Martin Pease

Sous vide cooking has been reaching public attention for about 10 years, with the rise of food bloggers and professional chefs broadcasting on YouTube. Immersion circulators have been used in restaurants for a long time before that. The idea is pretty simple: create a water bath that stays at a constant temperature, and you can cook food in it until the perfect done-ness is achieved. The sous vide part means "under vacuum" in French and refers to the fact that you generally seal the food in a vacuum bag before immersing in the water bath.  Recently, I purchased an Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker , which is one of many sous vide circulator devices available to consumers. The price varies between from about $90 to well over $500. This model cost $150 at Best Buy, and is even cheaper on Amazon.  These mostly all work the same way: you fill a vessel with water, attach the circulator to the vessel with the heating element in the water, and set the temperature you w...

I once asked a young friend of mine if she enjoyed musicals. "I saw Wicked and I really liked it," she exclaimed. This took me aback, for a moment. To me, musicals are the classic American works like Guys and Dolls , Oklahoma! , and Singin' In The Rain . But of course, to most people today, musicals are those mega-productions like Wicked or Hamilton . If anyone is to take credit- or blame- for the modern musical, it must be Andrew Lloyd Webber. Composer and creator of hit shows such as Jesus Christ Superstar , Cats and Phantom of the Opera , Lloyd Webber is inarguably the most successful musical creator of all time. Unmasked: A Memoir is Andrew Lloyd Webber's account of his childhood and the beginnings of his career, up until the mid-1980s and the release of Phantom of the Opera . This book was a surprising gift from my wife, who knows I am no fan of Lloyd Webber's musicals. Reading reviews of the book, however, she thought I might find the behind-the-scenes s...

I've been on a Classics kick lately. After working through the magnificent Landmark Julius Caesar , I read Emily Wilson's newest translation of the Odyssey (also highly recommended). My wonderful wife, always attentive to my bibliotic needs (not a real word, until now ) purchased me a copy of Sarah Ruden's translation of Apuleius' The Golden Ass . Since the latter is by far the dirtiest major work from this time period I've read, this is the one I will review! Every day (I say this for effect only), someone says to me, "Those old books are too daunting to me. I don't think I'd understand them. I know nothing about ancient Greece or Rome." To these people I always (again for effect) say, "You don't know what you're missing, but probably you don't care." Because we (not you and I, dear reader, but other people) are so glutted with young adult fiction and newspapers written for a 3rd grade reading level, that seriously enga...

When you see someone drive a Range Rover down the street, what do you think about him? Is he wealthy- yes, obviously. How much does he earn- is he a lawyer, pulling down $350k in his 5th year of practice? Or does he make $3.5 million a year as a hedge fund manager? Or is he in fact one of the super rich, the sort of person for whom money has lost all meaning? I say he could be any of these, or perhaps even a drug dealer or football player. Or both! The fact is that a Range Rover both reveals and conceals the status of the driver. You know he is a man of some means, but how much? It is a mystery. He could have a garage full of super cars; maybe the Range Rover is his only car. But the car intrigues the passerby all the same. Not being a shadowy oligarch rolling in Bitcoin millions, I bought this 2012 Range Rover in Luxury trim (yes, really) used. "Certified pre-owned, Standish, not used!" I say to my butler, as he irons my Dockers. There is only really one option you ...