In an interview with Food52, Klancy Miller describes how she decided to launch her own magazine, For the Culture, “solely focused on and created by Black women”:
“I was also being introduced to a lot of people who had great ideas, so I just thought, ‘I really want to do this.’ A friend of mine said, ‘You should just do it yourself.’ I realized at a certain point, if I don’t do this, somebody else will, and I might not like the way they do it. So I’d rather do it myself.”
Joseph Truini at the Strategist has rediscovered the wonders of his food mill:
“For the uninitiated, a food mill is the antithesis of a modern kitchen marvel. It has no electronic motor or on-board circuitry. There’s no accompanying app, and it’s not Bluetooth compatible. It’s a simple, hand-cranked tool that’s used to mill (or crush) various fruits and vegetables for creating velvety-smooth sauces, soups, preserves, and purées.”
Joe Sevier at Epicurious says we should stockpile leftover citrus peels in the freezer:
“As I pulled a few slivers of frozen grapefruit peel from my freezer, I knew I’d made a smart move. I sliced the zest thinly lengthwise, chopped it across into a small mince, and scraped it all into a bubbling tomato sauce that had already been hit with harissa and white vermouth.”
Esther Mobley at the San Francisco Chronicle is done with making sourdough bread:
“It’s not you, it’s me. Actually, who am I kidding? It’s you. You’re the worst. At this point, sourdough, you have left me crying alone in my kitchen one too many late nights, my sweatpants caked in flour, and I can’t justify putting myself through the agony any longer.”
Neda Ulaby at NPR wonders what happened to the beans people bought during the COVID-19 outbreak:
“Remember the early days of the pandemic when shoppers scoured grocery shelves for flour, yeast and beans? Since then, we’ve seen ample evidence of people baking sourdough and banana bread on social media … but what about all those beans?”
At Epicurious, Kendra Vaculin makes the case for split-top hot dog buns:
“Following in the tradition of the original clam sandwich, split-top buns are commonly used for lobster and crab rolls, as they are able to neatly hold a serious scoop of seafood salad. But I’d argue that anything that uses a bun as a vessel, from bratwurst to meatball subs to simple butterflied dogs, can be improved by using a bun that’s cut on the top.”
Emma Barker at Bon Appétit describes how she makes bread using a $4 aluminum foil roasting pan:
“The foil pan has outlasted numerous other kitchen gadgets that took up too much space or were too annoying to pack and unpack. It’s had the same beneficial effect on my bread in each of the five different ovens I’ve baked in. I call it the Bread-erator 2015, and it has a place of honor in my kitchen.”
In the United Kingdom, health experts are calling for junk food to be more tightly regulated, reports the Guardian:
“They have urged severe restrictions on supermarket promotions of processed foods, and bans on fast food outlets near schools, and TV adverts for pizzas, burgers and similar foods before 9pm. One campaign group even urged the government to consider plain packaging for processed food.”
Joe McNamee at the Irish Examiner explains the appeal of home cooking during COVID lockdown:
“For some, it was a fleeting enthusiasm that soon grew as stale as the ubiquitous banana bread piling up in the bread bin but for many, many more, it marked a serious re-engagement with, or even brand new discovery of, what constitutes ‘real food’.”
At Food52, Barbara Sallick describes how COVID may make us think about and even design kitchens in a new way:
“For many of us, me included, the kitchen has emerged from the grab-and-go-on-my-way-to-somewhere-else spot in the house—an attractive and high-functioning pass-through—to a space where creativity and conversation prevail. The question then is: what can we add or subtract to improve this mindful equation?”