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“We will sell no wine before its time”: some Americans respond to this phrase with a chuckle of recognition, others by asking who’ll sell what wine before when. The difference must be generational, since those alive to watch television in the late 1970s and early 80s can’t have avoided hearing those words intoned on a […] Watch Orson Welles’ Intoxicating Wine Commercials That Became...

In 1999, Anthony Bourdain’s career seemed to have stalled. While his “principal vocation remained his position as executive chef” at New York’s Les Halles, restless intelligence and wanderlust kept him looking for other opportunities. “He was 43 years old, rode hard and put up wet,” writes Elizabeth Nelson at The Ringer, “a recovering addict with a […] Anthony Bourdain Talks About the Big Break That...

Some YouTuber posted online a pretty nice clip of an espresso shot being pulled from a La Marzocco FB80 espresso machine at 120 frames per second. They recommend muting the sound, then putting on your own music. I gave it a quick shot with the famous soundtrack for Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. And I’ll […] The Life & Death of an Espresso Shot...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlwnBy16W0E The South Korean capital of Seoul, where I live, has in the 21st century astonished visiting Westerners with its technology, its infrastructure, and its sheer urban vitality. It strikes many of those Westerners (and I include myself among them) as considerably more developed than anywhere in the countries they came from. But however much […] Watch a Korean Master Craftsman Make a Kimchi...

Image via Wikimedia Commons On the off chance Lin-Manuel Miranda is casting around for source material for his next American history-based blockbuster musical, may we suggest American Cookery by “poor solitary orphan” Amelia Simmons? First published in 1796, at 47 pages (nearly three of them are dedicated to dressing a turtle), it’s a far quicker read than the fateful Ron Chernow […] The First American Cookbook: Sample Recipes from <i>American...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0VWroX0gZA Do you think you would recognize a coffee plant if you came across one in the wild? Not that it’s likely outside the so-called “coffee belt,” the region of the world most rich in soil, shade, mild temperatures, and copious rainfall. Farmed coffee plants “are pruned short to conserve their energy,” the National Coffee […] The Life Cycle of a Cup of Coffee:...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAVlWxw9wh8 Once upon a time, not so long ago, First Fridays at the Frick were a gracious way for New Yorkers to kick off the weekend. Admission was waived, participants could take part in open sketching sessions or enjoy live performance, and curators were on hand to give mini lectures on the significance and historical context of […] Cocktails with a Curator: The Frick Pairs Weekly...

Consider that you eat the sins of the people —inscription carved above the entrance to the Monastery of Alcobaça‘s refectory Apparently, the Monastery of Alcobaça‘s resident monks were eating plenty of other things, too. Eventually their reputation for excessive plumpness became problematic. A hefty physique may have signified prosperity and health in 1178 when construction began on […] The Anti-Gluttony Door in Portugal’s Alcobaça Monastery Shamed...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abspZyhQDm0 Have you ever wondered what generations hundreds or thousands of years hence will make of our strip malls, office parks, and sports arenas? Probably not much, since there probably won’t be much left. How much medium-density fibreboard is likely to remain? The colorful structures that make the modern world seem solid, the grocery shelves, […] Archaeologists Discover an Ancient Roman Snack Bar in...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idAUo_fyHW4 You need never endeavor to make any of the recipes world renowned chef Jacques Pépin produced on camera in his 2008 series More Fast Food My Way. The helpful hints he tosses off during each half hour episode more than justify a viewing. The menu for the episode titled “The Egg First!,” above, includes Red Pepper Dip, Asparagus Fans […] Watch 26 Free Episodes of Jacques Pépin’s TV...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VivVf_x3p28 We must fight against puddles of sauce, disordered heaps of food, and above all, against flabby, anti-virile pastasciutta. —poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Odds are Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the father of Futurism and a dedicated provocateur, would be crestfallen to discover how closely his most incendiary gastronomical pronouncement aligns with the views of today’s low-carb crusaders. […] When Italian Futurists Declared War on Pasta (1930)...

Current auto-industry wisdom holds that no car without cup holders will sell in America. Though this also seems to have become increasingly true across the rest of the world, I like to imagine there still exists a country or two whose driving public holds fast against that particular design vulgarism. Such places would, of course, […] The Hertella Coffee Machine Mounted on a Volkswagen...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6bk_AGu5mw Soy sauce has figured into the cuisine of east Asia for more than two millennia. By that standard, the two-century-old Fueki Shoyu Brewing hasn’t been in the game long. But in running the operation today, Masatsugu Fueki can hardly be accused of failing to uphold tradition: he adheres to just the same practices for […] How Soy Sauce Has Been Made in Japan...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKe9pPYN3Ac When COVID-19 exploded in New York City last March, it erased everything on the calendar, including: All live theater… The city’s freshly implemented ban on single use plastic bags… And The Plastic Bag Store, a pop-up installation that was preparing to open in Times Square. The theaters remain dark, but the ban is back on, as of […] The Plastic Bag Store: A Pop Art Installation...

So, um… you look like you could use a drink… or another drink, or five…. I’ve given it up, but I can still mix a mean cocktail. How about a Stomach Julep (Julepum Stomachicum). No white suit or veranda required. It’s a “saffron syrup made with sherry, spirit rectified with mint, and a non-alcoholic mint […] A Digital Library for Bartenders: Vintage Cocktail Books...

What shall we read before bed? Georgia O’Keeffe was a fan of cookbooks, telling her young assistant Margaret Wood that they were “enjoyable nighttime company, providing brief and pleasant reading.” Among the culinary volumes in her Abiquiu, New Mexico ranch home were The Fanny Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit and Cook Right, […] Recipes from the Kitchen of Georgia O’Keeffe is...

Attention cheese lovers! Do you salivate at the thought of a Cheese Channel? Careful what you wish for. Food photographers employ all manner of disgusting tricks to make junky pancakes and fast food burgers look irresistibly mouthwatering. Food Insiders’ Regional Eats tour of the Italian Gorgonzola-making process inside a venerable, family-owned Italian creamery is the inverse […] How Some of the World’s Most Famous Cheeses...

Western scholarship has had “a bias against studying sensual experience,” writes Reina Gattuso at Atlas Obscura, “the relic of an Enlightenment-era hierarchy that considered taste, touch, and flavor taboo topics for sober academic inquiry.” This does not mean, however, that cooking has been ignored by historians. Many a scholar has taken European cooking seriously, before […] Explore the Roman Cookbook, <i>De Re Coquinaria</i>, the...