How to Serve Fonio

Is fonio the new quinoa? This African grain, native to the regions just south of the Sahara, has been given that label. It has a lot going for it, as Pierre Thiam, a New York chef from Senegal, explains in his elegant cookbook. Fonio is easy and fast to grow. It’s also drought-resistant, nutritious, gluten-free…

A Food Conference Heads to Pittsburgh

This year, the annual food conference held by International Association of Culinary Professionals (I.A.C.P.) will be held March 27 to 29 in Pittsburgh. There will be dozens of talks, panel discussions and interviews, with personalities like Padma Lakshmi, Rocco DiSpirito, Michel Nischan and Dorie Greenspan. Beth Kracklauer, the food editor of The Wall Street Journal,…

More Chip in Levain’s Cookie

The gooey, hulking 6-ounce chocolate chip walnut cookie for which Levain Bakery is justifiably famous is about to get some competition, of the bakery’s own making. For its new NoHo location, opening Wednesday, Levain is introducing an equally hefty double chocolate chip cookie without nuts, a knife-and-fork confection worth eating à la mode. It is…

A New Addition to the Cleaning Cohort

So you check food labels and avoid products with long lists of unpronounceable components. What about cleaning products? For Veles, a new spray-on surface cleaner, Amanda Weeks — an entrepreneur from Staten Island, with a background in marketing — turned back the clock to the 19th-century pantry, when vinegar and baking soda were the Fantastik…

From Bonn to Vienna, in Search of Beethoven, the Man

Even the most casual visitor to Vienna can’t help but be bombarded by the city’s Mozart-industrial complex. Mozart’s face peers out from the wrappers of ubiquitous chocolate-covered candies called Mozart Kugeln, grand cafes offer Mozart tortes, and souvenir shops sell Mozart key chains, stuffed Mozarts, and even Mozart rubber duckies. Hawkers outside major sights aren’t…

7 Essential Books About Pandemics

If you’re looking for context, history or scientific information about the spread of disease, these books are a good place to start. AIDS Image ‘And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic,’ by Randy Shilts As Shilts writes in the prologue of his award-winning 1987 book: “The story of these first five…