Food news antipasto

We start off this week’s recap with some good news – Saveur just announced that it will be returning to print in 2024, just in time for the magazine’s 30th anniversary. They are starting off slow, with only two issues planned for next year. In the announcement, editor Kat Craddock said that Saveur is “committed to offering you an affordable luxury: a premium print magazine that is more sustainable than ever—environmentally, socially, and financially.”

Heirloom bean evangelist Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo takes a trip down memory lane in a recent post on the Rancho Gordo blog. He talks about the early days of his business, when he sold at farmers markets and how satisfying it was when customers would return to try another new bean. “It’s electric when you’ve taken an ingredient for granted your whole life and you discover that this little stretch of happiness was right under your nose the whole time,” he says.

If you have a food lover on your holiday gift list, pop over to The New Yorker to see food writer Helen Rosner’s food-themed gift list. Helen has gathered an eclectic assortment of items ranging from practical (stainless mixing bowls) to kitschy (a soft-pretzel shaped handbag) to wow (embroidered trompe-l’oeil table settings for $1,200).

It’s the time of year for “best of” lists for everything under the sun, including cookbooks. We will likely have a few lists of our own, but we will also share those from other sources. The first one to hit my social media feed was the LA Times best cookbooks of 2023. The lead-in to the lists rings true to me: “This has been a phenomenal year for cookbooks — books that inspired us to get into the kitchen. For baking cakes, making cocktails, eating more vegetables, planning parties, exploring the world.”

When you read an autobiography from a chef, it almost always includes a definitive food or dining experience that set them on their career path. Over at The Guardian, food writer Clare Finney spoke to a number of UK chefs including Ravinder Bhogal and Stephen Harris about the foods that inspired them, which range from fresh corn on the cob to Shanghai shrimps in vinegar.

Last month the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Food Guide Awards were announced. The newspaper gathered all of the stories related to these awards in one location so you can easily see the full list of winners, a comparison stating which restaurants gained and lost hats this year, lists of the best bars and cafes for 2023, a review of the restaurant of the year, and even a listing of under-the-radar restaurants that didn’t receive a hat but are worth checking out anyway.