Julie Julia – Film Trailer

And the countdown to August 7th begins!

The Dissident Chef: Subculture Dining

My new obsession.

Eric Ripert Part 1 of 5

Eric Ripert Part 1 of 5

Eric Ripert took questions for 40 minutes at Omnivore in San Francisco before signing his book On The Line.

Eric Ripert Part 2 of 5

Eric Ripert Part 2 of 5

Eric Ripert part 4 of 5

Eric Ripert Part 3 of 5

Eric Ripert Part 4 of 5

Eric Ripert Part 4 of 5

Obama: Our President

My heart is swollen with love, promise, and overwhelming happiness. I expect to wake in the middle of a musical,  to rainbows and people skipping down the street and gas derived from sewage for under a dollar. I’m teaching Theo to sabre a bottle of champagne tonight. God bless Obama.

Vote YES on prop 2!!

Farms not Factories! Safer food, more humane treatment and living spaces. 

Trusted San Francisco chef Chris Cosentino of Incanto is for it. 

Vote YES ON PROP 2!

Just for fun: Charm City Cakes FAQ

I think I’ll highlight and italicize my faves:

How much are your cakes?
Because all of our cakes are priced individually by the complexity of their design, we do not have a standard price list.

Due to the care we give to each cake and the one-of-a-kind nature of each order, we require a minimum of $1000 on all of our cakes. 

How do I order a cake?
To start the order process, please send an email to info@charmcitycakes.com with the following information:

• the date of your event
• the occasion/nature of your event (wedding, bat mitzvah, etc)
• the event location and delivery time
• how many people you will need to feed
• your daytime phone number
• your email address
• six flavors from our flavor list you would like to sample
• an idea of what kind of cake design you are looking for

We will contact you to to discuss your order.

Our bakery is open by appointment only, we do not have any cakes pre-made for sale. Every cake we make is custom made to order from start to finish.

What’s your payment policy?
A 50% non-refundable deposit is required to reserve your order; the remainder is due at least two weeks prior to your event.

Your order is not confirmed until we have received your signed contract and 50% non-refundable deposit.

Payment can be made by cash, check or credit card (Visa, AmEx, or Mastercard). Cake orders placed with less than two weeks notice require payment in full by credit card at the time of ordering.There is no refund on orders canceled within 5 business days of the event date.

Design/Tasting appointments are held for most, but not all, cake orders. There is a non-refundable $100 deposit required for appointments, payable by Visa, Master Card, or American Express. The $100 deposit will be deducted from the final cost of your cake.

Event dates are held for you through the date of your appointment, and five (5) business days afterwards.  If we do not receive a signed contract and 50% deposit within five (5) business days of your appointment, your date may become unavailable.

Do you deliver?
Delivery is available for wedding cakes and cakes that require on-site assembly only. We do not ship our cakes.

Delivery fees are calculated by distance traveled and are roughly $175 an hour. Our delivery range is roughly 4-6 hours from Baltimore. Baltimore is located in the great state of Maryland, on the East Coast of the United States of America. Please check a map if you are not sure how far you are from Baltimore.

Longer deliveries are occasionally arranged, but must be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Cakes that are not sensitive to transportation and will be traveling within 2 hours of our shop in Baltimore can be picked up from our bakery. We do not recommend clients self-transport cakes over 2 hours, especially if 3D or structural elements are involved. Customers who choose to travel longer distances with cakes do so at their own risk.

Do you ship your cakes?
We do not ship our cakes.

Are you hiring?
We are not currently hiring any staff, interns, externs, unpaid grunts, or volunteers.

Can I come to your shop to watch you work?
We are a very small, very busy shop. Every cake we make is handcrafted to order, and while that makes for some really spectacular cakes, it doesn’t leave us with a lot of time for visitors and jibba jabba. So we can’t have people stopping in to watch. We do realize that you are special, but we simply do not have the time or resources for visitors.

Also, our evil lawyers have told us it’s a no-no to have folks traipsing through here. Would you want a parade of visitors walking through a place you were ordering food from? Didn’t think so.

If you ask to visit, we will be forced to say “no” (see above re: evil lawyers) and then we will feel like meanie heads. If you show up anyway, we will not be able to let you come inside and then we’ll feel like mega jerk meanie heads. We don’t want to let you down and we don’t want to feel like mega jerk meanie heads. We are very sorry to be so stern and such, but there are no exceptions to this policy.

We do not sell our merchandise at the bakery. Merchandise is available for purchase online via credit card only.

I have a question about decorating / cake making.
We wish we could answer every question in stupendously personalized detail. However, due to the insano crazy number of emails we get, that’s simply not possible and we can’t answer questions about decorating. If you’re looking for cake technique info, check out the books Cakewalk by Margaret Braun,Cakes To Dream On by Colette Peters, and Larry Powell’s Big Book of Cake Decorating. The web forums at www.sugarbuzz.us and www.cakecentral.com are also wonderful resources.

I have dietary restrictions. Can you help?
Our awesome baker Adam is a vegan and is able to make delicious cruelty-free cakes.

For wheat and gluten-free cakes, contact Chef Renee D’Souza at Sweet Sin Bakery.

Charm City Cakes is not a certified Kosher establishment and is unable to produce parve cakes.

Not sure what a parve cake is but this guy and his minions better want to be a part of my super awesome book of I’m gonna be bummed, and I will know that they are mega jerk meanie heads. So there. I bleed fondant this week!

The Economy: What are you doing?

Personally? I’m surfing the Craig’s List to no avail because Ocean Seasoning seems to be taking a turn for the worst, and don’t need me to come in so I’m: working on the book, watching the Wine Spectator podcast videos, and I’ll be drunk by 9. I’m drinking Duo, a SB from Casablanca Valley in Chile and munching on toasted mini baguettes and St Andre left over from a la minute “Philly Cheese Steak” sandwiches. It’s awesome to have a vacume dog that appreciates artisianal bread and wine that his drunken owner sloppily drops to the ground while blogging.

Speaking of the economy! Dogs are not cheap! Jesus, beyond the responsibility and surviving puppyhood, this cute MFer ate through a perfectly good and expensive 2nd row seatbelt and demands food made outside of tainted gluten riden China! That adds up! Maybe I’ll have to eat him or find a way to milk him for B&J.

Woohoo! Tip your servers when they get to show up for work! And BTW, which straws do you prefer for your 750 mils? I know my swirly straws would help to lighten the mood, but the tapioca pearl ones seem to get the job done!