Pizza was then a local dish little known outside Naples, according to Stephen Cerulli, a lecturer in Italian American history at Hostos Community College. (Cheese did not appear on Neapolitan pizza until about 200 years ago.) Naturally, many of America’s first pizzaiolos were from the region. That included Frank Pepe, a baker who got his…
Murray Stenson didn’t look like a revolutionary. Balding and slightly stooped, the son of a small-town grade-school principal, he spent decades quietly making cocktails at bars around Seattle, honing his classic, unfussy style. He favored regulars over celebrities, steady work over flair, handwritten notes over email. He shunned attention, even as his fame grew alongside…
Almost every family has a secret they never discuss. Ours is this: We were taste testers for Pop-Tarts. It was not long after Kellogg’s introduced the toaster pastry in 1964. But for several months one year (none of us can pinpoint the exact date), brown cardboard boxes arrived on our doorstep with an assortment of…
When it comes to cooking pasta, Celso Laforgia breaks every rule in the book. His spaghetti isn’t ivory-colored and tender. It’s dark as polished ebony and it crunches like grissini. He doesn’t cook it in boiling water. He chars the raw noodles in a skillet. He seasons it not with the usual fresh garlic, but…
I hope you’ll give that salmon a try this weekend. But not only the salmon. Claire Saffitz has an ace new recipe for cinnamon rolls that would be just the thing for a late breakfast on Saturday or Sunday. Her recipe will be easier and more fun to make if you watch this delightful video…
Some of my favorite Japanese restaurants are bars. Of course, there are the izakayas scattered around the city, where eating and drinking are as inseparable as sushi and rice. But there are also bars that happen to have excellent food even though they are best known for their beverages (cocktails and highballs, most often, but…
For Eiesha Bharti Pasricha, the artistic director of the London members’ club Maison Estelle, entertaining is sacrosanct. Growing up in an Indian family in New Delhi — her father is the businessman Sunil Bharti Mittal — she understood early on that hospitality was not just a nicety but a cultural value to be upheld. “Hosting…
One of the many things I adore about my friends is that we will text each other, apropos of nothing and with zero pleasantries, about what we’re eating at any moment. “I just made the most delish green tahini,” a girlfriend texted me Sunday evening. She had whirled together tahini, scallions, spinach, lemon juice, honey,…
Quick noodle soup for a long day By The New York Times Cooking Noodles are fun and soup is soothing, which makes this somen noodle soup with bok choy and mushrooms from Sue Li delightful and comforting. Sue creates a gently seasoned broth out of soy sauce, dehydrated shiitakes and sesame oil, but feel free…
Few grapes have traveled so jagged an up-and-down journey as zinfandel. It has oscillated wildly in both style and popularity. Twenty years ago, at the height of California’s embrace of powerfully fruity, potently alcoholic red wines, zinfandels reached a peak of esteem as the dominant critics of the time pushed wines that rose to head-splitting…