Charles Phan has died at age 62

January 21, 2025 by
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Today we learned the unfortunate news that Charles Phan, renowned chef and author of Vietnamese Home Cooking and The Slanted Door: Modern Vietnamese Food, has passed away at the age of 62. Reports emerged over the weekend indicating that the talented chef had been admitted to the hospital. His family has since confirmed that he suffered cardiac arrest. Phan was… read more

Southern cooking legend Nathalie Dupree has died at age 85

January 14, 2025 by
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We are saddened to share the news that Nathalie Dupree, celebrated Southern chef and cookbook author, passed away yesterday at age 85. South Carolina chefs shared outpourings of affection for Dupree, with Carrie Morey saying "Heaven just got a little more buttery and delicious...you have always inspired me — to take a chance, keep going, do for others, work harder,… read more

The end of an Ottolenghi era

January 5, 2025 by
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Yotam Ottolenghi is by far the most popular author in the EYB Library. The top three books by number of Bookshelves are his, and he has five of the top 10 books in the Library. If you look at individual recipes ranked by buzz, Ottolenghi again dominates. For the past seven years he has written a weekly column for The… read more

The complexities of the Ina Garten/Martha Stewart relationship

December 18, 2024 by
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One could argue that the two biggest female culinary icons alive today are Martha Stewart and Ina Garten. Both have had big years, Stewart with a documentary about her life and Garten with a recently-published memoir. In an interview about her documentary, Stewart suggested that there was bad blood between the two, saying that she felt like Garten abandoned her… read more

Is the term ‘food writer’ a valid description?

October 24, 2024 by
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I subscribe to a variety of culinary websites, including Christopher Kimball's Milk Street. In his most recent Milk Street email, Kimball staked out a controversial position on food writers, saying that "[t]he entire notion of being a “food writer” is suspect, since it should be no different than being a writer," amidst a rant about the state of modern food… read more

Barbara Lynch is closing all of her Boston-area restaurants

October 10, 2024 by
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Last year we reported on a scandal involved revered Boston chef Barbara Lynch in which former employees recounted tales of alleged abuse and harassment at her restaurants. Lynch's rags-to-riches story was chronicled in a 2017 memoir that recounted her rise from a hard-knocks South Boston childhood to culinary stardom. The James Beard Award-winning chef shuttered a handful of restaurants in the wake… read more

The Great British Bake Off 2024 begins next week!

September 17, 2024 by
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Everyone's favorite baking competition will premiere its 15th season on Channel 4 at 8pm on Tuesday 24th September in the United Kingdom. While official word has not been released, we hope that new season will then air on Netflix in the US on Friday, September 27th. Fingers crossed. Updated: Netflix has announced that the show will air in the US… read more

Why the UK is katsu crazy

August 13, 2024 by
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Food trends are often cyclical - one era's craze spawns a multitude of copycats, dies down, and then gets resurrected years or even decades later. This happened with the Cosmopolitan cocktail, and as chef and cookbook author Tim Anderson writes in an article for Vittles, it is currently happening with katsu curry in the UK, which he is calling the "Katsuification"… read more

Saveur’s Q&A with Sara Moulton

August 7, 2024 by
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Sara Moulton's culinary career is long and storied. After graduating top of her class at the Culinary Institute of America, Sara worked in fine dining restaurants, cooked for Julia Child, and was the food editor of ABC’s Good Morning America and was Gourmet magazine’s executive chef before the magazine shuttered. She's also written several successful cookbooks. Somehow I missed an… read more

The growing world of Substack newsletters

July 30, 2024 by
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As the world continues its shift to digital publishing, new media crop up to replace the old guard, and that is especially true with newspapers and magazines. Long-form online stories reminiscent of the early days of blogging are rapidly replacing printed media (thankfully with the exception of cookbooks!) via newsletter tools like Substack, Ghost, Medium, Buttondown, and Beehiiv. Of these,… read more

Catching up with Asma Khan

July 25, 2024 by
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Asma Khan is the creator of Darjeeling Express, a London restaurant that began fifteen years ago as a dinner for 12 guests at home - Indian food, lovingly cooked from family recipes going back generations. The restaurant is run by an all-female staff, and Khan eschews the traditional authoritarian style of kitchen brigades, opting instead for a quieter, more collaborative… read more

Portland’s star chef Naomi Pomeroy dies

July 17, 2024 by
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Naomi Pomeroy, a shining star of the Portland restaurant scene, died last weekend in a tragic accident. The 49-year-old chef was tubing on the Willamette River near Corvallis, Oregon with her husband (fellow chef Kyle Linden Webster) and another party on Saturday, when the group hit a snag and were pulled under. Her husband and the other person were removed… read more

Ottolenghi answers the eternal question: why so many ingredients?

July 13, 2024 by
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It is safe to say that our Members love Yotam Ottolenghi. His books hold the top three slots in the EYB Library in popularity: Plenty currently resides on 13,927 Bookshelves, followed closely by Jerusalem and Ottolenghi Simple. Two more of his books are in the top 10. To provide more perspective, the most popular non-Ottolenghi book sits on 7,984 shelves… read more

World’s 50 Best announces 2024 slate

June 7, 2024 by
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On Wednesday evening, the World's 50 Best announced who was on its list of best restaurants in the world. The ceremony was held in Las Vegas, marking it as the culinary destination it has grown to be. In addition to the list of restaurants, there were additional awards, such as Neil Perry winning the Woodford Reserve Icon Award. You can… read more

What Padma Lakshmi’s been up to since leaving Top Chef

April 23, 2024 by
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As Top Chef began season 21, long-time host Padma Lakshmi was nowhere to be seen. She had announced her departure from the show last year, noting that she planned to spend more time on her show Taste the Nation and other projects she had in the works. If you follow her on Instagram, you have probably seen a lot of… read more

World Central Kitchen team members killed in Gaza

April 2, 2024 by
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We've written several times about World Central Kitchen, the humanitarian aid group founded by chef José Andrés in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Since then, the group has been on the front lines of natural disasters, armed conflicts, and other crises. Today we learned the devastating news that seven WCK team members in Gaza were killed in a strike… read more

Is GBBO sizing up possible Prue Leith replacements?

March 20, 2024 by
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Prue Leith has been the co-host of The Great British Bake Off ever since Mary Berry left following the show's move from BBC to Channel 4. She has been there not only for the regular series, but also for the specialty shows like the holiday themed programs and the Stand Up To Cancer episodes. Last week Leith said she wouldn't… read more

Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers has passed away

February 29, 2024 by
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Dave Myers, one half of TV cooking duo The Hairy Bikers, has died at the age of 66, two years after revealing he had been diagnosed with cancer. Born and bred in Barrow-in-Furness, Dave Myers joined the BBC as a make-up artist, and while traveling the world with hit TV series he picked up recipes with Si King, who became… read more

Catching up with Carla Hall

February 20, 2024 by
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Carla Hall burst onto the scene with her run to the finale on season 5 of Bravo's Top Chef. Since then, Hall has kept busy with a variety of projects, on television and off, including a stint on The Chew. Next up for the busy chef? A new show on Max: Chasing Flavor, which the NYT's Kim Severson says is… read more

New series chronicles the rise of Martha Stewart

January 27, 2024 by
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Martha Stewart wearing an all-white outfit smiles at the camera. The background is an off white just darker than Stewart's outfit.
A new four-part series from CNN (which will be broadcast later on Max), “The Many Lives of Martha Stewart,” chronicles the rise of the iconic domestic doyenne, from model to stockbroker to controller of a media empire. Eater's Bettina Makalintal provides us with a glimpse of what the limited series has to offer. The first two episodes trace Stewart's trajectory… read more

JBF announces semifinalists for restaurant and chef awards

January 24, 2024 by
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Today the James Beard Foundation announced its slate of semifinalists for its 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards. Nominees will be announced on Wednesday, April 3 and winners will be celebrated at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony on Monday, June 10 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. (The cookbook award winners will be announced a few days prior to the… read more

Alison Roman’s latest project? A grocery store

January 10, 2024 by
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Alison Roman, viral recipe hall-of-famer, cancel culture survivor, and bestselling cookbook author, has embarked on a new project. No, it isn't the culinary show she's been shopping around since she lost her deal with Hulu, it's a small grocery store in upstate New York. Called First Bloom, the shop opened recently and according to food writer Callie Hitchcock, it feels… read more

Batali attempts a comeback

December 27, 2023 by
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Back in October, Mario Batali resurfaced on Instagram and hinted at a comeback with a message that said "virtual events coming soon." This week, Batali made good on his announcement, hosting a livestreamed, $50 per person cooking demo last week that featured cacio e pepe and bucatini all' Amatriciana. Batali hosted the show from his home in a tiny Michigan… read more

Chef and author Bill Granger has died at 54

December 26, 2023 by
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Today we learned the sad news that Australian chef, television presenter. and author Bill Granger died on Christmas Day at the far too young age of 54. His family reported that he passed away peacefully, with his wife, Natalie Elliott, and three daughters, Edie, Inès and Bunny, by his side. According to the New Zealand Herald, it is believed that… read more

GBBO returns on 26 September, names contestants

September 19, 2023 by
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The Great British Bake Off has announced the contestants for the upcoming season of the show, which premieres at 8:00 p.m. on 26 September in the UK. The contestants, as always, are a fascinating slice of the population, ranging from deli manager Amos to database administrator Dana to science teacher Matty. It's fun to imagine what kind of bakes each… read more
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