Election Cake, a Forgotten Recipe, Rises Online

For a baking project that will keep you from Election Day doomscrolling, look to a centuries-old tradition: election cake. The cake, which has become more obscure in recent years, saw an increase in Google searches beginning on Sunday morning. The recipe for Hartford election cake appeared in Amelia Simmons’s “American Cookery,” published in 1796 —…

9 Ways Outdoor Dining Will Change New York

Covid-19 has changed New York City’s restaurant culture more than any event since Prohibition. The most obvious effect, happening now and getting worse by the week but already dismal to contemplate, will be the death of hundreds and possibly thousands of small, independent businesses, each loss radiating out to employees, communities and suppliers many miles…

Traveling Through Cookbooks

Good morning. Samin Nosrat wrote a beautiful column for The New York Times Magazine about the joys of reading cookbooks, about using them as a stand-in for the travels we can’t really take during the pandemic, and about how difficult it can be sometimes to find big, authoritative reads about regions of the globe that…