CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK From Toxic Chefs to Covid, Restaurant Workers Deserve Better
A former Momofuku employee’s account of a rage-fueled workplace is an all-too-familiar story. But it raises questions about how we treat restaurant staffs in the Covid era.
By PETE WELLS
Some Covid Survivors Haunted by Loss of Smell and Taste
As the coronavirus claims more victims, a once-rare diagnosis is receiving new attention from scientists, who fear it may affect nutrition and mental health.
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Nukazuke pickles at the Nishiki Market in Kyoto, Japan.
By HANNAH BEECH
A Shrimp Creole for Our Times
The dish revels in improvisation, making it perfect for these tumultuous, unpredictable months.
By VALLERY LOMAS
Albert Roux, Chef Who Brought French Cuisine to London, Dies at 85
Mr. Roux and his brother, Michel, opened Le Gavroche in the late 1960s, raising the level of fine dining in the city and offering a training ground for some of the restaurant industry’s future stars.
Albert Roux in an undated photo. Le Gavroche, the restaurant he opened with his brother, Michel, in 1967, is credited with bringing fine French cuisine to London.
By Christine Hauser
The Most-Read Food Stories of 2020
Readers turned to the Food section for advice on quarantine cooking, expiration dates and comfort food — lots of comfort food.
By SARA BONISTEEL
Remembering the Restaurants America Lost in 2020
This has been a harrowing year. From fine-dining trailblazers to longtime neighborhood favorites, we commemorate just some of the many places that had to close their doors forever.
CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK Before They Closed, Restaurants Opened Doors for Us
Ligaya Mishan counts the many ways she misses eating out, and the lessons it taught her about the world and its possibilities.
By LIGAYA MISHAN
Is Dairy Farming Cruel to Cows?
A small group of animal welfare scientists is seeking answers to that question. Facing a growing anti-dairy movement, many farmers are altering their practices.
By ANDREW JACOBS
GOOD QUESTION Will My Popcorn Explode?
The odds that all of your popcorn kernels will pop simultaneously aren’t zero. Maybe think instead of the multiple lotteries you’re more likely to win.
By RANDALL MUNROE
Soup joumou is traditionally made with squash, beef, pasta and assorted vegetables. This version, from the New York author Cindy Similien, includes handmade dumplings.
By PRIYA KRISHNA
It’s Peak Season for Tamales in Los Angeles
Big tamaladas are canceled this year, but many of the city’s tamaleras press on because tamales, along with the cultures and microeconomies they sustain, are essential.
At her outdoor kitchen in Montebello, Calif., Claudia Serrato and her family make tamales with blue corn and braised bison.
By TEJAL RAO
How Will We Eat in 2021? 11 Predictions to Chew On
Meal kits from your favorite restaurant, snacks that help you sleep and other ways the food world may respond in a year of big changes.
By KIM SEVERSON
Five Kwanzaa Celebrations Around the Country
For many Black Americans, the holiday is a time for bonding, joy and repose. The Times visited five households to see how people cook and gather, engage and reflect.
By NICOLE TAYLOR, NYDIA BLAS, CELESTE NOCHE, BRIAN PALMER and TIMOTHY SMITH
Reclaiming the Tiki Bar
Tiki bars are a beverage industry mainstay — with a painful and underexamined past. Can the format be repaired?
By SAMMI KATZ and OLIVIA MCGIFF
Henry Haller, Chef for Five Presidents, Dies at 97
He had the high-level skills necessary for the job but also a welcome flexibility, allowing him to thrive in the, well, pressure-cooker that is the White House.
Henry Haller preparing for the White House wedding reception of Lynda Bird Johnson, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s oldest daughter, in 1967. Johnson was the first of five presidents Mr. Haller served.
By GLENN THRUSH
In Sweden, Infections and Calls for a Lockdown Are Rising
The country has been keeping restaurants and bars open, trying not to let the pandemic disrupt life. But the second wave is forcing the authorities to reconsider their approach.
By Thomas Erdbrink and Christina Anderson
James Beard in his Greenwich Village kitchen in 1964, the year his memoir, “Delights and Prejudices,” was published. He wrote extensively about his childhood and food memories, but never publicly acknowledged that he was gay.
By JULIA MOSKIN
Make A DIY Seltzerator
With our constant need to hit ‘refresh’ right now, sparkling water is in high demand. Here’s how to save money and the planet by making it yourself.
By MEREDITH PAIGE HEIL
Aquavit Christmas to Go, $195 for two, 65 East 55th Street, 212-307-7311, aquavit.org; Christmas in a Box, $150 for two, $65 additional, sweDISHnyc.com, 917-251-7093.
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
How to Pretend You’re in Dakar Today
The Senegalese capital has an aura that seeps into the soul. Bustling and addictive, it makes you want to stick around.
By SEBASTIAN MODAK
FOOD MATTERS The Appealing and Potentially Lethal Delicacy That Is Fugu
Eating has been a perilous act for most of human history, but Western diners have lately become that much more obsessed with the idea that our meals might destroy us.
By LIGAYA MISHAN
Those looking to add more fiber to their diet have a flour in their corner: Flourish, made with a high-fiber strain of wheat.
Flourish Fiber from the Farm, $22.49 for five pounds, flourish-flour.com.
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
The American Ballet Theater’s dancers and staff have created a community cookbook of cherished recipes.
“ABT Kitchen,” $15, abt.org.
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
Olivieri, a bakery in northern Italy, ships its feather-light breads to America.
Olivieri 1882, $70 including two-day shipping from Italy, usa.olivieri1882.com.
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
Hide these festive treats from La Maison du Chocolat and Charbonnel et Walker in the stockings.
Artistic Piece Holiday Cracker, $40, lamaisonduchocolat.com; Yule Logs, $27.95 for a box of eight, surlatable.com/holidays/confections.
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
Punch cakes from the Vienna Cookie Company are inspired by punschkrapferl, a liquor-soaked petit four.
Punch cakes, $60 for seven, viennacookiecompany.com.
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
Powerfully Flavored Pasta
Mark Bittman’s puttanesca is as easy and satisfying as anything you’ll make all month.
By EMILY WEINSTEIN
Frank Carney, Co-Founder of Pizza Hut, Dies at 82
When he was 19, Mr. Carney and his brother Dan borrowed $600 from their mother to start their business in Wichita, Kan. Before long it became the world’s largest pizza chain.
Frank Carney, right, in 1996, after he began working for the Papa John’s pizza chain. Thirty-eight years earlier, Mr. Carney had been a founder of Pizza Hut.
By GLENN RIFKIN
Singapore Approves a Lab-Grown Meat Product, a Global First
The approval for a U.S. start-up’s “cultured chicken” product is a small victory for the nascent laboratory meat industry. Less clear is whether other countries will follow Singapore’s lead.
A handout photograph showing a dish made with lab-grown chicken developed by Eat Just. In Singapore, it’s cleared as a chicken-nugget ingredient.
By Mike Ives
Viktor Klimov, a professional mushroom hunter, stalking his prey in the forest near the village of Dobrianka, Ukraine, this month.
By Maria Varenikova and Andrew E. Kramer
How to Make the Perfect Cookie Box
For years, Melissa Clark has been on a quest to make the most delicious cookie box to gift to loved ones, logging her triumphs and failures along the way. Here’s what she’s learned.
By Melissa Clark
Let This Festive Brandied Fruit Lift Your Holidays
A family tradition inspired Yewande Komolafe’s spiced and steeped fruit mix, which you could add to cocktails and scones, or serve alongside braised lamb.
This dried fruit mix, made with apricots, cranberries, cherries, pears and currants — and a generous amount of brandy — is a taste of the holidays that lasts well beyond them.
By Yewande Komolafe
A French shortbread cookie with a puckery sharp lemon curd and a crunchy meringue top.
By Sam Sifton
What if Cocktail Mixers Were Actually Good?
Prefab drink mixes have long had a bad name, but here come several made with natural ingredients and a craft bartender’s sensibility.
For decades, the word “mixers” evoked industrially manufactured drinks. Newer options use freshly squeezed juice and handmade syrups.
By Robert Simonson
CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK This Thanksgiving, It’s Time to Stop Nap-Shaming In 2020, officeless workers learned to doze off between Zoom calls. Maybe now we can admit that the post-turkey crash is nothing to be ashamed of. By Pete Wells
Zagat and Michelin Hit Pause on New York City Guides There will be no New York restaurant guides from the two companies this year, as restaurateurs struggle to keep their businesses open. By Florence Fabricant
How to Pretend You’re in Hawaii Tonight With a few easy-to-find items, you can discover the archipelago’s breathtaking biodiversity, savor its flavors and music, even delight in an island-inspired Thanksgiving.
A view of Hāmoa Beach in Maui. By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
Waikiki in Honolulu. A new installment of the series Around the World at Home focuses on Hawaii and includes, among other tips, how to create a lei and feel like you’re in a Maui palm forest. By Lauren Reddy
The Barroso is one of Portugal’s most isolated areas, known for its rough terrain, abiding agricultural traditions and stunning beauty. Photographs and Text by André Vieira
Families that have grown weary of eating commercial kimchi in big cities have started making pilgrimages to the countryside where they can learn how to prepare it on their own. By Choe Sang-Hun
FRONT BURNER A New Cookbook From Jacques Pépin His foundation, which offers training programs for chefs, offers a digital cookbook, with recipes from Padma Lakshmi, Kwame Onwuachi and more.
Jacques Pépin, center, has released an online cookbook available to members of his foundation. Jacques Pépin Foundation, jp.foundation. By Florence Fabricant
They Welcomed Dozens for Thanksgiving. Now What? For decades, a couple have been the unofficial parents for many Black students at Notre Dame. This year, that family is scattered, reflecting on the year’s crises. By Kim Severson
You can bake these fall-winter treats in a doughnut pan — or even a muffin tin. By Erin Jeanne McDowell
3 Brilliant Ways to Transform Leftover Stuffing Sohla El-Waylly is here for the holiday’s best side, which she griddles into sandwich filling, fries into croutons and simmers into dumplings for soup.
By Sohla El-Waylly
Give Thanks for This Simple Pleasure Think of these cheesy bread balls in tomato sauce, a kind of deconstructed pizza, as a tribute to the little things, Yotam Ottolenghi writes.
This recipe is simple, communal and comforting. By Yotam Ottolenghi
A Designer’s Endlessly Adaptable Nigerian Stew Niyi Okuboyejo makes his efo riro with turkey and yams, but you should feel free to experiment. It’s a dish, he says, that rewards improvisation. By Nick Marino
A man of many careers, Gianni Bernardinello settled down as a baker. A sign outside his shop over free baked goods read, “To give a hand to those in need, help yourself and think of others too.” By Emma Bubola
The Thanksgiving Myth Gets a Deeper Look This Year
For many Native Americans, the Covid-19 toll and the struggle over racial inequity make this high time to re-examine the holiday, and a cruel history.
By BRETT ANDERSON
How to Do Thanksgiving With Less Waste
For environmental advocates, it includes small measures like reusing ingredients, and broader efforts like rethinking our relationship to the holiday.
By PRIYA KRISHNA
TECH TIP How to Have a Fully Remote Family Thanksgiving
Skipping travel this year to stop the spread of Covid-19? Here’s how to digitally reimagine the holiday, from meal prep to after-dinner activities.
By J. D. BIERSDORFER
How Does Ina Do It?
Ina Garten, a.k.a. the Barefoot Contessa, has a loyal, diverse and growing fan base that follows her anywhere — even through quarantine and a Thanksgiving lockdown.
By JULIA MOSKIN
This Is Not Your Average Pumpkin Soup
Caramelized onions, apple cider and a touch of curry powder make this simple soup worthy of the Thanksgiving table.
A GOOD APPETITE
Even the Littlest Helping Hands Can Make Thanksgiving
This year’s scaled-down festivities present the perfect opportunity to start developing kitchen skills.
Crumbling cornbread for stuffing is a great task for kids of any age.
By Melissa Clark
Although yams and sweet potatoes are interchangeable to many Americans, yams belong to another plant group; most African diaspora yams are large, with fibrous skin and pale white flesh. (During the 1930s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture allowed Louisiana farmers to market the Puerto Rican sweet potato variety as yams, according to Ms. McGreger’s book.)
By NICOLE TAYLOR
Take Hot Chocolate to the Next Level
It’s getting cold and your table might be outside. Here are ways to warm up with adult versions of winter’s favorite drink.
Six years ago, Norman Jean Roy walked away from his career behind the camera. These days, he’s baking bread. By NICK MARINO
FOOD MATTERS In the Arctic, Reindeer Are Sustenance and a Sacred Presence For the Indigenous communities who herd the animals, safeguarding dying culinary traditions isn’t merely about eating but about protecting a longstanding way of life.
A spread of Arctic provisions including, from left, sun-dried white trout, moose antler, venison sausage, caribou blood sausage, dried Arctic flounder, dried sea bream, caribou lichen, meadow onion stems and seed heads, dried wild crowberries and geothermal Arctic sea salt against a deer hide backdrop. By LIGAYA MISHAN
THE FIX A Dining Room That Celebrates Every Meal Even with a socially distant Thanksgiving around the corner, you can create a dining room that lives up to the food you’re serving. By TIM MCKEOUGH
Solo on the Holiday? Reach Out Single people make up one third of all American households and finding ways to celebrate this Thanksgiving means taking action ahead of time. By ANNA GOLDFARB
Clockwise from left, maple-roasted squash, sautéed greens with smoked paprika, herby bread-and-butter stuffing, and turkey thighs with pickled cranberries and onions. By MELISSA CLARK
FRONT BURNER Maybe Just Get the Turkey Leg This Year Dickson’s Farmstand Meats in Chelsea Market now sells turkey leg confit, for an understated, but festive celebration.
FRONT BURNER A Sparkling Dessert Collaboration Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams and Chandon have teamed up on a new sparkling berry punch sorbet for the holidays.
Jeni’s Sparkling Berry Punch Featuring Chandon, $12 a pint, jenis.com. By FLORENCE FABRICANT
FRONT BURNER An Ancient Grain Flour for Your Pie Crust This gluten-free flour from the chef Thomas Keller’s company can be used, as the brand says, measure for measure.
Cup4Cup Ancient Grains, $13.99 for two pounds, cup4cup.com. By FLORENCE FABRICANT
★★★ Lioco Sonoma County Chardonnay 2018 $22 Tangy, textured, energetic and balanced, with earthy, stony, floral and citrus flavors.
★★★ Julian Haart Mosel Riesling “1,000L” 2018 One Liter $24 Lively, bold and rich, with floral and mineral flavors. (Vom Boden, Brooklyn, N.Y.)
★★★ Gia Coppola Lake County Orange Riesling 2019 One Liter $25 Pretty orange wine, with an amber color, flavors of dried fruits and flowers, and a light touch of tannins.
★★★ Domaine les Aphillanthes Côtes du Rhône Clémentia Blanc 2019 $20 A “sunny wine,” as Julia Moskin put it, with flavors of tropical fruits, flowers and a kiss of honey. (Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, Penn.)
Red Wines
★★★ Castello di Verduno Verduno Basadone 2018 $24 Fresh and lively, with bright, spicy, incisive flavors of purple fruits, earth and a touch of citrus. (Polaner Selections, Mount Kisco, N.Y.)
★★★ Franck Balthazar Selections Côtes du Rhône 2018 $22 Lively, spicy and fresh, with earthy, peppery flavors. (Savio Soares Selections, New York)
★★★ Forlorn Hope Queen of the Sierra Rorick Heritage Vineyard Calaveras County 2017 $22 Bright, fresh and energetic, with complex flavors of red fruits and herbs.
★★★ Hound’s Tree High Wire North Fork of Long Island Pinot Noir NV $23 Light-bodied, with lively flavors of red fruits and a touch of refreshing bitterness. By Eric Asimov
Chairman of Elite Wine Group Resigns Amid Its Sexual Harassment Scandal Devon Broglie is the latest figure in the Court of Master Sommeliers to be accused of an inappropriate relationship. Devon Broglie resigned Friday as chairman of the board of the Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas. The group is in turmoil following sexual misconduct allegations against at least 11 members. By Julia Moskin
When Wine Is More Than Just a Drink The winemaker Taras Ochota, who died in October, created unique wines that were a touchstone for our Australia critic.
Taras Ochota, an idiosyncratic South Australia winemaker who named all of his wines after bands and songs, died last month at 49. By Besha Rodell
UKRAINE DISPATCH A New Front Opens in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Borscht
“A lot of things were taken away from Ukraine, but they will not take our borscht,” said a chef who is leading a drive to recognize the soup as a Ukrainian cultural heritage.
Olha Habro, 76, preparing borscht in Borshchiv, Ukraine.
By Maria Varenikova and Andrew E. Kramer
If Restaurants Go, What Happens to Cities?
Restaurants have been crucial in drawing the young and highly educated to live and work in central cities. The pandemic could erode that foundation.
By Eduardo Porter
Chaplin’s take on the dish is inspired by her memories of eating at the original Iku Wholefood, a pioneering macrobiotic cafe in Glebe, Australia, as a teenager in the ’90s.
By Kari Molvar
Ignacio Anaya, a maître d’hôtel at a restaurant in Piedras Negras, in Coahuila, Mexico, created nachos in 1940. The original recipe has just three elements: tortilla chips, cheese and pickled jalapeños.
By Pati Jinich
The Many Lives of Lentils
In stew, in pasta or in a bright, vegetarian loaf, there’s much to be done with this trusty legume, David Tanis writes.
From left, a brightly spiced lentil loaf, a smoky lentil stew and a pasta with lentils and fennel.
By David Tanis
From left, Liz Mitchell, Jane Lopes, Victoria James and Courtney Schiessl say they experienced sexual harassment as candidates for the Court of Master Sommeliers.
By Julia Moskin
RUSSIA DISPATCH In Russia’s Idyllic Wine Country, Dark Tales of Dreams Dashed
A verdant slice of southern Russia evokes Tuscany and produces surprisingly magical wine. But bureaucratic nightmares and police raids intrude on the aspirations of upstart vintners.
Collecting grapes at Yannis Karakezidi’s vineyard outside Anapa, Russia.
By Anton Troianovski
