And you thought microwave radiation was just for cooking!

All right, you fellow food crazies, what’d you get for the holidays? Let’s start counting the booty. I’ll start.

1. A copy of A Day at elBulli: An insight into the ideas, methods and creativity of Ferran Adria. (Thanks, love!)
2. Two used Marcella Hazan cookbooks, including the delightful Marcella Says… (Thanks, Molly, you cheapskate.)
3. A care package of coffee, scones, crumpets, jam, and muffins. (Thanks, mum!)
4. A bottle-opener magnet for the fridge (Thanks again, love! More Dogfish Head for the holidays!)
5. A gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma (which came with a broad suggestion that whatever I buy should be tied to making the gift-givers dinner). (Thanks, Stuart and Kay! I think.)
6. Pancake/cookie molds in the shape of hearts. (Thanks again, Stuart and Kay!)
7. A gift certificate to Crate and Barrel (with no strings attached this time). (Thanks a third time, Stuart and Kay!)
8. A gift certificate to Pottery Barn. (Thanks, sis!)
9. And the best gift of all: dinner with the family, with music playing in the background and no computer within 20 feet of anyone. (Thanks all!)

May your turkey be more tender than the Griswold family’s.

My friend Lou is a terrific home cook, particularly with desserts. Get a load of his red-wine poached pears—the treat that was almost too gorgeous to eat. (Almost.) As you can see from that one example, Lou doesn’t take shortcuts, even when it comes to a cookie-baking contest for a holiday office party. The dude really wants to win.

Lou e-mailed me yesterday, saying that it “might be an interesting column” if I’d ask “big shot chefs/pastry chefs in town to divulge or come up with their great Christmas cookie recipe.” Little did I know that Lou was working me for his own ends. I found that out this morning when I called him on the way to work, informing him that the Post had just devoted its Food Section to holiday cookies. None of the paper’s recipes, he thought, would win him the office-party bake-off.

He wanted something more fanciful. He wanted something more elaborate. He wanted something from Michel Richard. I reluctantly agreed to contact the city’s master chef for a recipe. By day’s end, Richard’s PR coordinator Mel Davis e-mailed me a couple of cookie recipes (you can see them below the jump). I forward the recipes to Lou for review. His response:

They “look like fantastic cookies but they’re just cookies. I need something that’s gonna wow ‘em. Any thoughts on what I could fill them with (a la sandwich cookies) that’s holidayish?”

Tough crowd.

Read More “Michel Richard Cookies for the Holidays: Not Good Enough?” »