About
Briefly | Tell Me More | Getting Around | Deb | Husband | FAQ | Contact | Press
Fearless cooking from a tiny kitchen in New York City.
The Smitten Kitchen, in its latest physical incarnation is a 80 42 square foot (whimper) circa-1935 sort of half-galley kitchen with a 24 foot footprint, a single counter, tiny stove, checkered floor and a skylight on top a noisy window at the end to the avenue below.
What you’ll see here is: A lot of comfort foods stepped up a bit, things like bread and birthday cakes made entirely from scratch and tutorials on everything from how to poach an egg to how to make tart doughs that don’t shrink up on you, but also a favorite side dish (zucchini and almonds) that takes less than five minutes to make.
What we’re wary of is: Excessively fussy foods and/or pretentious ingredients. We don’t do truffle oil, Himalayan pink salt at $10 per quarter-ounce or single-origin chocolate that can only be found through Posh Nosh-approved purveyors. We think food should be accessible, and are certain that you don’t need any of these things to cook fantastically.
New here? There’s a recipe index, a page dedicated to converting measurements and ingredients, an RSS feed and the option to have posts emailed to you.
Want to learn more about food photography? We’ve written a post just for you. Still have a burning question? Check out our g’normous FAQ page, where I bet we’ve already got an answer for you.
Offsite, you can become a fan of the Smitten Kitchen on Facebook, get new entry notifications on Twitter, share pictures you’ve taken of recipes you’ve tried out in the Smitten Kitchen Recipe Pool or you can tag your pictures with “Smitten Kitchen” and we’ll run to check them out.
All text and photos © Smitten Kitchen 2006-2009 except where otherwise noted.
The Writer, Cook, Photographer and Occasional Dishwasher
Deb is the kind of person you might innocently ask what the difference is between summer and winter squash and she’ll go on for about twenty minutes before coming up for air to a cleared room and you soundly snoring. It’s taken some time, but she’s finally realized that there are people out there that might forgive her for such food, cooking and ingredient-obsessed blathering and possibly, even come back for more.
When she’s not prattling on about galley and grub, Deb is a freelance writer focusing on topics from technology to the daily grind, and freelance photographer with a focus on travel and, of course, food.
Alex gets billing as assistant photographer, majority-part dishwasher, cheering section and sometimes editor of grammar and spelling. He’s a great cook on the too-rare occasion his wife lets him help with anything but reaching bowls on top shelves. He likes salt, shellfish, things wrapped, stuffed or balanced on bacon, steak frites, dried cranberries, milk chocolate, Bloody Marys, pretty much anything pickled, and Deb, although she is usually not.
When Alex is not putting out smitten kitchen fires, he manages things like information technology and other stuff that makes most people’s eyes glaze over. But not Deb’s.
Email, please read first: In hopes to make email more effective for all of us (and so I can respond to yours sooner)… Is this a quick question that you need a quick answer to? Check out the FAQ page — I just might have already answered it. Is this a recipe question? Leave it in the comments of the post it relates to. Emails can take me weeks to respond to, but I almost always respond to comment questions within a 24-hour period. Is this an email about promoting a product? I never plug (suggested) products on smitten kitchen and I don’t accept freebies. There are more effective places to send that pitch.
For everything else, Deb’s email address:
Mail, please read first: As I mentioned above, I never plug suggested products, accept freebies/samples or conduct product reviews on the Smitten Kitchen, and ask that you respect this by not sending any of the above without getting my express permission first.
For everything else, the Smitten Kitchen mailing address:
P.O. Box 2338
Peter Stuyvesant Station
New York, NY 10009
Press, Awards and Tasteless Braggery
- Deb demonstrated some updated summer salads, sides and slaws to celebrate the holiday weekend live on Good Day New York, 7/1/09. See the video and grab the recipes on MyFoxNY.com or in this post.
- “Deb Perelman’s … thoughtful prose and sometimes humorous posts read like an e-mail from your best friend — only with better photos.” — Better Homes and Gardens, June 2009
- “… Warm and encouraging, the photos are pure food porn, and the something-for-everyone recipes sound sublime. If Perelman can make cherry cornmeal upside-down cake and chicken empanadas with chorizo and olives in her tiny East Village walk-up, then, well, what’s your excuse?” — Entertainment Weekly, 5/8/09
- “A combination of writing/photographer skills add up to culinary excellence in this long-established blog…” — Times Online, 50 of the World’s Best Food Blogs, 2/17/09.
- An adaptation of Smitten Kitchen’s Chocolate Stout Cake was featured in Elle Magazine, February 2009.
- Awarded Best-Written Food Blog by the Well Fed Network’s Food Blog Awards, January 2009.
- Smitten Kitchen was the first runner-up in the Best Food Blog Category in Apartment Therapy’s 2008 Homie awards, January 2009
- The Cranberry-Vanilla Coffee Cake and Boozy Baked French Toast were given a nod in the New York Times’ Well Blog, 12/24/08
- “We wish we could be guests in Deb’s kitchen…” Smitten Kitchen’s Cranberry Pecan Frangipane Tart was featured in Bon Appetit’s Blog Envy Slideshow, December, 2008
- Shouted out on the Official Google Reader Blog as a way to cook better through subscribing to food blogs. — 11/06/08
- “… delicious recipes, witty writing, and drool-inducing food photography.” — SBS, the Australian national television and radio broadcaster, October 2008
- Smitten Kitchen was featured on the Martha Stewart Show, 9/17/08, where audience members were introduced to the ever-popular Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake [See the clip here]
- “This site is a blast. The photographs alone will make you hungry…” — The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va. 9/3/08. The article also included the Smitten Kitchen recipe for Margarita Cookies.
- “Enticingly simple recipes with food images that are just as engaging as the author’s fun and informative food commentary.” — Delish.com’s Top 50 Food Blogs
- “Deb’s photography and food styling are stunning, the recipes she posts are diverse and interesting, and her attitude is downright infectious.” — Hallmark Magazine, August 2008
- Smitten Kitchen was one of The Nest magazine’s favorite blogs — Summer 2008
- “The food-porn factor of this site nears illegal levels.” — CHOW.com, The Ten, Food Blog Heaven 5/19/08
- Smitten Kitchen “offers tempting recipes and photos of home-cooked meals.” — “Food Blogs Help Save Money,” U.S. News and World Report, March 4, 2008
- “An enthusiastic kitchen amateur chronicles her adventures, offering a mix of easy recipes, smart and witty commentary, and beautiful photos.” — Real Simple Magazine, March 2008.
- “Smitten Kitchen features mouthwatering photos and descriptions, as well as wry commentary about trying to cook in a tiny city apartment.” — Redbook Magazine, February 2008
- 2008 Weblogs Award (Bloggies) Best Photography of a Weblog finalist
- “If the site were a restaurant, I would want to eat there.” — Profile of Smitten Kitchen in the Boston Globe 11/7/07. Deb’s family’s recipe for Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Coffee Cake accompanied the article.
- “Anyone with a computer, a camera and a fascination with the world’s most fascinating subject can compete with top food blogs such as Smitten Kitchen and Chocolate & Zucchini.” — LA Times 10/31/07
- “What makes this site great is Perelman’s thoughtful, entertaining and well-written commentary on the recipes she presents as well as the glorious food photography that accompanies each blog entry.” — Philadelphia Style Magazine, November 2007 (PDF)
- “Her enthusiasm is catching.” — St. Petersburg Times, 10/10/07
- “…superstar Deb at her incredible, edible website…” — Interview at Eat Drink One Woman, 10/5/07
- “Smitten Kitchen is a very cute web site.” — Martha Stewart, The Martha Stewart Show 9/18/07
- “Who at home is going to soak salt cod for a day, mash it up with some other ingredients and deep-fry it–coating the kitchen with a mist of oil–for what is essentially a bar snack? Jeffrey Steingarten or Deb at SmittenKitchen.com might bother, but that’s their problem.” — Amanda Hesser, New York Times Magazine 9/16/07
- “Even if you hadn’t been planning to cook something, the desire will inevitably kick in after staring at her vibrant photographs that smack your face right into the belly of a dish.” — Profiled on Serious Eats 7/13/07
- “Spirited chat about life and eating–the writer, Deb, blogs with Seinfeld-like humor…” — Fitness Magazine, April 2007
- “Magnificent food photos, a mesmerizing cooking blog and recipes that make you want to lick your computer screen.” — The Sacramento Bee
- “Smitten Kitchen displays a penchant for sweets and a fearless attitude toward baking, along with a wide-ranging repertoire…” — Culinate
- 2006 Food Blog Award Winner — Humor Category
- 2007 Weblogs Award (Bloggies) — Best Food Blog Finalist
- Seen on My Yahoo, Pick of the Day, Parents Magazine, blog of the month (5/08), Bon Appetit’s Editor’s Blog, The Guardian Unlimited’s Word of Mouth Blog, Epi-Log, Slashfood, Yumsugar, CHOW’s Grinder Blog, and has been Feedster’s feed of the day.
