Food news antipasto

Another team member has left the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen. This time it is breakout video star Claire Saffitz, author of the newly-released cookbook Dessert Person: Recipes and Guidance for Baking with Confidence. Saffitz broke the news to fans via Instagram, saying that she was “grateful to Bon Appétit and CNE for the opportunity to build my career on their platforms, but this opportunity was not granted equally to all.” Despite a change in leadership, Saffitz opted not to continue her relationship with Bon Appétit or Condé Nast Entertainment. This marks the seventh departure from Bon Appétit since reports surfaced concerning unequal race-based pay and treatment in the test kitchen.

In a similar vein, the Chief Strategy Officer of the James Beard Foundation, Mitchell Davis, is stepping down after nearly 25 years with the JBF. The Foundation has also weathered criticism about diversity and a claim that it fostered a hostile work environment. It is unclear whether Davis is leaving as a result of the controversy, although in an Instagram post about the departure Davis acknowledged a need for change within the organization.

You’ll go ‘nuts’ for this cooking tip from Serious Eats, and while it is not a new idea, it does bears repeating. Kenji López-Alt tells us that the best way to toast nuts uses an appliance that you might not expect: the microwave. He provides the science behind the technique, which is as simple as it is effective.

Here’s something that slipped under my radar in August. Nutella announced plans to release a new spread that is a richer version of its beloved chocolate and hazelnut confection. Nutella+Cocoa will contain double the amount of cocoa of the original. The spread is available in the UK at Tesco and other retailers. I have not been able to find anything about the new product on Nutella’s website to see if it is coming to the US or Canada. If anyone has tried Nutella+Cocoa, let us know what you think of it.

In order to have a season in 2020, the NBA (National Basketball Association for non-sports fans and those outside the US) implemented what it called a ‘bubble’ where players and coaches were quarantined together with extensive testing so they could safely play games. To maintain this bubble, the league hired professional chefs to feed players, coaches, and staff. Business Insider takes us inside the bubble to see how chefs like Alexia Grant managed to make 4,000 meals per week to fuel the ballplayers.

Last week we talked about how restaurants in California wine country had been devastated by wildfires. The wineries themselves are also facing huge losses, with as much as 80% of the area’s Cabernet grapes lost either to fire or smoke taint. Some wineries lost their entire harvest. If you’re a fan of California Cab, you might want to stock up because next year’s offerings will be pretty lean.

With restaurants shuttered across the globe, laid off employees have had to scramble to find ways to make money. Many restaurants pivoted to takeout or curbside service, but not everyone was able to make this shift, and employees who worked on the sweet side of the kitchen were exceptionally hard hit. Food & Wine explains how some entrepreneurial pastry chefs decided to operate microbakeries out of their homes and apartments, taking advantage of cottage food laws to make a living during lockdown. Some don’t want to go back restaurant life.

Employees working from home during the pandemic might miss a lot about their normal work environment, including a sense of camaraderie and personal interactions. There are some things that are easy to do without, including the commute and sharing a kitchen with officemates who do unspeakable things like microwave fish. That stinky fish odor is reviled by almost everyone, but a small group of people can’t even smell it. Due to a small genetic variation, some people either misidentify the aroma or don’t smell it at all. For a few, even a pungent fish odor might smell like caramel or rose.