Synopses & Reviews
Welcome to the Canal House—our studio, workshop, dining room, office, kitchen, lair, lab, and atelier devoted to good ideas and good work relating to the world of food. We write, photograph, design, and paint, but in our hearts we both think of ourselves as cooks first.
How did we get here? Neither of us set out to make careers in the food world. Actually there wasn’t much of a “foodie” world when we both started. But our deep interests led us down paths that unfolded in front of us.
We had worked with each other as food editors in the magazine world. We traveled the globe in search of essential and authentic recipes, sliding into banquettes in famous restaurants, meeting big deal chefs, and even cooking in far-flung home kitchens. It was great and exciting. But our work took us both away from our families, our homes, and our gardens, away from what really matters, after all.
We live in little towns across the river from each other, one in New Jersey, the other in Pennsylvania. So we decided to join forces. We share similar backgrounds, having grown up in big families where food came first. In a time that seems like a million years ago now, our aproned grandmothers nurtured us with wholesome, comforting food—buttermilk pancakes drenched in salty butter and maple syrup. Our mothers were glamorous. They loved parties and cocktails and restaurants and brunch with Bloody Marys—food was exciting. Last night’s Chinese “takeout” would show up at breakfast reheated with two poached eggs on top. Both of us have deep food memories and large legacies to uphold.
We found our loft studio in an old redbrick warehouse downriver from where we live. A beautiful lazy canal runs alongside the building. One hundred years ago, mules plodding along the tow path hauled provision-ladened barges up and down the state. In warm weather, we provision-ladened barges up and down the state. In warm weather, we throw open the French doors and the voices of the people walking or or fishing below float up to us. We plant herbs in our window boxes and grow tomatoes in pots on our wrought-iron balcony. In the winter we build fires in the Franklin wood stove to keep cozy when its snowy and gray outside.
The Canal House has a simple galley kitchen. Two small “apartment-size” stoves sit snugly side by side against a white tiled wall. An old wooden carpenter’s worktable with a little sink at one end is our long counter and pots hang from a rack suspended above it. We have a dishwasher, but we find ourselves preferring to hand wash the dishes so we can look out of the tall window next to the sink and see the ducks swimming in the canal or watch the raindrops splashing into the water.
The town around us is a small American river town. A noon whistle still blows and church bells chime—no kidding! There is a drug store around the corner. Across the street is an old hardware store, and the best bar in the world is right down the alley.
And every day we cook. Starting the morning with coffee or cups of sweet milky tea, we tell each other what we made for dinner the night before. In the middle of the day we stop our work, set the table simply with paper napkins, and have lunch. So it came naturally to write down what we cook.
The Canal House Cooking series is a seasonal collection of our favorite recipes—home cooking by home cooks for home cooks. With a few exceptions, we use ingredients that are readily available and found in most markets in most towns throughout the United States. All the recipes are easy to prepare, all completely doable for the novice and experienced cook alike. We want to share with you as fellow cooks, our love of food and all its rituals. The everyday practice of simple cooking and the enjoyment of eating are two of the greatest pleasures in life.
This volume celebrates the bounty of fall and the festive holiday season with delicious Italian dishes, some classic, some reinterpreted Canal House style.
Synopsis
CANAL HOUSE COOKING, VOLUME N° 7, LA DOLCE VITA is a collection of some of our favorite Italian recipes, the ones we cook for ourselves, our friends, and our families during the fall and right through the holiday season. These are recipes that will make you want to roll up your sleeves, pour yourself a glass of prosecco, and start cooking.
This volume celebrates the bounty of fall and the festive holiday season with delicious Italian dishes, some classic, some reinterpreted Canal House style.
Synopsis
"Great visual writing. And the pictures! Christopher Hirsheimer has long been the gold standard of food photography, but in this book she goes beyond what I thought possible--these pictures aren't food porn, they're art... You don't need an addiction to real Italian cooking to lose yourself in these pages. You can read it as a travel book. As an adventure story. As a sensual experience that yields deep pleasure for the authors--and the reader." --Jesse Kornbluth, Head Butler
Canal House Cooking Volume No. 7, La Dolce Vita is a collection of some of our favorite recipes, the ones we cook for ourselves, our friends, and our families during the fall and right through the holiday season. These are recipes that will make you want to restock your pantry and refrigerator and start cooking.
Synopsis
The
Canal House Cooking seasonal cookbook series is home cooking by home cooks for home cooks. Volume No. 7, La Dolce Vita, celebrates the bounty of fall and the festive holiday season with delicious Italian recipes, some classic, some reinterpreted Canal House style, for the American home cook.
"Great visual writing. And the pictures! Christopher Hirsheimer has long been the gold standard of food photography, but in this book she goes beyond what I thought possible--these pictures aren't food porn, they're art... You don't need an addiction to real Italian cooking to lose yourself in these pages. You can read it as a travel book. As an adventure story. As a sensual experience that yields deep pleasure for the authors--and the reader." --Jesse Kornbluth, Head Butler
Canal House Cooking Volume No. 7, La Dolce Vita is a collection of some of our favorite recipes, the ones we cook for ourselves, our friends, and our families during the fall and right through the holiday season. These are recipes that will make you want to restock your pantry and refrigerator and start cooking.
About the Author
Melissa Hamilton is a renowned food stylist and cofounder of Canal House. She previously worked at
Saveur, which she joined in 1998, as the test kitchen director, and was its food editor for many years. Hamilton also worked in the kitchens of
Martha Stewart Living and
Cook's Illustrated, and she was the cofounder and first executive chef of Hamilton’s Grill Room in Lambertville, New Jersey. She has developed and tested recipes and styled food for both magazines and cookbooks, including those by acclaimed chefs John Besh, Michael Psilakis, Roberto Santibanez, and David Tanis. She works with Christopher Hirsheimer on
Canal House Cooking, for which the two do all of the writing, recipes, photography, design, and production.
Christopher Hirsheimer is an award-winning photographer and cofounder of Canal House. Her experience includes establishing a publishing venture, running a culinary and design studio, and publishing an annual series of three seasonal cookbooks titled Canal House Cooking. Prior to starting Canal House in 2007, in Lambertville, New Jersey, Hirsheimer was the executive editor of Saveur, which she cofounded in 1994, and the food and design editor of Metropolitan Home. She cowrote the award-winning Saveur Cooks series and The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market Cookbook. Her photographs have appeared in more than 50 cookbooks for such notables as Lidia Bastianich, Mario Batali, Julia Child, Jacques Pépin, and Alice Waters, and in numerous magazines, including Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, InStyle, and Town&Country. She works with Melissa Hamilton on Canal House Cooking, for which the two do all of the writing, recipes, photography, design, and production.
Melissa Hamilton is a renowned food stylist and cofounder of Canal House. She previously worked at Saveur, which she joined in 1998, as the test kitchen director, and was its food editor for many years. Hamilton also worked in the kitchens of Martha Stewart Living and Cook's Illustrated, and she was the cofounder and first executive chef of Hamilton’s Grill Room in Lambertville, New Jersey. She has developed and tested recipes and styled food for both magazines and cookbooks, including those by acclaimed chefs John Besh, Michael Psilakis, Roberto Santibanez, and David Tanis. She works with Christopher Hirsheimer on Canal House Cooking, for which the two do all of the writing, recipes, photography, design, and production.
Christopher Hirsheimer is an award-winning photographer and cofounder of Canal House. Her experience includes establishing a publishing venture, running a culinary and design studio, and publishing an annual series of three seasonal cookbooks titled Canal House Cooking. Prior to starting Canal House in 2007, in Lambertville, New Jersey, Hirsheimer was the executive editor of Saveur, which she cofounded in 1994, and the food and design editor of Metropolitan Home. She cowrote the award-winning Saveur Cooks series and The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market Cookbook. Her photographs have appeared in more than 50 cookbooks for such notables as Lidia Bastianich, Mario Batali, Julia Child, Jacques Pépin, and Alice Waters, and in numerous magazines, including Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, InStyle, and Town&Country. She works with Melissa Hamilton on Canal House Cooking, for which the two do all of the writing, recipes, photography, design, and production.