art collectors nationwide.

Erika Oliveira, formerly Art Director at Gourmet magazine, is a prominent creative director whose passion, drive, and vision are not only exhibited through her work, but also in the way she art directs photo shoots and encourages her team to be ground-breaking in their creativity. Erika moved to New York in 2000 to art direct one of the most successful launches in magazine history, O, The Oprah Magazine. During her five-year tenure at Gourmet, Erika and her team were named Best Design Team of the Year by Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek, and Photo District News (PDN). Erika also won gold at the ASME (American Society of Magazine Editors) awards in 2004 and 2007. In addition to her close work with Ruth Reichl at Gourmet, she has collaborated with Chef David Chang, Jonathan Waxman, and April Bloomfield, among others. She has art directed and/or designed the books Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet by Padma Lakshmi, Bravo’s Top Chef host; O’s Big Book of Happiness for Oprah Winfrey; and Everyday, Holiday and Bill’s Basics by Bill Granger, the Australian food writer, TV personality, and chef. Presently, Erika is working as a creative director at Rogers Media, Inc. in Canada.

Karen Mordechai is a freelance food stylist and photographer. Karen’s nostalgia for family dinners combined with a love of food prompted her to create the now popular blog Sunday Suppers. The site is a documentation of intimate cooking and dining experiences that take place in a Brooklyn loft. Karen’s work has been featured in Saveur, Martha Stewart Living, InStyle magazine, New York magazine, and many more. She is a graduate of the NYU/ICP Masters Program in Photography and currently resides in Brooklyn.

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OFFICIAL RULES
The contest is open to anyone, anywhere—as long as you’re at least 18 years old. Leite’s Culinaria employees and volunteers, and their immediate families, are not eligible. (Sorry, guys.)

For this contest, you:
1. must photograph a completed recipe(s) from anywhere on Leite’s Culinaria. How, where, and in what manner it’s photographed is entirely up you—so have at it.

2. can enter as many photos as you wish, but only one image per recipe is allowed, and only one image per photographer can win a prize. (You don’t want to be a piggy.)

3.  will send your hi-res photo(s) in .jpeg or .jpg format to photo-contest@leitesculinaria.com. Files larger than 2MB are not allowed. Hold on to your original(s), as we may need them for the finalists and winners posting. For each image include the full title and full URL of the recipe(s). NOTE: With the exception of routine exposure correction, color balancing, and cropping, etc., devilish digital enhancements are strictly prohibited and will result in possible wrist-slapping and a definite disqualification.

4. will retain all copyrights to your work. Leite’s Culinaria retains the right to include all finalist and winning images on the this site in perpetuity. Anywhere a photo appears on the site, the photographer’s name, copyright date, and “All rights reserved” will accompany it. If the image is used in another media or format created by Leite’s Culinaria, the photographer will be notified, credited, and compensated. (In other words, we’re not interested in getting all the glory.)

Legalese Gobbledegook (deep breath): Leite’s Culinaria’s decisions concerning all matters related to this contest are final. Void where prohibited by law. Leite’s Culinaria assumes no responsibility for late or misdirected entries due to SPAM, technological, or e-mail filtering issues. No cash substitutions, transfer, or assignment of prizes allowed except by Leite’s Culinaria. Winners grant to Leite’s Culinaria the right to use his/her name and biographical information in advertising and promotion without compensation or permission. Shipping and postage will be paid for by Leite’s Culinaria. Any tax, international or otherwise, related to the prizes is the sole responsibility of the winners. Winners release Leite’s Culinaria from any liability arising out of participation in this contest. Leite’s Culinaria reserves the right to cancel the contest or modify these rules at its discretion.

Say hello to Renee Schettler Rossi, our new deputy editor. All of us are thrilled about her joining LC, and we’ve been sitting on our hands, refraining from writing, blogging, tweeting, and FBing about it. I wanted to wait until the redesign was up (thank you, thank you for all the well wishes) and our Valentine’s Day coverage was lined up before announcing Renee’s new postion. But you’ve already seen some of the results of her work (and I’ve seen early-morning hours, the likes of which I haven’t experienced since college), as we started to revamp the site’s design and content, think differently about how best to present recipes and articles, and shift writers—wonderful, quirky, beloved, thoughtful writers—back to the forefront of LC.

But let me back up a bit. I first met Renee several years ago when she was second in command at Martha Stewart Living. She wanted to chat about my possibly writing a story for the magazine. We met at Starbucks at Broadway and 75th St. (what we would later call “the office”).  It was a long year before an MSLO article and I were eventually paired. In the interim, I figured Renee had forgotten about me, but I didn’t know back then how she worked. Not only didn’t she lose track of me, but she was following everything I was writing. Eventually, I wrote five pieces for the magazine, with Renee as my editor.

As we became friendly—hard not to do when you discover your editor lives a block away from you—we would meet at the office and catch up. Me: a tall latte (sorry, Amanda Hesser), and Renee: a bottle of water. Every once and a while one of us would say, “Wouldn’t it be fun to work together on a project of our own?” Then she’d peel off to 42nd St., and I’d head home and peel off my jeans and jump back into my sweatpants to write.

But we knew it was inevitable. We liked each other too much, held too many of the same convictions, and loved writers too much not to eventually find a way to become collaborators. Last month when I asked her to join LC, she agreed, and I shouted out to The One, “SHE SAID ‘YES’! It’s the second proposal she accepted in a month!” Renee and her fiancé had tied the knot not three weeks earlier.

Since then, it’s been gargantuan e-mails, marathon phone calls with each other and with experts across the pond, and meetings at my apartment. (The office just isn’t big enough to sprawl out; and neither one of us wants to cower beneath the withering glances of ticked-off Upper West Siders.) The dining room table has been strewn with cookbooks, food books, computers, papers, and my and The One’s two cats. Rolodexes were exchanged—perhaps the work analogy of wedding rings—lists of ideas drawn up, an online virtual office was created (thank you, Google Docs), and the sleepless nights began.

We’re just beginning our re-tooling of the site, and we look forward to your input. In the meantime, please take a moment and join all of here at Leite’s Culinaria in welcoming Renee by leaving her a comment below. And if you have a suggestion or other thoughts that require a few more characters, you can always shoot her an e-mail.

]]> http://leitesculinaria.com/31067/culinaria-renee-schettler-deputy-editor.html/feed 20 http://leitesculinaria.com/16051/culinaria-iphone-interface-for-leites-culinaria.html#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://leitesculinaria.com/16051/culinaria-iphone-interface-for-leites-culinaria.html#comments Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:00:49 +0000 David Leite http://leitesculinaria.com/?p=16051 I don’t know about you, but I’m a gadget freak. And a dyed-in-the-wool Macophile. (Just to show you how easy a Mac is to learn—for the trillions of people still on PCs—I was indoctrinated when I was 27 years old. By a third grader. And that was on an original Macintosh. You know the one; it was heralded in the famous “Why 1984 won’t be like 1984” TV spot.

So what does this all have to do with Leite’s Culinaria? Plenty. I’ve been looking for a way to make us portable. So that you, and I, can make better use of the site. Our old technology (and at 10 years old, it was a dinosaur in tech terms) didn’t allow for it. Enter Brave New Code. It’s a bunch of brilliant designers, developers, and coders who created an interface so that Leite’s Culinaria can stream to your iPhone at speeds up to twice as fast as other programs. And the interface is pure, elegant Macintosh. Click on the photo at the left, and you’ll see the three newest entries on the site (as of the time of this writing). And there are three important drop-down menus on top: Categories, Search, and Menu. It lets you get to the information you want faster and easier.

So once I customized it, I had to do a test drive. I’m alone in the city this weekend—The One is in CT hobnobbing with our friend Ellen at an art opening. So, I decided to make Rhode Island Clam Chowder, part of the article written by Laurie Jones. I went to Fairway, yes the same Fairway I’ve been complaining about for years, to gather ingredients. While my fellow shoppers balanced a shopping cart, sometimes an infant, ingredients list and pen, which when held in the hand while digging though a pile of shallots can be horror-movie frightening—all I had was my trusty phone. I clicked on the recipe, complete with pictures, turned the phone sideways for better viewing, scooped up the ingredients, and was out of there in no time. I even sent a comment from my phone.

The best part is you don’t have to do anything to make it work. We did it all for you. Now, if you don’t like the mobile interface, just scroll to the bottom of the phone’s page and turn it off. From then on you’ll get LC content exactly as you get it here.

Gotta go. There’s a chowder with my name on it.

Editors of Saveur | Saveur Cooks Authentic French | Chronicle Books, 1999 | Serves 8

This old-style French cherry clafouti dessert, given to us by Auvergnat grandmother Jean Barbet, calls for unpitted cherries. This is the tradition in the region, not as a labor-saving shortcut, but because the pits are believed to add flavor to the cake. If the idea unsettles you, don’t hesitate to use pitted cherries.–Editors of Saveur

LC $*@2!!! Cherry Pits! Note: Yes, you could leave those pesky little pits in the cherries in keeping with the romanticized notion of imparting an almondy nuance to the cake. Or you could easily pit them. When facing a mountain of cherries whose pits you want to wrest from their place, you’ve got all manner of options, including pricey cherry pitting gadgets, the tip of a sharp paring knife, a bobby pin, a paper clip that’s partly unbended, even a cleverly Macgyvered fork. But you tell us. How do you fish out the pit? Tell us in a comment. And no matter what you do, wear an apron and be ready to wipe purple splatters from the counter.

Active time: 5 minutes (15 minutes if pitting the cherries) Total time: 45 minutes (55 minutes if pitting the cherries)

Cherry Clafouti Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.