Williams-Sonoma Inc.

Top 5 Over-the-Top Sweet Treats for Valentine's Day A $100 Layer Cake!

You've heard of "Pay it don't say it"? This year, how about applying that principle to Valentine's Day goodies? If you really love your significant other, surely you can afford to spend several hundred dollars on chocolates or a fancy cake? Look at it this way: It's way cheaper than an engagement ri ... More >>

5 Great DIY Gingerbread Houses A King Arthur Decorating Contest

Forget foreclosures and rent increases. The real estate market just got a lot sweeter, with new listings of holiday gingerbread houses. Once upon a time, back when Hansel and Gretel roamed the forest without GPS, people (and witches) made their own candy-coated condos. These days, most of us are too ... More >>

Handmade Chicken Coops From Williams-Sonoma: Buy Your Hens a House

Williams-Sonoma brings to mind beautiful china, gourmet kitchen tools and pricey pots and pans. Chicken coops? Not so much. But handmade hen houses are part of a new line of home and garden goods, launched last spring. The avian abodes are made by several vendors, including Laughing Chickens, a Nor ... More >>

Home Pizza Oven Tips From Stella Rossa Chef Jeff Mahin

Get more from our 2012 Restaurant Issue, celebrating everything pizza in L.A. Before Stella Rossa opened its doors, chef Jeff Mahin was testing his dough recipes -- and holding out hope he'd be able to use fresh mozzarella on the restaurant's pizzas -- not in the restaurant's high-powered pizza ove ... More >>

Molly Erdman's New Book Mocks Home Decor Cliches, Asking: 'Who Actually Puts a Bowl of Limes on a Table?'

With their advertisements for overly organized, lavishly decorated abodes, the catalogs of companies like Pottery Barn and Pier 1 Imports seem to demand: "Who lives like this?" Like most of us, Molly Erdman has no clue, which is why she created the parody blog Catalogliving.net and its just-publ ... More >>

Shelley Lubben's Pink Cross Aims to Rescue Sex Actresses: The Industry Wants Her to Shut Up

Happy Star Wars Day: Use the Force to Make R2-D2 Ice Cubes, Stormtrooper Bento Boxes Other Ideas

If you want to amuse yourself, try calling Williams-Sonoma to ask what they're doing for Star Wars Day. You can imagine a nicely coiffed salesperson on the other end of the line, not completely understanding the question: "Star Wars what?" Or they'll laugh and ask if your kid put you up to this, t ... More >>

Q & A With Jam Maker Bill Manning: On Legislation Jams, Deborah Madison's Insights Their Advice On Starting Your Own Food Biz

flickr user/ComeUndoneJam, Jelly or Confiture?​Bill Manning of High Desert Foods is the epitome of the organic apples-to-applesauce businessman. He's the sort of guy who cares about the broader societal and environmental impact of what he produces, yet he also appreciates that increasing the m ... More >>

15 Food and Dining Sniglets: Your Daily Vocab Quiz

The English language is rich and extensive, but sometimes we wish there were more words -- especially about the joys and quirks of food and dining experiences. For that, we have "sniglets." Sniglets were first created in the early '80s by humorist Rich Hall on the TV show Not Necessarily the News. ... More >>

The Star Wars Cookbook vs. Food That's Actually Star-Warsy

ThinkGeek.com​Like the Salad Shooter or the electric quesadilla maker, some items that deserve to fade away -- and almost succeed in doing so -- experience a Frankenstein-like revival every Christmas shopping season. The 1998 Star Wars Cookbook is one of these things. While we've come to acc ... More >>

11 New Restaurants for New Year's Eve

Anne FishbeinPicca​On New Year's Eve, restaurants celebrate with live bands, festive décor, theme dinners, exceptional ingredients, multi-course meals, tasting menus and endless glasses of bubbly. How to choose the best spot? We've selected 11 restaurants that opened in 2011 to represent a ... More >>

Top 5 Last Minute Holiday Cookie Speed Decorating Tips

jgarbeeGingerbread Houses At Monaco Baking​Already convinced yourself there's no time left to make beautiful iced cookies before your self-inflicted holiday "deadline" date? Sorry to disappoint, but as we learned from Philip Moreau, owner of the wholesale cookie company Monaco Baking in Santa ... More >>

5 Cutest & Least Scary Halloween Treats

Halloween is not supposed to be cute. Scary, yes. Creepy, yes. Death-obsessed, yes. Still, cute Halloween goodies abound. Adorable Frankensteins, precious zombies, ticklish vampires with candy corn teeth and ghosts that would make Casper look like a crank. What the $%^#!@! is going on? Here are five ... More >>

Cookbook Of The Week: Paula Wolfert's The Food of Morocco, Now That's A Cookbook

There are a handful of cookbook authors -- Diana Kennedy (hyper local Mexican cuisine), Maida Heatter (home baking), Paula Wolfert (Moroccan cuisine) -- whose personal obsession not only with cooking, but truly with a culinary culture, is so focused, so resolute, that when they finally release anoth ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Recommends Ink.

More Ink for Michael Voltaggio's Ink

Los Angeles is the land where the celebrity chef was born, where Q ratings ruled, where journalists first learned to ask, "What do you cook on your night off?'' But L.A. has never seen a phenomenon like Michael Voltaggio, whose snarling passion, antihero good looks and devotion to his chef brother h ... More >>

Star Wars Day: May the Fourth ( A Thematically Appropriate Cake) Be With You

pixelbitesHan Solo Frozen in Carbonite (and Cake)​ Being an avid reader of Wookiepedia, the proud owner of a plastic light-saber you keep holstered next to your cell phone, and a fan of the much-maligned 1978 Christmas special, you probably know this already: Today, May 4th, is Star Wars Day. ... More >>

Page Two: Gypsy Revivalism Is Not All Washed Up

Jason Bentley Demands Money, Drugs and Sex From KCRW Listeners

​You should have read by now our enlightening article on the challenge to KCRW and other NPR stations by GOP and Tea Party goons, who are trying to defund them through Congress. As we said before, we support KCRW and all the other Public Radio stations and everything they do for good music in ... More >>

Moochers United: Top 5 Places to Get Free Samples

Froyo samples at Menchie's​ No such thing as a free lunch? That's just what we tell the suckers to keep 'em off our turf. You stick with us, kid, and you'll soon be eating 1,000 calories a day out of tiny white cups. The free sample phenomenon is a beautiful thing, and we have spent countle ... More >>

HEMINGWAY'S THE GARDEN OF EDEN

Chef Michael Chiarello Ditches Napa Valley (For a Day) For His L.A. Book Signing

NapaStyleMichael Chiarello's latest cookbook, Bottega: Bold Italian Flavors from the Heart of California's Wine Country​Does your perfect vacation involve a private tour and tasting at a Napa Valley winery? Do you count the tiny towns of Yountville, St. Helena and Calistoga among your ideal de ... More >>

Top 4 October Cooking Classes: Fall Flavors Are Closer Than You Think

RachellebSur La Table's Cooking Classroom​ Cooler temps, shorter days and the reemergence of our favorite TV line-up means fall has officially arrived. But that chill in the air isn't just the weather; it's the shiver of food folk everywhere as they gear up to get reacquainted with comfort fo ... More >>

Bakerella's Cake Pops Book Signing Tour Comes To Town

Bakerella​ Blame it on a childhood nostalgia for corn dogs and popsicles, but we really love food on a stick. Whether it's an impaled (and deep fried) piece of cheesecake at the state fair or more civilized cotton candy-wrapped fois gras "pop" at The Bazaar by José Andrés, we love the presen ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 7/26-7/30

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "Joe Fabrocini is a scholar of the hot dog, an expert on the dozens of traditions that make up the American frankfurter diaspora."

Top 10 Star Wars Cakes: Let The Force (of Frosting & Fondant) Be With You

WasabimonStorm Troopers Like Cake, Too​ Cake is one confection that will never, ever go out of style. Witness shows like Duff Goldman's Ace of Cakes, Cake Boss, Amazing Wedding Cakes and now, Cupcake Wars, which not only engineer cakes, but make them, as Goldman says, "Bigger, badder, awesome! ... More >>

Comic-Con 2010, Day 1: Street Fashion in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter

Convention fashion isn't all cosplay and oversized Batman t-shirt. Check out what people were wearing in and around the San Diego Convention Center on Day 1 of Comic-Con. Shannon Cottrell​ Cassie Carpenter, Los Angeles Outfit: Urban Outfitters blazer, high wasted sailor shorts, black fanny pac ... More >>

Top 10 (Un)Essential Kitchen Tools: What Happened to The Cutting Board & Knife?

Williams-Sonoma4-in-1 Avocado Tool​ Anyone who loves to cook - from the most casual culinary hobbyists to Michelin-starred powerhouses - can rattle off their kitchen essentials: A sharp chef's knife? Check. A sturdy cutting board? Double Check. A Dial-A-Slice Apple Divider? You've got to be k ... More >>

Hershey Sues William-Sonoma Over Brownie Pan: Rectangular Is Not Funny

There is a hilarious moment in the Coen Brothers film Raising Arizona, in which an old-timer gas station attendant considers the humor of balloon shapes. They are not particularly humorous, he points out, unless round is funny. Rectangular isn't really funny either, especially if you're Williams-Son ... More >>

Theater New Reviews: Tooth and Nail, Sarah Sarah, Canned Ham

Also, Groundlings International Airport, Full Disclosure

Day 3: Coachella WINs and FAILs (featuring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Thom Yorke, Phoenix, etc.)!

Gustavo TurnerThe Great Thom Yorke in the Sky​ Sunday was the hottest day of the Coachella weekend and it felt like the most crowded, a change from previous years when (thanks to the one-day passes) the last day had shown a welcome self-weeding-out of the masses. In terms of festival logisti ... More >>

Top 10 LA Cooking Supply Stores: Cook Like a Pro At Home

Here's the situation: you just received the latest issue of your favorite food magazine. As you flip through the glossy pages of recipes and food porn, you spot it: the recipe you're going to make for dinner. But one glance at the ingredient list leaves you stumped. Where in the world do you buy Hun ... More >>

It's International Waffle Day: Get Your Griddle on A Williams-Sonoma Waffle Recipe

March 25 is International Waffle Day; not to be confused with National Waffle Day (August 24) or National Waffle Iron Day (June 29). While we don't understand the need for three distinct waffle days - domestic, international, gadget-oriented or otherwise - we'll find any excuse to eat ourselves into ... More >>

Top 10 Holiday Gifts: Presents for Foodies

For some people, food is just the stuff we eat, but for others, it's a bit more important. Take your mother, whose favorite television show is Top Chef and who staged a Quickfire Gravy Challenge at Thanksgiving this year. From the boyfriend who says "yes chef!" when you're boiling pasta for dinner t ... More >>

Can't Get To Bouchon Bistro? Stay Home and Make Your Own Chocolate Bouchons

If you haven't made it to Thomas Keller's 3 week-old Beverly Hills bistro yet, or are waiting for the swank bar downstairs to open (next Friday) to make the trek, you may perhaps be in need of a chocolate bouchon fix. Happily Bouchon pastry chef Scott Wheatfill has provided us with the recipe for ju ... More >>

Q & A With Thomas Keller, Part 2: The Best Meal He Ever Cooked, The Importance of Fernand Point Lightbulb Moments

Deborah JonesChef Thomas Keller​Thomas Keller's Los Angeles Bouchon Bistro, which opens a week from tonight, will serve the same menu, more or less, as his other two Bouchons, in Yountville and Las Vegas. But Keller says that even though the menu has stayed pretty much the same, the space has ... More >>

Thomas Keller In Town: The Chef Will Be Signing Copies of Ad Hoc At Home, His New Cookbook

Amazon.comAd Hoc At Home​It's Thomas Keller month in Los Angeles (and everywhere, really). The famed chef (The French Laundry, Per Se, Ad Hoc, Bouchon) is in town the next two weeks, to open Bouchon in Beverly Hills, which premiers November 18th, and to do a few book signings. His new Ad Hoc A ... More >>

Want the Best Ice Cream Maker? Deep Pockets Help, But Dextrous Offspring Work in a Pinch

Bob Donaldson/Pittsburgh Post-GazetteA Nike Sundae​When the hand-crank version of a trusty household appliance is still in your garage, you could view it as a sign that engineering improvements over the years have hardly been necessary. Either that, or ice cream manufacturers took a rather slo ... More >>

The 10 Songs/Albums That No One Should Ever Have Sex to Again

Because playing these albums in flagrante delicto is the only romantic gesture lamer than offering a woman a fish sandwich. 10. Cornball Stevie Wonder Songs (I.E. "You are the Sunshine of My Life." "I Just Called to Say I Love You") I'm not going to tell you that these songs don't serve a ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Screwballs, Winter Wonderettes, Lessons

Also All This and Heaven Too, The Desk Set, Grand Delusion and more

No cartooning today

Here are 3 illustrations that I did this week for my mother-in-law's new novel (really 3 novellas), American in Translation.  Her name is Concha Alborg and she is one hell of a cook and can turn any room in the house into a page from the Pottery Barn.  The synopsis of her book is somewhat ... More >>

LA Vida

Fuck Garanimals

The Nonfictional Erik Cheeseburger

''I Wonder Why All Kids Don’t Go to 826''

And other musings on homework and literary dreams

Beyond Impossible Price

Our Big Fat Gay Year

White Lace and Health Insurance

With all this talk of marriage, has queer politics gone soft?

The 17th Level

Opening weekend at 'The Grove'

Where's Ani?

Creme Brulee

And the sweetness of selling out