TL;DR

August 30, 2025 by
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Remember food blogs? You know, the ones that had charming stories that ultimately led to a recipe that you wanted to try? It seems that in our increasingly fast-paced world, reading a few paragraphs takes too much time. In the last few years much ado has been made about food blogs being a waste of time and that bloggers should… read more

Seasonal shifts

August 29, 2025 by
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A few days ago, we had a brief taste of autumn when temperatures dipped to unseasonable highs and lows. While we are still weeks away from true autumn, this short spell of cool weather created a shift in how I thought about cooking and baking. I have written before about how changes in the weather can provoke anticipation for certain… read more

How do you like them pommes (de terre)?

August 28, 2025 by
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Please forgive me for the bad pun on the old saying "how do you like them apples?", but I just couldn't resist. But it is for a good reason - the ranking of 10 potato dishes from worst to best, by Andrea McGinniss of The Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food. This is bound to be controversial, because everyone is going… read more

When I dip, you dip, we dip

August 26, 2025 by
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French dip sandwiches, which like most things labeled "French" in the US, are not French, are currently having a moment, says Eater's Andrea Strong. She chronicles the current crop of offerings in New York City, which is not the birthplace of the revered 'wich that was allegedly cooked up first in Los Angeles. Strong says that New York's “roast beef… read more

Food news antipasto

August 25, 2025 by
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It's easy to get excited about cookbooks, so I never really thought about why so many titles included exclamation marks, like Dolci!, Galette!, and You Got This! Nina Moskowitz of Epicurious has thought about it and asked several authors and editors why they included exclamation marks in their titles. For Diane Morrisey, author of You Got This!, the exclamation point… read more

Food festivals

August 23, 2025 by
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One of the best things about living near farming areas is the abundance of festivals that revolve around a certain crop or food. My friend has made it his mission to seek out as many of these events as possible, and he has identified over a dozen festivals within a few hours' drive of the Twin Cities. There an Apple… read more

Tomato, tomahto

August 20, 2025 by
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Most cooks use cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes interchangeably and likely many people believe they are essentially the same. However, they actually have different flavor profiles and textures, says Serious Eat's Brandon Summers-Miller. He breaks down the differences, noting which type is best suited to various dishes. Roast tomato and asparagus tart with rosemary from The Guardian Feast supplement by… read more

Licorice: love it or loathe it?

August 19, 2025 by
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In her Substack newsletter, Dorie Greenspan just posted about licorice, which as she notes is a divisive flavor. Just like cilantro, it seems to be a love it or hate it item. For some the taste aversion stems from having licorice flavored medicine as a child, but for others it seems to be built in, although scientists have not yet… read more

Food news antipasto

August 17, 2025 by
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A white book opened to see the blank inside pages, on a white background
Renowned beer historian Martyn Cornell died at the beginning of June. His friend Steve McCubbin's heartfelt obituary for Cornell was just published in The Guardian. McCubbin shares Cornell's long and storied career, and recognized his salty character. The last post Cornell made before he died illustrates this: “If I read once more that porter got its name because it was… read more

Kewpie celebrates a century

August 13, 2025 by
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Kewpie mayonnaise, the Japanese mayonnaise with devotees around the globe, celebrates its 100th birthday this year. Its creator, Toichiro Nakashima, was inspired to create the condiment after visiting the United States in 1915 as an intern for Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. There he was exposed to mayonnaise, which was having a moment in American cuisine. After returning to… read more

Food news antipasto

August 10, 2025 by
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Less than a week after Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff told a reporter that he did not anticipate further layoffs in the company, 15 Eater staff members were laid off, according to Vox Media union. In a post on Bluesky, one of my favorite writers on the site, Amy McCarthy, shared that she was one of the unlucky ones. The… read more

In defense of ‘ugly’ cakes

August 9, 2025 by
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A recent opinion piece in The Cut has rankled the baking community, especially those who have small cottage baking businesses they run out of their homes. In the article, the author disparaged trendy Instagram and TikTok cake creations that are full of piped decorations, bedazzled with glitter-coated fruits, and overall just exuberant in their presentation. Joy Saha, writing for Salon,… read more

Cookbook Deals

August 8, 2025 by
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I will update this post when time permits – new additions are always at the top of each bulleted list below. If no update is available, be sure to check the publisher links and "cookbook deals" links under each region as they are updated periodically. If you spot a deal that isn't in the links below (publishers and or separate entries)… read more

Foraging: trendy or timeless?

August 8, 2025 by
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Foraging seems to be having a moment, as evidenced by the growing number of books about foraging and the fact that online foragers have built huge audiences. Is this a passing trend or is foraging becoming a standard practice? I suppose one should say a standard practice again, because for much of humankind's existence, foraging provided the vast majority of… read more

Food news antipasto

August 3, 2025 by
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Another food publication is biting the dust - at least in monthly magazine format. Fans of delicious (AUS) spotted a short note in the most recent edition that stated it would be the last print issue. Earlier this year the magazine announced changes that included a weekly delicious section added to metropolitan and regional newspapers. The publisher said that the… read more

How much would you pay for a pancake?

August 3, 2025 by
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Chain restaurants like Denny's, Perkins, and IHOP are known for their all-day breakfast menus and relatively low prices. They dish up bacon, eggs, pancakes, waffles, and other breakfast items that may not be the most elevated fare but are solidly in the "it's fine" camp. IHOP is hoping to break away from this reputation by introducing a $100 Dubai chocolate… read more

Hetty McKinnon is the next guest in the CookShelf Substack

July 29, 2025 by
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Katie's recently launched Substack follows up one fantastic guest author with another amazing writer. The latest post welcomes Hetty Lui McKinnon, who shares which cookbooks are speaking to her now. In case you missed the initial announcement, Katie started a free Substack newsletter in connection with the upcoming launch of the CookShelf app. Left: Australian Cover. Right: US / International Cover.… read more

Food news antipasto

July 27, 2025 by
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Goodbye grocery stores? The San Francisco Chronicle reports on how grocery shopping habits have changed store design (gift link), and how the shift in shopping may be the death knell for large, suburban supermarkets. With more people switching to online shopping, some stores have seen traffic dry up while others are turning into what might best be called shopper's warehouses.… read more

How seedless watermelons took over the grocery store

July 26, 2025 by
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When was the last time you saw watermelons with seeds in your local grocery store? You might find some at a farmer's market, but almost every supermarket will only have seedless fruit. Since the 1990s, seedless varieties have surged in popularity, and over 90% of watermelons shipped from farms are now the seedless type. Eater's Amy McCarthy explores the reasons… read more

Costco’s ‘Holy Grail’ item

July 22, 2025 by
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In a recent thread on the Costco Reddit forum, one Redditor asked a simple question that garnered a flurry of responses. The question was "What is your holy grail Costco item?" The most upvoted response was not the rotisserie chicken, the tequila, or even the iconic $1.50 hot dog. What people really love, it turns out, are big bags of… read more

Food news antipasto

July 20, 2025 by
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If you are the sort of person who likes to look at a dessert menu before you even order your main course, we have two articles you might want to peruse. First up is a growing trend in dessert-only restaurants. These places offer inventive menus that often include dessert and wine pairings. Says pastry chef Will Goldfarb, “There’s this appetite… read more

Baking Nation newspaper debuts

July 19, 2025 by
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We might be losing Cook's Country, but a new print publication has just launched that could ease the pain. The Kindness Company, has just released its first issue of what it bills as a "baking newspaper," titled Baking Nation. The first issue is billed as a "true collector’s piece for baking lovers everywhere!" It sounds like there are additional items… read more

Lost tool lament

July 18, 2025 by
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Back in 2021 I wrote about my favorite kitchen tools and noted that one of them was an inexpensive loop-type melon baller. A few years earlier, I wrote about not-quite-desert-island tools and a squeeze-to-open tea infuser made the list. Both of those beloved objects bit the proverbial dust a couple of months ago. While it was easy to find a… read more

Food news antipasto

July 13, 2025 by
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Are you getting the recommended daily amount of vegetables? If not, you might want to order dessert. No, that is not an error - more and more restaurants are adding vegetables, along with other savory elements, to their desserts. Eater's Bettina Makalintal tells us more about this intriguing restaurant trend. Earlier this week we learned the sad news that America's… read more

Your Nutella is safe with me

July 8, 2025 by
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Closeup of a jar of chocolate hazelnut spread with two slices of artisan bread out of focus to the left.
Classic food pairings like apple and cinnamon, peanut butter and jelly, or tomato and basil work together for many reasons. Complex chemical compounds play off each other and cultural factors can also play a role in how we perceive certain combinations of flavors. For most people these couplings seem natural and elevate the separate components to exceed what each offer… read more
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