A Column With Regret

 Pete Wells has been such a fixture in the New York Times Wednesday Food sectio,He has been reviewing restaurants throughout the world, especially in his home town of New York City for the last twelve years. yet nothing lasts forever. It;s time for him to move on to other Times writing assignments.

Yesterday he wrote one of his last columns all about the new attitude of restaurants.In over  a decade he feels they have changed. One point is that people are ordering on screens as opposed to looking at a real  menu. This seems to be true all over as we scan a QR code and the restaurant's menu instantly pops up on our phones' screens. There were people to guide ours through our meals from the hosts to the waitstaff. There were also bartenders, runners,,captains and bussers to talk with. They gave insights about dishes and the restaurant along with contributing to the place's ambiance. Now it happens on a screen. Go into any Shake Shack and order on a screen. Food and drink is then paid on the same screen. Basically Mr. Wells, States restaurants have become vending machines with chairs. Yet he forgets about the Automat, a piece of New York history where diners could insert money into a machine and receive everything from chicken pot pies to  slices of cakes and a variety of hot and cold drinks. The first one Quisisana opened in Berlin in 1895. There's nothing new about this concept.

ANother thing Mr Wells raises is the rise of food on Instagram along with the decrease of paper menus. Most neighborhood eateries now are on delivery apps, Their entire menus are listed. Some of the restaurants aren't even real. They're what's known as ghost kitchens, kitchens that are just that kitchens. They're without any place to sit. The food  could be prepared in a professional kitchen at some placee.In others it could be in someone's house or apartment.As for the whole Instagram phenomenon, now restaurants don't want to serve anything that could go viral because they don't want their business to burn out.Diners go to places solely to put a picture of the latest trend on a social media platform. Whether the dish tastes good is irrelevant. They just want the world to know they had eggs prepared a certain way or they finally had a rainbow bagel.Then there are the tasting menu places where they 've become so impersonal, that they don;t care if people return or don;t. You sit there and get served.If there's a birthday -and there usually is - they they;re given a cupcake with a candle. That's it.

It sounds like the restaurant industry has jaded Pete Wells. There are hidden gems throughout the city, throwback to a time when dining was a fun and satisfying experience. They may be hard to find, but they're there.

Cooks And Non Cooks

These past few months have been challenging for home chefs and non chefs alike. It's been harder for the second. Don't fret. You're not alone. Many out there have issues with food from cooking to baking.

This was the subject of regular contributor Priya Krishna's piece in today's New York Times Food section. Cooking and baking do not come easy to many. Ms. Krishna interviewed several baptized by fire home chefs about their experiences (it was accompanied by clever drawing s from celebrated artist Jessica Olien). Some home cooks even have problems with frozen foods as did Melissa Hodges in College Station, Texas. She noticed her classmates at the Texas A&M University posting glossy pictures of spaghetti carbonara and citrus scones on Instagram. it inspired her.  She tried to heat a frozen pizza but forgot two vital things. She forgot to read the instructions and put it in some kind of pan. The dough fell through the cracks in her oven and the flavors? Think doughy and charred. She tried again with pasta and wound up with another mess.It crunched when she bit into it. Ms. Hodges is now resigned to eating breakfast cereal and other easy dishes. She could have chronicled her failures like another non-cook , Kyler Callahan of Seattle, Washington. The computer engineer cooked a chicken breast but incinerated it when he turned up the heat, when a meat thermometer declared the meat undercooked. This was the case also with Eric Philips who joking tweeted he alphabetically arranged his five spices.It did upset some home chefs.

Do cookbooks help? Many haven't been cracked open since they were given as wedding and shower gifts.This was the case with Kim Baldwin who works at the independent bookstore, Parnassus Books in Nashville. She also hasn't used the appliances she received for wedding gifts either. She has made curried lentils with the legumes from her pantry. It worked save for one problem - the lentils were eight years old. According to her they were "chewy and weird'. Then she tried making barbecued chicken with boneless chicken breasts and barbecue sauce. Everything was thrown into a slow cooker and turned basically into a soup. That convinced her husband to a steady diet of ramen. She did have a victory with lemon pie even though almost every ingredient had to be substituted due to shortages. Some of the simplest recipes like whipped daglona coffee, a popular drink made with just instant coffee, sugar, water and milk has been met with problems. Jennifer Tallman of Brooklyn tried it with an immesion blender , only to be bathed in it. Her shrimp and pasta also bombed.

Home chefs, don't despair. Stick with the simple and then work up to the more complicated dishes. Learning how to cook takes time. That's the secret ingredient.

Big Meal Little Kitchen

Thanksgiving can be the most stressful meal to make for any home chef. Imagine preparing and cooking in an apartment, where space, especially kitchen is rare. Alison Roman will do just that. How? Consider it kitchen magic.

Ms. Roman's battle plan was the main topic of today's New York Times Food section. Ms. Roman, known for her Instagram pictures of drool worthy dishes, is a well known internet chef along with being a regular contributor to the Food section. Cooking is her life and she has turned it into alchemy. That alchemy involves cooking in a small Brooklyn apartment. Can it be done? Yes!!! There are clever ways to store food and serve it cooked.There is also a practical plan on when to buy and prep certain dishes along with recipes that can take you from the first course to dessert with ease.It pays to heed her advice. It starts with planning the menu, three days ahead (although you could start planning the weekend before). Then,, of course there is the actual grocery shopping. Ms Roman strongly advises
also stocking up on aluminum foil, plastic wrap, paper towels and resealable bags for leftovers. Also it's a good time to order the wine you'll drink too.  She recommends something sparkling and festive and later on light reds.The day before should be all about the prep, from tearing bread for the stuffing to making the crust for the pies and galette. Another must - going to bed at a reasonable hour to be ready for the big day. The next day she chronicles what to do from eating a sustaining breakfast with coffee to finally sitting down to the eat.

Ms.Roman has a good handful of recipes that anyone can make. Her turkey is dry brined with sheet pan (!) gravy. The brine is more of a rub made with salt ,pepper , brown sugar and red onions along with garlic and onions. Keep it dry brined for a day or at least eight hours in the fridge. The gravy starts with Ms. Roman's own Cheater's Stock or chicken stock with the leftover roasted bits from the turkey. An unusual ingredient, soy sauce is used for saltiness and vinegar is used for tang. What goes with this? Buttered stuffing with celery and leeks. This is a traditional savory bread pudding, made even better by using such crusty bread as sourdough or ciabatta and flavored with a typical stuffing ingredient  - celery and a not so traditional one - leeks. It's a buttery, crunchy delight spiked with celery leaves.Of course there has to be potatoes and Ms. Roman makes hers with sour cream, chives and dill. She also takes the traditional squash dish and caramelizes it with maple syrups. Some home chefs would stop there but she then adds red pepper and smoked paprika for zing. Hazelnuts are also tossed into the mix for crunch.There is the traditional green bean recipe but brightened with kale and shallots. Other sides are fancy canned cranberries zested with oranges or tangerines and red onion and a mixed herb salad with spicy greens such as arugula, mizura and mustard greens. The piece de resistance is the dessert - a deep dish honey apple galette with homemade crust. The crust is buttery with a slightly spiced apple filling, There are even sesame seeds sprinkled on for crunch.

Imagine making all this in a small apartment's kitchen. Ms. Roman has - and quite successfully. It can be made  in a larger with the same results - good food with good flavor.

The Empire That Is Rachel Ray

Probably one of the best role models in the cooking world is Rachel Ray. She is lively and informative  , kind and caring. She's also a mogul with a good sized empire .From pet food to furniture  her name is everywhere. She is the template for young chefs who want it all.
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This food maven was ;profiled today by regular contributor , Kim Severson in today's New York Times Food section.Ms. Ray came into the public spotlight in the early Aughts. She was bubbly and fun, different from the teacher like TV cooks like Lidia Bastianich and Martha Stewart. America warmed to her, She was your best friend with a cooking show , the one who showed you that cooking was fun and not a chore. Some , though, didn't take too kindly to this. They mocked her , even starting blogs that trashed her and her cute phrases such as EVOO - extra virgin olive oil. Yet she persisted , venturing out with a magazine, Rachel Ray Every Day which has an impressive  1.7 million (!) subscribers along with her pet food line, Nutrish. The last is unique for a known chef, It would be impossible to imagine Booby Flay or Anthony Bourdain coming up with an all natural food for animal companions.That started with a small , family owned company noticing how she gave animals a lot of attention in her  magazine and approached her. She allowed them to use her name, providing the food was inspired by her recipes.It turns out that this was the most lucrative of her ventures, pulling in 650 million dollars (!) in 2017. The mega giant Smuckers, purveyors
 of those tasty jams and jellies is buying the parent company for 1.9 billion ,largely in art because of her influence.

Despite all this, Ms. Ray does have some struggles. As she turns fifty . she is losing her grip on the prized 18-35 demographic. She is  planning digitally streamed show that have more to do with travel, music and food instead of cooking and recipes. This will have to be her future..Syndicated shows like hers on on the decline and her Emmy nominations have dried up. The brand Rachel Ray is on Twitter and various other media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Still it's not reaching the younger, money spending crowd. Many  twenty somethings feel she's only appealing to young children and grandmothers/ She doesn't have that scientific edge such as Cook's Illustrated and Wirecutter,a New York Times owned digital magazine that spends days testing baking and cooking tools.Ms.Ray's  vibe is more the chummy anti-inspirational. Her attitude is that food is meant to be shared and stored not tested , analyzed and deconstructed. still if that doesn't win over the Millennials, , she will still keep going. There are new projects in the pipeline such as a line of furniture as well as designing handbags from real leather and vegan friendly  less expensive ones. Then  there is her love of music , fueled by her husband and partner, musician , Marc Cusimano
 leader of his band Cringe. she has staged shows for the South BySouthwest concert venue in her beloved Austen Texas.

Rachel Ray will survive, The sweetness masks a toughness and determination that made her what she is today. She doesn't need the Millennials to survive. She has her brand to carry her.