Differences of opinion are fundamental to Judaism: we can’t even agree on the spellings of key words. (Is it matzo, matzoh, or matzah?) At the Passover seder it’s no surprise that, except for the seder plate, there are 1,001 differences in the way Jews celebrate the holiday. Some eat brisket, some eat chicken, some eat both. The waters are divided over whether the matzo balls should be fluffy or dense (mine=fluffy). Kugel can be sweet or savory.
Read MoreIf you attended the two-day Food+Enterprise conference at the old Pfizer building this past weekend, you might have walked away feeling like starting a new food company is a cinch.
First off, the summit was held at one of the city’s burgeoning local maker hubs. Williamsburg’s Pfizer building is wall-to-wall with small brands, some newer and some that are more established, including Farm to People, Happy Valley Meat, Kopi Trading Co., People’s Pops and Brooklyn Soda Works. Additionally, many of the events were on the same floor as Brooklyn FoodWorks, the newly opened food business incubator.
In 2010, just prior to the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti, American shoe and apparel company announced it would plant 5m trees on the widely deforested and impoverished island. After the earthquake hit, Timberland’s then CEO, Jeff Swartz, visited the country and was faced with two options: pivot to support the massive earthquake recovery, or keep the focus on planting trees.
Read MoreRemember when everyone drank milk from cows? Now, the only people who drink animal protein are, like, your parents.
Today people aren’t drinking as much cow's milk, whether it's because they have difficulty digesting lactose, they want a healthier alternatives with less fat or, perhaps, a product not associated with a beating heart. As the U.S. market continues to shift towards alternative milks — almond, hemp, coconut, soy and rice — and our meals transition to healthier plant-based diets, the tradeoff is that we risk losing key sources daily protein.
The cab driver was lost. He called the hotel manager again, they tossed around the words beach and pool. He drove on, still lost and yet not really lost. He stopped and asked locals leaning against motorcycles. They pointed. Finally he drove onto the sand alongside the beachfront resort, my home for the next two nights. It was my first time on the coast of Kerala, south India.
Read MoreMarydale DeBor loves her job. The pixie-sized woman, with a short crop of gray hair and funky glasses, runs Fresh Advantage, a consulting firm that helps hospitals and medical schools integrate improved food and nutrition programming into their approaches to healthcare.
Read MoreYou might use your oven as a semi-convenient form of storage. Or, you might not use it at all. David Rabie and his team of eight (including two chefs) have created a fancy — but cheap — oven that does four things in one, all from your countertop. The Tovala oven bakes, broils, steams and heats, via convection. It’s Wi-Fi enabled, controlled by an app on your phone and comes with an option for a meal kit service.
Read MoreWith long, bright red nails and outfits that evoke Bettie Page, 36-year-old Maayan Zilberman doesn’t look like someone who spends hours hunched over a stove. But she does. Before settling on her current role as candymaker, Zilberman was a sculptor, lingerie designer and brand consultant. Her candy line, Sweet Saba, is sold through a roving pop-up—currently in The Standard Hotel and previously in the pop-up Fort Gansevoort. The candies themselves, nestled in felt-lined jewelry boxes, are like precious objects from the future.
Read MoreMany credit chef Marco Canora of Hearth in NYC with the broth craze that hit the city in late 2014, but before Canora, there was Andrea Berton. The Milanese chef considers broth to be "the highest synthesis of each dish's main ingredient."
Read MoreNaz Riahi and Emily Schildt met cute on Instagram. Both worked in the digital marketing world, but were separated by coasts: Riahi was living in Los Angeles and Schildt was a New Yorker. When they finally had an opportunity to meet, Riahi told her over lunch, a bit presciently: “I know we’re going to work together one day.”
Read MoreBob's Red Mill, a specialty flour company, reports it sells more than 70 kinds of flours. King Arthur Flour, another favorite with bakers, sells 56. That's a lot of flour to sift through.
While we have no problem buying a cookie from our favorite bakery, choosing the right flour for every baking project can be a daunting task. So we turned to a few culinary experts in hopes of demystifying flour's many varieties.
Last spring I attended a 12-course vegan dinner created from food waste. Jay Astafa, a Natural Gourmet Institute trained chef, served watermelon sushi and carrot-top pesto. But dessert was where I saw true plant-based innovation.
Read MorePalmaz Vineyards is 610 acres of prime Napa Valley real estate nestled beside Mount George, a southern hillside that offers two key advantages: vertical space to dig, and gravity, which allows grape juice to flow. In a wine country known for having perfect this, and ideal that, this gravity-flow winery has found a way to be different.
Read MoreIN A TRADITIONAL wine fermentation tank, if the yeasts start acting weird, it might be days before anyone smells or tastes the damage. But at Palmaz Vineyards in Napa, California, staff can detect risk factors before they develop into wine-spoiling problems.
Read MoreWe all know that for New Yorkers, the takeout industry is king. Even in winter, stalwart deliverymen are out there braving the elements on their bicycles. But here’s something you might not know: According to GrubHub Inc., the biggest food-delivery platform on the market, New York City customers are 98 percent more likely than the rest of the country to search for the category “grocery items.”
Read MoreIt all started accidentally. Frieda Caplan, new mother and UCLA political science graduate, was looking for a job with flexible hours. Through her relatives she found an opening at Giumarra Brothers Fruit Company’s stall in the Seventh Street wholesale produce terminal in downtown Los Angeles.
Read MoreEmma Bengtsson has purple streaks running through her blonde hair, dances a Latin-based style called bachata and oversees a kitchen staff of almost twenty. As the executive chef of Aquavit, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant (stars she retained in the 2016 announcement this week), not only does she have time to dance, but she also runs to the farmers' market at least three times a week. Even on Wednesdays, which are her "small" days. The trick? Other than not sleeping much, she plans her menu with enough flexibility to accommodate last-minute tweaks.
Read MoreLior Lev Sercarz's father, grandfather and great-grandfather were diamond dealers, but sparkly rocks weren't young Lior's thing. Instead, he dug his hands into the fragrant world of spices. Raised in Israel, the classically trained chef first found culinary inspiration while working at a trout-smoking factory. At the end of a long day, he'd grill fish for the crew and grab whatever he had on hand—garlic powder, chiles, paprika—to enhance the meal. He's come a long way since that muddy pond, but he still recalls those early days of grabbing fistfuls of rosemary and lavender in Galilee.
Read MoreWhen people talk about Clinton Street Baking Company, they’re usually talking about two things: pancakes and waiting in line. Visitors and locals come for the restaurant’s blueberry pancakes, and for good reason: they’re crispy-edged and fluffy, made with teensy-tiny wild Maine blueberries. Other options include bananas and walnuts, and chocolate chunks. The restaurant goes through 250 pounds of those blueberries per week, or 13,000 pounds per year, plus 416 gallons of New York maple syrup. During pancake month, in February, they sell almost 2,000 orders a week.
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