Food news antipasto

Many fans of The Bear probably have a crush on the lead character, played by Jeremy Allen White. He’s incredibly buff, which some critics say is unrealistic for the role. Is Carmy too fit to be a chef? That’s the question Amanda Gabriele put to several industry experts, including chefs, and the reviews are mixed. While chefs have a reputation as being hard partiers and not the dedicated gym-going type, the industry is changing and the stereotype may no longer apply. In related news, a The Bear food truck is coming to London and will be traveling around the city until August.

You may have heard the news that hot dog-eating champ Joey Chestnut won’t be defending his title at the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4 because the event’s organizer banned him from the competition. Other sources say the decision was mutual, but in either case it was because Chestnut had entered into a deal with Impossible Foods, makers of vegan hot dogs. Vegan hot dogs have been slowly gaining ground on their meat-based counterparts, but one thing that’s been difficult to replicate is the ‘snap’ of hot dogs with natural casing. However, that may be changing, as Eater’s Bettina Makalintal explains. Also, Eater has recipe ideas for the leftover buns or hot dogs you will have because the package sizes never, ever match up to one another.

Sous vide equipment, once only found in elite restaurant kitchens, have become more commonplace (and affordable) in recent years. There are many different brands available to the home consumer and you can easily find a list of the pros and cons of each one. However, what you don’t often see is a discussion of the containers used to cook using the sous vide method. Serious Eats lends a hand with that, giving us a rundown of the best sous vide containers for the home cook. The good news? The best choices are also the least expensive – and you may already have the perfect container at home.

Yotam Ottolenghi is known for incorporating a dizzying array of ingredients in his recipes. While many of the items he champions have become more commonplace, sometimes it can be difficult for the average home cook to find them without resorting to mail order, which doesn’t help when you want to make something for dinner tonight. In a recent article in The Guardian, Ottolenghi answered a reader’s question involving what you could substitute for some of the ingredients in his recipes. He explained what you could use instead pomegranate molasses, harissa, preserved lemons, creme fraiche, and more. He also provides links to DIY recipes for dukkah, baharat, and other spice blends. If you have time enough for mail-order delivery, don’t forget about the convenient links in the EYB Library to sources for ingredients like these and many more.

For those of us who wonder what we should do with our cookbook collection once we downsize or pass on, here’s a story to consider. A former food writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Joe Crea, amassed a collection of over 2,000 cookbooks during his career. After he died in 2019, his widow, Gretchen, worked with a local nonprofit that hires and trains formerly incarcerated individuals to create a memorial library at the Edwins Second Chance Life Skills Center in Cleveland. The donation brings the center’s library to about 6,000 culinary, food and drink books.