This fall, I visited Paris. On the recommendation of a friend of a friend, I dropped into Le Chardenoux, a whisper of a restaurant in the 11th Arrondissement. I bring it up because that tiny space was the ideal cozy restaurant: low light, just a handful of seats and that purr of soft, latent energy…
When I think of French pastry — before éclairs, before madeleines, before even the croissant — I think of Paris-Brest. For me, it occupies a special status in the pastry pantheon, simply because I find it incomparably delicious. Invented in 1910 by the pastry chef Louis Durand, Paris-Brest was named for a bike race that…
To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. Nearly every big change in how we eat starts as a fad, which is really just a shared moment among a subset of diners or cooks that gains traction. Some fads fade away slowly, like wine coolers…
To walk into Veniero’s, the beloved Italian pastry shop on East 11th Street, just off First Avenue, is to step into a dreamscape of buttery cookies, cannoli and tarts heavy and trembling with jewel-colored fruit. On one side of the double-fronted building is the main cafe. On the other is the store, inside which, on…
Headliner Kebab aur Sharab Until now, the chef and restaurateur Salil Mehta’s focus has been Southeast Asia. Laut, his showcase for Malaysian food, was awarded a Michelin star. He has interpreted Singaporean food and drinks at Laut Singapura, Chard (now closed) and Singlish near Union Square, and provided tastes of Indonesia and Malaysia at Wau…
Several festive new holiday drinks, suitable for year-end reveling, have been created by Nolet’s, a gin company that was founded in 1691 in Schiedam, the Netherlands, and is still family-owned. The cocktails are notable for the simplicity of their ingredients — no need to concoct arcane herbal mixtures, and the like. The Peppermint Southside, a…
ANDREA WILSON I can actually remember being in college and having friends leave this state and come and call me and say, “There’s no Kentucky bourbon here.” It just wasn’t a thing outside of Kentucky. I can remember when you went to a fine steakhouse, and you might find one bottle of a bourbon on…
One of the toppled statues can still be seen, but visitors will have to cast their eyes down instead of up. Jefferson Davis lies prostrate at the Valentine, a downtown Richmond museum. In June, the statue went on display as it was found after it was torn down, mottled with Pepto-Bismol-pink paint, the remnants of…
Mr. Christopher and his friends thought they would draw a few thousand people to the festival; instead, more than 15,000 came. Within a few years it was attracting more than 100,000 attendees, who noshed on garlic bread and sipped garlic wine, made with crops donated by Christopher Ranch. They watched “Iron Chef” contestants and Food…
Luxury comes in many forms, especially over the holidays. In the realm of food, luxury can be something small and precious, like a jar of jewel-toned jam; or something meticulously handmade over many hours, like tamales or stuffed grape leaves; or something dramatic, like baked alaska, or sumptuous and long-cooking, like pernil, or rich and…