Y Marks the Spot
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, April 2nd, 2010
I’ll let you in on a little secret, fellas: ladies love a man who knows how to handle his meat.
Or any other available protein.
And that’s not just me talking.
I mean, Cosmo readers recently got their panties in a bunch about sexy male chefs–a toques’ gallery which apparently includes local burgermeister Spike Mendelsohn.
Whereas you can’t swing a side of beef in this town without hitting a telegenic male chef, the godless media would have us believe that most men remain wary of the domesticated fire pit we’ve come to know as the kitchen.
At least that’s the impression I get from Readers Digest’s wittingly chauvinistic Man Tested Recipes.
The fledgling food board aims to assuage the culinarily inept via a revolving door of user-submitted, guy-friendly recipes.
Understandably, the ad hoc recipe swap has spiraled into a clearinghouse dominated by chicken- (384 recipes), chili- (211), steak- (97) and beer-(61) based creations. (We scouted less than a dozen tofu dishes and a just single opportunity–nectarine compote–for anise enthusiasts.)
Which is not to say there aren’t a few diamonds in the rough.
The potato pagach (Slavic peasant bread) and salmon with raspberry hollandaise sound like the type of gourmet go-tos any guy would be wise to master (or, at the very least, keep tucked in your wallet/bookmarked on your PDA).
There also appeared to be a wealth of multi-hour challenges (the Asian oxtail stew and Puerto Rican pernil come to mind) that should teach amateur chefs patience even as they instill confidence in the art of slow cooking.
Of course, the locker room-type nature of the site naturally fosters plenty of ball busting. Hence–what I imagine to be a Man Tested Recipes exclusive–the Tiger Woods Redemption Roast.
Gentlemen, start your ovens!
-Warren
Tags: chefs, cooking, Cosmo, food, Gut Check, Man Tested Recipes, men, Northern Virginia Magazine, Readers Digest, Tiger Woods, Warren Rojas