Food news antipasto

Although not a chef or cookbook author, Morgan Spurlock made a splash in the food world with his 2004 documentary “Supersize Me”, which cast a critical eye on the fast food industry and the effects of its products on human health. This week we learned the sad news that Spurlock died at the age of 53 from complications of cancer.

If you are planning a vacation and are looking for food-adjacent books to read on the beach or cozied up in front of a fire, Eater’s Bettina Makalintal and Amy McCarthy have you covered. They have assembled a list of the best food-filled books to pack for your trip. The books range from romance novels to more serious literary fiction to a pastry-filled Parisian memoir.

If you don’t already create playlists to accompany your meals, you may want to start after reading an article in Gastro Obscura about how music may make your food taste better. The nascent field of ‘sonic seasoning’ “suggests that there may be a direct link between our experience of sound and taste.” Researchers have found that different pitches can be associated with particular tastes, and experiments showed that music can make targeted flavors seem more pronounced.

While many of the articles we link to are about ways that home cooks can level up their cooking and baking to match restaurant quality, this one goes in the opposite direction. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Terry Durack says that there are some dishes that are best left to restaurants. He notes that chefs have training along with “more particular skills, specific equipment and dedicated time than we have” so we should leave certain dishes to them. Some of our Members may disagree.

It’s always fascinating to learn about which foods or kitchen tools chefs find indispensable. The Evening Standard recently asked several of London’s top chefs to name a piece of equipment that would upgrade a home kitchen, and some of the answers were surprising. Several chefs felt that inexpensive tools like a bowl scraper or an offset spatula would elevate were invaluable. Others touted pricier items, but even those were reasonable in the overall scheme of kitchen gadgets, proving that spending more isn’t always the answer.

Grocery shopping used to be one of my favorite activities, but it’s become more stressful over the past few years as inflated prices have put a dent in the budget. I am far from alone in this, as inflation in the US has led to a 24.6% increase in food costs since March of 2020. It’s been even higher in other parts of the world, and Salon’s food editor, Ashlie D. Stevens, takes a look at what has become the grim “new normal” in grocery shopping.

In case you missed these posts from this weekend:

• Great grilling tips
• Judge decrees that tacos are, indeed, sandwiches