Center of the Plate | D'Artagnan Blog

5 Ways to Cook a Burger

Our country is burger obsessed. According to Eric Schlosser’s book, Fast Food Nation, American’s eat about 13 billion hamburgers per year while spending over 130 billion dollars on fast food. While we don’t think the burger craze is going away anytime soon, you can take the “junk” out of your food by making more of…

Read Between the Buns!

Ah, burgers! One of our favorite subjects. In honor of our favorite summer meal, we thought we’d give you some of our favorite burger tips, tricks and recipes. Today we’re starting with the basics – perfecting the patty. No matter which type of meat you start with or how you dare to dress it up, at…

The Hot Dog Gets Its Day

With Independence Day accounting for the consumption of 155 million hot dogs alone, it only makes sense that July is National Hot Dog Month. Then there’s a day dedicated to the wiener, but there is some contention over which day exactly. But it’s certainly between July 19 and July 23. Whatever the case (sorry, pun…

All About Quail

Quail is a collective name for several genera of small, plump birds in the pheasant family. Species or subspecies of the genus Coturnix are native to all continents except the Americas. The Pharaoh, or Coturnix coturnix, quail are of Eurasian stock (found in Asia, Africa and Europe), and are migratory upland birds that travel in large bevies of up to…

Vive la France!! Celebrate Bastille Day with us!

Ariane, along with Andy – our President, and Pierre – our VP of Sales NYC, are shining up their boules for Cercle Rouge’s annual Bastille Day petanque tournament. If you’re in the NYC area, come on down and join in the fun this Thursday, July 12th. There will be live music, petanque, plenty of pastis…

Happy National Fried Chicken Day!

Crispy, crunchy, juicy, tender! Fried chicken is American comfort food at its best. It’s also a hotly debated topic: pan-fried or deep-fried, flour dredge or cornmeal crust, buttermilk or brine, peanut oil or duck fat? Whichever method and ingredients you prefer, we can think of no better day to cook up a big batch than National Fried…

The Chanterelle Mushroom

Cantherellus cibarius, the golden chanterelle, grows on forest floors, often near conifers, deciduous trees, but also in fields, beginning in July and ending as late as January. The genus Cantharellus, named for the Greek kantharos, meaning cup, is a mushroom found growing wild throughout the world. Efforts to cultivate these mycorrhizal fungi have failed, because it is impossible to recreate…

YES CHEF! Now do your homework.

NBC Nightly News aired an interesting story this week about Flynn McGarry. While most 13 year old boys are pining over girls, worrying about pimples or playing hours of nintendo, young Flynn is donning an apron, mastering his brunoise and upping his sous vide game. Flynn is a 13 year old aspiring chef in Los Angeles whose…

Hunting Truffles in Italy

D’Artagnan owner Ariane Daguin recently traveled to Savigno, a small town near Bologna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. She was there to talk with one of our truffle suppliers about the upcoming winter truffle season and tour their new facility where truffles are inspected, graded, cleaned and sometimes made into prepared products, like peelings…

Hudson Valley Farm Trip

On Monday, we hosted one of our famous field trips to Hudson Valley Foie Gras farm. Around 200 chefs from New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington, DC and Boston traveled in a tour bus caravan, along with D’Artagnan staffers, a brass band and members of the press. With the looming California foie gras ban attracting…

Back of the House/Episode 9: Lamb with Ariane Duarte

Check out the latest episode of Back of the House with Ariane – Lamb, bam, thank you ma’am! In this quick video, Ariane is cooking our grass-fed lamb and lamb merguez sausage with Chef Ariane Duarte of CulinAriane in Montclair, NJ. Rack of Lamb with Warm Green Bean Potato Salad Duckfat Potato Cake with Merguez…

All About Buffalo

What’s in a Name? Buffalo versus bison. Is there a difference? While the names are used interchangeably in casual conversation, the American Bison (Bison bison) is a distinct mammal native to North America. The bison is only distantly related to the other true buffalo in the world: the Asian water buffalo and the African buffalo. However,…