Food news antipasto

Let's start off this week with a timeline cleanse. This one comes to us from Taste of Home, which recently assembled a pairing of classic American desserts with zodiac signs. As a Boston cream pie-loving Aquarius, I concur with the match for my sign (but really, I would have been okay with most of them). Ukranian stuffed cabbage (Golubtsi) from… read more

The internet is adoring this restaurant review

Restaurant critics like Ruth Reichl, Jay Rayner, Pete Wells, and the late Jonathan Gold are known for crafting eloquent and thoughtful reviews of the world's top restaurants. But what happens when an everyday person decides to eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant and writes about the experience? Something magical, at least in the case of Kirsty Bosley, who wrote about her… read more

RUSA publishes a list of essential cookbooks for 2022

The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) is a division of the American Library Association. RUSA serves all types of libraries in reference, user services, adult readers advisory and collection development The organization publishes an annual list of what it deems as "essential cookbooks," and while it skipped 2021 due to Covid, it has announced its list for 2022. Called… read more

EatingWell Magazine to end print publication

Another longstanding culinary magazine is moving to digital-only. Dotdash Meredith, which publishes EatingWell, announced that effective immediately, that magazine along with Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, Health, Parents and People en Español, would cease print publications. The April issues will be the last print magazines to hit newsstands. According to Dotdash Meredith CEO Neil Vogel, this announcement should not come as a shock.… read more

Inside the Ebony test kitchen

For those interested in culinary history, a new exhibition in New York City's Harlem neighborhood needs to be on your visiting list. African/American: Making the Nation’s Table, opens on February 23 at the Africa Center at Aliko Dangote Hall in Harlem. The exhibition focuses on the African American food experience. One highlight of the exhibition is the Ebony test kitchen. First installed… read more

Food news antipasto

After two years of shuttered events, people are beginning to come together for festivals of all types. One Australian event that is coming up in a couple of months is Tasting Australia, presented by RAA Travel, a showcase of South Australian produce and culture. Held each autumn since 1997, it blossomed into an epicurean destination. Head over to the Tasting… read more

Tips for baking with chocolate

I will never forget the first time I had chocolate seize - a couple of errant drops of water on a silicone spatula was all it took to turn a creamy, smooth bowl of dark chocolate into a lumpy, grainy, blotchy mess. It took a lot of effort to correct that situation, and I learned my lesson. Baking with chocolate… read more

HBO series about Julia Child sets premiere date

It has been nearly two years since we first announced that HBO was producing a series based on the life of Julia Child. After this lengthy wait, we finally have a premiere date and photo stills from the show. People Magazine published several exclusive photos from the eight-episode program and provided additional details. HBO Max's new series, Julia | CREDIT:… read more

In praise of the microwave

Avid home cooks eagerly embrace the latest technology: think sous vide, air fryers, and Instant Pots. You can't swing a stick on Facebook without running into a group posting recipes for one of those popular appliances. What you don't see, however, are groups singing the praises of the humble microwave, which is often dismissed by serious cooks. That's too bad,… read more

Red velvet: is it time to move on?

With its vivid coloring, red velvet cake is often the top choice for a Valentine's Day dessert. The cake - once a relatively obscure Southern specialty - rose to prominence in the late 90s and soon 'red velvet' found its way into a host of other foods from bagels to cinnamon rolls. The phrase become "secondhand for luxury, decadence, and… read more

Food news antipasto

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. If you are not the type to plan ahead, don't worry, we have your back. Good Food (Aus) has 22 last-minute Valentine's recipes that are simple yet impressive. Likewise, The Guardian features a bevy of recipes that are sure to impress. One of my favorite food shows of the late 90s/early 00s was Two Fat Ladies.… read more

André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards 2021 Shortlist

And just like that, it's cookbook award season, with the announcement of the shortlist of the André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards 2021. Simon was the charismatic leader of the English wine trade for almost all of the first half of the 20th century, and the grand old man of literate connoisseurship for a further 20 years. In 66 years… read more

On saving a restaurant

Over the past two years we have written many stories that involved the pandemic: the Dalgona coffee craze, the spike in sourdough baking, the effects of lockdown cooking fatigue, and more. We also covered the struggles facing restaurants around the world. Most of those articles involved grim statistics and were written from a detached, industry-wide viewpoint. When reading abstract numbers… read more

Celebrate National Pizza Day

This one almost slipped by me, but once I saw that it was National Pizza Day I could not let it go unmentioned. Pizza, after all, was what got me through my college years - literally, because I worked my way through school at two different pizza joints. In my heyday, I could toss pizza dough with flair, although enough… read more

How much do you know about flour?

Even if you are not an avid baker, you probably have a bag of flour in your cupboard. Until the pandemic turned us all into sourdough fanatics and supermarket shelves were swept bare, few people gave a second thought to this ubiquitous pantry staple. While we understand that flour is the product of milling wheat, how much do we really… read more

Food news antipasto

The next time you sit down to drink a refreshing Pimm's Cup or cool and soothing martini, you should take a moment to thank the people who invented cocktails. The history of this craft is murky, but David Wondrich (author of the amazing Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails) dives deep into lore and vintage newspaper clippings alike to unearth… read more

Get ready for SuperBowl Sunday

In just over a week, the larges sporting event in the United States will take place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, as the Cincinnati Bengals face off against the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI. Not only is Super Bowl Sunday an important day for sports fans, it’s also the second biggest food event in the nation behind Thanksgiving. Watching… read more

Save on an e-book bundle and support a charity

I just discovered a great deal on a bundle of amazing e-books that has the bonus of raising money for two deserving charities. The Humble Book Bundle features 30 great books from Chronicle, including Season by Nik Sharma, American Sfoglino by Evan Funke (winner of a James Beard Award for photography), Flour by Joanne Chang, Ruhlman's Twenty by Michael Ruhlman,… read more

Epicurious installs a paywall

We have just learned that the Epicurious website (a Condé Nast venture), which hosts recipe archives from the late Gourmet Magazine as well as Bon Appétit Magazine, has put up a paywall for all of the site's recipes. Epicurious is offering access to recipes for an introductory rate of $30 USD per year, with the rate going to $40/year thereafter. It… read more

Which food phrases or words would you like to see gone?

The New York Times Kim Severson recently tweeted a provocative question: asking which food writing words and phrases people would like to ban. She started with calling a restaurant an eatery (I'm guilty of that one) and calling vegetables 'veggies' (which I avoid doing). Several other food writers chimed in with words they would like to see disappear. David Wondrich… read more

Food news antipasto

Last week Jenny compiled yet another amazing gift guide, this time for Valentine's Day. In the spirit of fairness, I am going to post a gift guide from another source, Epicurious. They gathered a list of 27 "actually good" gifts for cooks instead of the same old, same old things like flowers or lingerie. Jenny's guide is arguably better not… read more

Building a barbecue trail

The Southern Foodways Alliance has long been an important resource for chronicling the diverse food cultures of the American South. It has assembled oral histories on different topics that function as a culinary map for food lovers. Two of these projects, which can be accessed through the Alliance's free app, SFA Stories, are the tamale trail in the Mississippi Delta and… read more

What’s your cooking phobia?

Even the most intrepid cooks have a dish or two that strikes fear in their hearts. For some it's pie crust, for others it's certain cuts of meat, or it could be a kitchen tool that terrifies them. Whether it's due to past failures, injuries, or just a deep-seated fear of disappointing dinner guests, most cooks have a dish that… read more

Celebrate Burns Night with these foods

While we can't possibly post about each and every celebratory food day, some occasions do call for recognition. One of these is Burns Night, which honors the January 25 birthday of revered Scottish poet Robert Burns. (It's also the day before my birthday so I have extra reason to celebrate my fellow Aquarian.) Delicious Magazine (UK) recently posted their perfect… read more

Food news antipasto

In 2021, Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson's Pinch of Nom Comfort Food was a runaway bestseller, and remains in the #1 position on Amazon UK's sales chart for nonfiction books. In general, cookbook sales are still going strong worldwide, but the distribution of sales is uneven, at best. According to The Sunday Times (possible paywall), while some books like the… read more
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