Food news antipasto

June Hersh, blogger behind Eat Well Do Good, tipped us to a new ebook called Cooking for a Cause that benefits the largest food rescue organization in Israel, Leket, which feeds displaced Israelis regardless of religion or ethnicity. The book features some of the most prominent names in Jewish and Israeli food including Michael Solomonov, Jake Cohen, Adeena Sussman, Eitan Bernath, and others. All the proceeds go to support Leket.

Many of my favorite meals begin with a diced onion cooked in oil or butter. The aroma never fails to excite me, it just smells so good. Writer Danny Wallace also loves the aroma of cooking onions, and he penned a lovely story about what the smell of onions means not only to him, but to others ranging from a hot dog stand purveyor to Italian chef Gennaro Contaldo.

Read any food-related article – whether it’s a recipe or restaurant review or just about a type of food – and you are sure to find an argument in the comments section. It’s like people can’t help but argue a point, no matter how pedantic or trivial. Geraldine DeRuiter agrees, as she shows in an excerpt from her new book at LitHub, titled Why People Rage at Recipes. DeRuiter takes aim at those who would substitute Pepsi for soy sauce and complain that the recipe is bad. Her recently-released book is If You Can’t Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury.

LeCreuset just dropped a new color called Sage. I love it, probably because it is so close to my favorite color, Sea Salt. Sage was available in other countries but is making its US debut now. This new color announcement comes on the heels of the lovely new flower-themed spring collection including the stunning Petal brasier.

There’s some good news for everyone who hates to scan and bag their own groceries: retailers like Walmart and Target have begun to rethink self-checkouts. In select locations, Walmart is making self-checkouts available only to Walmart+ members and Target recently announced it was going to limit self-checkouts to shoppers with 10 or fewer items. Target says it will open more staffed checkout lanes to keep things moving smoothly. While the retailers said the change was due to a shift away from pandemic operations, most industry analysts believe theft was also an issue. Maybe now they will unlock the underwear.

Should we put Brie and Camembert on the endangered species list? A recent study by the French National Center for Scientific Research said that a lack of genetic diversity could put these two beloved cheeses on a path to extinction. The penicillium mold that is used to create the cheese cannot reproduce naturally and must be cloned, leaving it vulnerable to disease. However, scientists say we don’t have to worry about them disappearing any time soon. They are working on ways to diversify the mold strains to make them more robust.