To all the trends I loved before…and some I didn’t

I am not one to jump on every kind of bandwagon but I will hop on many that involve food. From the Dalgona coffee trend (what else did we have to do in the early Covid restrictions) back to the cupcake craze of the early 00s (I'm holding on to my cupcake carriers in case they make a comeback) to… read more

The battle over bread

During the pandemic, almost everyone turned into a sourdough bread baker. That phenomenon lasted only until supply chains started to catch up and people weren't idled in their homes, and I expect a fair amount of sourdough starter has since been tossed. It's a shame, really, because most inexpensive supermarket breads are ultra-processed tasteless loaves while a good loaf of… read more

To decant or not to decant, that is the question

Visit any home organization website, and you will see tips on how to maximize your existing cabinets and shelves by placing your dry goods into neat and tidy clear containers, ideally of the same size and shape. Most of these containers are plastic, so you are basically taking your groceries out of one plastic container and putting them into another… read more

Food news antipasto

In the market for new cookware? Head over to Food & Wine, which brings us the best cookware deals in Amazon's Spring Sale. The offerings include Lodge, Le Creuset, and other favorite brands. Once you see what you like, we ask that you navigate to Amazon's site from the links on our homepage (Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon… read more

Cookbook clubs go mainstream

The rest of the world seems to be catching up to us in that Good Morning America just posted a story about cookbook clubs (the in-person kind, not the virtual ones). Many of our Members have participated in these clubs for years, with the club members all bringing different parts of a meal or specific recipes to create an amazing… read more

Recording of the EYB and ckbk Q & A now available

Yesterday, we had a great time during our first livestream Q & A with ckbk. As a reminder, last May we announced that we have connected the EYB database to ckbk’s library of digital cookbooks. ckbk is a cookbook subscription site where you can access the full content of more than 830 great cookbooks, the majority of which are indexed here on EYB (and more will… read more

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… read more

Is surge pricing coming to a restaurant near you?

Surge pricing is part of Uber and Lyft's business model, airlines have used it for decades, and other companies are now embracing it - including restaurants. The concept is simple - charge more for items during peak demand times and less during slow times. Fast food chain Wendy's recently walked back a statement from its CEO regarding dynamic pricing after… read more

Food news antipasto

Did Daylight Savings Time catch any of our US residents (Arizona & Hawaii excepted) off guard as much as it did me? I need that extra hour back, if only to spend more time browsing the available items in the Les Dames d'Escoffier (LDEI) annual auction sale. The items range from extravagant trips to a hand made tagine to a… read more

Mother’s Day recipes

Tomorrow is Mother's Day in the UK, (it’s May 12 in the US, Australia, and New Zealand). A great way to honor the special women in your life is to make a special treat for them on this special occasion. Whether that means a full meal or a treat like pie or cake that you can deliver, your mom –… read more

The great pickle controversy

Somehow I missed this article when it was first published last fall, but Food & Wine posted about how pickle manufacturers in the US are omitting the word 'pickle' on their jar labels. All of the big names like Vlasic, Mt. Olive, and B&G have named their products things like 'Hamburg chips' or 'Kosher Dill Spears' - anything other than… read more

Give ’em an inch…

Have you ever encountered measurements in a recipe that just don't add up? I am not talking about volume or weights (although they can be problematic as well), but rather about size - thickness, diameter, length or width, etc. Sometimes I think recipe writers (or cookbook editors) are not very good at math. This has happened to me a lot… read more

Food news antipasto

File this under everything old is new again: deviled eggs are the latest trendy menu item for restaurants. Of course, chefs are all putting their own spin on the classic, but the basic recipe still provides the underpinning. A few factors are driving the surge including affordability and customer interest in retro dishes. Bistro Freddie’s head chef, Anna Sorgaard says… read more

How long do you keep looking for the ‘best’ recipe?

Go to almost any food website and you are sure to encounter several "best" recipes, whether for hummus, macaroni and cheese, burgers, lasagna (like this recent Eater article), you name it, there's a "best" version out there. The folks at Cook's Illustrated made an entire series of books filled with the "best" recipes of their kind, whether it be soups… read more

Writing about food is all about the spin

Last night I placed seasoned and very lightly breaded chicken drumsticks in the oven to bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes along with a side dish of loaded mashed potatoes (think cheesy mashed). At 45 minutes, I went to check them and they looked great - I flipped them over and turned off the heat to the oven -… read more

Customers decry wonky Wonka experience

The easy access to AI image generators have made it almost absurdly easy to get lifelike renditions of scenes that have not and will not ever exist. I've seen dreamy "libraries" and even entire "houses" rendered by AI tools like Midjourney and others that were - at first glance - convincingly real. All you need is a prompt and the… read more

EYB and ckbk livestream Q & A

Last May we announced that we have connected the EYB database to ckbk’s library of digital cookbooks. ckbk is a cookbook subscription site where you can access the full content of more than 800 great cookbooks, the majority of which are indexed here on EYB (and more will be indexed every week). For all the details, this earlier post. On March 20th at 3… read more

Food news antipasto

When Ina Garten announced in 2019 that she was working on a memoir, she said that the book would be published by Celadon Books, a subsidiary of Macmillan, which was no doubt excited to be the home of a surefire bestseller. A few days ago Ina dropped the release date - October 2024 - but we also learned that Celadon… read more

Why are there so many food recalls?

If our US Members feel like they are seeing far more food recall notices than they have seen before, that's because the number of recalls has mushroomed in the last few years. Since 2018, the amount of food recalls issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have increased by more than 115… read more

On losing a favorite food

Growing up in a landlocked state in the middle of the continent (smack dab in the middle; the geographic center of North America is just north of my hometown), I did not encounter much seafood other than the occasional frozen shrimp. However, when I moved much closer to the coast following my college graduation, I quickly made up for the… read more

Food news antipasto

Since the 1960s, Pop-Tarts have been a favorite kids' breakfast treat. The creator of the popular toaster pastry, William ‘Bill’ Post, died this week at age 96. Post once said that to create the iconic treat he had to "break every rule" and also offered advice for aspiring creators: “Just try anything. There is no idea that’s too crazy...If somebody… read more

UK braces for possible tea shortage

Even though coffee has become increasingly popular in the UK, the nation still drinks much more tea than coffee, but tea lovers need to prepare themselves for a potential shortage. Recent Houthi attacks on ships has caused merchants to reroute their vessels around the African cape, adding a delay of up to two weeks per ship. One of the items… read more

Food news antipasto

Michelin recently announced which restaurants would receive its coveted stars in the UK. One of those is London's Chishuru, whose founder and chef Adejoké Bakare is the first black female chef to receive a star in the country. Bakare started Chishuru, which focuses on West African cuisine, first as a pop-up after winning a competition in Brixton. The chef said… read more

All about salt

When I first learned how to cook, I was aware of only one kind of salt, the stuff that came in the cardboard can that featured the iconic girl with an umbrella. It was Morton's iodized table salt, and it's all I used for years. As I learned more about cooking, I became aware of different types of salt: first… read more

How much should little annoyances matter?

One thing I love about cookbooks is that every author lends their own voice to the recipe through the instructions and notes. This gives every book its own vibe and personality, and I will sometimes pull a book off the shelf as much for its tone as for a specific recipe. Authors also develop their own quirky phrases for recipe… read more
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