Is there such a thing as too much garlic?

Are you one of those people who, if they read 'two cloves of garlic' on an ingredient list, instinctively puts in four - or more - cloves? Or are you more restrained in your use of 'the stinking rose'? Wherever you fall on the garlic use spectrum, Eater's Bettina Makalintal has just penned a thoughtful piece that attempts to explain why… read more

Food news antipasto

Bravo TV's Top Chef is shaking things up a little, heading to London to celebrate its 20th season. The program will feature a cast of international all-stars focusing on winners and finalists from previous seasons.  All of this season's contestants have appeared on one of the many different Top Chef iterations that have aired around the globe.  In the northern parts… read more

Ya gotta keep ’em separated

Properly storing fruits and vegetables can make them last longer, and knowing which of them can be stored together and which should be kept apart is crucial to this task. A big part of this conundrum has to do with ethylene gas, which helps some fruits and vegetables ripen. Conventional wisdom holds that foods are generally considered either 'ethylene producers'… read more

Cookbook collector extraordinaire Janice Bluestein Longone has died at age 89

Janice Bluestein Longone, an antiquarian bookseller whose collection served as "an unparalleled repository of culinary history," died on August 3 in Michigan at the age of 89. Longone's collection of cookbooks, menus, and culinary ephemera was housed at the University of Michigan's Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive. A few years ago we wrote about one of Longone's most treasured pieces, the… read more

Why you are seeing increased restaurant prices

empty wineglasses on a tray
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when lockdowns were the order of the day, cooking at home had lost its luster, and takeout just wasn't cutting it anymore, most of us would have given our eyeteeth to be able to sit down in a restaurant and be treated to a proper dining experience, cost be damned. Well, today the… read more

Is it too early to plan for the holidays?

You've probably seen a few Christmas in July sales, but usually holiday offerings don't hit stores in earnest until we get the first whiffs of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Not so for Bonne Maman, however, because the purveyor of jams, jellies, preserves, and herbal teas just announced the availability of its highly sought after limited-edition Advent calendars. Maybe they… read more

Food news antipasto

Have you seen any of the amazing photos of distant galaxies, nebulae, and stars coming from the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope? One of the recent images has a food connection: French scientist tweeted an image of what he described as a 'distant star' - only it wasn't a star at all, it was a photo of a thin… read more

Sometimes the best things come in small packages

Despite what some advertisers claim, bigger is not always better. A giant stand mixer might be perfect for making multiple batches of cookie or bread dough, but if you want to whip just one or two egg whites, you can be out of luck if all you own is a 10-quart Hobart. Often, having a small tool dedicated to the… read more

Food news antipasto

veggie burger patty on one half of a bun, topped with two onion rings, with the other half of the toasted bun to the right, both sitting on a red plate with a red polka-dotted napkin
Americans learned this week that they were losing a beloved frozen treat, the Choco Taco. The Klondike confection was invented in the 1980s and quickly became a favorite of kids and adults alike - what's not to love in a mashup of chocolate, ice cream, and a taco shape? But all hope is not lost: Reddit cofounder Alex Ohanian has… read more

Food news antipasto

Our first news comes to us via Food Tank, where writer Jonathan Ribich brings us the story of the award-winning documentary called The Kitchenistas. This film "follows the lives of women leading a movement in Southern California to reconnect their community to healthy, traditional foods." Women who participate in the bilingual culinary program called Cooking for Salud at Olivewood Gardens in National City,… read more

The Bear is this season’s must-watch food show

Forget reality television, drama is where it's at right now with respect to food programming. At least according to Helen Rosner and my food-loving friends who live in Chicago, who highly recommend The Bear, which is streaming on FX and Hulu. The Bear is a fictionalized account of a top-tier chef who leave's the "world's best" restaurant in NYC to… read more

Get paid to eat state fair foods

If there's one thing that most Americans can agree on, it's that eating food on a stick is wonderful. From Pronto Pups (corn dogs) to fudgesicles to fried pickles, we love our state fair foods, most of which have been configured to fit on sticks to make it easier to carry them around the vast fairgrounds found in county seats… read more

This price hike is a really big dill

The patch of dill in my garden has overtaken the small area where I let it go to seed last year, staking out territory meant for the winter squash that is now competing for space with the leggy, feathery-leaved plants. This complaint about an overabundance of an herb is probably irksome to many of our Australian readers who are facing… read more

Food news antipasto

As Europe braces for its worst-ever heatwave, BBC Good Food is providing recipes along with tips and tricks for dealing with the hot weather. You will find ideas for no-cook meals, foods to make that are perfect for outdoor eating, advice from a nutritionist on how to adjust your diet to deal with the heat, and other tips. Orange-cardamom ice… read more

Finding the right cookbook fit

I have been wearing the same athletic shoes for nearly 30 years - not the exact same pair of course, but the same brand and style. After trying different brands and types, I discovered that these worked best for me, providing the support and comfort I needed. The same can be said for cookbooks - not every cookbook or author… read more

France encounters a mustard shortage

While the French celebrated Bastille Day today, many of the festivities were missing a beloved ingredient. France is in the midst of a Dijon mustard shortage, depriving the country of "the condiment that gives edge to a steak frites, life to a grilled sausage, depth to a vinaigrette and richness to mayonnaise." Dijon-style mustard  from  The Art of Preserving (Williams-Sonoma) by Rick Field and Lisa Atwood and Rebecca… read more

Global chickpea shortage looms

Hummus and falafel lovers won't want to hear this news, but it looks as though there will be a worldwide shortage of garbanzo beans, aka chickpeas, in the coming year. Reuters recently reported that global supplies of the crop may fall 20 percent over the next several months. Basic hummus from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi If you surmised that the… read more

Food news antipasto

This week's theme centers on fried chicken in honor of the fact that July 6 was National Fried Chicken Day in the US. Up first is Eater's series, The United States of Fried Chicken, which takes us all over the country to find the 27 best fried chicken joints in the nation. But that's not all: you'll also find an… read more

Ingredient snobbery must go

Just about every TV chef I have watched has maligned a ready-made ingredient like boxed chicken broth or pre-peeled garlic. I've also seen scads of articles like Food & Wine's "29 things chefs never buy pre-made," where the pros besmirch everything from salad mix to jarred sauces, emphatically stating they would never deign to purchase such an inferior product. While… read more

Dome cakes are the perfect timeline cleanse

Reading the news today seems to be a masochistic endeavor. Endless stories about shooting, shenanigans (if not outright crimes) by high-ranking government officials or former officials, weather disasters, and other gloomy stories dominate the headlines. Finding something uplifting to read becomes more difficult each day, which is why I eagerly clicked on the link to an article about the latest… read more

Enhance your pizza IQ

Forget about the tired pickup line of "What's your sign?" - I posit that you gain a lot more insight into what someone is all about by asking them about their favorite pizza. You learn whether or not they are into food (if they mention frozen pizza, it's time to move along), possibly about how well-traveled they are (if they… read more

Food news antipasto

This week UNESCO added borsch (aka borscht) to its list of endangered intangible cultural heritage, saying that the war "threatened" the cooking of borsch. Ukraine claims the soup as its national dish, and the country's Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said "Victory in the war for borsch is ours!" Many different varieties of borsch are served, but the most common prominently features… read more

Everything’s coming up ube

I don't know about you, but I've been seeing a lot of purple foods in my social media feeds recently. Everything from hamburger buns to drinks seem to be colored in an eye-catching deep lilac hue, and the ingredient that makes these colorful foods happen is one that hails from the Philippines: ube. If you're interested in learning more about… read more

World’s largest chocolate plant shuts down after salmonella discovery

Chocolate lovers, brace yourselves: Barry Callebaut just shut down its chocolate plant in Brussels - billed as the world's largest - after it discovered salmonella in a batch of chocolates on Monday. The suspected contamination was in the lecithin used as an emulsifier. Since lecithin is used in almost every type of chocolate made at the plant, the entire operation… read more

You never forget your first real taste

strawberries in a colander
When I was growing up, I rarely ate any strawberries or even anything strawberry-flavored. My mother detested strawberries, so they didn't make an appearance in our house very often. Generally speaking, I was fine with that because supermarket strawberries - the only kind I had access to in my tiny town - are, frankly, terrible. Fast forward 20-odd years and… read more
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