The latest hefty volume quarried by the team at Modernist Cuisine, the research kitchen, photography studio and cookbook publisher founded by Nathan Myhrvold, is “Modernist Bread at Home.” It’s a follow-up for nonprofessionals to “Modernist Bread,” published seven years ago. Lavishly photographed with step-by-step instructions for hundreds of breadstuffs, it includes scientific and practical techniques, details about ingredients and even a dozen patterns for scoring a loaf. Recipes are geared to the home cook. As a companion to the 420-page book and a 172-page recipe manual, there is also a series of free monthly email courses. They will be available through August; it is not necessary to own the book, though it will be referenced throughout the courses. “Getting Started With Bread Basics” is running this month, and “Navigating Bread Making From Start to Finish” will be covered in April. Those who enroll will receive one lesson per day in their inbox, for five to seven sessions, as well as a recap.
“Modernist Bread at Home” by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya (Modernist Cuisine, $140), modernistcuisine.com.
Snag Vintage Home Goods Straight From Provence
Since 1984 Patricia Wells, a journalist, author and cooking teacher who lives in Paris, has had a farmhouse, Chanteduc, near Vaison-La-Romaine in Provence. Starting Friday, she is selling hundreds of culinary and decorative pieces from her collection on the property, many of them vintage. They include pitchers, bowls, flatware, ceramics, cheese boards, linens, copper cookware, garden antiques and even gardening tools collected by her husband, Walter Wells. They are available to purchase online.
Chez Pluie, chezpluie.com.
Chocolate-Dipped Matzo From Silver Moon Bakery
This year Passover begins the evening of April 22, very late and a full three weeks after Easter. In the run-up to the holiday, Judith Norell, the co-owner of Silver Moon Bakery on the Upper West Side, has been working on her homemade matzo lineup. She usually offers plain, whole wheat, sesame seed and mixed seed varieties of her version of the flatbread, made with olive oil and inspired by the cookbook writer Edda Servi Machlin. They are neither traditional nor kosher and like many kinds of matzo, can be enjoyed year round. She is now adding chocolate-dipped, which just might be the best chocolate matzo around; it’s a fine confection with dessert like ice cream, or to serve with tea, coffee or an after-dinner drink. The crisp chocolate versions are about eight inches in diameter and coated halfway with fine semisweet chocolate: a black-and-white cookie meets matzo. They have to be reserved no later than April 18 for the first Passover Seder, but they can now be ordered with two days notice for pickup any time, $42 for six.
Silver Moon Bakery, 2740 Broadway (105th Street), 212-866-4717, silvermoonbakery.com.
Milk Chocolate Eggs With a Marshmallow Surprise
Crack open a milk chocolate egg and make way for the duckling inside, a little baby marshmallow treat. These new duck egg-size creations are called Waddles, and they’re made by Mackenzie Limited, a division of Chesapeake Fine Food Group in Owings Mills, Md. They come with foil tinsel for wrapping.
Waddles, $36.95 for nine, $69.95 for 18, mackenzieltd.com.
Celebrating the Life of Julia Child
An exhibition devoted to Julia Child’s life, with photographs, an interactive TV display for “The French Chef,” family memorabilia, fan letters and a recreation of the dinner at La Couronne in Normandy that ignited her interest in French cuisine will be on view through Sept. 2 at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond. There are also exhibits related to culinary history in Virginia, like cooking equipment from the mid-17th century to the late 19th century and a display related to the Inn at Little Washington and its owner, Patrick O’Connell, who was a friend of Julia’s. The exhibit, organized by Flying Fish, a company that creates touring museum shows, and the Napa Valley Museum, has been visiting a number of cities; this stop is the first on the East Coast.
“Julia Child: A Recipe for Life,” Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Richmond, Va., virginiahistory.org.
Regenerative Organic Pastas From Patagonia Provisions
Patagonia Provisions, the side trail that the outdoor gear company has been climbing for a few years now with tinned fish and crackers, has introduced dry pasta. There are three shapes: fusilli, shells and penne, all made with a combination of organic durum wheat and organic Kernza, a perennial wheatlike plant that yields a rich-tasting grain. The pastas all have a nice nuttiness. The advantages to Kernza are that it doesn’t have to be sown annually and helps to regenerate soil. The pastas are all made with traditional bronze dyes by Sfoglini, a company in Coxsackie, in New York’s Hudson Valley, are high in fiber and protein and are also certified as regenerative organic, a high standard for farming quality.
Organic Certified Pastas, $19.49 for three 12-ounce packages; Organic Kernza Fusilli, $6 for 14 ounces; patagoniaprovisions.com.
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