favorite dishes of 2021…
After nearly a year of eating at home during the pandemic, I was eager to get out and gobble up 2021. Thankfully, I found cooking alive and well in the re-opening world. I returned to some of my...
View Articlefavorite desserts of 2021…
Alexandra Motz’s spumoni with chocolate sauce at Spoon and Stable; a fluffy wedge of panettone in the afternoon sun at Lo Pichotôme; plump prunes soaked in armagnac, crowned with a giant curl of...
View Articlefavorites of 2021: the restaurant edition…
For many, especially in the hospitality industry, 2021 was like drinking out of a firehose, wasn’t it? As pandemic restrictions lifted, it became quickly apparent that the pent up demand for travel...
View Articletravel: regroup and return (2022)…
Just as the world seemed to be galloping away from the pandemic, it was abruptly unhorsed by Omicron. As the new Covid variant – by far, the most infectious yet, we were told – raced around the globe...
View Articlerumination 39: outrageousness über alles…
If fact is stranger than fiction, what does that say about “The Menu,” the recently released dark, comedy horror film on HBO Max that satirizes destination dining? (There are no plot spoilers...
View Articletroisgros: Patrilineal… (2021)
As my taxi pulled into the gravel carpark, a smartly dressed woman from the front desk was already stationed and waiting for me outside, along with a valet. I got out and greeted her, and, as a...
View Articlederbyshire: chatsworth… (2022)
Sixteen generations of Cavendish patriarchs – the earls, and subsequently dukes of Devonshire – stare across a grand staircase at the Acheson sisters – granddaughters of the wife of the eighth duke –...
View Articlerumination 40: good enough…
Of the many crimes that industry awards are accused of committing, one of the gravest is the failure to be sufficiently inclusive. The problem with this complaint – well, one of the many, many...
View ArticleRumination 41: Short Flight Away…
The Princesses Mary and Sophia Stuart had been entombed next to each for nearly 400 years before I stumbled across them. It was in one of those tourist booklets found in gift shops, this one bought by...
View Articleyear end: reality is a long game…. (2023)
Recently, La Tour d’Argent, a standard bearer of la grande cuisine since the 1500s – where kings and emperors have feasted, where the fork made its French debut – posted a horrifying video on...
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