The Pastry Chefs Making Jam the Star
Jam, that reliable symbol of domesticity, often gets disregarded as nut butter’s strawberry-flavored sideshow. But recently, a group of female pastry chefs have been upgrading the condiment to the main event — and moving beyond the expected fruits as they do. Among the pan dulce that Teresa Finney, a second-generation Mexican American baker, serves at her Atlanta pop-up, At Heart Panadería, are chiffon cakes spiced with pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg, sweetened with piloncillo and stuffed with seasonal fruit compote. Similarly, Milena Pagán brings her Puerto Rican roots to the menu at Little Sister in Providence, R.I., with jam combinations including guava and raspberry, as well as blood orange and hibiscus. And at Flourish Bakeshop & All Day Café on Long Island, Chelsea Kravitz creates preserves out of butternut squash and other produce from her garden, which add color to her yogurt bowls, cocktails and dukkah-flavored whipped ricotta toast. For those curious to try making it themselves, Camilla Wynne’s cookbook, “Jam Bake,” which came out last year, incorporates verjus, cocoa nibs and elderflower into unusual spreads that hit the spot. — Alicia Kennedy
A New Book That Shows the Range of Japanese Interior Design
In her new book, “Japanese Interiors,” Mihoko Iida, a writer and editor at Vogue Japan, attempts to bridge a gap, she says, “between what global readers expect and want to see in a book about Japanese interiors and how Japanese people actually design and utilize their homes.” The Western idea that these houses must either adhere to simplicity or exuberance isn’t just reductive, she argues — it’s wrong. Iida’s book, which Phaidon will release in November, divides 28 residences from around the country into three sections: aspirational, functional and historic/iconic. Among them, there’s a woodsy retreat in eastern Japan with checkerboard walls and a sunken outdoor stone bath, a narrow timber structure in Kyoto with floating internal staircases and a six-level Brutalist building on 215 square feet in the heart of Tokyo. It’s not just a sumptuous survey of the country’s design — it’s also a love letter to the spaces we inhabit, which, as Iida writes, “are worth so much more than the price of nails.” — Tom Delavan
