Food & Drink

  By Beverly Stephen “Black food matters,” so declares Marcus Samuelsson in his new book The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food.  Note that the title is not “soul food” but rather the “soul of American food.” Samuelsson laments that “many readers may still think that Black

By Brian E. Clark For decades, so the story goes, Paso Robles was a mere pitstop off California’s Highway 101 for wine aficionados on their way to the Napa and Sonoma valleys.  But that began changing about two decades ago, and Paso Robles – which means Passage of the Oaks in Spanish

By Alexander Lobrano During the year without restaurants, it turns out the last one I would go to in 2020 was the Maison Aribert, a Michelin two-star table in the operetta-set-like little spa town of Uriage-les-Bains, which is a few miles outside of Grenoble in the Vercors.   In retrospect,

Story & photos by Neil Wolkodoff As the craft distillery movement gains, the people making an impact with unique spirits have some funky backgrounds. Colin Keegan is the quintessential spirit maker at Santa Fe Spirits combining a totally un-related field with the artistic bent of distilling. When you visit, Santa

  By Beverly Stephen I’ve always wanted to go to Berlin, but Europe is off-limits these days. So, I was delighted to learn that Berlin could come to me in a meal kit. The Kotti Döner Berliner Kebab meal kit brings all the ingredients to build Berlin’s famous sandwich in your

By Alexander Lobrano As a Paris-based food and travel writer, traveling has been the axis of my life for the last thirty years. This year, though, I have not been in an airplane since I returned from a trip to Florida in January. Then I was quarantined in my apartment

By Catherine Sabino If you had any doubt about how seriously Italians take their coffee, consider that earlier this month, a campaign kicked off with support from a bi-partisan group of the country’s MPs to help espresso gain UNESCO recognition and make it on to the Intangible Cultural Heritage list (as

By Alexander Lobrano A L’Epi d’Or, a solid old neighbourhood bistro that opened on the edge of Les Halles in 1880, has mercifully been spared the ignominious fate of too many traditional Paris bistros in an ever gentrifying city: becoming a clothing store. Sepia-tinted by decades of Gauloises and Gitanes,

By Alexander Lobrano Le P’tit Canon is a perfect and very happy example of a good uncomplicated Parisian neighborhood bistro. It’s a lively, friendly, well-run place with a pretty Belle Epoque style dining room with a big bar up front where you can stop by on your own for a

Reviewed by Bobbie Leigh This year’s cookbooks reflect new flavors and priorities, the basics and beyond. The big surprise and most welcome is a massive, totally updated  JOY OF COOKING by John Becker and Megan Scott.  The first Joy was published in 1931 and rapidly became the home cook’s bible.