Good morning. Here’s something worth thinking about as we zoom inexorably toward next week’s feast, toward family and friends, the warmth of the kitchen, the buzz of the dining room: America has been at war for the past 18 years. Next week will mark the 19th Thanksgiving during which service members and civilians have celebrated…
Is it just a little over the top to ask you to make a fresh batch of risotto — 18 unbroken minutes at the stove stirring and stirring — just so you can have a pot of cold stuff the following day to make risotto al salto? Possibly. But to me, not any more over…
Headliner The Market Line The options for something to eat in the Essex Crossing complex are about to grow considerably with the opening of the Market Line, a culinary collection beneath the recently opened Essex Market. Three broad staircases (and two elevators) lead to a grid of wide aisles lined with food stands and larger…
On a recent fall evening in Red Hook, Brooklyn, the sky was shifting colors quickly, from blue-gray to violet, and then swiftly, it was dark. Assembled in the verdant courtyard of the ceramist Cassandra MacLeod’s studio were the friends of the chef Mina Stone, who last week opened her Mediterranean-inspired restaurant Mina’s at MoMA PS1…
Every November, celery performs countless tasks: It perfumes the holiday turkey, lending moisture from the inside out; it’s the backbone of the stock in gravy; it adds bite and vegetal flavor to stuffing. But rarely does this tireless Thanksgiving staple get any thanks. “It’s hard to make it the center of the spectacle, but on…
Until this year, Gotham Bar and Grill without Alfred Portale was as hard to imagine as Cuba without at least one Castro. Mr. Portale was not the first chef at Gotham, but he took the job so soon after the restaurant opened in 1984, and kept doing it for so long, that when he finally…
Fall-into-winter: the time of year when we come together to light a candle, carve a bird, raise a glass. It’s a season that is cherished and dreaded often in equal measure. But while attending the company holiday party or fa-la-la-ing with family might seem like a chore, social scientists and other experts make a compelling…
All cooking (but especially holiday entertaining) calls for well-made kitchen towels and napkins. These generous linen oblongs, 25 by 18 inches, in bright colors like turmeric and crimson, can be on duty at the sink or the stove. Use them to wrap warm rolls in a basket or as generous napkins for guests, especially at…
The Brooklyn Public Library runs a wealth of programs, among them the Cookmobile, which offers free cooking classes for high schoolers, particularly in neighborhoods where fresh ingredients are in short supply. A compact 5-by-3-by-2-foot unit funded by the Bklyn Incubator, the Cookmobile is fitted with a sink, induction cooktop, convection oven and enough cooking utensils…
This week, the city of Seoul, South Korea, is sponsoring a sampling of Korean confections prepared by five of that city’s pastry chefs. Called Sweet Seoul, it was held in Paris at the Galeries Lafayette department store last weekend and moves to New York this week for an exhibit and tasting, open to the public…