Food news antipasto

We’ll start this week’s roundup of food news with two Member favorites: LeCreuset and Staub. LeCreuset launched its latest color, a deep blue called Nuit. Exclusive to this color are shiny chrome knobs. Get it while you can – some items are already sold out on the LC website. Turning to Staub, they just released a Williams-Sonoma exclusive pan. The stunning 2.75 qt pan is diamond shaped, with a faceted knob to match. It only comes in two colors, graphite and white truffle. It took a lot of self control not to click “add to cart”. Let me know what you think of it.

Food inflation can cause sticker shock, but the price of grocery store products pales in comparison to a recent coffee acquisition. At the Best of Panama auction, the winning bid on an exclusive coffee lot topped out at $10,013 (USD) per kilogram. “I think this was easily the most competitive year ever,” Manuel Barsallo, Panamanian coffee expert and head of quality control, processing, and sales for Café Don Benjie, says. “In Panama, we’re not going for quantity. We’re going for quality.” For that price, the coffee better wake me up, give me a massage and facial, make me breakfast, and drive me to work.

Influential London restaurant St John, founded by Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver, caused a “virtual stampede” earlier this week by offering its 1994 menu at 1994 prices next month. Tables for the event sold out in a matter of hours, with fans eager to sample roast bone marrow and parsley salad for £4.20 rather than the 2024 price of £16 and apricots on toast, at £3.70 as opposed to a tick over £10.

Head over to SBS to learn about one of the oldest cheeses in the world, a French sheep’s milk cheese called Ossau-Iraty. The sheep’s milk cheese has been made with the same techniques going back hundreds of years. It is only produced in regions around the Pyrenees: the range connecting the border of France and Spain, the Ossau Valley, in Bearn, and the Iraty forest, in French Basque Country.

For those interested in exceptionally beautiful food backed by years of tradition, Gastro Obscura has an excellent story on the “embroidered” breads of Greece. This custom features large loaves of bread decorated with elaborate designs that are created using various tools and molds. These breads were shared at weddings or important religious occasions. Designs for weddings and other personal celebrations often featured motifs that feature the “circle of life” while religious decorations focused on the “circle of time.”

Is there anything Beyoncé can’t do? The multi-genre singer recently announced that she was partnering with Moët Hennessy to develop a new American whiskey (a blend of 51% rye and 49% malted barley) named SirDavis. The appellation is a nod to Beyoncé’s great-grandfather, Davis Hogue, who allegedly made moonshine during Prohibition. The liquor production is being overseen by talented master distiller Bill Lumsden, best known for his work at Scottish distilleries Glenmorangie and Ardbeg.

In case you missed Sunday’s post: The PSL turns 21.