“Jell-Olives” (Castelvetranos suspended in cubes of Negroni jello) at Cafe Mars in Bushwick, from a recent issue of the New Yorker’s Food Scene newsletter.
I love the New Yorker, but I don’t read it for restaurant suggestions or recipes. Same with their Food Scene newsletter. And while a New Yorker subscription is quite expensive (though deals are to be had if you really work at it), the newsletter is free (though magazine subscribers get “priority access” whatever that means).
So what do you get if not recipes and restaurant tips? First, some of the finest food essay and personal experience writing anywhere. Bill Buford’s Heat, in my mind the all time best book on working in a restaurant kitchen, started as a long article in the New Yorker. More recently there is Helen Rosner’s interview with Kenji on the eve of his new book. We expect that many similar articles will be excerpted or published in full in the newsletter.
Rosner is also one of two writers of the restaurant column that appears at the front of most issues. This is an impression of a restaurant rather than an analysis of the menu and ambience, though you’re still going to find out what it is like to eat there. It’s most interesting to an out of towner* looking for food trends and inspiration, like the “Romanian-ish” place that puts flower petals on its soft cheese and serves complimentary gummy bears for dessert.
A typical food shot from a Hannah Goldfield restaurant piece.
Before Rosner (and maybe after; I didn’t see a clear announcement when the roaming food critic changed) there was Hannah Goldfield. She had the same clear-eyed approach to what’s happening in a restaurant but presented in a different voice, and there were really interesting photos accompanying the columns. Sometimes there were half-eaten dishes, sometimes an hand helping itself in the shot, sometimes harsh flash lighting.
Did I mention all this is free? There’s not a catch as far as I know (except that you will be regularly reminded you should buy a magazine subscription) so check it out.
*Unfortunately (or not) most of us do not live in NYC. I myself am three hours away and my visits are very transactional; I can take a train down, eat lunch or an early dinner, and get back the same night without paying $300 for a fleabag hotel room. So I’m not likely to go exploring an offbeat place in Bushwick though I am quite happy to read about it and steal ideas.
“Jell-Olives”. We’ve come so far!
I have the full Modernist Cuisine sitting on a shelf. Maybe time to crack open a volume. Years ago I did some work for the guy who provides the raw materials; search for “molecular gastronomy” or “modernist cuisine” and you’ll find a few posts. But my hunch is that Paul Allen took the best stuff with him to the grave.
Even though I’ve read it twice, Heat is on my list for this summer. Great book.