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Sunday Culinary Quiz

1 What does the cooking term émonder means?

2 Who invented Cuisine Minceur?

3 What is the famous dish Paul Bocuse created for the Élysée Palace on the occasion of his receiving the Legion of Honor from President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing on February 25, 1975?

4 Which cheese emperor Charlemagne was extremely fond of: Brie or Roquefort?

5 For which celebrity Escoffier created the Peach Melba?

6 Can you name the major ingredient in a coulibiac besides salmon?

7 Which chef committed suicide upon learning he had lost a Michelin Star?

Friday’s Culinary Quiz!

1. A bill was issued to cover the following for what event? 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, 8 bottles of whiskey, 22 bottles of port, 8 bottles of hard cider, 12 beers and seven bowls of alcohol punch large enough that “ducks could swim in them.”

2. What element is responsible for the holes in Swiss Cheese? Ha ha! Love this one!

3. Who said the following: “Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.”  

4. This Russian dessert consists of a fresh fruit salad macerated in wine and then covered with a puree of red fruit (red currants, raspberries and strawberries). It is traditionally served in a  large bowl set stop a dish of crushed ice.
5. Why is the Polish vodka Diaka billed as the world’s most expensive vodka?

6. A Puffball is A. a mushroom variety  B. a Danish pastry filled with meringue  C. a peach variety  D. a fish from Australia
7. What do half the people in the world eat on any given day?

White House: Marijuana potency increases in 2007

Cry me a river! Marijuana potency increased last year to the highest level in more than 30 years, posing greater health risks to people who may view the drug as harmless, according to a report released Thursday by the White House. Hey, I want what they’re smoking in the West Wing! Since when are we to believe anything that comes out of their potty mouths?

There’s no data showing that a higher potency in marijuana leads to more addiction and marijuana’s withdrawal symptoms are mild at best. Mild irritability, craving for marijuana and decreased appetite — I mean those are laughable when you talk about withdrawal from a drug. Caffeine is worse. And don’t get me started on alcohol, and cigarettes. And Iraq etc…

Thursday’s Quiz

1) This tree has aromatic, evergreen leaves, and produces a year round crop of a peachlike, but tough dry fruit. When ripe, the fruit splits open revealing a large seed, surrounded by a red lacy network. Both the red fleshy part and the large seed are used to make two different food products. What are these two distinct food products?

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Wednesday’s Culinary Quiz

1. This is a type of custard consisting of egg yolks, sugar and cream and flavored with amber or musk. It was popular during the time of Louis XIV. In Le Patissier francais, La Varenne instructs to combine the egg yolks, fresh cream and sugar, a little salt, beat together and cook in a flat dish or deep plate, brown the top with a salamander and then sprinkle with perfumed water and serve with musk-flavored sugar to sweeten.

2. Who said this: “To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible to the majority of men, is the same as saying of some kind of food that it is very good but that most people can’t eat it.”

3. This Italian dish literally means ‘jump into the mouth’. A Roman specialty, it consists of fine slices of veal fried in butter and then topped with small slices of ham. It is then flavored with sage and gently braised in white wine.

4. What were John Lennon’s favorite foods?
5. How much did a Hong Kong property tycoon spend on an Italian white truffle, the most ever paid for this delicacy?

6. What is the substance found in hops that lends beer its bitter taste and pungent aroma? BONUS: What is the most expensive beer in the world?
7. What did Bill Clinton say he would want his last meal to be if he knew the world was about to end?

Humor Noir:

You are old when:

 Your sweetie says, ‘Let’s run upstairs
and make love,’ and you answer,
‘Pick one; I can’t do both!’

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Tuesday’s Culinary Quiz

1. Finish this sentence: Without my__________________ I’m just like a dried up piece of roast goat.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) The Coffee Cantata

2. This famous hotelier opened the Grand Hotel in Monte Carlo and the Savoy Hotel in London. BONUS: Name who he met at the Monte Carlo and employed as his chef at the Savoy.

3. This vegetable is also called a Japanese, Chinese or Satsuma radish. They are white and milder in flavor than a red radish and can grow up to 3 feet and weigh up to 100 pounds. Its sprouts are called kaiware.

4. This is a medieval term that refers to something similar to a pancake. It is made with batter and fried and sometimes included small pieces of bacon or meat, fruit or vegetables and sometimes cream, breadcrumbs, ground almonds. Sometimes the fillings were enclosed between two layers of batter. It survived until the 20th century.

5. Does bacteria a prefer more acidic, neutral or alkaline environment?

6. This ingredient is obtained from Irish Moss, a red algae. It is used as a thickening, stabilizing or emulsifying agent in chocolate milk, ice cream, toothpaste, salad dressings, puddings, dog food, shoe polishes and many other common household items and foodstuffs.

7. Polony is a: a) fruit b) sausage c) pastry d) spice?

Sunday Culinary Quiz!

1. What is the world’s oldest recorded recipe for?

2. A caquelon is a: A. Dough Proofer B. Fondue Pot C. Cider Press D. Pate Mold?

3. This ‘ghost food’ was invented by the United States Army in 1974. It was used as a test word in a survey of soldiers’ dietary preferences and while the food never actually existed, it ranked higher in the survey as a food preference than eggplants and lima beans. BONUS: What does the United States military advise soldiers to use in a pinch to rehydrate a packet of dried chicken and rice?

4. What is ‘poor man’s pudding’?

5 President Bill Clinton, Julia Child, Larry King, Jack Nicholson, Tom Selleck, Kim Basinger, Barbara Walters, Olympian Bonnie Blair, Barbara Bush, Dan Rather, Madonna, Cher, William F. Buckley, Billy Joel, Julia Roberts, Bill Cosby and Michael J. Fox are all members of what culinary group?

6 What name is John Chapman better known as?

7 Who is the Godfather of Nouvelle cuisine?

Your Saturday Culinary Quiz

1. This cake is associated with Dublin City and is made from stale bread mixed with raisins and water, spread over a puff pastry base and baked on a  large baking sheet. After baking, a layer of icing is spread on top and the cake is cut into squares.  The cake was especially popular amongst Dublin children and was immortalized in a book by Eamonn Mac Thomais. In other regions of Ireland the cake is called Chester cake, Donkey’s Wedding cake and Donkey’s gunge/gudge.

2. A Japanese glutinous, sticky rice cake. The rice is steamed and pounded into a paste before being shaped into a cake. They’re eaten while still soft or left to cool and harden. Popular accompaniments include soy sauce, sugar and nori.

3. Complete this sentence from Shakespeare’s King Henry V, Act I, Scene 3: “I would give all my fame for…”

4. This is a general name for a group of edible fungi which have tubes rather than gills under their caps. Most have fused or multiple caps and examples include Hen of the Woods and Beefsteak Fungus.

5. This French chemist and television personality wrote a recent book on molecular gastronomy. He believes that a knowledge and understanding of science will help enhance culinary experiences.

6. How many species of Pacific salmon are there? Bonus is you can name them!

7. This common baking ingredient is what is left behind after grape juice has fermented to wine.

Friday’s Culinary Quiz

1. France’s 2008 Michelin Guide was released this week. In 2003, what was Bernard Loiseau prompted to do after his Burgundian restaurant was demoted by the Gault Millau Guide from 19/20 to 17/20 and rumors spread that the Michelin Guide was about to take one of its coveted stars away from his three star restaurant?
2. True or False: A quahog is a sterilized pig?

3. Smen is A. An Egyptian seafood dish B. A North African cooking oil C. An Indian legume D. An Israeli pastry.

4. What is butter called that has been made using fermented cream? Hint: During fermentation, the cream sours naturally as bacteria convert milk sugars into what?

5. Fill in the blank: “_____ ________ is exquisite. What a pity it isn’t illegal.” - Voltaire
6. What lasted in America for 13 years, 10 months, 19 days, 17 hours and 32 1/2 minutes?
7. This is a sour fermented paste made from the corms, or swollen underground stems, of the taro plant. It is a staple food of the Hawaiian islands, contains very little protein and is made by pounding the stems into a thick, sticky paste.