Archive for August 20th, 2008

The gods of gastronomy forgive me: I don’t really like Mario Batali. There is something about him–his manner–that makes me uncomfortable. I can’t put my finger on it. But, well, I do like his food. And I like a lot of his recipes. And, it turns out, I like the products that have his name on it. They have style (and not orange clogs sort of style. Please, no. Like actual good design).

Like this enameled cast iron baking dish for instance. It is just plain, well, cute in an old-school sort of way. I may warm up (pun intended) to you yet, Mario. [$39.99, on sale, at Cooking.com]