MelissaDenchak
Melissa Denchak, New Yorkassociate editor
I’ve always been food- and travel-obsessed. Even as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, I spent enormous amounts of time hunting down the best chipa (a manioc-based bread) and begging my host mom to make her sopa Paraguaya (a creamy cornbread with cheese and onions)—my versions just never quite cut it. I’m thrilled to be part of the Fine Cooking team, though fantasies of opening a bakery-bar in Madrid are never far from mind.
Contributions
Jersey Ketchup
Known for its great Jersey tomatoes, the Garden State now boasts ketchup, too.
Cool Cooler
The gel-lined PackIt Social Cooler folds into a compact shape for storage in the freezer until you’re beach- or picnic-ready.
Leakproof Springforms
A new take on the springform cake pan, the PushPan from Kuhn Rikon is uniquely designed to prevent leaks.
Top-Notch Tap Water
This vintage-looking, BPA-free bottle makes tap water taste better.
Handcrafted Cutting Board
Made from larch, a durable, antimicrobial wood that was once used for boat building, this cutting board will last a lifetime.
Contemporary Composter
Many countertop scrap bins look like mini trash cans, but the 3-quart EcoCrock is a more stylish container for collecting compostable food waste.
Tropical Vinegar
This unusual banana vinegar from Veracruz, Mexico, is tart, with a delicate sweetness, subtle caramel notes, and a nuanced banana flavor.
Under Cover Blade Guards
These colorful blade guards are a simple solution for storing and transporting knives of all sizes.
Spring Tonic: Rhuby
Based on an 18th-century recipe for rhubarb tea, Rhuby is a sweetly aromatic spirit with a slightly tart kick and delicious floral notes.
Brown Rice = Better Risotto
For risotto with a deliciously nutty, slightly chewy texture, we love Integrale organic brown rice.
A Freestyle Fruit Basket
Inspired by the rings that form when a rain drop hits water, the Fruity fruit basket from Normann Copenhagen has a simple, open design that allows plenty of air to circulate around fruit.
Wine Glass 101
With the new Key to Wine set from Riedel, oenophiles can experience how the shape, size, and rim diameter of a glass impacts their favorite wines.
Cheese: Emerald Isle Blue
Handmade in Ireland’s County Tipperary, Kerrygold Cashel Blue is a crumbly, semi-soft cheese.
High Tea
We can’t get enough of the full-flavored, wildly fragrant, and beautifully packaged organic teas from Bellocq.
Gluten-Free Flour from The French Laundry
C4C flour is a gluten-free blend that includes rice and tapioca flours, potato starch, and cornstarch.
Super Sprouts
The California company truRoots soaks its organic grains until they sprout which makes them more nutritious.
A Spoon Roost
Add a touch of whimsy to any kitchen with this porcelain spoon rest.
An iPad Holder for Cooks
We love cooking from our iPad, not cleaning it, which makes this kitchen cabinet iPad mount a must-have.
Stir Things Up
These offbeat spatulas have a colorful silicone coating, so they’re heat resistant and perfect for nonstick surfaces.
Edgeware's Better Zester is a Greater Grater
The nonstick coating and razor-sharp teeth of the Better Zester from Edgeware make for exceptionally smooth grating.
Fungi for Dessert?
These candy cap mushrooms have an intense maple aroma and a slight earthy flavor that lends itself surprisingly well to desserts.
D.I.Y. Butchering Thanks to Wüsthof’s
Go whole hog and break down your own poultry and large cuts of meat with Wüsthof’s new three-piece butchering set.
Move Over, Bacon
Surry Farms’ Jowciale is buttery rich and deliciously porky.
The Recipe Rock Makes for Clutter-Free Cooking
The Recipe Rock holds recipe cards and 8x11-inch printouts upright and perfectly angled.
Le Creuset: Half-Pint Pottery
Festive and elegant, these snowflake-embossed 8-oz. cocottes from are perfect for holiday hosting.
A Petite Pan
This nonstick pie pan is great for mini fruit pies, pot pies, quiches, or tarts.
Not So Simple Syrups
These small-batch, all-natural syrups from Brooklyn-based Royal Rose Syrups aren’t just for cocktails.
Mixing Bowls, Redesigned
All-Clad’s new stainless-steel Spherical bowls make for easy mixing.
Easy-Read Timers
These 60-minute kitchen timers let you monitor cooking time at a glance.
Chalkboard Canisters
These playful, understated ceramic canisters are perfect for storing kitchen goods.
Handcrafted Rolling Pins
Each of these hand-turned beauties from Vermont Rolling Pins is fashioned from a single piece of wood.
Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast
A spinoff of his award-winning blog, Hank Shaw’s new book is an introductory course in how to fish, forage, and hunt for your own food—and then reap the rewards in the kitchen.
Clever Corn Holders
You love steaming hot corn on the cob—just not when it falls off the corn holders and into your lap.
Remote Grilling
Forget hovering over the grill—the new iGrill probe thermometer will keep an eye on those steaks for you.
New World Olive Oil
This single-varietal Arbequina extra-virgin olive oil from Las Doscientas is made from hand-picked olives.
Just Nuts
This chunky Marcona almond butter will make you rethink PB&J.
Lightning-Fast Grill Lighter
This plug-in fire starter will blow superheated air that’s hot enough to light briquettes in seconds, no lighter fluid required.
BBQ Tools That Last
These handsome grill tools by Zwilling J.A. Henckels (the knife pros) are for the serious griller.
Clearly Indispensable
Use this gorgeous glass drink dispenser from Roost to show off your summer drinks.
Cold as Stone Shot Glasses
These modernist Ekke shot glasses are made of soapstone, not glass.
A Rare Bean Chocolate Bar
Made from Pure Nacional, Fortunato No. 4 is a full-bodied dark chocolate with fruity notes and a silky smooth texture.
The Perfect Table Setting
These vintage-inspired, double-sided “Cutlery” placemats from Cake Table & Home are made from 100 percent recycled paper.
A Better Bowl
Bambu’s new line of bowls is made from water- and stain-resistant natural cork.
Real Ginger Ale
This all-natural ginger ale is refreshing, slightly sweet, and packed with gingery heat.
Biscoff Spread: A Spoonable Snack
Move over peanut butter—our new favorite spreadable treat is made from crushed Belgian spice cookies.
A Quesadilla for Lunch
I'm not usually wooed by quesadillas, but this one definitely caught my eye.
My New Go-To Scones
Greek yogurt, fresh grapefruit, and honey are a delicious combination in these homemade scones.
An Updated 18th-Century Classic
What's a Hasselback potato without the potato? If you're using a beet instead, it's a stellar-looking update.
Texture Matters
Chunky and hearty or velvety smooth: Which kind of soup do you prefer?
Made to Measure
Bakers will appreciate this clever digital scale, since it doubles as a bowl that lifts off to transfer ingredients.
Over the Top
Dried red chile threads add a touch of heat, a hint of smoky flavor, and a pop of color when used as a garnish for soups and salads or mixed into egg dishes or stir-fries. For deeper flavor, toast the threads in a skillet for a minute or two before using.
Countertop Chic
With its handcrafted ceramic utensil holder, Beehive Kitchenware Company turns utilitarian storage into handsome kitchen decor.
Worth its Salt
For blue Iranian rock salt, black salt flakes from Cyprus, or pink Pakistani Himalayan salt, check out The Spice Lab, a gourmet purveyor that sources exotic salts from 40 countries.
Fondue for Two
This adorable stoneware tumbler of chocolate fondue from Aux Anysetiers du Roy (a Paris gourmet shop) heats up in minutes and is the perfect size for sharing.
Retro Relaunch
Although it was introduced more than 50 years ago, the recently relaunched Krenit bowl by Danish design company Normann Copenhagen is coolly contemporary.
Dear Red Velvet Cake, Will You Be Mine?
This Valentine's Day Red Velvet Cheesecake is made for a Monday.
Color (and Eat) by Number
Blogger Kim Neill creates edible Pantone "color chip" cookies.
Irish Soda Bread, Updated
For this rugged, dark-golden soda bread, I'd gladly tweak a family recipe.
Tea Time
With elegant curves and swooping spiral handles, Kähler’s Storia tea service is a throwback to Art Deco design.
Prime Meat
Bold and aromatic, Salami della Musica is handmade in limited quantities by artisan salami-maker Cristiano Creminelli. With a mixture of pork, pork liver, and cloves, it tastes one part salami, one part rich pâté.
Go Fish
This white-glazed stoneware fish trivet by design guru Jonathan Adler keeps hot serving dishes off the table—but with a sense of humor.
Into the Pot
Le Creuset’s first-ever cassoulet dish has the slope-sided shape of a traditional French cassoulet pot and a wide surface area that allows for plenty of crunchy crust. It comes with four serving bowls.
Fork It Over
This seven-piece lobster set from kitchenware company WMF comes with a lobster cracker and six slender forks that will help extract every last morsel of tender meat.
In Good Spirit
For more than 600 years, aromatic bison grass has lent its sweet, herbal essence to Zubrowka, a Polish vodka distilled from rye.
Antique Charm
Wedgwood’s lovely Cuckoo plate, made of fine bone china and trimmed with burnished gold, is the perfect size for small sandwiches or canapés.
Ramen, I Love You
Steaming bowls of ramen are incredibly comforting, especially when temps turn frigid. These homemade noodles will bring you one step closer to ramen bliss.
Hail to the [Leftover] Holiday Cranberry Sauce!
How leftover cranberry sauce begets pancakes, cocktails, and more.
Nutmeg Juice
In the U.S., nutmeg is key to decadent pumpkin pies and rich egg nog. In Malaysia? It's the base for fresh, tangy juice.
Savory Oatmeal
Figs, pine nuts, cheese...and oatmeal? Sounds good to me.
Go buckeyes!
Forget Ohio State's mascot. These are buckeyes that would really make me cheer.
Aged Kentucky Ham
Nancy Newsom’s robust prosciutto-style bone-in hams are cured with salt, brown sugar, and hickory smoke, and then aged for 12 months.
Nudo Italian Olive Oil
By adopting one of Nudo’s olive trees in the Abruzzo or Le Marche regions of Italy, you’ll receive the harvest from it (and its neighbors) over the course of one year, including a tin of olive oil from the first cold press and flavored oils like zesty mandarin and spicy chili.
Venison Pâté
Served with a crusty French baguette, Les Trois Petits Cochons’ decadent and savory cranberry-and-pistachio-filled venison pâté will be the hit of any hors d’oeuvres table.
Artisanal Rum
With a rich, butterscotch flavor, Berkshire Mountain Distiller’s rum has a dryness that’s pure pleasure in a glass.
Oregon Goat Cheese
Rivers Edge Chèvre’s Sunset Bay goat’s milk cheese is creamy, perfectly salty, and complemented by the warmth of Spanish pimentón (smoked paprika).
Cherrywood-Smoked Bacon
Smoked over fresh-cut cherrywood logs for a full day, Nueske’s new all-natural cherrywood-smoked bacon is complete porcine bliss.
Dragonfly Sugarworks' Vermont Maple Syrup
Dragonfly Sugarworks offers four grades of organic maple syrup, from a dark, gutsy Grade B to an amber-colored, more delicate grade called Vermont Fancy.
Robert Lambert's Salt-Preserved Limes
Robert Lambert’s salty-sour Rangpur limes (think tart mandarin oranges) are cured with juniper berry, bay leaf, rosemary, and lavender before they’re preserved in salt.
Boozy Dark Chocolate
Nina Wanat, the founder of San Francisco-based BonBonBar, uses top-shelf single malt Scotch, bourbon, and dark rum in her handmade confections.
Tishbi's Wine Preserves
The Cherry Shiraz preserves from Tishbi Winery (a family-owned estate in Israel) have big pieces of sweet-tart cherries and pleasant, lingering notes of red wine.
Sarivole Organic Bakery's Oven-Fresh Cookies
Sarivole Organic Bakery’s baked-to-order cookies—in flavors like peanut butter oatmeal and chocolate coconut almond—arrive fresh, chewy, and delicious.
Happy Goat's Goat's Milk Caramels
Handmade in small batches with milk from free-range goats, Happy Goat’s caramels are tangy, chewy, and far from ordinary.
Pop it Yourself: Truffled Popcorn
479° Popcorn’s black truffle Pop It Yourself kit comes with heirloom popcorn, La Tourangelle black truffle oil, and truffle-infused sea salt.
Preserving Fresh Nuts
Come autumn, the harvest of almonds, pecans, and hazelnuts begins in earnest. Turn your favorite nuts into a rich butter to be savored for months to come.
Got Leftovers?
Use up leftover grilled meat and crisper drawer odds and ends in a delicious no-cook meal.
A [Mulberry] Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Have you ever tried a mulberry? If you haven't, you should.
They Draw And Cook
I can’t stop thinking about figs. On Friday, we sampled white, sun-dried ones from Italy. The day before, we tested a delectable golden fruitcake that was filled to bursting with them. And about a week ago, I came across...
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Recent comments
Re: Texture Matters
Absolutely--I can't wait to try it! Meatball soup...yum... : )
posted: 10:23 am on March 2ndRe: The Fastest and Richest Chocolate Mousse Ever
I can't wait to try this!!
posted: 2:59 pm on February 9thRe: Hot Chocolate--On a Stick!
Love these--such a cute idea!
posted: 1:23 pm on January 27thRe: Two Thanksgiving Cake Centerpieces
The recipe is surprisingly thorough. But still, ew.
posted: 1:01 pm on November 16thRe: Savory Oatmeal
Thanks! I think coming at my oatmeal as if it was regular rice/risotto will definitely help me generate some delicious ideas. I love the sauteed mushroom, soy sauce, and scallion suggestion!
posted: 12:56 pm on November 16thRe: Grilled Cheese, Please
Butter, mayo, who cares? It's a little after noon, and I want these for lunch! (That said, I love butter and I love mayo. Could I pick both? Or is that gross?...)
posted: 12:24 pm on November 10th