Mise en place.

The dormant stage of winter brings with it a certain solitude. An opportunity for long walks in the country, the silence broken by the sound of frozen earth and air. It draws us near the kitchen, filled with warm smells and cheer.

During the holiday and Lenten season, loaves and fishes are on the minds of many. As wild meats and poultry trophies from the hunting season, fill our table, game fish are often overlooked. Capable of holding their own when prepared whole, fresh water fish is an interesting alternative to the common salmon-tuna-bass trio.

Is 2002 the year of the pig? Because, as we start the year, it's all about the pig. Pork rules our winter issue with features on rillettes and larding and barding. In many countries, especially Spain, a pig slaughter marks the beginning of the culinary calendar. Many cured ingredients required for recipes throughout the year will be prepared during November, December, and January. Some fat and most organ meat are pulled and prepared for holiday feasts; while smoked fat, Sarrano ham, and cured sausages are stored in the larder. As such, preparations for rillettes and larding and barding, teach us Old World techniques, which accentuate the relevance of fat.

Capable of any season, any city, and even more important, any palate, who better to present a feature on the food paradox of bitter-sweet flavors than Alain Ducasse. Pastry chef Nicolas Berger of Alain Ducasse at the Essex House provides the sweet for his chief's bitter tooth. He explores the importance of eliciting unctuous sweetness from flavors that would otherwise make one pucker.

A shaded place in the tropics--isn't that where we'd all like to be? For this issue we venture there, if not in body, in taste and imagination, to visit the world of cinnamon and nutmeg. Used in dishes from the conservative English pantry to the exotic shorelines of Sri Lanka and the Moluccas, cinnamon and nutmeg warm and sooth our senses from the pre-meal glogg toast to the grand finale of dessert.