UNHITCHED
A Former Culinary Couple Now Thrives as a Blended Family
For Gale Gand and Rick Tramonto, both chefs, their passion for food always came first. After their divorce, they’ve learned to prioritize family.
By LOUISE RAFKIN
The Virus Spread Where Restaurants Reopened or Mask Mandates Were Absent
C.D.C. researchers found that coronavirus infections and death rates rose in U.S. counties permitting in-person dining or not requiring masks.
By RONI CARYN RABIN
FRONT BURNER
An Ode to Irish Classics, in Chocolate
L.A. Burdick’s holiday collection riffs on Irish breakfast tea, whiskey and even stew, with some white chocolate sheep, too.
Irish Chocolate Assortment, $45 for one-half pound, $78 for one pound, burdickchocolate.com.
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
For Perfectly Light Schnitzel, Do This
J. Kenji López-Alt was looking for the secret to an evenly golden, puffed schnitzel. He found it, and his recipe puts a new spin on an Austrian technique.
In this schnitzel, steam inflates the breading layer, which separates from the cutlet and puffs before it fully crisps.
By J. KENJI LÓPEZ-ALT
FIVE WEEKNIGHT DISHES
These Eggs Live Up to the Hype
J. Kenji López-Alt’s scrambled eggs are a superb light supper, and so springy.
- Extra-Creamy Scrambled Eggs
- Skillet Hot Honey Chicken With Hearty Greens
- Vegan Coconut-Ginger Black Beans
- Pasta With Green Puttanesca
- Shrimp Étouffée
By EMILY WEINSTEIN
A GOOD APPETITE
Your Morning Granola Just Got an Upgrade
Filled with coconut and dried cherries, these breakfast treats from Frenchette Bakery are wholesome enough for breakfast, and sweet enough for dessert.
These breakfast bars won’t disappoint.
By Melissa Clark
Also from BMTN’s Turtinen: “A Minneapolis bagel shop has made Food & Wine’s list of Best Bagels in America. Rise Bagel Co., at 530 N 3rd St. in Minneapolis’ North Loop, made the magazine’s list of ‘nearly 50’ best bagels (it didn’t rank the bagels), which was published March 5. Food & Wine says 20 years ago, a list like this would probably have been New York-centric, but in the years since quality bagel makers have popped up all around the country, making ‘the kind of bagels you take home by the dozen, hot and fresh.”
FRONT BURNER
A New Aperitif With Cherry Flavor
Haus’s latest aperitif is a spiced cherry that would be well suited to a manhattan.
Haus is mostly sold online, $35 a bottle (750 milliliters) or $40 for four 200 milliliter (6.76 ounce) samplers.
Haus Apéritifs, drink.haus.
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
THOSE WE’VE LOST
Anna Majani, Grande Dame of Fine Chocolate, Dies at 85
She turned chocolates from her family company, founded in the 18th century, into design objects. She died of Covid-19.
Anna Majani was 18 when she started working at her family’s chocolate company. Over the years she became its creative heart.
When Anna Majani first stepped into her family’s factory in Bologna, Italy, to begin work among the cocoa toasters, marble tables and molds for chocolates eaten by kings and poets, nobody took her seriously.
It was 1954. She was a woman. She was all of 18. And she had caused a scandal in town, becoming pregnant by a soccer player at 15.
But Ms. Majani stayed on, rose to vice president and became the company’s creative heart, earning credit for turning her family’s chocolates into design objects and imbuing the brand with her charisma.
By EMMA BUBOLA
David Mintz, Whose Tofutti Made Bean Curd Cool, Dies at 89
He set out to create an ice cream substitute for people who keep kosher. He created a phenomenon, also loved by vegans, diabetics and people with milk allergies.
David Mintz, chairman and chief executive of Tofutti Brands, in 1984. His company went from distributing pint containers of its signature frozen vanilla soy-based dessert to developing some 35 plant-based products.
Late in the 1970s he had to close Mintz’s Buffet, his restaurant on Third Avenue, because the block was being razed to build Trump Plaza. When he was offered the option to transplant his restaurant to the Upper West Side, he sought Rabbi Schneerson’s guidance. The rabbi’s secretary, Rabbi Leibel Groner, called him back, Mr. Mintz recalled, and said: “Get a pencil and paper and write it down. This is very important.”
“I was very excited,” Mr. Mintz said. “This was the answer I was waiting for. Then he dictated to me, ‘The rebbe says, “Absolutely not.” The rebbe says you should continue with your experiments with the pareve ice cream and God will help you to be very successful.’”
By SAM ROBERTS