Episode 4: Nest Test

Watch as Uri Scheft, the genius behind Breaking Breads, braids challah like a pro.

episode Red, White and BBQ

“Raquel Pelzel, who’s co-authored eighteen books, including one she wrote herself, recently developed cannabis recipes for Cedella Marley’s (Bob Marley’s daughter) upcoming cookbook. She explained to us the differences between the old-school and new-school approaches to cooking with cannabis.”

— Food52

— Pittsburgh Post Gazette

“Pelzel reveals she ‘developed a palate for tasty things early,’ largely thanks to her father, an ex-kibbutznik Israeli carpenter, who would take her out once a week to explore the best food her home city had to offer.”

— Jewish News Online

“You take two slices of bread out of the loaf, put them in the toaster, wait until they pop up, then spread butter and/or jam on each slice.

Done deal, right?

Wait just a minute….”

— The Sacramento Bee

Catch me at the Clinton Hill Public Library on Tuesday January 12th, 4-5:30pm for a toast class!

Thanks La Boite NYC for Featuring TOAST in the January Newsletter!

“Raquel Pelzel has created 50 seasonal recipes that revolve around the “bread and butter” of cuisine with delicious and simple ingredients that come together in surprising ways. Spanning sweet and savory toast combinations like s’mores toast and tomato and feta cream, the TOAST cookbook will inspire you to see this classic staple in a new light.”

— LaBoiteNY.com

TOAST! A Tastebook Pick as a Great Gift for Brunch Lovers

— Tastebook.com

Raquel Pelzel shares nourishing make-ahead recipes for last-minute company or just for treating yourself.

— GiadaWeekly.com

“If you love toast, but sometimes yearn for something more exciting than beans to put on it for dinner, then Raquel Pelzel is worth listening to.”

— Express & Star

I’ll be signing books and handing out tasty toasty bites at ABC Carpet & Home at 888 Broadway in Manhattan on November 19 for their annual holiday market night! 5pm-8pm. Cocktails, book signings and of course…TOAST!

Here, we’ve rounded up the 10 best cookbooks hitting shelves for fall 2015, and if these don’t inspire you to dust off those pots and pans, we don’t know what will. We won’t judge if you open these new titles solely for the gorgeous #foodporn, but you should definitely give their totally accessible recipes a try.

— Stylecaster.com

Word of Mouth: Bonny Wolf with Raquel Pelzel, author of “Toast”

Hill Center welcomes Raquel Pelzel, author of Toast, for a discussion with food writer Bonny Wolf. Grilled, pan-fried or broiled, toast is the perfect vehicle for endless fun and creativity in the kitchen. Toast features 50 seasonal recipes, from savory to sweet, with innovative combinations of simple ingredients, easily found in the supermarket or farmer’s market, and will appeal to home cooks of all levels. Following the discussion, join us for a book signing and reception, sponsored by David Guas at Bayou Bakery, Coffee Bar & Eatery.

Tired of the same old browned bread? Toast: The Cookbook will give you 50 new ways to eat it.

— thestar.com

Have I been making toast the wrong way my whole life?

It’s a disturbing thought, but one I had to face as I watched Raquel Pelzel demonstrate how to make the cinnamon toast from her book Toast.

— Food52

Dessert toasts are easier than pie (but just as delicious)

“Toasting bread ain’t rocket science, so what Raq’s really offering here is a lovely assortment of toppings aimed at turning crispy bread into an appetizer, snack, meal, or, as in the case of the recipes adapted here, dessert. These recipes use classic fall flavors often found in pies and tarts — Dutch apple, roasted pear, and apple-cranberry. They’re just as delicious and satisfying as pie, but faster and easier to make.”

— The Boston Globe

Toast Masters
Upgrade your breakfast with perfectly custardy cinnamon toast

“To have a book called Toast and not have a cinnamon toast seemed like such an omission. It’s like having a Sunday supper book and not having a roast chicken,” Pelzel says.

— Tasting Table

Reimagining Bread & Butter

AndrewZimmern.com: Why focus a whole book on toast? What was your process for developing these recipes?

Raquel Pelzel: You know, the toast trend hit NYC in a big way a few years ago, and all of a sudden, you started seeing all of these really delicious pairings of stuff on toast—like beautifully composed tomato salads, roasted vegetables and meats, or smashed avocados with infused oils and interesting finishes. There’s really no limit to what you can pile on top of toast—from simple nut butters to the most elegant butter-poached shellfish. It all works. So it totally made sense to showcase all the fun and creative ways you can serve “toast” (the dish, not just toasted bread!) in a cookbook.

— AndrewZimmern.com

How to make the perfect toast for breakfast, lunch and dinner
From maple-flavoured breakfast to a savoury mushroom entree, a toasted piece of bread is Raquel Pelzel’s perfect vehicle to showcase seasonal produce

“Raquel Pelzel’s new book, Toast: The Cookbook, lays bare her passion for toast: she can have tartines for three meals in a row, and you can understand why: from maple-flavoured breakfast options to a savoury mushroom entree, a toasted piece of bread is the perfect vehicle to showcase seasonal produce.”

— theguardian.com

4 Spectacular Dessert Recipes Made With Plain Old Toast

“These days, in the hands of a clever chef, toast can mean so much more than crispy bread. Award-winning food writer Raquel Pelzel delved into the modern world of this simple staple in her new, aptly named cookbook, Toast: The Cookbook.”

— Vogue

The Dish: my daily bread
Give your toast a top-up with these tasty recipes

“Welcome to the modern world of toast, where the bread is flame-kissed, crisped in the toaster or griddled, then finished with a heap of seasonally inspired toppings. Think of it as a sophisticated evolution of the sandwich and an upgrade from small bites such as bruschetta and crostini: as good for breakfast as it is for dessert, as chic for company as it is simple for dinner for one.”

— The Sunday Times

You’ve Been Making Toast Wrong Your Whole Life
Prepare to have your breakfast mind blown.

“If you’ve been using a toaster, we have some news for you: There’s pretty much no way you’re making the thick, golden-brown deliciousness that you could be enjoying each morning for breakfast (or, you know, lunch and dinner, too).”

— Women’s Health

One of the largest and most prestigious literary festivals in the country, the annual Texas Book Festival features 250+ nationally and critically recognized authors, 20+ venues including the State Capitol, 80+ exhibitors, live music, local food trucks, family activities, and countless opportunities to meet authors and fellow book lovers.

Monday, September 28, 7:30 PM
Greenlight Bookstore  / 686 Fulton street / Brooklyn, NY 11217

Pelzel presents her book at Greenlight in conversation with her editor (and fellow Fort Greene resident) Emily Takoudes, and provides some some tasty treats for attendees.

TOAST featured in the September issue of Bon Appétit! And yes, making toast IS cooking. Ahem.

An Indulgent Slice That Could Totally Pass for Breakfast

“As the toast trend surges on, chefs, cookbook authors and people who love breakfast for dinner continue to come up with inventive ways to serve bread with toppings. Raquel Pelzel, whose new book is called Toast: The Cookbook, has one we hadn’t seen before: She takes a slice of charred bread, tops it with a homemade chocolate-hazelnut spread then a handful of quartered marshmallows and broils the toasts for a few seconds, until the marshmallows are golden brown. It’s over-the-top luscious, whether you serve it with a morning latte or an after-dinner drink.”

— Oprah.com

Toast author Raquel Pelzel on how to to make a humble snack food as highbrow or lowbrow as you like

“Being big fans of simple things done brilliantly we’re not surprised that Toast, by Raquel Pelzel, has become one of phaidon.com’s favourite books from the upcoming fall list. In it, the former Cooks Illustrated editor unveils 50 cleverly conceived and exquisitely executed recipes to spread over a perfectly charred humble slice of bread. But while some of the recipes can be made in mere minutes, others allow gastronomy novices a safe arena (it’s a slice of bread – what could possibly go wrong?) to stretch out a little and discover culinary capabilities they didn’t know they had. ”

— Phaidon

Our Toast author has a guilty secret – can you guess what it is?

“There’s one little thing you should know about Raquel Pelzel, the author of our new book Toast which takes that simply singed star of the kitchen table and turns it into a thing of high (and reassuringly low) concept over the space of fifty fabulous recipes. She doesn’t own a toaster. ”

— Phaidon

“Also for 2015: Toast by cookbook author and former Tasting Table editor Raquel Pelzel. Toast will be her first solo cookbook project and will feature photography by Evan Sung, plus it will be the second major cookbook released this year about putting pretty things on bread.”

— Eater.com

Lots of great and easy toast ideas in the April issue of Shape! Something toasty + something creamy + something crunchy = Toast Nirvana. Did you know?

“Hey Laura–You haven’t been doing it all wrong–no way no how. Toast is kinda un-screw-up-able. Well, unless you burn it (but hey, we’ve all been there and with proper wrist technique, scraping off the burnt veneer is as easy as…well…buttering bread). I hope your son Theo enjoys the fried chicken toast–I know my boys do! (And hey, what a cool idea about recycling the cooking oil…anyone know if anyone does this in Brooklyn?)”

— Portland Press Herald

Well hello! I was in Denver this past November filming an 8-part beef intensive cooking class Craftsy headquarters! In this class, I’ll show you how to make meatballs, your own house-blend beef mix for burgers, stellar hack-mole short ribs, French grandma-style pot roast, Romanian skirt steak, a Southeast Asian hanger steak salad, Flintstonian t-bones and a porterhouse (with homemade steak sauce!), and a centerpiece stunner, prime rib roast!

The cool thing about Craftsy is that if you ask questions, I can answer you right back. So it’s like having me right by your side in your home kitchen. There are also loads of other cool classes to check out on Craftsy–like Artisan Bread in Minutes with Zoë Francois, The Art of Stir Frying with Grace Young, Indian Curries with Raghavan Iyer, and Martha Holmberg’s sensational Homestyle Pan Sauces class. Sign up and learn something new today!

From food to photography, expert guidance is the hallmark of all great service.

“An expert on all things tasty, award-winning food writer Raquel Pelzel has authored 14 cookbooks, including award-courting titles, like DamGoodSweet (Taunton Press) and Masala Farm (Chronicle). Her recipes appear regularly in top national publications and she’s the illustrious senior food editor at Tasting Table, a digital food and lifestyle publication. Most recently she delved into the topic of foraging for the book she coauthored with chef Matt Weingarten, Preserving Wild Foods: A Modern Forager’s Recipes for Curing, Canning, Smoking, and Pickling, out last fall. Whether you’re foraging for new flavors or hunting for a great new restaurant, Pelzel has some tips for home cooks and avid eaters.”

— Salon

Queen of the Test Kitchen

“Tasting Table’s senior food editor Raquel Pelzel lives and breathes food. As director of TT’s test kitchen, her head’s in the fridge most days crafting creative content for their daily email publications, she’s also written over a dozen cookbooks (including a few James Beard award-winners) and she still loves to experiment in her own kitchen with her kids. We chat with Raquel about staying up on food trends, recipe testing and what she’s craving in Brooklyn. Raquel’s latest book, Preserving Wild Foods: A Modern Forager’s Recipes for Curing, Canning, Smoking and Pickling, is a must read for preserving enthusiasts.”

— andrewzimmern.com