Food news antipasto

We begin this week’s review with some sad news:  venerated restaurateur and chef Joyce Molyneux passed away on October 28 at the age of 91. For decades, Molyneux helmed the Carved Angel, Dartmouth. One of the first female chefs to be awarded a Michelin star, in 1978, she never exhibited the unseemly behavior espoused by many chefs of the era, enjoying a reputation for fine cookery by both home cooks and restaurant goers.

This next story is for the chocolate lovers, featuring an in-depth look at cacao from bean to bar and beyond. Sylvio Martins takes us on a journey that includes history, economics, and political intrigue. Did you know that Spain kept its European neighbors in the dark about cacao for nearly a century so it could maintain a monopoly on the trade? You can’t keep something that good a secret forever, however.

Food & Wine’s Kat Kinsman is brave enough to ask the question that many of us have been thinking: does everything have to be served on a board now? Kinsman first laments the fact that people would call things charcuterie boards that didn’t have any cured meat on them, and then takes a shot at the latest ‘board’ trend, saying “Butter is one of life’s richest pleasures. But must we once again make this thing a Thing? I realize that TikTok is an insatiable maw into which we cram our desires, and it must constantly be fed lest we have to actually stop and contemplate the grim reality of our circumstances, but I just can’t give it this particular part of my soul and my pride.”

Jenny does an awesome job giving us the down-low on all of the major cookbook releases, but if you are interested in hearing a second opinion, head over the Nicola Miller’s Substack. She has penned her “Great Big Autumn Cookbook Guide” which provides us with her favorite releases from late summer to mid-autumn 2022. This is Part I; she will release Part II later in November.

Nigella Lawson knows her way around a recipe and is putting those skills to work in her first sponsorship deal with a retailer. She has partnered with online grocer Ocado to develop a suite of recipes that cost no more than £1.25 per portion. The first recipe is a ‘creamy dreamy’ peanut butter, dried thyme and garlic pasta dish.

Plenty of food writers offer shortcuts to achieve the rich, deep flavors of caramelized onions. Over at Good Food, Richard Cornish spills the secret way to achieve caramelized onion perfection – which isn’t a secret at all but rather a time-intensive process that is definitely worth the effort.

I am old enough to remember the commercials for cassette tapes that asked the question “Is it real or is it Memorex?” Today’s philosophical inquiry about ‘realness’ does not involve tapes, but instead revolves around Parmesan cheese. Italian producers of parmigiano reggiano have sued Kraft in an effort to stop the food giant from branding the jars of dried powdered cheese it sells in Australia as “parmesan”. That battle was long ago lost here in the US, so godspeed to the Italians in this effort.