Food! Glorious Food!

Bringing to Light the Cuisine of Hercules Posey, George Washington’s Enslaved Chef
For more than 200 years, the story of the nation’s first presidential chef has been lost to history, but a group of historians is working to give Hercules Posey his due.
By Ramin Ganeshram

Why a Tire Company Gives Out Food’s Most Famous Award

THE POUR
The Twilight of the American Sommelier
The job, once seen as an essential feature of any establishment serious about wine, now seems to be a luxury in the post-pandemic restaurant economy.
By Eric Asimov

NYT Critic’s Pick Movie(s)

The Arc of Oblivion
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Documentary | Directed by Ian Cheney
A documentary about building an ark turns into a funny, thoughtful rumination on the nature of human preservation.


A scene from Ian Cheney’s documentary “The Arc of Oblivion.”
By ALISSA WILKINSON

— Of Possible Interest —

2024 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action
Not Rated
Many of this year’s films take a darker turn, but there is some levity among the bunch.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS AND MAYA PHILLIPS AND BEN KENIGSBERG

Food! Glorious Food!

When the Breakup Ruins Your Favorite Restaurant
Getting dumped while dining out doesn’t just happen in movies. And in real life, it could put you off your favorite place forever.
By BECKY HUGHES

A GOOD APPETITE
Pistachio Cheesecake, 2 Ways: Super Simple and Simply Showstopping
The slightly sweet nut shines in these two smart recipes from Melissa Clark.


Store-bought pistachio paste gives this impressive cheesecake a deeply nutty flavor without a lot of fuss.
By MELISSA CLARK

Easy No-Bake Cheesecake vs. Showstopping 10-Hour Pistachio Cheesecake | Melissa Clark | NYT Cooking

There’s No Limit to What the Negroni Can Do
Play with its simple formula, and you can make a number of delicious, bittersweet cocktails.


Drop the gin in a Negroni, and you have a light, gorgeous Milano-Torino.
By Rebekah Peppler

THE POUR
This Valentine’s Day, Say It With Wine
For occasions like a day that spotlights sweets, a special bottle of sweet wine might be the perfect ending.


By Eric Asimov

Bob Moore, Who Founded Bob’s Red Mill, Is Dead at 94
A former gas station owner, he was learning to read the Bible in its original languages when he changed course and started what became an artisanal-grains powerhouse.


Bob Moore, the founder of Bob’s Red Mill, at his retail store in Milwaukie, Ore., in 2010. His company grew from serving the Portland area to become a global natural-foods behemoth.
By ALEX WILLIAMS

David Bouley, Influential New York Chef, Dies at 70
At restaurants like Montrachet and Bouley, he channeled French nouvelle cuisine to create the New American style.

The chef and restaurateur David Bouley in 2017 at Bouley at Home, a New York enterprise that included a dining room, a food lab, a cooking school and a bake shop.
The chef and restaurateur David Bouley in 2017 at Bouley at Home, a New York enterprise that included a dining room, a food lab, a cooking school and a bake shop.
By JULIA MOSKIN

NYT Critic’s Pick Movie(s)

Here
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Drama | Directed by Bas Devos
In Bas Devos’s muted and luminous Belgian drama, two lonely souls repeatedly encounter each other.


Liyo Gong, left, and Stefan Gota in “Here.”
By LISA KENNEDY

Out of Darkness
NYT Critic’s Pick | R | Horror, Thriller | Directed by Andrew Cumming
A Stone Age tribe is hunted by an unseen entity in this wondrously atmospheric survival thriller, which unfolds in a fictional language.


Safia Oakley-Green in “Out of Darkness.”
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Molli and Max in the Future
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi | Directed by Michael Lukk Litwak
This rom-com brings futuristic absurdity and nimble timing to a comfort-food story line of friends turned soul mates.


Aristotle Athari and Zosia Mamet in “Molli and Max in the Future.”
By NICOLAS RAPOLD

Ennio
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Documentary, Biography, History, Music | Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
A lively, absorbing documentary about the Italian composer whose music is featured in hundreds of movies, from “A Fistful of Dollars” to “Kill Bill.”

Ennio Morricone, who died at age 91 in 2020, bridged musical worlds and blurred the lines between the serious and the pop.
Ennio Morricone, who died at age 91 in 2020, bridged musical worlds and blurred the lines between the serious and the pop.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

The Taste of Things
NYT Critic’s Pick | PG-13 | Drama, History, Romance | Directed by Anh Hung Tran
Juliette Binoche stars in an instant culinary classic that exquisitely captures the kitchen’s bittersweet blessing.


Juliette Binoche in “The Taste of Things.”
By ALISSA WILKINSON

Perfect Days
NYT Critic’s Pick | PG | Drama | Directed by Wim Wenders
Directed by Wim Wenders, this Oscar-nominated Japanese drama gently excavates the life of a toilet cleaner, and the shadows that lurk inside.


Koji Yakusho in “Perfect Days.”
By ALISSA WILKINSON

Food! Glorious Food!

Who Created Butter Chicken? India’s Great Curry Clash.
A court has been asked to solve a bitter dispute between two families who have very different accounts of the origins of a dish beloved around the world.
By Suhasini RajPhotographs and Video by Anindito Mukherjee
Reporting from New Delhi

THE POUR
This Valentine’s Day, Say It With Wine
For occasions like a day that spotlights sweets, a special bottle of sweet wine might be the perfect ending.

Ten wine bottles of various sizes are photographed together against a white backdrop.
By Eric Asimov

NYT Critic’s Pick Movie(s)

Skin Deep
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Drama, Fantasy, Romance | Directed by Alex Schaad
A sensitive relationship drama in sci-fi trappings explores big questions about bodies, souls and intimacy.


Mala Emde and Jonas Dassler in “Skin Deep.”
By ALISSA WILKINSON

Bushman
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Drama | Directed by David Schickele
A 1971 indie whose making was disrupted by its star’s deportation finally receives a release in New York.


Paul Eyam Nzie Okpokam in “Bushman.”
By BEN KENIGSBERG

Disco Boy
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Drama | Directed by Giacomo Abbruzzese
This feature debut from the Italian director Giacomo Abbruzzese takes on ordinary people trying to free themselves from the bonds of their homelands.


Franz Rogowski, who leaves Belarus to join the French Foreign Legion in the hope of starting a new life.
By BRANDON YU

— Of Possible Interest —

She Is Conann
Not Rated | Action, Fantasy | Directed by Bertrand Mandico
This feminist riff on “Conan the Barbarian” is a sci-fi horror movie sprinkled with a bit of glam-rock fairy dust.
By BEATRICE LOAYZA

Argylle
PG-13 | Action, Thriller | Directed by Matthew Vaughn
A simulacrum of a spy movie offers few pleasures and plenty of headaches.
By ALISSA WILKINSON

Food! Glorious Food!

5 FAVORITE PLACES
Linda Ronstadt’s Tucson
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer known for hits like “Blue Bayou” and “Long Long Time” recommends spots she adores in the city where she was born and raised.


San Xavier del Bac Mission, completed in 1797, is the oldest intact European building in Arizona. Inside its walls, Linda Ronstadt says, she can feel magic.
By ABBIE KOZOLCHYK

A GOOD APPETITE
This Simple Ingredient Makes So Many Meals Shine
Coconut milk effortlessly lends its subtly sweet flavor and richness to countless recipes.

Coconut milk’s creamy sweetness tempers the earthiness of black beans in this easy soup.
By Melissa Clark

Tasting History: https://youtu.be/_bx2DjFU5eE?si=4BiU_z1M9gWJVtwz

After a Boom, Craft Beer Considers a New Creed: Less Is More
Many breweries, bars and supermarkets that once offered a dizzying array of new beers are now paring back to a chosen few.


Sacred Profane Brewing in Biddeford, Maine, brews only two beers, a pale lager and a dark lager, that customers can order with varying levels of foam or blended.
By JOSHUA M. BERNSTEIN

NYT Critic’s Pick Movie(s)

Totem
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Drama | Directed by Lila Avilés
In Lila Avilés’s second feature, a 7-year-old girl begins to grasp the severity of her father’s illness while birthday preparations are underway at home.


“Totem,” Naíma Sentíes stars as Sol, who peeps into rooms and listens in on adult conversations, a child explorer in a strange land.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

Pictures of Ghosts
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Documentary | Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
The Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho draws on fact and fiction in this image-rich documentary that moves fast and far, but always returns home.


“Pictures of Ghosts” bounces from topic to topic. Among them are cinema and its history, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s own amateur films and images of his moviegoing recollections.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

Mambar Pierrette
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Drama | Directed by Rosine Mfetgo Mbakam
A gifted seamstress, played by the filmmaker Rosine Mbakam’s cousin, has to put out a string of fires in this rich portrait of Cameroonian womanhood.


Pierrette Aboheu Njeuthat as the title character in “Mambar Pierrette.”
By BEATRICE LOAYZA

Food! Glorious Food!

Hippy, capitalist, guru, grocer: the forgotten genius who changed British food
Nicholas Saunders was a counterculture pioneer with an endless stream of quixotic schemes and a yearning to spread knowledge – but his true legacy is a total remaking of the way Britain eats
by Jonathan Nunn

How Coffee Farmers in Hawaii Fought Counterfeit Kona Beans
A testing method borrowed from geology helped farmers sue a slew of stores selling supposed “Kona” coffee.
By VIRGINIA HUGHES

24 Breakfast Recipes to Make You a Morning Person
Don’t rise and grind. Rise and dine.
By KRYSTEN CHAMBROT

The Trick to the Fluffiest Muffins May Already Be in Your Kitchen


Let these lemon blueberry muffins be the hit of brightness you need this dreary winter.
By Genevieve Ko

All Breakfast, All the Time
Spicy, cheesy eggs Kejriwal, broiled salmon with mustard and lemon and miso-pecan banana bread are delicious at any hour.
By MELISSA CLARK

A GOOD APPETITE
What Makes Chicken and Rice Even Better? A Little Bite.

In this easy sheet-pan meal, turmeric-ginger chicken roasts on a bed of crispy, scallion-flecked rice.
Cooking rice on a sheet pan lets it crisp up gloriously, adding crunch to this classic weeknight pairing.
By MELISSA CLARK

Exploring Caribbean Food, Island by Island
Tavel Bristol-Joseph of Canje in Austin, Texas, is one of many chefs around the United States who are exploring their Caribbean heritage through the cooking of specific countries and islands.
By Korsha Wilson

Did a Delicious Mistake Lead to This National Dish?
Everyone agrees that sopa Paraguaya, a custardy cornbread, is one of a kind, but historians debate whether its creator was an overzealous presidential chef.


This dense and cheesy cornbread is commonly served alongside grilled meats in Paraguay.
By CHRISTINA MORALES

The Ghosts of Black Appalachia Visit Her Kitchen
In her new book, “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts,” the poet Crystal Wilkinson explores her family history through cooking and recipes.
By KORSHA WILSON

The Best Bowl of Beans I’ve Ever Had
A pantry staple can be exciting, even thrilling, with a little time, care and cleverness.


By ERIC KIM

THE POUR
The Wine Heiresses Apparent


Angela Fronti, left, with two employees, Cecilia Csizmadi and Sofia Rimini. Ms. Fronti used her family’s vineyards to create Istine, now an excellent Chianti Classico estate.
By Eric Asimov

NYT Critic’s Pick Movie(s)

The Kitchen
NYT Critic’s Pick | R | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller | Directed by Daniel Kaluuya, Kibwe Tavares
Directing their first feature, Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya spin a warmly humane story of cross-generational connection.


Kane Robinson, left, with Jedaiah Bannerman in “The Kitchen.”
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Drama | Directed by Thien An Pham
An uncommonly strong debut from the Vietnamese director Pham Thien An asks existential questions without answers.


Vu Ngoc Manh, left, with Le Phong Vu in “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell.”
By ALISSA WILKINSON

The Settlers
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Crime, Drama, History, Western | Directed by Felipe Gálvez Haberle
This harrowing drama takes place in Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago in the southernmost part of South America, in 1901.


Mishell Guaña in “The Settlers,” a film directed by Felipe Gálvez.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

Inshallah a Boy
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Drama | Directed by Amjad Al Rasheed
In this film by Amjad Al Rasheed, a young widow in Jordan strains against the tradition, underpinned by law, that without a man she is nothing.


Mouna Hawa in “Inshallah a Boy,” directed by Amjad Al Rasheed.
By LISA KENNEDY

Apolonia, Apolonia
NYT Critic’s Pick | Not Rated | Documentary, Biography | Directed by Lea Glob
The painter Apolonia Sokol is the ostensible subject of a wide-ranging documentary about life itself.


The artist Apolonia Sokol in the documentary “Apolonia, Apolonia.”
By ALISSA WILKINSON