Where ‘a la mode’ originated

January 20, 2020 by
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French terminology has fallen by the wayside in all but a handful of restaurants in the US, with the exception of one term: à la mode, meaning served with ice cream. While it is ubiquitous now, the term used to mean something else entirely and was part of a broader 'a la' trend, as Gastro Obscura explains. A term that… read more

Food news antipasto

January 19, 2020 by
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In this age of viral videos and other social media posts, a recipe can take on a life of its own. Sometimes it happens with stunning speed but other times it can build more slowly, like a snowball rolling down a shallow hill. That's what happened with a soup recipe that Helen Rosner published in 2016. It has only recently… read more

In-depth cooking projects for that extra day off

January 18, 2020 by
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In the US, Monday is a national holiday celebrating the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For many of us that means a three-day weekend, and with most of the US facing blustery weather, it also creates the perfect atmosphere for an in-depth or complicated cooking or baking project. For those who are undecided about how they… read more

The case for long dessert menus

January 17, 2020 by
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The offerings of most restaurant dessert menus - if there is even one to begin with - are not the stuff of dreams. Most eateries do not put much time or thought into curating an offering of sweets to end the meal. Perhaps this is due to cost concerns, as having a pastry chef along with dedicated refrigerator or preparation… read more

Cookbook authors on the books they keep returning to

January 16, 2020 by
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What is better than finding out which cookbook an author thinks is indispensible? Learning the same from a half-dozen authors. Over at The New York Times, they've assembled a sort of cookbook author relay race, in which one recently published author recommends his or her favorite title from the past year or so, then passes on the honor to that… read more

The allure of celebrity mom cookbooks

January 15, 2020 by
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Go to the cookbook section in almost any bookstore and you will see a slew of cookbooks written by a celebrity actor, singer, or perhaps both. These women are not professionally trained chefs or, in some cases, even accomplished cooks. Yet these cookbooks fly off of store shelves - Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Kitchen was one of the top selling books… read more

Taking it to the limit

January 14, 2020 by
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The Splendid Table's Francis Lam once flew to a city just to eat at a specific restaurant, and felt that was going far - figuratively and literally - in pursuit of food. Inspired by his own obsession, Lam decided to ask others how far they would go for food-related items. The results are fascinating. Lam interviews photographer Melanie Dunea, who… read more

Love your lemons

January 13, 2020 by
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Currently in my local supermarket, oranges are less than $1 USD per pound and Meyer lemons have finally made their annual appearance, meaning that peak citrus season is here. Seeing mile-high displays of bright and enticing lemons, grapefruit, and oranges remains one of the best parts of what can be a dreary time here in the northland. However, this bounty… read more

Food news antipasto

January 12, 2020 by
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If there is one theme for this week it's cheese. If you believe that fromage is fabulous, you might be interested in visiting a new cheese-themed hotel suite. Brought to us by the UK chain restaurant Café Rouge, the suite will be all cheese, all the time: cheese wallpaper, artwork, bedding, and even cheese-themed games will be on display in the… read more

Highly divisive foods

January 11, 2020 by
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Cilantro, Marmite, black licorice, and olives - what do these items share in common? They are all foods that people either love or hate, with almost no one on the fence about them. If you look at various lists of divisive foods, most of the same one rise to the top; for example, a list from Reader's Digest contains significant… read more

The woman saving a rich history of cheese

January 10, 2020 by
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With all of the chaos and sad news in the world today, it's worth seeking out uplifting stories. One that recently caught my attention profiles a woman who is working diligently to save artisanal cheeses in her home country of Georgia. Ana Mikadze-Chikvaidze, the chairwoman of the Georgian Cheese Makers’ Association, has devoted the bulk of her career to discovering… read more

The joy of failing in the kitchen

January 10, 2020 by
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Does the following scenario sound familiar? You are excited about making a new dish, and as you lay out the ingredients, you envision the perfect meal you are about to enjoy. However, things do not go according to plan - the timing gets screwed up, a shaping technique turns out to be much more difficult than anticipated, you scorch some… read more

Get the most out of your mortar and pestle

January 8, 2020 by
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If there is one kitchen purchase that I put off for far too long, it is buying a proper mortar and pestle. For years I had one of those tiny marble ones that was too small to be practical and I wondered what all the fuss was about. I recently bought a larger, more versatile one and it was a… read more

Meet India’s ‘Pickle Queen’

January 7, 2020 by
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Most self-published books are vanity projects and their print runs and sales are usually miniscule. Sometimes, however, one will break the mold and become a cult classic or even, in rare cases, a bestseller. That is part of the story behind Usha's Pickle Digest: The Perfect Pickle Recipe Book by Usha R. Prabakaran - but the self-publishing success is only… read more

Cave cooking

January 6, 2020 by
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The trend for cooking more 'plant-based foods' continues unabated, but it really is not a new phenomenon. In fact, you could say it is one of the oldest trends in human history. That's because a new discovery shows that people have been cooking plants for nearly 170,000 years. The recent find, in the Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains on… read more

Food news antipasto

January 5, 2020 by
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Sodium alginate, spheres, and foams: when these items first made their appearance in the early 2000s, they ushered in a new way of looking at food. Pioneering chefs like Wylie Dufresne, Heston Blumenthal, and Grant Achatz applied scientific principles to an industry that had long been one of tradition and even superstition (lest we forget, many old-school chefs said that… read more

Starting the new year off sans meat

January 4, 2020 by
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As the calendar turned from December to January, millions of people worldwide started working on their healthy-eating resolution for 2020. A growing trend in this vein is to eat a vegan diet for a month, a movement dubbed 'Veganuary'. If you are new to veganism, this can be a daunting task. There are some resources you can use if Veganuary… read more

In praise of a unitasker

January 3, 2020 by
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Blame Alton Brown or perhaps even Marie Kondo for the backlash against kitchen tools that have only one use - unitaskers, as Brown calls them. The argument against them boils down to this: why take up valuable kitchen space for a tool that does only one thing? Sometimes, however, the item does that one thing so well that it becomes… read more

Food history via menus

January 2, 2020 by
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Restaurant critic Ruth Reichl has seen her share of menus. During her stints writing for a variety of newspapers and magazines, she dined in some of the finest establishments in the U.S. During her career as critic - from the 1970s to 1990s - she couldn't capture what was listed on the menu by pulling out a cell phone and… read more

Avoid the authenticity trap

January 1, 2020 by
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Have you ever looked at Yelp reviews when deciding on whether to eat at a particular restaurant? Have terms 'authentic' or 'inauthentic' swayed your decision-making? If so, you'll want to read the article by Mai Tran, who implores to ignore the 'purists' and 'zealots' who demand authenticity in restaurants. Tran says that almost always, the term 'authentic' is used to… read more

New Year’s food resolutions

December 31, 2019 by
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As we look forward to 2020 vision (I had to make that joke sometime!), many of us are taking stock in the year that has passed and resolving to make a change in one or more areas of our lives. For food and cookbook lovers, this change often revolves around cooking and eating. I looked at my resolutions for 2018… read more

Favorite holiday food memories

December 30, 2019 by
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In this season of celebrations, parties, and massive amounts of food, memories are made. The best ones are fixed when you are a child - when the heaping platters and bowls seem gigantic, you are surrounded by family and friends, and no one admonishses you for eating two desserts. One of my favorite food memories centers around the container of… read more

Food news antipasto

December 29, 2019 by
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2019 is almost through, and it was an interesting year in food. What will 2020 bring? Eater pored over the predictions from a number of sources, and came up with the ultimate list of upcoming and declining food trends. Alternative meats continue their ascendancy while Southern cooking is trending downward. Vegetables of all kinds are predicted to be big in… read more

2019’s food trends that chefs hope will go away

December 28, 2019 by
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As the year draws to a close, it's natural to take stock of what went right in 2019 and also to note which things we would do well not to carry over into 2020. To that end, Bloomberg asked a handful of US chefs and bartenders what trends from this year that they do not want to see in the… read more

Frittering the hours away

December 27, 2019 by
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Maybe it was all those images of latkes that floated through my social media feeds or perhaps it was the falafel I ate for lunch a few days ago, but whatever the reason, I have recently been dreaming of fritters. Fritters are fabulous because they are fried, of course, but you can also feel less guilty because many fritter recipes… read more
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