thirteen feature-y, travel-y columns i’m really proud of. and two obits :-(
the crushing disappointment of l’arpège
A tough look not just at the famed French restaurant, but also at enterprises like “Chef’s Table” and “50 Best” that traffic in jet-set destination dining (2016).
anton ego was the real hero of “ratatouille”
A look back at “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “Burnt,” “Chef,” and Hollywood’s skewed depictions of food critics. A certain Pixar film about a rat managed to get things mostly right, however.
how floyd cardoz’s genre-crossing talents built a better nyc dining scene
My homage to the Indian American chef, who died of covid at the age of 59.
jerky is a quintessential u.s. roadside snack
“The unsurprising irony of the gas station dried meat experience is that it takes one of the world’s most diverse culinary traditions and delivers it in a manner that feels mass-produced and thoughtless. It is commodity beef in a bag, for a country that has traditionally enjoyed commodity beef on its dinner plates.”
when will new york’s bars beel like bars again?
I take a dive into Ray Oldenberg’s “Great Good Place” and meditate upon how the COVID pandemic is changing our sense of so-called third places between work and home.
we lose so much more than just a business when a restaurant closes
“The closure of a single neighborhood restaurant can wreak deep cultural and social losses for the humans who spend time there…That loss can become all the more heartbreaking if the restaurant wasn’t immortalized by four reviews from two critics, or if it was the type of place that didn’t enjoy an afterlife on a Bourdain show rerun. Sometimes, restaurants simply evaporate into the ether.”
baohaus, remembered
I give credit to writer, director, and producer Eddie Huang for something he’s less known for these days: opening up a popular taiwanese restaurant before taiwanese restaurants were as popular as they are now.
how to order caviar without going totally broke
I hate to be the writer who says you’re probably not going to get consistently good caviar unless you learn some latin terms and other basics, but it’s true!
on the lack of female chefs at prominent restaurant groups
My last published piece at Bloomberg (2014): a long inquiry into the lack of female head chefs at some of the country’s most prominent restaurant groups.
one day at veselka during the COVID-19 pandemic
Photographer Gary He and I document the challenges of running one of the city’s most prominent diners during the heart of the pandemic
no chef cooks dinner quite like phillip foss
A long profile of one of Chicago’s more overlooked avant-garde chefs and an overview of modernist cooking in the Windy City.
on bistronomie, brains, and the joys of clown bar
But really, order the yuzu-laced brain!
new york restaurants through the eyes of gael greene
A rembrance of the late “Insatiable Critic,” including some of her most memorable (and more uncomfortable) lines.