When he was 9 years old, Alex Vardakostas started working at his parents’ fast-food restaurant in southern California, where he experienced firsthand the mindless repetition of flipping burgers. “Let’s be honest, it’s not the culmination of the human spirit,” said Vardakostas, now 33. His experience led him to a career in robotics.
Read MoreOn their walk home one evening after closing up their Manhattan macaron shop, pastry chef Christina Ha and her husband, Simon Tung, heard the cries of an abandoned cat. The workaholic couple, stressed with running their 8-month-old fledgling business, found the emaciated cat with white paws, had him checked out by a veterinarian and gave him a name: Mr. Socks.
Read MoreAs New York City hosts Honey Week with its honey infusion workshops and apiary tours, local beekeepers say they have an added reason to celebrate this year. Their bees have been extra busy. "It was the best year in my last 10 years," said Andrew Cote of Andrew's Honey, a full-time beekeeper with about 50 hives in Manhattan.
Read MoreLast Thursday I attended a dinner where every ingredient used to create the meal had been earmarked for the landfill. What am I talking about? Moldy grapes, floppy herbs, limp carrots, overripe peaches and eggplant scraps.
I wrote about the dinner for the Wall Street Journal, and you can read that here. One item that we weren't quite able to get up on their website in time were the tips the host, Josh Treuhaft, and his chef, Celia Lam, shared with me on ways to minimize your food waste.
Bruised apples, floppy herbs and moldy grapes might not be considered acceptable ingredients for most home cooks. But a Manhattan man is hoping to change New Yorker's outlook on food freshness—one dinner party at a time.
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