America's Test Kitchen (which publishes Cook's Illustrated) recently told us to Say Hello to the Best Metal Spatula. Somewhat surprisingly, they propose that a fish spatula is actually the best spatula to use for all kitchen purposes as "With its maneuverability, surgical precision, and crisp, high-end construction, this spatula could not be beat."  And despite its light-weight nature, it supported a four-pound brick. Check out the article for more details, including the brand they chose as the best.

And while we're on the subject of Cook's Illustrated, don't forget that we have all of the issues - start to finish - indexed here on the site.

In a recent Reader's Digest poll that asked 1000 readers who were the "most trustworthy," Rachael Ray ranked #31 and Michael Pollan ranked #83 - less trustworthy than Steve Harvey (#72), Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson(#54), andTim Tebow(#40).

While we certainly applaud Ray's efforts to encourage home cooking, given that Pollan has really motivated the healthy food movement, this is a litttle surprising. The Braiser, which reported the results, has some amusing theories on why the ranking difference. These include:

• Ray's inventions of the garbage bowl is more impressive than Pollan's five NY Times best-selling books
• Sex appeal
• Rachael is often photographed with her dog - the true sign of trustworthiness
• He doesn't use friendly, pithy abbreviations like Rachael's "EVOO" or "sammies" - somehow, Pollan's most famous quote "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" doesn't really work as an abbreviation (EFNTMMP).

We think it might have something to do with hair (or lack thereof).

Regardless of where you live, eat, or travel to, there is one eating implement you will inevitably encounter - the spoon. As explained in this interview from The Splendid Table with Bee Wilson, author of Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat, the spoon is used by every human culture in the world. And it's more than a mere implement, but also a reflection on culture.

For example, "If you look at Victorian times, the 19th century, whether in Britain or the United States, there's this mad profusion of spoons -- everything from citrus spoons and gravy ladles to tomato spoons and sauce spoons." Wilson goes on to explain one possible reason:

"But I think the big thing that happened in the 19th century was a new civilization of table manners -- a new anxiety at the table about touching food, handling food. These specialized spoons go along with that because it's a way of never feeling you have to get too close to food with all of its stickiness and noise. It's a way of being extremely polite. There were even special solid silver potato chip servers marketed by Tiffany's, which I think is a very rarefied item. I'm not sure many households have those today."

And as she goes on to explain, spoons also reflect politics. In the Restoration period, "It was crucial for Charles II to really impose his will and make everyone forget the fact that we'd done without a king. One of the ways he did that was through spoons."

You can read and listen to the full interview or learn more from the book. But the next time you're given a spoon to drink soup with in an Asian restaurant - don't feel out of place. It's part of the culture. And if any of you have a potato chip spoon - we'd love to hear about it.

A couple of years ago, a book called Just Married and Cooking was published. The couple was cute and camera-ready, though I thought the recipes were nothing special and I didn't keep the book.  But it seemed like a milestone in the blog phenomenon - husbands and wives blogging and publishing together.

Since then that trend has only accelerated.  Perhaps the most well-known example is that of Shauna James Ahern (aka "Gluten-Free Girl") and her husband chef Daniel Ahern, whose Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef achieved such popularity last year. In this year's follow-up, Gluten-Free Girl Every Day, the chef is demoted to a "with" credit, but  the book remains very much about their partnership and mutual inspiration.

The Aherns, to all appearances, have already "made it" with their publications.  But for many of today's blogging pairs, a book is just a starting point - a venture which, with luck and some excellent publicity, may in time lead to a self-sustaining business.  In the meantime, at least one spouse keeps up their day job.  The Sprouted Kitchen's Hugh Forte is a photographer (his terrific pictures are definitely responsible half the appeal of the book), while Sara Forte helms the stove.  Lindsay Landis and Taylor Hackbarth of Breakfast for Dinner specialize in crafts and web design. 

And the latest title to cross my doorstep comes from husband-and-wife bakers Allison and Matt Robicelli of Brooklyn's Robicelli's Bakery.  (There are so many boutique bakeries in Brooklyn I'm beginning to think they deserve their own story.)  They bake together, raise their kids together, swear (lots) together, and now they've got this book.  It's not out till October, but I'm already looking forward to its foul-mouthed launch.

Does the couple that blogs and cooks together, stay together?  Hard to say - all of these books were published in the last two years, so it's early days.  But you can be sure they'll have a tasty time trying, and a 1.5-pound,100-recipe souvenir at the end. 

We all have our favorite cookbooks and Tim Hayward in the Financial Times looks at how much our choices reflect current entertaining trends. Perhaps this particularly resonated with me since I lived in the UK for most of the period he covers but I think it should ring true with many EYB members.  How often have we gone to a friend's for dinner (do we still call them dinner parties or is that an out-dated description?) and been served a meal we could easily have chosen ourselves from our own cookbooks?

I love Tim's creation of a new verb to reflect Ottolenghi's current ubiquity on the dinner table - "Shall we Ottoleng tonight? I expect so, because it needs to become its own verb. I Ottoleng; thou Ottolengest; he Ottolengs. Oh yes … everybody's Ottolenging now and we love it."

We recently had an epiphany with tofu - if you want to make a great creamy soup, instead of adding cream, blend in semi-soft tofu. Great texture and mouth feel without the fat. So we were sympathetic to this recent article at Food52, In Defense of Tofu. The article makes the challenge, "Think you don't like tofu? Think again."

The article goes on to explain the myriad of ways tofu can be cooked, along with a quick explanation of the difference among silken, firm, pressed, fresh and the other forms you may find at the store. For example, did you know you can freeze it? And for additional ideas, be sure to look at the comments below the main article.

In particular, however, we wanted to pass on their recommendation for two cookbooks for those who are willing to try a tofu relationship: "Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian is a fantastic resource for the tofu-curious; for those ready to dive in, head-first, to the world of bean curd, Andrea Nguyen's Asian Tofu is your reference of choice."

If you have a great idea for using tofu, we'd love to hear it.

In case you've been doing something productive, you may not have heard of Paula Deen's new butter spreads. Despite her advocacy of eating a lower fat diet , due to her diabetes, she apparently couldn't resist once again championing butter. She is justifying her advocacy by noting that the butters aren't meant to be used by the pound but are rather "finishing butters," meant to add butter taste to dishes by adding it at the end of cooking. 

The reason we're mentioning this is because it gives us a chance to quote Andrew Zimmern on the subject, as quoted in a much more extensive and quite interesting interview on Huffington Post  - and we think it's a worthwhile comment: 

"We don't need more butter and cookies. No matter who's coming out with them. I think we have enough butter and cookies. The dairy people have done a very nice job. God: you did a great job with butter. Brilliant invention."

Not that we're opposed to "finishing butter" - but it's hardly a new concept, having been around for a long time as easily homemade  herb or seasoned butter. And we can't imagine a store-bought food could top fresh butter combined with fresh herbs or other seasonings. Indeed, if you'd like some inspiration, here are some books from the EYB library to check out.

However, we do understand Paula Deen's need for more funding and it's only fair to give her the last word. There's going to be a Paula Deen museum (read about it here) started by her ex-husband - as she says, "I would want something like this to be a symbol of hope for people looking to make their lives better."

Here's something fun for a hectic dinner: 15 ways to bake eggs in foods, apart from using toast (though that is still one of the best ways). But before listing them, a slight digression on different terminology that our research unearthed. In the U.S. the classic egg fried in a piece of bread with a hole cut out of the middle is called a "toad-in-the-hole." In the U.K., however, a toad-in-the-hole refers to sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter. If that sound good (and it really does), here's an online recipe from Pam Anderson and Jamie Oliver at the EYB library.

This list of foods in which you can bake eggs was compiled by BuzzFeed Food, which also has links to online recipes for each of these dishes:

• avocado
• tomato
• bread boat
• acorn squash
• bell pepper
• eggplant
• onion rings
• dinner rolls
• tacos
• tomato sauce
• casserole
• baked potato
• donut

And if you break out a muffin tin:

• shredded or sliced potatoes
• thinly sliced deli meats

Of course, if you do want to use bread, there's nothing wrong with that. But you can do far more than use a simple square piece of bread: cut any shape out with a cookie cutter (flowers are nice).

And don't forget Yorkshire Pudding.

Photo courtesy of Home Cooking in Montana 

The Telegraph recently sat down with Joël Robuchon, "the chef with more Michelin stars than any other and a temper that terrified even Gordon Ramsay" (at whom he once threw a plate). In an in-depth intervew Robuchon discussed his background and the challenges of being a high-end chef who isn't afraid to take on the establishment. 

Among the highlights we found especially interesting were:

• "One of the things that has kept him at the top for nigh-on 40 years is his legendary attention to detail...Whenever he descends on one of his periodic tours of inspection, ripples of fear pass down the corridors."
• He received his inspiration to cook while studying in a seminary - which he entered at the age of 12: "But once there, Robuchon found he was more interested in sitting in the kitchen watching nuns cut up vegetables than he was in his Bible studies. "I'd help them top and tail beans. The nuns were always very nice to me. They were the only women I saw, and there was something very maternal about it. I think I grew up with the idea that there was something comforting about preparing food."
• He's won numerous awards and accolades, including being named chef of the century and having one of his restaurants rated as the best in the world - but his signature dish is mashed potatoes, which has just four ingredients: potatoes, butter, salt, and milk.
• He chucked it all at 50 (he'd never been out of kitchen long enough to see snow), but then came out of retirement to rail against traditional gastronomic restaurants, where flavor isn't the most important criteria, and start a new chain of L'Ateliers.
• He insists that London, not Paris, is the gastronomic capital of the world.

We're not sure we'd want to work for him, but Robuchon makes definitely for a fascinating interview - it's definitely worth reading.

Photo: Rebecca Marshall

Father's Day is approaching and, although it may be overdone, it still strikes us as appropriate to pass on some ideas for grilling gifts. And rather than compile them ourselves, we're handing over the job to real experts - the testers at America's Test Kitchen (Cook's Illustrated). Here are their 9 Favorite Grilling Gadgets for Outdoor Cooking; check out the article for the reasons behind their recommendations and buying sources:

• Thermoworks Splash-Proof Super-Fast Thermapen
• The Tool Wizard BBQ Brush
• Weber Rapid Fire Chimney Starter
• Polder Dual Sensor Meat and Oven Thermometer
• OXO 16-Inch Stainless Steel Kitchen Tongs
• EZGrill Disposable Instant Grill
• Charcoal Companion Nonstick Reversible Rib Rack
• Zippo Flexible Neck Utility Lighter
• Taylor Wireless Thermometer with Remote Pager Plus Timer

 And, of course, don't forget about giving a grilling book to go along with the item - here's a list of our members' favorites.