Did you know that drinkable chocolate predated the chocolate bar? It’s one of the many historical tidbits dropped for your delectation in “Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles,” a fun documentary directed by Laura Gabbert. In 2018, the renowned Israeli-born chef Yotam Ottolenghi (who contributes a column to The Times’s Food section) was commissioned by…
Coronavirus should be called the Standard American Diet flu. The diet is perfectly designed to make American’s who’ve dutily followed the food pyramid sick. America is like a hot dog stand. COVID is like Joey Chestnut. We’ve created the perfect backdrop for this disease to thrive. If you build a house out of…
Back in March, when everyone was freaking out about having enough flour and beans to last through quarantine, Melissa Clark started writing From the Pantry, a series of articles meant to ease readers of The New York Times through the business of cooking more regularly and more flexibly, using what ingredients they had to hand.…
A lovely effect of the serious, much-needed changes happening in food media is that they have brought many new voices to the surface. After reading a powerful essay in Food & Wine by Amethyst Ganaway about the ongoing role of food as a tool of resistance in the Black community — whether through smuggling seeds,…
Headliner Umma by Noodlelove Natalie Camerino, whose family is Korean and Italian, traveled throughout Asia, and opened Noodlelove two years ago. The counter-service restaurant served bowls based mostly on noodles, with multiple add-ons. But now, with little of the lunchtime traffic that was her bread and butter, she’s going more formal with a sit-down restaurant.…
Back in March, during those first terrifying weeks of the coronavirus lockdown, I started writing a series of articles as a way to help cooks figure out how to use the mountain of beans and pasta many of us had manically laid in, in case we couldn’t, or didn’t feel comfortable, leaving the house. Called…
FAIR LAWN, N.J. — Beth George was sitting in her kitchen when her cellphone chimed with an email. “I have visited New York a couple of times, and every time I return I end up dearly missing the bagels there,” the message said. “The taste is extraordinary. I would really like to open a shop…
Back in 2000, Keith McNally’s SoHo brasserie Balthazar outgrew the kitchen used by its bakery downstairs. So Paula Oland, who ran it, packed up her proofing baskets and rolling pins and headed to a building in Englewood, N.J., to expand its wholesale division, which also sold retail items to walk-in customers. The pandemic has caused…
Among the events derailed by Covid-19 was a talk — to be given by Fred Plotkin at the Getty Center in Los Angeles in May — connecting Michelangelo, the subject of a new exhibit, with the wine and food of his era. Mr. Plotkin, an expert in music, art and food, had also planned a…
The pandemic has brought a proliferation of new virtual cooking classes. #AskChefsAnything was an early entry, auctioning off interactive sessions to benefit immigrant workers, among others. Now there is Delicious Experiences, from a company based in Israel. It connects viewers with food experts for personalized one-on-one classes. Learn about burgers from Nate Appleman, about wine…