When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, the old adage says. That's good advice, but there's an assumption underlying it that ought to be challenged. What's wrong with lemons? A life without them -- from the culinary perspective -- would be sour indeed.

Red velvet cake was all the rage years ago, but its popularity has faded since the 1970s amid safety concerns about the red food coloring in use back then to tint the cake.Perhaps it's time to bring red velvet cake back.

Red velvet cake was all the rage years ago, but its popularity has faded since the 1970s amid safety concerns about the red food coloring in use back then to tint the cake.Perhaps it's time to bring red velvet cake back.

In the culinary world one letter can make a big difference. Take, for example, the distinction between macaroon and macaron. Though identical words except for one extra letter "o," the confections they refer to couldn't be more dissimilar.

Where would you find the most authentic Chicken Kiev? Probably Ukraine. The definitive Peking Duck? Certainly Beijing. The perfect Swedish Meatballs? Obviously Sweden. Or maybe Ikea. And where would you go to find the ultimate Greek yogurt? That’s not so easy a question to answer.

Though watercress has been an English tradition at high tea and even in school lunches for years and years, the truth is, relatively speaking, the Brits are newcomers to the plant.

Even before people thought of putting it in food, lavender was casting its spell. It has been cultivated since the beginning of recorded time.

Whipped cream, after all, is one of the most decadent preparations of all time. For that matter, even when not whipped, cream, as an ingredient, cannot be beat.

Hula Pie is the signature dessert of an Hawaiian Restaurant chain and originated at the company’s first restaurant, Kimo’s in Old Lahaina Town in Maui.

Beethoven was not especially interested in food, sometimes skipping meals altogether when working on a piece. He didn’t know much about cooking, though there is one recorded instance of him donning an apron and preparing a meal for some friends. One of his biographers reports that it was a complete disaster.