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MORE WITH YOUR LET T DOING UCE

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PICK YOUR POISON

ON THE LINE

SUMMERS COOLEST DRINKS

P. 60

MENTAL HEALTH IN THE KITCHEN

P. 45

SIDE HUSTLE DON’T SLACK ON THOSE SIDES

P. 65

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FEATURES.

PIC K YOUR POISON .

O N T H E C OV E R

Lettuce Celebrate: Meet Five Artists Who Show you How you Could be Doing More With your Salads.

ON THE LINE. A Discussion on Mental Health in the Resturaunt Business and how it affected Anthony Bourdain.

Edit impore laut la idi quissi acepra nes sed eaqui anitemos il is diatus etur? Quia

A Discussion on Mental Health in the Resturaunt Business and how it affected Anthony Bourdain.

Edit impore laut la idi quissi acepra nes

FL ASH IT. All the Summer Grilling Recipes You Need and Learn How to Break Free From Those Classical American Dishes.

ARTICLE BY ROBBIE WILKS PHOTOGRAPHY BY LEAH CATHER

ARTICLE BY JESSICA LANG PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LAU

ARTICLE BY BRAD ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LAU

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DEPARTMENTALS.

S TA R T E R S 19

Let’s Get Real About Food

WA I T T I M E 29

Nicole Byer Is #VeryFatVeryBrave, Thank You Very Much.

How to Put Down Your Phone and Give Mindful Eating a Try

BY AMELIA SHORT

BY JESSICA LANG

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CATHY SMITTEN

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That’s F*cking Delicious

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CATHY SMITTEN

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BY MIKE ROGERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LAU

BY MIKE ROGERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY BOB WHITE

Food Hororscopes Find Out Your Summer Roadtrip Snack From your Zodiac SIghn.

BY HARLING ROSS PHOTOGRAPHY BY MEGAN CATHER

86’D

Where Grocery Stores go to shop.

An Annotated Guide to Eating Well by Rapper Action

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Mindful Eating Tips and Tricks

25

Basically Tips and stories on how to get started when

BY KIM MEYERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LAU

DINNER TONIGHT

B A S I C A L LY 29

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The Hot Ten

The ten best restaurants now, from big cities to small towns.

The ten best restaurants now, from big cities to small towns.

BY JESSICA LANG PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LAU

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City Picks An Annotated Guide to Eating Well by Rapper Action Bronson. Oltorudam fatimus consu vivis; hostraet verudam tuis Maricave, vocae omnons

The Hot Ten

BY JESSICA LANG PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LAU

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City Picks An Annotated Guide to Eating Well by Rapper Action Bronson. Oltorudam fatimus consu vivis; hostraet verudam tuis Maricave, vocae omnons

BY MIKE ROGERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LAU

BY MIKE ROGERS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LAU

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EDITOR’S LETTER.

THE FINEST HOUR My parents bought their place in upstate New York in 1987, and I wasn’t happy about it.

As an 18-year-old, the last thing I wanted to do was come home from college to D.C. and immediately head to a country house hundreds of miles away (with my parents no less!). Funny how times change.

Over time the next 25 years, the house quickly became a quick escape from New York City, where I moved after graduating; a permanent home for my parents when they relocated to East Chartham in 2007; and the place where I learned to love to grill.

While up there on the weekends, we’d spend our days doing this and that–tooling around nearby Hudson, running errands, maybe some yard work. But basically it was all killing time until I could ask “When should I start grilling?” Which, in the Rapport house, was interpreted by those not ripping open a bag of charcoal as “Whens cocktail hour?”

At the agreed upon time, my mom would pull a little orange wooden table from the porch to the patio. I’d fill a metal cooler with ice and a 12-pack. Snacks would be brought out: guacamole when we had time, those little sticks when we didn’t. My brother and mom would pour themselves a Dewar’s on the rocks; my dad, never a big drinker, would often ask, “Maxine, what’s that drink I like again?”

“Campari and soda, Dan.” When my wife, Simone, came on the scene, she’d reach for the citrus reamer and mix margaritas for herself and my sister.

The backdrop was a mellowing sun over the Berkshires and that intoxicating smell of a charcoal grill just getting going, when it’s all smoke and no fire.

I realize that it’s about this point in my letter that I’m supposed to talk about food. And sure, there were skirt steaks charred over a ragging fire until dark and crispy; butterflied leg of lamb laced with garlic and rosemary; and racks of dry rubbed ribs, brought to fall 8

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But it was always that window before I threw anything on the grate that made me happiest. That moment when we’d gather by the grill like it was some grown up campfire and just kick back and talk and drink and snack. If we played it right, we’d get 45 choice minutes just as the sun was turning the sky into what looked like once big Italian ice. Eventually, a sunset.

In 2011, my father fell ill and he fought the good fight. As in often the case with cancer, there were days and months when things looked good, like he might turn the corner. But I still remember one evening, sky aglow, plumes of smoke rising from the grill, cocktails poured, when my dad never came down to join us. I tried to pass it off as, maybe he’s just resting up for dinner. But in the back of my head, I knew better. You didn’t miss cocktail hour at the Rappart house. That was our time.

My dad passed away in April, 2012, and a year or so later my mom sold the house. A few years ago Simone and I got a little cabin out on the North Folk of Long Island. The views different, though no less memorizing. The cascading sun electrifies the sky as it sinks into the Long Island Sound. While I keep telling myself that one day I’m going to build one of those dream outdoor kitchens with the smoker and the beverage fridge and all that, for now we’re making do with a simple kettle grill, just like we had upstate. And I still time my day toward nailing that 45 minute window —when I’ve got my drink in my hand, the charcoal going, the skirt steak marinating, and some sort of crudities set out on my wobbly little side table.

I guess you could say that things haven’t changed, but that doesn’t mean they’re the same.

ADAM RAPORT

editor in chief

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99 Osgood Place San Francisco, CA 94133(415) 743-9990 letters@thedish.com Owner & Founder Lara Hedberg Deam President & Publisher Michela O’Connor Abrams Editor-in-Chief Allison Arieff Creative Director Claudia Bruno Managing Editor Ann Wilson Spradlin Senior Editors Andrew Wagner, Sam Grawe New York Editor Shonquis Moreno Los Angeles Editor Frances Andertort Editor-at Large Virginia Gardiner Editor Amara Holstein Associate Editor Amber Bravo Assistant Managing Editor Carleigh Bell Copy Editor Rachel Fudge Fact Checkers Madeline Kerr, Hon Walker, Megan Mansell Williams Editorial Intern Christopher Bright Senior Designer Heidi Kieffer Design Production Manager Kathryn Hansen Designer Emily CM Anderson Marketing Art Director Gayle Chin Photo Editor Kate Stone Associate Photo Editor Aya Brackett Contributing Photo Editor Deborah Kozloff Hearey Photo Intern Kane Fried Senior Production Director Fran Fox Production Specialist Bill Lyons Production Coordinator Joy Pascual Contributing Editors lain Aitch (London) Deborah Bishop (San Francisco) David A. Greene (Los Angeles) Marc Kristal (New York) Jane Szita (Amsterdam) Operations Director Romi Jacques Accounting Manager Wanda Smith Consumer Marketing Director Laura MacArthur Simkins Subscriptions Manager Brian Karo Newsstand Consultant George Clark National Distribution Warner Publisher Services Partner Marketing Director Celine Bleu Events Manager Sita Bhaumik Marketing Coordinator Elizabeth Heinrich Marketing Intern Kathy Chandler Online Director Perry Nelson Brand Development Director Joan McCraw Brand Consultants Betsy Burroughs, Muriel Foster Schelke Advertising Operations Coordinator Fida Sleiman

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STARTERS

BRANDING IS BETTER. Meet The Graphic Designers Behind Your Favorite Restaurants.

BY HARLING ROSS

I

judge the quality of a restaurant’s food based on a million different things. But a restaurant’s branding? I judge that based on whether or not I buy a tote bag. And let it be known: I walked out of Portland, Maine’s Rose Foods carrying a tote adorned with a fish drinking a cup of coffee. But it wasn’t just the tote that caught my eye at Rose Foods (one of our Top 50 nominees!). It was everything. The golden, hand-painted type on the mirrors, advertising “Nova Lox” and “Pastrami on Rye.” The illustration of a weird bagel man on the printed menus. The logo’s subtle nod to the retro Jewish deli, through its angular font. The baby blue type, reaching across the backs of the employees t-shirts, reading, “What a time to be alive.” I was immediately smiling, muttering, “This is so rad,” to myself and anyone else in earshot.

I have the folks at Office of Brothers, a design agency based in Atlanta, to thank.

Founded by Alvin Diec and Travis Ekmark, Office of Brothers works to brand restaurants from the likes of Asheville’s Buxton Hall Barbecue to Atlanta’s Golden Eagle to the aforementioned Rose Foods. The design group creates restaurant identities with quirky illustrations, scripted typefaces, and a casual elegance that, yes, look cool—but also turns the branding of a restaurant or bar into a human element, one that speaks just as loudly as the fare.One might say that Office of Brothers possesses a retro sensibility. But they would not. “For us, that’s not a word that ever comes into our heads,” says Ekmark. “In fact, the second we sense the r-word trickling into our brains, we will put our heads under the tires of a bus. We suppose ‘retro’ equals ‘trend,’ but we think of ourselves as having a loyalty towards history.”The menus, t-shirts, matchbooks, and magnets at Rose Foods make that loyalty clear.

The design isn’t old. And it isn’t new. It pulls from everything, past and present.

“Every day we discover more and more beautiful things,” says Diec. “It’s enough to drive one mad.”

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STARTERS

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ICOLE BYER’S voice has been in my head for years. First on MTV’s Girl Code, where the comedian dished out hilarious, unfiltered advice about dating. Then on the based-on-her-real-life TV show Loosely, Exactly Nicole and podcast Why Won’t You Date Me? about perpetual singleness. Most recently, I’ve been loving her as the host of Netflix’s Nailed It!, a chaotic baking competition show that leans into making fun of people who are walking Pinterest fails.

(Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming in full on Netflix now, with a holiday special to come in December.)

After all those years of listening to Nicole’s jokes, I felt like I knew her.

You are so body positive and seem to not care about what anyone thinks of you. Have you always felt like this?

I used to care. I was a smaller person and cared. I just woke up like three years ago and said to myself, Just wear a tank top. Wear a tube top. It’s fine. Even if you’re wearing a sleeve, people know your arm is fat. I decided to wear whatever the fuck I want. I don’t have enough time in my life to care. I regret spending my early twenties covering my arms and wearing cardigans in the summer.

I wore a bikini for the first time in Palm Springs, because I knew no one would know me there and I could say, I’m very fat and very brave, which is what people looooove to say on Instagram.

“You’re brave.” That’s the hashtag I use, #veryfatverybrave.

How do you react if someone makes fun of you out in public?

If someone looks at you, that means your body’s powerful.

They had to stop their day to look at you. If they say something to you, that means they couldn’t get through their day without saying something to you. If it’s nasty, it’s like whatever, but you weren’t thinking about them—they were thinking about you. When people are like, “Well, you’re promoting obesity,” I say, “No, I am promoting loving the body that you’re in currently. If you want to change it, great. If you don’t, then live. Live in it. Live your life. Travel, do shit, buy two seats on the plane. Who cares?”

Have you gone through periods of your life where you thought about dieting or thought about changing your habits?

I’ve been on Atkins, I’ve done keto, and I’ve done so many diets.

I found out that I like to binge eat, which is the root of the problem.

If you eat one hundred oranges, it defeats the purpose of eating an orange. I don’t ever want to be a thin person; that seems upsetting.

I don’t have any plans.

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Q&A

LETS GET REAL ABOUT FOOD. Nicole Byer Is #VeryFatVeryBrave, Thank You Very Much

BY AMELIA SHORT What’s your stance on responding to the haters?

I like to retweet people and then be like, “I didn’t really need your opinion, but thank you for letting me know, because obviously if you tag me in it or use my full name, you wanted me to see it.” I search my name on Twitter because I don’t want to miss the compliments, and I favorite the nice things people say about me so they know I saw it. People are more positive than they are negative, and I try not to harp on the negative. I read almost every comment I get because I’m waiting for someone to tell me something I don’t know. There’s not one person out there that is universally liked except for maybe Mr. Rogers.

Do you feel like your personal brand as someone who is body positive and confident has influ-

Everyone was on board with that, and I got to do a lot of things my thinner counterparts do that fat women don’t do unless it’s part of a joke. Fat women don’t fuck on television unless it’s a joke, and we fuck a lot in real life. You see fat women with husbands and people and partners and wives, and they’re very sexual people. That’s something that should be represented. Every show doesn’t have to start with two fatties meeting at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting.

What has dating been like for you?

If you’re dating me, you know what I look like. You know my comedy, more or less. You like what you see. When I was younger, I thought guys were just chubby chasers. As I got older, I realized some men like bigger women, or some men like a personality and it’s encased in a bigger woman.

What advice do you give other women, and in turn, what you wish you could have told your younger self?

It took a while, but I just learned to wake up and love myself. I tell people to look in the mirror in the morning, grab their little fat handles and just go, “Woo, baby, I’m hot!” You just fake it until you make it and one day you will wake up and you won’t have to say it.

You’ll just feel hot.

Do you have a mantra you tell yourself in the mirror?

I look fucking fab, and I’m not here for anybody but me. I don’t get dressed for other people. I get dressed for what I see in the mirror.

My body isn’t for other people’s consumption. If I smile when I look in the mirror, then great. Let’s start the day.

What’s your stance on responding to the haters?

I like to retweet people and then be like, “I didn’t really need your opinion, but thank you for letting me know, because obviously if you tag me in it or use my full name, you wanted me to see it.” I search my name on Twitter because I don’t want to miss the compliments, and I favorite the nice things people say about me so they know I saw it. People are more positive than they are negative, and I try not to harp on the negative. I read almost every comment I get because I’m waiting for someone to tell me something I don’t know. There’s not one person out there that is universally liked except for maybe Mr. Rogers.

Do you feel like your personal brand as someone who is body positive and confident has influenced the roles you play?

I don’t think my body has really come into play for anything. [On Loosely, Exactly Nicole] I did three blow job scenes, and no one was ever like, “Nicole, are you okay in your bra?”

Have you gone through periods of your life where you thought about dieting or thought about changing your habits?

I’ve been on Atkins, I’ve done keto, and I’ve done so many diets.

I found out that I like to binge eat, which is the root of the problem.

If you eat one hundred oranges, it defeats the purpose of eating an orange. I don’t ever want to be a thin person; that seems upsetting.

I don’t have any plans to ever diet again, but exercising does help with life. Endorphins are real and it’s annoying because I don’t like to exercise. I hate running, but I started weight lifting like 150 pounds, and it’s fun and it makes me feel accomplished. Comedy is subjective, so if you don’t like it, that’s that.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX L AU 17  THEDISH.COM SUMMER 2019

STARTERS

F *CK THAT’S DELICIOUS.

An Annotated Guide to Eating Well by Rapper Action Bronson.

BOOK REVIEW BY MIKE SHORT

H

ERE’S THE DEAL.

I’ll review just about any book that weaves together food and hip hop. I recently looked at Questlove’s somethingtofood, an exploration of creativity through interviews of famous chefs. Action Bronson, with his new book, F*ck that’s Delicious, charts a somewhat louder course through the culinary landscape. The first hint that this book is not for the faint of heart?

It’s bright safety orange. Bronson kicks things off with a discussion of his favorite cold cereal – Crispix over the sink – and then explains the traditional Japanese stew called chankonabe. At first, I was trying to find the connection between the two foods. Why go from cereal to a meal served to sumo wrestlers? They’re both in bowls? After really putting my dropped-out-of-the-English-department education to the test I did realize the connection: they are both fucking delicious. Thus begins Bronson’s guided journey through things you should go out and eat already. As you flip through the pages (and you’ll flip around a lot just to look at the gorgeous photos and creative layouts) it becomes apparent you don’t need to read this cover to cover. Just pop it open and see what you get.

Bronson bounces from food to food, culture to culture, memory to memory like a guy you met at a party who just wants to Talk to you because he’s been somewhere amazing and eaten something mind blowing. It’s almost like a backseat freestyle about food. The bars go from bagels to charred broccoli to pairing white truffles with vanilla soft serve.There’s no order to Bronson’s universe – it’s all just happening as it happens.

While this isn’t a cookbook, there are recipes scattered through the pages. Of particular interest to me was the Explosive Chicken.

In Bronson’s words “this is the chicken of all fucking chickens.”

Again, in Bronson’s words “now this is a fucking pasta.” You may notice that Bronson says “fuck” a lot. Sometimes, a book about food that features a lot of swearing can feel forced, like the author is 18

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egg noodles with feta and paprika. Again, in Bronson’s words “now this is a fucking pasta.”

You may notice that Bronson says “fuck” a lot. Sometimes, a book about food that features a lot of swearing can feel forced, like the author is trying to ‘keep it real’ (looking at you, Thug Kitchen.) In Bronson’s case, it feels like unbridled enthusiasm.

It’s not a marketing gimmick meant to make the book stand out on a shelf (I think the orange cover does that just fine); it’s just how Bronson talks when he really believes in something. And he really believes in delicious fucking food. If you’re looking to get inspired, grab a copy of F*ck that’s Delicious. Working in a restaurant is one of the hardest jobs around, but it’s the food that makes it all worthwhile. It’s easy to forget all those moments over a sink, or standing on a corner, or sitting at a bar eating something impossibly good.

Action Bronson captures that moment when you can’t help but reach for another bite like a few artist have. bombastic appearances, this isn’t a book about Restro-Bro culture – it’s a book about the love of delicious food.

For all its bombastic appearances, this isn’t a book about Restro-Bro culture – it’s a book about the love of delicious food.

bombastic appearances, this isn’t a book about Restro-Bro culture – it’s a book about the love of delicious food. you flip through the pages (and you’ll flip around a lot just to look at the gorgeous photos and creative layouts) it becomes apparent you don’t need to read this cover to cover. Just pop it open and see what you get.

Bronson bounces from food to food, culture to culture, memory to memory like a guy you met at party who just wants to Talk to you because he’s been somewhere amazing and eaten something mind blowing. It’s almost like a backseat freestyle about food. The bars go from bagels to charred broccoli to pairing white truffles with vanilla soft serve. There’s no

There’s no order to Bronson’s universe – it’s all just happening as it happens. Action Bronson captures that moment when you can’t help but reach for another bite. bombastic appearances, this isn’t a book about Restro-Bro culture – it’s a book about the love of delicious food. you flip through the pages (and you’ll flip around a lot just to look at the gorgeous photos and creative layouts) it becomes apparent you don’t need to read this cover to cover. party who just wants to Talk to you because he’s been somewhere amazing and eaten something mind blowing. It’s almost like a backseat freestyle about food.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX L AU 19  THEDISH.COM SUMMER 2019

DINNER TONIGHT

By Andrew Knowlton

NONESUCH

OKLAHOMA CITY

Colin Stringer, Jeremy Wolfe, and Paul Wang are the chefs behind Nonesuch.

You’ll crave the fiery but purposeful heat of his Technicolor Thai dishes.

You’ll crave the fiery but purposeful heat of his Technicolor Thai dishes. All are under 30, and none have much in the way of professional culinary training. After watching them work and eating their food, I think the best analogy I can use to describe the trio, who jokingly call themselves the Mayflower Boys after their shared birth month, is three guys in a band, heads down, making incredibly beautiful music together—that they doubt

MAYDAY

WASHINGTON DC

Rose Previte’s trendsetting eatery showcases Caucasian, North African & Middle Eastern cuisines. Part of me wishes you could encounter Maydan the way I did the first time—poking around to find it at the end of a cobblestone alley in Washington, D.C.’s Cardozo neighborhood. You’d pass through a pair of heavy doors and then stand there in a daze, in everyone’s way, unable to compute how this copper-wrapped monolithic fire pit could possibly exist in a major metropolis. But there it is, in the center of a packed barroom, yawning 20 feet in the

UGLY BABY BROOKLYN

The hottest restaurant in New York? It’s quite literally the hottest. You’ll crave the fiery but purposeful heat of his Technicolor Thai dishes. The chef, Sirichai Sreparplarn, is a chile whisperer who doesn’t care if you can’t stand the heat. And the food he cooks is habit-forming: You’ll crave the fiery but purposeful heat of his Technicolor Thai dishes.“The only way to tone down the heat is to dilute it,” the chef says, “which I

Real talk: You don’t have to soak your dried beans overnight. They’ll cook faster if you do, sure, and will be less likely to break apart when they cook, but as long as you have a couple of hours to work with, you’re golden.

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Start by doing a little prep work.

Peel and chop 1 onion and 1 carrot.

Peel 3 garlic cloves by smashing each firmly with the flat side of a knife to break into smaller pieces. Discard skins.

Heat ¼ cup oil in a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium.

Add onion, carrot, and garlic.

Stir occasionally, until onion is golden, 5–7 minutes.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX L AU 21  THEDISH.COM SUMMER 2019

DINNER TONIGHT

FREEDMANS LAS ANGELOS

Genius is when you take a timeless concept, turn it on its head, and redefine it. That’s what sibling restaurateurs Jonah and Amanda Freedman have done for the classic Jewish deli: They improved an already perfect thing. Here, Jonah breaks down every careful detail, from the latkes to the lavatory Because we’re not really a deli.

We don’t do stuff by the pound, we have liquor, and we’re open a little later. Other modern delis have popped up, but a lot of them were just changing the deli aesthetic, going light and bright—minimalist design with subway tile.

CHI FICO

SAN FRANSISCO

6 YUME GA ARUKARA KANSAS CITY

Impeccably sourced fish, perfectly seasoned rice, andrelentless attention to detail define every bite at thistranscendent sushi bar. Chef Cody Auger takes us through a few pieces of his ethereal Edomae-style sushi. Sant expliquam facipsa ndenis exceatquia voloresseni con plit aceptii squisinimi, volor maiorit id eum fugiatemque verciusa si niet fugitatumet ad quam erferro videbitatio dolut facearuptur adit qui asi quam restiore velesequi

Add ¼ cup red wine vinegar and cook, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot, until vinegar is reduced by about half.

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5

Rose Previte’s trendsetting eatery showcases Caucasian, North African & Middle Eastern cuisines. Part of me wishes you could encounter Maydan the way I did the first time—poking around to find it at the end of a cobblestone alley in Washington, D.C.’s Cardozo neighborhood. You’d pass through a pair of heavy doors and then stand there in a daze, in everyone’s way, unable to compute how this copper-wrapped monolithic fire pit could possibly exist in a major metropolis. But there it is, in the center of a packed barroom, yawning 20 feet in the air and

DRIFTERS WIFE PORTLAND ME

The hottest restaurant in New York? It’s quite literally the hottest.

You’ll crave the fiery but purposeful heat of his Technicolor Thai dishes.

The chef, Sirichai Sreparplarn, is a chile whisperer who doesn’t care if you can’t stand the heat. And the food he cooks is habit-forming: You’ll crave the fiery but purposeful heat of his Technicolor Thai dish-

Add 2 Tbsp. adobo sauce from can of chiles and stir to coat.

Add 2 Tbsp. adobo sauce from can of chiles and stir to coat.

Add 1 lb. dried black beans, 1½ tsp. oregano, 1 Tbsp. salt, and 8 cups water. Bring heat to a boil, then drop heat to low.

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NITE YUNG

OKLAHOMA CITY

Colin Stringer, Jeremy Wolfe, and Paul Wang are the chefs behind Nonesuch. All are under 30, and none have much in the way of professional culinary training. After watching them work and eating their food, I think the best analogy I can use to describe the trio, who jokingly call themselves the Mayflower Boys after their shared birth month, is three guys in a band, heads down, making incredibly beautiful music together—that they doubt anyone will ever hear. Upicam ad cor autem vil hos popte, seriptimis. Hilius hem se mo crideo horunum tem Romnondiurs es vitur ades con vivastore, facie hocchilius molus, sed cae que pra, poreo, quis hocus? Hicore, con Etra pulvisquod Catquam prae moveraela aus. Ec fectus vit cone audam hocaper risqui su in tem senatorim silne estrit. Gulicas teatore, publin teris opublius, fachuidium re estraet, qua videnatre, Ti. Si ces cride consulerum eliae isque partum movenat abunulius aliquem pubit. Ex nit virtemus abeferis, te, caequam aticiostorum ia vehemque me cis tam ta, dum ad atrae atiae moenatque ia veredie moritatus, quonsimus bonostra di, viri ceridees ati, que patari, ne num nos bondiemum et ala nos con vit vivivit; inatum addum, porsus hussilibut ad me nerfinpro hactum viviri tum in Italem iam in sed Catuitr estiae ves firi conclum. Erta me

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX L AU

MAYDAY

WASHINGTON DC

SULLY’S

CHAMPAIGNE ILLNOIS

Sully’s trendsetting eatery showcases Caucasian, North African & Middle Eastern cuisines. Part of me wishes you could encounter Maydan the way I did the first time—poking around to find it at the end of a cobblestone alley in Washington, D.C.’s Cardozo neighborhood. You’d pass through a pair of heavy doors and then stand there in a daze, in everyone’s way, unable to compute how this copper-wrapped monolithic fire pit could possibly exist in a major metropolis. But there it is, in the center of a packed

The hottest restaurant in Washington? It’s quite literally the hottest. The chef, Sirichai Sreparplarn, is a chile whisperer who doesn’t care if you can’t stand the heat. And the food he cooks is habit-forming: You’ll crave the fiery but purposeful heat of his Technicolor Thai dishes.“The only way to tone down the heat is to dilute it,” the chef says, “which I refuse to do.” Ecepeles tibeaqui te volorro consedit, quatemporit providi ctotate mporerum arumquidest ute quia non eum aperis molupta turessecto etur, conecte mperumque similla nullupis sit ex eni quo min etur?

Xersped est labo. Ebit qui ab id magnis nat autatur? Assi quost

ENJOY.

Cover pot with lid for a bit then let simmer, stirring every 30 minutes to prevent sticking, until beans are tender and creamy, 1½–2 hours.

The first thing we’re going to make is a kind of creamy lime-yogurt. First, place 1 cup yogurt in a small bowl. Finely grate zest from 1 lime into bowl. Then squeeze rest of lime juice into bowl.

Season yogurt mixture with salt.

Give it a taste and add another pinch of salt if it doesn’t pop.

Easy, and kind of fancy, non? Cut remaining 2 limes into wedges for squeezing over the soup.

Then...

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DINNER TONIGHT

Mindful eating sounds great, but how do you resist distraction and actually make it work?

BY JESSICA LANG

MINDFUL EATING. How to Put Down Your Phone and Give Mindful Eating a Try

I

get asked a lot how I went from being a line cook, urgently

prepping and tasting hundreds of dishes a night, to an eating psychology coach, helping people have a mindful, energizing, and pleasurable relationship with food and their bodies. Here’s the summary: After three years as a line cook, blasting my gut with nightly sequences of melted ricotta, pork belly, chocolate torte, citrus vinaigrette, ragu, more vinaigrette, and finally a burger and a beer, I (not surprisingly) developed severe digestive and autoimmune issues. I left the restaurant industry and set out to heal myself through food. But, four months in, I was dismayed when my new diet of green smoothies and quinoa bowls wasn’t doing the wonders I had expected. I mean, I was following the same diet as all those cheerful, svelte, dewey-skinned health bloggers, so...what was I missing? While I was no longer stuffing my face with a merry-go-round of fatty, salty, acidic bites each night, the method was all too similar: I often ate rushed, standing up, and distracted. Over time, and lots of trial and error, I began to figure out that the way I was eating was at the root of my digestive issues. In my new career as an eating psychology coach, almost all my clients suffer from digestive issues, whether they know it or not. Fatigue, eczema, food allergies, acne, asthma, and even brain fog are all signs of a struggling gut. We all know the saying, “You are what you eat,” but what’s maybe more relevant to our generation is “you are how you eat.” We’ve all heard about mindful eating, but what about mindful anticipation?

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So much of our ability to digest our food (a.k.a. absorb nutrients and burn calories) comes from a phase of digestion called the “cephalic phase”. This is the part of eating where—get this—we are excited about our food: meal foreplay, if you will. When our mind is excited and anticipating the delicious meal coming our way, our body has time to produce digestive enzymes, send blood flow back to our digestive center, and get our digestive juices flowing. In the days before smart phones and TV screens, we spent a lot more time mentally prepping ourselves for what we were about to eat. Now, it’s a fraction of that time. We decide we’re hungry, we make or order our food, and more often than not we scarf it down before even realizing what just happened.

Sound familiar? Well, without this crucial phase of acknowledging and anticipating a meal, our brain has trouble telling the body: “Hey, food’s on the way.” But don’t think you’re off the hook when it comes to the actual eating part: paying attention to your food while you’re eating it keeps this phase going and helps signal to your pleasure and satiety center, “Hey! I received this...I’m done!” Without that awareness, they don’t receive the message (or receive it too late), which may cause you to overeat, binge-eat, and experience general feelings of blech.

Here are some of my favorite tips for both mindful food foreplay and eating that I’ve found help improve digestion for both me and my clients . . .

ILLUSTRATION BY HEIDI KIEFFER

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tips for both mindful food foreplay and eating

1

There’s An App For That!

The tradition of saying grace or blessing our meal actually serves a physiological purpose. By verbally acknowledging what’s in front of you and the food you’re about to eat, it helps your brain signal your body to start producing digestive enzymes and get ready to receive some food! And get this—some cultures believe that blessed food changes its chemical structure to be healthier for your body.

Even if you’re not religious or spiritual, think about a little mantra you could say to yourself pre-eating. For example, “Thank you body for enjoying and absorbing

3

4

Count your Chews!

Say Anything

This one I find to be the hardest, but I’m working on it! Experts say you should chew each bite 10-30 times before swallowing, depending on the texture. I noticed I probably chew about five times, so I started aiming for at least 10. The mechanical digestion of teeth and the chemical digestion of saliva are the first in the line of digestive defense. Without them you’re missing out on a whole lot

The tradition of saying grace or blessing our meal actually serves a physiological purpose.

By verbally acknowledging what’s in front of you and the food you’re about to eat, it helps your brain signal your body to start producing digestive enzymes and get ready to receive some food! And get this—some cultures believe that blessed food changes its chemical structure to be healthier for your body. Even if you’re not religious or spiritual, think about a little mantra you could say to yourself pre-eating. For example, “Thank

6

Listen To Classical Music This one can be the hardest habit to break...and it’s not your fault! Breakfast while you scroll through Insta, lunch doing work at the computer, and dinner watching The Bachelor can easily become routine. This one can be the hardest habit to break...and it’s not your fault! Breakfast while you scroll through Insta, lunch doing work at the computer, and dinner watching The Bachelor can easily become routine Yes, sometimes screens can seem relaxing, but they’re also totally distracting your mind from the fact that you’re eating, and you end up craving even more food. To help myself temper this, well, addiction, I like to make a screen-free date with myself 2 or 3 times a week—even once is great! Take yourself out to a meal. Let your mind wander, brainstorm what color to paint your living room, what restaurant you want to visit next, or just focus on the

2

The Four Questions If you’re not into the apps, asking yourself these four questions can help transport you from a stress-filled mind to the less anxious present: What do I see?, What do I taste?, What do I hear?, What do I smell? Engaging your senses is one of the most foolproof ways to lower stress, as it forces you to be present and maybe forget for a few minutes about that big presentation or your rising inbox. Plus, it’s free, quick, and doesn’t

5

Change Up your View If you’re not into the apps, asking yourself these four questions can help transport you from a stress-filled mind to the less anxious present: What do I see?, What do I taste?, What do I hear?, What do I smell? Engaging your senses is one of the most foolproof ways to lower stress, as it forces you to be present and maybe forget for a few minutes about that big presentation or your rising inbox. Plus, it’s free, quick, and doesn’t require technology. This one can be the hardest habit to break...and it’s not your fault! Breakfast while you scroll through Insta, lunch doing work at the computer, and dinner watching The Bachelor can easily become routine Yes, sometimes screens can seem relaxing, but they’re also totally distracting your mind from the fact that you’re eating, and you end up craving even more food. \myf temper

Share your Meal with Friends and Family Sharing is caring...and it’s not your fault! Breakfast while you scroll through Insta, lunch doing work at the computer, and dinner watching The Bachelor can easily become routine. This one can be the hardest habit to break...and it’s not your fault! Breakfast while you scroll through Insta, lunch doing work at the computer, and dinner watching The Bachelor can easily become routine Yes, sometimes screens can seem relaxing, but they’re also totally distracting your mind from the fact that you’re eating, and you end up craving even more food. To help myself temper this, well, addiction, I like to make a screen-free date with myself 2 or 3 times a week—even once is great! Take yourself out to a meal. Let your mind wander, brainstorm what color to paint your living room, what restaurant you want to visit next, or just focus on the delicious breakfast taco in front of you. Notice how you 28

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PIC

K

OY U R

Bring the best of the thriving craft beer scene home with utterly drinkable styles, high-design tall boys, and flawless glassware

BY ALEX DELANY — PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LAU ILLUSTRATION BY HEIDI KIEFFER 32

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BEER and a back-

yard barbeque: a duo you’re probably familar with. But if you’ve moved past burgers and dogs to healthyish seafood and new style sides, shouldn’t you be reaching for a beer match? Maybe it’s time to embrace some unfamilar styles and pack your cooler with tart, fruity, refreshing brews. But remember: Drinking beer is supposed to be fun. So if by chance someone at your cookout takes your cooler of craft brews as a cue to lecture you about hop varities, well, that person might just get pushed into the pool.

Find Your Local Brewery.

A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. Find Your local brewery and discover all the different types of beer they have to offer. It’s a great place to hang out and drink with friends on the weekend!

THE HOTTEST BEERS OF THE SUMMER Perfect for picnic tables and porch swings alike, these are the 5 styles you’ll find all over brewery tap lists this season.

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The Beer That

The Drink On

The Beach in a

The Lemonade

The Country

Tastes Like Beer

Repeat Hoppy Ale

Bottle

Stand Beer

Beer

AMERICAN

NEW ENGLAND

FARMHOUSE

BERLINER

PORTER

PILSNER

IPA

ALE

WEISSE

ALE

A good pilsner is a

IPA is a hoppy beer

Saison is a pale ale that

Berliner Weisse is a

Porter is a dark style

deceptively impressive

style within the broader

is highly carbonated,

cloudy, sour beer of

of beer developed in

feat. It’s clear with

category of pale ale.

fruity, spicy, and often

around 3% alcohol by

London from well-

very fine carbonation,

The term “pale ale”

bottle conditioned. It

volume. It is a regional

hopped beers made from brown malt. The name

always crisp, always

originally denoted an

was historically brewed

variation on the white

refreshing. The style,

ale brewed from pale

with low alcohol levels,

beer style from Northern

was first recorded in

which started in Bavaria,

malt. Among the first

but modern produc-

Germany, dating back to

the 18th century, and is

at least the 16th century.

is time-honored and

brewers known to export

tions of the style have

protected dating back

beer to India was George

moderate to high levels

its popularity with street

to the definition of the

Hodgson’s Bow Brewery,

of alcohol.

and river porters.

style, Pilsner Urquell.

on the Middlesex-Essex.

thought to come from

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IMPORTANCE OF THE POUR. It’s all about the pour guys. If you’ve ever tried your hand at bartending only to realise you are unable to pour a beer without forming a head of foam - you are in luck.

A beer sommelier has revealed to Business Insider the proper way to pour a beer - and it turns out that a head of foam is actually a good thing when enjoying a nice cold one. According to Max Bakker, the first and only Master Cicerone in New York - a certification which means he has an exceptional understanding of all things beer related without that collar of foam, a beer is not a beer at all. And beer bloat is actually the result of pouring a beer incorrectly - or pouring a beer with minimal foam. According to Max, carbon dioxide that has not been released into a glass when pouring a beer, which is what happens when you pour beer into a tilted glass slowly, has a disastrous effect when it settles in your stomach.

GET IT FROM THE SOURCE Three ways to transport the brewery to your yard:

Crowler If you’re thinking this just looks like a giant can, you’re 100 percent right. These 32-ounce alumnium cans are filled from a tap and capped by a special machine, keeping beer fresh for up to a few weeks.

THE GLASS THAT MAKES BEER BETTER We’ll never argue with drinking straight from bottle or can but...

THE LIP Beer rolls right off the curved lips of the Teku. It’s less like drinking and more like letting the beer go where it was meant to go: your mouth.

Growler THE CURVE

Usually a 32- or 64-ounce bottle with a screw-on or flip-top cap. A growler keeps draught beer fresh for up to four days and should be consumed all in one sitting, before the beer loses carbonation.

The conical shape of the glass traps aromas near the top, giving you a hit of fruit or yeast as you tilt the glass toward you.

THE STEM

SOLD YET ?

You can order some

Pressurized Growler

Stemmed glasses keep beer cooler for longer, which we can all agree is a good thing.

Rastal Teku glasses at tekuglass.com for $13

Insulated and fitted with a CO2 canister, a pressurized growler stores and pours beer like a mini keg, keeping it fresh for as long as you can make it last. Equal parts effective and impressive.

37 THEDISH.COM SUMMER 2019

Let’s talk about mental health in the kitchen 38

THEDISH.COM

SUMMER 2019

BY ERRIC DELANY — PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LAU

39  THEDISH.COM SUMMER 2019

F

ifteen minutes into my conversation with bartender Evan Zimmerman, I realize he isn’t going to eat half of the tomato focaccia square I purchased at Ella in Washington, D.C., so I slide the plate back toward me and listen to him while I finish the rest. He can’t eat because his hands are occupied, mimicking how he might pulverize salted peanuts and use them to season the creamy head of nitrogen-charged Coca-Cola.

Zimmerman will serve the drink he’s describing, or something like it, at a highly anticipated non-alcoholic-cocktail-paired dinner in Portland this weekend, alongside a roster of some of the most well-regarded chefs in the country.

(All 72 tickets for the dinner were purchased within two minutes of going on sale, at a price of $225 each.) Sean Brock, Gregory Gourdet, Gabriel Rucker, Michael Solomonov, and Andrew Zimmern will each prepare a course, and Zimmerman will create a non-alcoholic cocktail to match.

The chefs share high achievements: altogether over a dozen restaurants, 13 James Beard awards, three Top Chef appearances (including one competition finalist), a hugely popular food and travel show, and multiple cookbooks.

They also all share a lifestyle: sobriety.

Brock, whose name was once used as a verb by line cooks in need of a few beers post-shift (“Let’s get Brocked”), now starts his day with a meditation session followed by a bowl of berries with macadamia milk. Gourdet, who hit bottom freebasing cocaine for three days with no sleep, runs marathons and maintains a strict gluten- and dairy-free diet. When I visit Solomonov, a former crack addict, at his restaurant Zahav in Philadelphia, he asks if I brought running shoes and tells me to meet him at 8:30 the next morning. We take a brisk walk before his all-staff meeting. These are, by all accounts, changed men. And with the upcoming dinner, part of the Feast Portland food festival, they’re joining forces for the first time. Rucker, the Portland based chef and owner of Le Pigeon and Little Bird Bistro and organizer of the dinner, wants to challenge assumptions about what the life of a successful chef looks like.

These are, by all accounts, changed men. And with the upcoming dinner, part of the Feast Portland food festival, they’re joining forces for the first time. Rucker, the Portland based chef and owner of Le Pigeon and Little Bird Bistro and organizer of the dinner, wants to challenge assumptions about what the life of a successful

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“A lot of young cooks look up to chefs in the press, and the common stigma is, ‘I need to be a badass, I need to be able to drink and hold my liquor and then work through the hangover.”

Rucker is lucky: He maintained a marriage and a business through years of using alcohol to come down and cocaine to stay up, and his bottom—the term used to refer to an addict’s lowest point—was relatively high. One morning, after an evening spent passed out on the couch at home when he was supposed to be dining with his family and neighbors, he decided it was time to make a change. He called his father, who is sober, and asked to go to an AA meeting with him. “He said, ‘I’ll take you down the path with me, but you don’t get to go back now.’ And I haven’t gone back.” Five years into his sobriety, Rucker goes goes to AA once a week, talks to his sponsor every day, and hits the gym most mornings.

“My oldest son is seven, and he doesn’t remember me drinking,” says Rucker.

“He’s not gonna grow up remembering me as a drinking dad.”

A

ccording to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the highest rates of illicit drug use are found in the accommodations and food services industry, and workers in that industry have the highest rates of substance use disorder: 16.9 percent compared to 9.5 percent on average across other industries. The highest rates of heavy alcohol use are in the mining and construction industries, with accommodations and food services coming in third.

“How do you even gauge what’s appropriate when partying is part of the culture of your business?” says Solomonov.

“A lot of young cooks look up to chefs in the press, and the common stigma is, ‘I need to be a badass, I need to be able to drink and hold my liquor and then work through the hangover.”

f course, substance abuse and mental health are linked. Last year, Mental Health America (MHA) published the results of its Work Health Survey across 19 industries in the United States. The healthcare, financial services, and the non-profit industries scored in the top 10 percent; manufacturing, retail, and food and beverage scored in the bottom 10 percent.

“This industry can tear you down if you let it,” says Brock, founding chef of Husk restaurants in Charleston, Nashville, Greenville, and Savannah. “It tore me down.” Alcoholism and workaholism were problems for him in equal measure, and he says that industry culture rewarded those behaviors. “It’s almost like you leave society a little bit. There was a period in my life where I didn’t have a TV, I didn’t have a couch–I didn’t want a TV or a couch. I was working seven days a week, nonstop, I had no idea what was going on outside—I couldn’t have told you who the president was, probably—and that’s what I thought my happy place was. Well, that wasn’t true.”

Brock entered a rehab clinic in Arizona in January 2017 and credits the six-week program with not only getting him clean, but also opening him up. “I used to walk into the kitchen and no one would say a word,” he says. “They were scared to death, which is the way I wanted it, but once I started showing vulnerability, everything changed.”

As the #metoo movement has made waves from film sets to boardrooms and beyond, the food industry is having its own reckoning, and drinking is a big part of that conversation.

“How do you even gauge what’s appropriate when partying is part of the culture of your business?” says Solomonov. He doesn’t offer his staff shift drinks anymore. “And you’re obviously never going to see me fucked up at the bar with my employees.” Solomonov got sober in 2008, five years after the death of his brother. During the time in between, the chef had cloaked himself in a miasma of crack cocaine, heroin, and Scotch so thick it repelled the grief.

Andrew Zimmern, the four-time James Beard Award winner and host of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, remembers the day his own life changed: January 28, 1992. “I was trying to kill myself in a flophouse hotel after being homeless for a year and thinking I was a loser in life.”

He ended up waking up in a treatment center in Minnesota instead. During the first five years he was sober, Zimmern thought a lot about patience, tolerance, and understanding. “Those are the things that were making a difference in my life, and it hit me like a ton of bricks one day that I was working in an industry that needed help with that. And then I realized, the world needs help with that.”

“It’s people who have been in the program and other sober chefs who showed me that life can be better,” says Gourdet.

For those struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues, resources are increasing. Indigo Road Hospitality owner Steve Palmer and Mickey Bakst of the Charleston Grill founded Ben’s Friends, a kind of Alcoholics Anonymous for people working in the food and beverage industry, in 2016. There are now chapters in Charleston, Atlanta, and Raleigh, which is run by chef Scott Crawford of Crawford and Son. Palmer and Crawford managed a no-alcohol-allowed “chill space” at last year’s Atlanta Food & Wine Festival. “The idea is to still be compassionate and empathetic toward that person even though they called you an asshole,” he says. He wants to write a guide on surviving the restaurant industry, and he may soon have time. Brock recently announced that he will no longer be involved with Minero, McCrady’s, or McCrady’s Tavern, but will stay on at all Husk locations as a culinary advisor.

Matthew Jennings, a Boston-based chef who lost 175 pounds and “regained [his] addiction to fitness”

“ Those are the things that were making a difference in my life, and it hit me like a ton of bricks one day that I was working in an industry that needed help. And then I realized, the world needs help with that.”

41 THEDISH.COM SUMMER 2019

A

“A lot of young cooks look up to chefs in the press, and the common stigma is, ‘I need to be a badass, I need to be able to drink and hold my liquor and then work through the hangover.”

Rucker is lucky: He maintained a marriage and a business through years of using alcohol to come down and cocaine to stay up, and his bottom—the term used to refer to an addict’s lowest point— was relatively high. One morning, after an evening spent passed out on the couch at home when he was supposed to be dining with his family and neighbors, he decided it was time to make a change. He called his father, who is sober, and asked to go to an AA meeting with him. “He said, ‘I’ll take you down the path with me, but you don’t get to go back now.’ And I haven’t gone back.” Five years into his sobriety, Rucker goes goes to AA once a week, talks to his sponsor every day, and hits the gym most mornings.

“My oldest son is seven, and he doesn’t remember me drinking,” says Rucker. “He’s not gonna grow up remembering me as a drinking dad.”

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the highest rates of illicit drug use are found in the accommodations and food services industry, and workers in According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the highest rates of illicit drug use are found in the accommodations and food services industry, and workers in According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the highest rates of illicit drug use are found in the accommodations and food services industry, and workers in that industry have the highest rates of substance use disorder: 16.9 percent compared to 9.5 percent on average across other industries. The highest rates of heavy alcohol use are in the mining and construction industries, with accommodations and food services coming in third.

“How do you even gauge what’s appropriate when partying is part of the culture of your business?” says Solomonov.

42

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SUMMER 2019

Fifteen minutes into my conversation with bartender Evan Zimmerman, I realize he isn’t going to eat half of the tomato focaccia square I purchased at Ella in Washington, D.C., so I slide the plate back toward me and listen to him while I finish the rest. He can’t eat because his hands are occupied, mimicking how he might pulverize salted peanuts and use them to season the creamy head of nitrogen-charged Coca-Cola.

Zimmerman will serve the drink he’s describing, or something like it, at a highly anticipated non-alcoholic-cocktail-paired dinner in Portland this weekend, alongside a roster of some of the most well-regarded chefs in the country.

(All 72 tickets for the dinner were purchased within two minutes of going on sale, at a price of $225 each.) Sean Brock, Gregory Gourdet, Gabriel Rucker, Michael Solomonov, and Andrew Zimmern will each prepare a course, and Zimmerman will create a non-alcoholic cocktail to match.

The chefs share high achievements: altogether over a dozen restaurants, 13 James Beard awards, three Top Chef appearances (including one competition finalist), a hugely popular food and travel show, and multiple cookbooks. They also all share a lifestyle: sobriety.

B

rock, whose name was once used as a verb by line cooks in need of a few beers postshift (“Let’s get Brocked”), now starts his day with a meditation session followed by a bowl of berries with macadamia milk. Gourdet, who hit bottom freebasing cocaine for three days with no sleep, runs marathons and maintains a strict gluten- and dairy-free diet. When I visit Solomonov, a former crack addict, at his restaurant Zahav in Philadelphia, he asks if I brought running shoes and tells me to meet him at 8:30 the next morning. We take a brisk walk before his all-staff meeting.

These are, by all accounts, changed men. And with the upcoming dinner, part of the Feast Portland food festival, they’re joining forces for the first time. Rucker, the Portland based chef and owner of Le Pigeon and Little Bird Bistro and organizer of the dinner, wants to challenge assumptions about what the life of a successful chef looks like.

“It’s almost like you leave society a little bit. There was a period in my life where I didn’t have a TV, I didn’t have a couch–I didn’t want a TV or a couch. I was working seven days a week, nonstop, I had no idea what was going on outside—I couldn’t have told you who the president was, probably—and that’s what I thought my happy place was.

Well, that wasn’t true.”

Of course, substance abuse and mental health are linked. Last year, Mental Health America (MHA) published the results of its Work Health Survey across 19 industries in the United States. The healthcare, financial services, and the non-profit industries scored in the top 10 percent; manufacturing, retail, and food and beverage scored in the bottom 10 percent.

“This industry can tear you down if you let it,” says Brock, founding chef of Husk restaurants in Charleston, Nashville, Greenville, and Savannah. “It tore me down.” Alcoholism and workaholism were problems for him in equal measure, and he says that industry culture rewarded those behaviors. “It’s almost like you leave society a little bit. There was a period in my life where I didn’t have a TV, I didn’t have a couch–I didn’t want a TV or a couch. I was working seven days a week, nonstop, I had no idea what was going on outside—I couldn’t have told you who the president was, probably—and that’s what I thought my happy place was. Well, that wasn’t true.”

H

e entered a rehab clinic in Arizona in January 2017 and credits the six-week program with not only getting him clean, but also opening him up. “I used to walk into the kitchen and no one would say a word,” he says. “They were scared to death, which is the way I wanted it, but once I started showing vulnerability, everything changed.”

As the #metoo movement has made waves from film sets to boardrooms and beyond, the food industry is having its own reckoning, and drinking is a big part of that conversation.

“How do you even gauge what’s appropriate when partying is part of the culture of your business?” says Solomonov. He doesn’t offer his staff shift drinks anymore. “And you’re obviously never going to see me fucked up at the bar with my employees.” Solomonov got sober in 2008, five years after the death of his brother. During the time in between, the chef had cloaked himself in a miasma of crack cocaine, heroin, and Scotch so thick it repelled the grief.

Andrew Zimmern, the four-time James Beard Award winner and host of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, remembers the day his own life changed: January 28, 1992. “I was trying to kill myself in a flophouse hotel after being home-

He ended up waking up in a treatment center in Minnesota instead. During the first five years he was sober, Zimmern thought a lot about patience, tolerance, and understanding. “Those are the things that were making a difference in my life, and it hit me like a ton of bricks one day that I was working in an industry that needed help with that. And then I realized, the world needs help with that.”

“It’s people who have been in the program and other sober chefs who showed me that life can be better,” says Gourdet.

For those struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues, resources are increasing. Indigo Road Hospitality owner Steve Palmer and Mickey Bakst of the Charleston Grill founded Ben’s Friends, a kind of Alcoholics Anonymous for people working in the food and beverage industry, in 2016. There are now chapters in Charleston, Atlanta, and Raleigh, which is run by chef Scott Crawford of Crawford and Son. Palmer and Crawford managed a no-alcohol-allowed “chill space” at last year’s Atlanta Food & Wine Festival. “The idea is to still be compassionate and empathetic toward that person even though they called you an asshole,” he says. He wants to write a guide on surviving the restaurant industry, and he may soon have time. Brock recently announced that he will no longer be involved with Minero, McCrady’s, or McCrady’s Tavern, but will stay on at all Husk locations as a culinary advisor.

Matthew Jennings, a Boston-based chef who lost 175 pounds and “regained [his] addiction to fitness”

43 THEDISH.COM SUMMER 2019

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F

ifteen minutes into my conversation with bartender Evan Zimmerman, I realize he isn’t going to eat half of the tomato focaccia square I purchased at Ella in Washington, D.C., so I slide the plate back toward me and listen to him while I finish the rest. He can’t eat because his hands are occupied, mimicking how he might pulverize salted peanuts and use them to season the creamy head of nitrogen-charged Coca-Cola.

Zimmerman will serve the drink he’s describing, or something like it, at a highly anticipated non-alcoholic-cocktail-paired dinner in Portland this weekend, alongside a roster of some of the most well-regarded chefs in the country.

(All 72 tickets for the dinner were purchased within two minutes of going on sale, at a price of $225 each.) Sean Brock, Gregory Gourdet, Gabriel Rucker, Michael Solomonov, and Andrew Zimmern will each prepare a course, and Zimmerman will create a non-alcoholic cocktail to match.

The chefs share high achievements: altogether over a dozen restaurants, 13 James Beard awards, three Top Chef appearances (including one competition finalist), a hugely popular food and travel show, and multiple cookbooks.

They also all share a lifestyle: sobriety.

Brock, whose name was once used as a verb by line cooks in need of a few beers post-shift (“Let’s get Brocked”), now starts his day with a meditation session followed by a bowl of berries with macadamia milk. Gourdet, who hit bottom freebasing cocaine for three days with no sleep, runs marathons and maintains a strict gluten- and dairy-free diet. When I visit Solomonov, a former crack addict, at his restaurant Zahav in Philadelphia, he asks if I brought running shoes and tells me to meet him at 8:30 the next morning. We take a brisk walk before his all-staff meeting.

These are, by all accounts, changed men. And with the upcoming dinner, part of the Feast Portland food festival, they’re joining forces for the first time. Rucker, the Portland based chef and owner of Le Pigeon and Little Bird Bistro and organizer of the dinner, wants to challenge assumptions about what the life of a successful chef looks like.

“A lot of young cooks look up to chefs in the press, and the common stigma is, ‘I need to be a badass, I need to be able to drink and hold my liquor and then work through the hangover.”

Rucker is lucky: He maintained a marriage and a business through years of using alcohol to come down and cocaine to stay up, and his bottom—the term used to refer to an addict’s lowest point—was relatively high. One morning, after an evening spent passed out on the couch at home when he was supposed to be dining with his family and neighbors, he decided it was time to make a change. He called his father, who is sober, and asked to go to an AA meeting with him. “He said, ‘I’ll take you down the path with me, but you don’t get to go back now.’ And I haven’t gone back.” Five years into his sobriety, Rucker goes goes to AA once a week, talks to his sponsor every day, and hits the gym most mornings.“My oldest son is seven, and he doesn’t remember me drinking,” says Rucker. “He’s not gonna grow up remembering me as a drinking dad.”According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the highest rates of illicit drug use are found in the accommodations and food services industry, and workers in that industry have the highest rates of substance use disorder: 16.9 percent compared to 9.5 percent on average across other industries. The highest rates of heavy alcohol use are in the mining and construction industries, with accommodations and food services coming in third.

“How do you even gauge what’s appropriate when partying is part of the culture of your business?” says Solomonov.

“If a life can be measured by the number of other lives it inspired, enlightened, enraged, delighted, provoked, instructed, touched, and ultimately devastated...Anthony Bourdain’s sits atop the list”

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lettuce CELEBRATE

You Could Be Doing More With Your Salads.

BY ERRIC DELANY — PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX LAU

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RAD

ICCHIO

Radicchio and Plum Salad You can use almost any type of plum in this salad recipe, even hybrid ones like Pluots and Peacotums. If it looks like a plum, it probably acts like a plum too.

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THAT’S GOT SOME PUNCH TO IT. Fresh Green Spicy Ramen.

We paired peppery watercress with bright rhubarb and sweet berries in this spring salad recipe.

INGREDIENTS ½ medium rhubarb stalk, very thinly sliced on a diagonal 6 oz. strawberries, hulled, halved, sliced if large 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice 2 tsp. honey 1 bunch watercress, tough stems removed ½ cup basil leaves ½ cup cilantro leaves with tender stems 2 scallions, thinly sliced on a diagonal Kosher salt Crushed red pepper flakes 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil DIRECTIONS Finley cut strawberries and peel rhubarb.

Toss rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, and honey in a medium bowl to combine.

Arrange watercress, basil, and cilantro on a platter, then scatter scallions over.

Season with salt and sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Spoon berry mixture and juices over; drizzle with oil and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

Arrange watercress, basil, and cilantro on a platter, then scatter scallions over.

Season with salt and sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Spoon berry mixture and juices over; drizzle with oil and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

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PUT AN EGG ON IT

Perfectly Poached Egg Poach eggs before you head to bed and you’ll have a quick breakfast on hand in the morning.

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S D A L A S FRUIT Y L L A U T C THAT A .

D O O G E TAST Strawberry and Watercross Salad We paired peppery watercress with bright rhubarb and sweet berries in this spring salad recipe.

INGREDIENTS ½ medium rhubarb stalk, very thinly sliced on a diagonal 6 oz. strawberries, hulled, halved, sliced if large 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice 2 tsp. honey 1 bunch watercress, tough stems removed ½ cup basil leaves ½ cup cilantro leaves with tender stems 2 scallions, thinly sliced on a diagonal Kosher salt Crushed red pepper flakes 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil DIRECTIONS Finley cut strawberries and peel rhubarb.

Toss rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, and honey in a medium bowl to combine.

Arrange watercress, basil, and cilantro on a platter, then scatter scallions over.

Season with salt and sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Spoon berry mixture and juices over; drizzle with oil and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

Arrange watercress, basil, and cilantro on a platter, then scatter scallions over.

Season with salt and sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Spoon berry mixture and juices over; drizzle with oil and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

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Watermelon with Lime Dressing and Peanuts Sometimes the easiest way to upgrade an old-school and often disappointing dish—such as fruit salad—is to change the way it looks.

That means swapping retro cantaloupe cubes and honeydew balls for a melon with a modern cut.

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Radicchio and Plum Salad.

8 SERVINGS You can use almost any type of plum in this salad recipe, even hybrid ones like Pluots and Peacotums. If it looks like a plum, it probably acts like a plum too.

Cook bacon in dry medium skillet over medium-low heat, turning occasionally, until crisp, 8–12 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Reduce heat to low and cook shallot in same skillet, stirring often, until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add vinegar, oil, mustard, and 1 Tbsp. water and whisk until smooth.

Watermelon with Lime Dressing.

8 SERVINGS You can use almost any type of plum in this salad recipe, even hybrid ones like Pluots and Peacotums. If it looks like a plum, it probably acts like a plum too.

Toss radicchio, plums, and olives in a large bowl. Drizzle dressing over; season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat.

PERFECTLY POACHED EGG. INGREDIENTS 4 slices bacon 1 small shallot, finely chopped 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1 head of radicchio, leaves separated 4 plums, cut into wedges ¼ cup Gaeta olives Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper DIRECTIONS Cook bacon in dry medium skillet over medium-low heat, turning occasionally, until crisp, 8–12 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Reduce heat to low and cook shallot in same skillet, stirring often, until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add vinegar, oil, mustard, and 1 Tbsp. water and whisk until smooth.

Toss radicchio, plums, and olives in a large bowl. Drizzle dressing over; season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat.

Transfer salad to a platter, then crumble bacon over. Cook bacon in dry medium skillet over medium-low heat, turning occasionally, until crisp, 8–12 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Reduce heat to low and cook shallot in same skillet, stirring often, until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add vinegar, oil, mustard, and 1 Tbsp. water and whisk until smooth.

Toss radicchio, plums, and olives in a large bowl. Drizzle dressing over; season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat.

Transfer salad to a platter, then crumble bacon over. Cook bacon in dry medium skillet over medium-low heat, turning occasionally, until crisp, 8–12 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Reduce heat to low and cook shallot in same skillet, stirring often, until translucent, about 2 minutes.

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8 SERVINGS Poach eggs before you head to bed and you’ll have a quick breakfast on hand in the morning.

INGREDIENTS 4 large eggs Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper DIRECTIONS Bring a large saucepan of water to a gentle simmer. Crack an egg into a fine-mesh sieve set over a medium bowl. Let watery whites run through into bowl below; carefully transfer egg to a small bowl (this helps eliminate the long, tentacle-like strands of egg white that may otherwise form, and encourages a smooth, round poached egg).

Stir simmering water with a slotted spoon to make a gentle vortex. Tip egg out of bowl into center of vortex and swirl water gently to help bring whites up around yolk. Repeat with 3 more eggs so there are 4 eggs total in saucepan. Cook until whites are just set but yolk is still very soft (lift out of water with a slotted spoon and gently press on yolk to assess), about 2½ minutes from the time each egg hits the water. Transfer to a warm plate with slotted spoon. Season eggs with salt and pepper just before serving.

Reduce heat to low and cook shallot in same skillet, stirring often, until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add vinegar, oil, mustard, and 1 Tbsp. water and whisk until smooth.

Toss radicchio, plums, and olives in a large bowl. Drizzle dressing over; season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat.

Transfer salad to a platter, then crumble bacon over.

INGREDIENTS 4 slices bacon 1 small shallot, finely chopped 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1 head of radicchio, leaves separated 4 plums, cut into wedges ¼ cup Gaeta olives Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper DIRECTIONS Cook bacon in dry medium skillet over medium-low heat, turning occasionally, until crisp, 8–12 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Reduce heat to low and cook shallot in same skillet, stirring often, until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add vinegar, oil, mustard, and 1 Tbsp. water and whisk until smooth.

Toss radicchio, plums, and olives in a large bowl. Drizzle dressing over; season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat.

Transfer salad to a platter, then crumble bacon over. Cook bacon in dry medium skillet over medium-low heat, turning occasionally, until crisp, 8–12 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Reduce heat to low and cook shallot in same skillet, stirring often, until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add vinegar, oil, mustard, and 1 Tbsp. water and whisk until smooth.

Toss radicchio, plums, and olives in a large bowl. Drizzle dressing over; season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat.

Transfer salad to a platter, then crumble bacon over. Cook bacon in dry medium skillet over medium-low heat, turning occasionally, until crisp, 8–12 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Reduce heat to low and cook shallot in same skillet, stirring often, until translucent, about 2 minutes.

.

Y L E S I W E S O O H C How to Choose the Best Lettuce at the Store.

A very green investigation into the best lettuce: boxed, bagged, or whole heads?

Whole heads are cheaper.

Whole heads will generally get you more bang for your buck because you’re not paying for the convenience of having the leaves washed and chopped for you. At a Whole Foods in NYC, for example, one head of Romaine costs $2.49 while a bag costs $2.69 (not a huge difference, but hey), and a box costs $4.49. At another grocery store, a head goes for $2.50 while a bag is anywhere from $3.50 to $4.00 and a box is anywhere from $3.99 to $4.49, depending on the brand. When you want to make your own bagged salad for a little less money, a whole head is your best bet.

Bagged and boxed lettuces aren’t necessarily cleaner.

Turns out that any lettuce—whole, bagged, or boxed—can be infected with diseases like salmonella, listeria, and E. coli. And while those leafy greens inside of packaging may look a lot cleaner, there’s just as much of a chance they’ll be tainted as their intact counterparts, even if they boast “triple-washed” on their label. Pre-cut and pre-packaged lettuce gets handled more before it hits store shelves, which opens up more possible points of contamination. But the truth is, “an outbreak can happen from such a wide variety of things all along the supply chain,” according to Food and Drug Administration spokesperson Peter Cassel. “The problem typically starts in the field anyway. And, what’s more, it’s not uncommon for produce—or anything that travels in bulk for that matter—to come in contact with another product that’s been contaminated as it moves from point A to point B to point C.” The Farmers Market Expectation.

Anything you get at the farmers’ market is preferable to what you’ll find on the average grocery store shelf, and that includes lettuce. Whether you’re getting a whole head or a bag of loose greens, buying from the market means less time from farm to fridge, less time for the greens to wilt and lose their healthy stuff, and less of a chance that they’ll come into contact with, say, contaminated meat or fish.

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How to Pick Out The Best Vegetables of The Bunch

APPLES The color of apples can range from yellow to green to red.

When shopping for them, look for firm fruit that has a rich color.

Apples will keep in the refrigerator crisper for up to a month.

BANANAS

GROCERY LIST.

The best bananas have a solid yellow color speckled with brown.

Greenish bananas ripen well at home, so they’re worth buying if you plan on eating them later.

Store bananas at room temperature—not in the fridge—since they age more quickly when cold.

Where do grocery stores go to shop when they’re out of stock?

BY ZAHIR JANMOHAMED—PHOTOGRAPHY BY COLE WILSON

W

CARROTS elcome to the Fancy Food Show! Where grocery

shops come to grocery shop. Where distributors come to make deals, gourmet stores scout the latest niche marshmallows, spice merchants sell spices, dairy boards check out cheese, and a ton of randos prey on samples for whatever reason. Oh, and where editors for various food media outlets go to find out what is cool, or extremely not cool. There are lots of handshakes. There are lots of blazers, jeans, and running shoes. Everyone’s lassoed with lanyard name tags that reveal our affiliation in ALL CAPS. When I spot two gentlemen from my hometown of Houston’s beloved H-E-B I get excited and say, “H-E-B! The greatest grocery store on Earth!”

But they zoom past me, two polo shirts in the wind. It’s a gigantic, overwhelming, three-story trade show in the 840,000-square-foot Javits Center in New York, and I couldn’t be more excited to be here. Because I love snacks.

Yeah, obviously choosing to set down my heavy tote bag—not sure why I so eagerly took a bottle of Oxigen water, which weighs as much as regular water—next to one of many, many garbage clusters was dumb. Little plastic sample cups of lukewarm noodles in one of a hundred jarred sauces. But I was three hours deep into this thing and my body ached, my senses were overwhelmed, and I thought it would be funny to see what people were throwing away. They throw away everything. Little plastic sample cups of lukewarm noodles in one of a hundred jarred sauces. Paper spoons of watery tomatillo salsa. Sticky handfuls of flavorless granola. Everything starts to blur into one fair-trade, allergen-friendly, no added-sugar, dramatic backstory, earth-saving package of just fine. It’s hard to discern the good from the meh from the tasty, but your snack-familiar reporter has an eye for

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get asked a lot how I went from being a line cook, urgently prepping and tasting hundreds of dishes a night, to an eating psychology coach, helping people have a mindful, energizing, and pleasurable relationship with food and their bodies. Here’s the summary: After three years as a line cook, blasting my gut with nightly sequences of melted ricotta, pork belly, chocolate torte, citrus vinaigrette, ragu, more vinaigrette, and finally a burger and a beer, I (not surprisingly) developed severe digestive and autoimmune issues. I left the restaurant industry and set out to heal myself through food. But, four months in, I was dismayed when my new diet of green smoothies and quinoa bowls wasn’t doing the wonders I had expected. I mean, I was following the same diet as all those cheerful, svelte, deweyskinned health bloggers, so...what was I missing? While I was no longer stuffing my face with a merry-go-round of fatty, salty, acidic bites each night, the method was all too similar: I often ate rushed, standing up, and distracted. Over time, and lots of trial and error, I began to figure out that the Little plastic sample cups of lukewarm noodles in one of a hundred jarred sauces way I was eating was at the root of my digestive issues. In my new career as an eating psychology coach, almost all my clients suffer from digestive issues, whether they know it or not. Fatigue, eczema, food allergies, acne, asthma, and even brain fog are all signs of a struggling gut. We all know the saying, “You are what you eat,” but what’s maybe more relevant to our generation is “you are how you eat.w RIND Snacks: These are dried fruit peels, so before I over-promise you anything, know that they are dried fruit peels. The tangy kiwi flavor, however, was very interesting in my mouth. That’s what I wrote in my notes: “Interesting in my mouth.”

Look for firm carrots with a rich orange color; avoid those with soft or flabby roots. Store carrots in the veggie bin, where they’ll last for a few weeks. Slightly limp carrots are fine for soup or stew.

LETTUCE Fresh lettuce has healthy-looking, dark-green leaves; avoid those that are wilted and discolored. Get rid of sandy residue by soaking then gently rinsing in cold water. If you’re making a salad, wash only the amount of spinach you plan to use. Spinach that has wilted in the veggie crisper is best served sautéed.

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WHAT WE FOUND. I wonder how many years behind these Chilean salmon skin chips will be from the abundance of salmon jerky on the market now. (They’re not available in the U.S. yet, but a sampler before me kept going back for more, so maybe...soon?) The dehydrated skin is sharper than your average Dorito, and a hell of a lot fishier, with a touch of sweetness. Pass on the pesto flavor, and embrace cat treat breath.

Williwaw Salmon Cracklet

Kimino Yuzu Soda

Kimino Yuzu Soda

An impressively tanned dude poured me some bubbly yuzu soda: “Do you know what yuzu is?” he asked me, apparently a wide-eyed idiot. I did, and he was disappointed. What else was there to say? He watched me swallow the sweet citrus soda. “What does Kimino mean?” I asked. He did not know. (It means “made for you.”)

You guessed it—puffed edamame. The trippy packaging reminds me of trying to understand The Backyardigans, and then I remember I’m an adult and don’t have to. They add spinach to the edamame (somehow?), which you can really taste in a green, earthy way. But then a dose of flavor powder on top joins the party, which is a ranchy distraction. “Edamame! That’s what we snack on in my house,” proclaims a sampler with blue-streaked hair. Her enthusiasm earns a second free sample, and I’m impressed.

” We’ve all heard about mindful eating, but what about mindful anticipation?”

There were SO MANY sodas, smoked syrup, and smoked chocolates at the FFS. That’s how you know a trend is over, I was told by an apt specialty store owner. At the Holy Smoke booth, a Shia LaBeouf look-alike named either Kyle or Max wore a fishing hat and presided over his happy smoky empire. There was a toothpick of bread crust dipped in this smoked oil was like licking a gold.

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Kimino Yuzu Soda

YOU CAN SEE THE

QAULITY

I get asked a lot how I went from being a line cook, urgently prepping and tasting hundreds of dishes a night, to an eating psychology coach, helping people have a mindful, energizing, and pleasurable relationship with food and their bodies. Here’s the summary: After three years as a line cook, blasting my gut with nightly sequences of melted ricotta, pork belly, chocolate torte, citrus vinaigrette, ragu, more vinaigrette, and finally a burger and a beer, I (not surprisingly) developed severe digestive and autoimmune issues. I left the restaurant industry and set out to heal myself through food. But, four months in, I was dismayed when my new diet of green smoothies and quinoa bowls wasn’t doing the wonders I had expected. I mean, I was following the same diet as all those cheerful, svelte, deweyskinned health bloggers, so...what was I missing? While I was no longer stuffing my face with a merry-go-round of fatty, salty, acidic bites each night, the method was all too similar: I often ate rushed, standing up, and distracted. Over time, and lots of trial and error, I began to figure out that the Little plastic sample cups of lukewarm noodles in one of a hundred jarred sauces way I was eating was at the root of my digestive issues. In my new career as an eating psychology coach, almost all my clients suffer from digestive issues, whether they know it or not. Fatigue, eczema, food allergies, acne, asthma, and even brain fog are all signs of a struggling gut. We all know the saying, “You are what you eat,” but what’s maybe more relevant to our generation is “you are how you eat.w RIND Snacks: These are dried fruit peels, so before I over-promise you anything, know that they are dried fruit peels. The tangy kiwi flavor, however, was very interesting in my mouth. That’s what I wrote in my notes:

“Theres an interesting taste in my mouth” Phewph!

That’s just a handful from the first floor of the show—there are over 2,600 companies at the show, so I didn’t see them all. Upstairs I sampled Korean scorched rice snacks (more puff), Kewpie yuzu kosho dressing, vegan jerky (chewy), a ton of matcha, and a much-needed frozen scallion pancake. There were hundreds of huge, international companies with flashy setups and more giant wheels of parm than I could count, plus the “German pavilion” where beer is to be found, and a couple cheersing plastic cups of red wine from the Rao’s booth. I’ll leave with these parting words I overheard from a canned tuna salesman: “We’ve tested 400 pounds of our tuna and we’ve never had a death.” And isn’t that something? I’ll leave with these parting words I overheard from a canned tuna salesman: “We’ve tested 400 pounds of our tuna and we’ve never had a death.” And isn’t that something? I’ll leave with these parting words I overheard from a canned tuna salesman: “We’ve tested 400 pounds of our tuna and we’ve never had a death.” And isn’t that something? That’s just a handful from the first floor of the show—there are over 2,600 companies at the show, so I didn’t see them all. Upstairs I sampled Korean scorched rice snacks (more puff), Kewpie yuzu kosho dressing, vegan jerky (chewy), a ton of matcha, and a much-needed frozen scallion pancake. There were hundreds of huge, international companies with flashy setups and more giant wheels of parm than I could count, plus the “German pavilion” where beer is to be found, and a couple cheersing plastic cups of red wine from the Rao’s booth. I’ll leave with these parting words I overheard from a canned tuna salesman: “We’ve tested 400 pounds of our tuna and we’ve never had a death.” And isn’t that something?

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basic—ally Kuhn Rikon 3-Set Original Swiss Peeler The Y-peeler is the essential peeler— there’s a reason that it’s the only kind you’ll find in our test kitchen. And buying a pack of three means you can toss one when it gets dull and have a crispy one on ice all ready to go.

PROPPMÄTT Chopping Board If the only surface you have to cut on is some flimsy plastic rectangle, you owe it to yourself to get a proper wooden cutting board. (It’s less than $8, people!!)

OXO Good Grips Angled Measuring Cup Instead of bending down and looking at your pour from the side, you can just peer at the measurement from above. Sometimes you just want to know if you have a cup, not get a set of squats in.

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