Food news antipasto

Adventurous cooks have a drawer or cupboard filled with a variety of spices. Although some folks have a large selection from which to choose, most of us have a few favorites that get used in a multitude of dishes. If you had to pare down your spice collection to just 11 essential spices, what would you choose? Compare your list of essential to the one provided by Food & Wine to see how many you have in common with their selections.

This story is for all the cake lovers out there.  Writer and editor Aliza Abarbanel (formerly of Bon Appétit) and baker Tanya Bush have collaborated on a new project they are calling Cake Zine, a “self-published interrogation of cake and all its complexities and contradictions.” The first issue starts off with a bang, focusing on relationships between cake and sex. As George Takei might say, “Oh myyyyy.” 

It’s safe to say that TikTok and Instagram have greatly influenced how millions of us cook and eat. Between video recipes and gorgeous food photos there are an endless array of options floating across our social media feed on a daily basis. But beyond the videos and images themselves, some chefs and cookbook authors think that these platforms transform cooking in another way, through the use of tags. Find out why these professionals believe that tagging influences recipe development.

Earth Day was last Friday, and the day serves as a reminder of how we should be good stewards of this tiny planet on which we live (it’s not like we have other options, at least not yet). One small way we can help is by creating less food waste. Saveur is on board with this idea, offering ten different ways we can cook with things we would normally throw out.

This week’s cooking tips come to us from The Kitchn, where professional bakers give us their top ways to improve your baking. While the list was originally created for holiday baking, the ideas work year-round. I especially appreciated the tip for using acetate sheets to create perfectly shiny chocolate decorations.

Rising food costs are affecting shoppers’ pocketbooks to a greater degree than we have seen in decades. As The Sydney Morning Herald reports, there is no end in sight to the increases. I have noticed food package sizes getting smaller in lieu of the cost going up (cheese that used to come in an 8 ounce package now only contains 7.6 ounces). Some supermarkets are offering Costco-sized bundles to help ease the pain. Have you changed your shopping habits due to rising grocery prices?