We picked a few story highlights from a very memorable year, including a close look at the industrial croissant, a dive into the restaurant industry’s pivot to meal kits, and a celebration of sardine collecting.
Our year of working remotely, cooking our pants off, and generally spending more time indoors huddled around glowing screens (but also huddled in our kitchens) provided the backdrop for the slate of stories we published over the past 12 months. In early 2021, we will be celebrating four years of publishing TASTE, and even in spite of our inability to travel freely and report stories from the field, this year has easily been our strongest. The lineup of stories each week (as well as our three weekly newsletters) kept our small editorial team on our toes. So, how do you pick 20 favorites? It’s impossible, but here goes nothing.
The year kicked off with Priya Krishna traveling to Ruth Reichl’s upstate New York house to sort through her menus and talk about her days reviewing restaurants in New York City and Los Angeles (this year, Priya not only wrapped up her limited yogurt column, she also reported about the restaurant industry’s pivot to meal kits and the pandemic-proof pizza industry.) Assistant editor Tatiana Bautista reported on the mutual aid movement sweeping the country; senior editor Anna Hezel wrote about the art of sardine collecting; and Aaron Hutcherson reconsidered the Rice Krispies Treat. TASTE loves to do a deep dive, and deep dive we did, into rotisserie chicken, food media’s rapid shift to the email newsletter, 100-year-old tare, and the industrial croissant. We’re very excited to bring you more from TASTE in 2021. Thank you for reading! – Matt Rodbard
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God Save Lard Bread
The name might be a tough sell, but the salami- and prosciutto-filled bread has its fans, and a few dedicated bakers are keeping it alive.
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The Recipe to Bob's Red Mill's Supreme Recipes
If you’ve ever cooked a recipe from the back of one of the company’s 400+ products, you have one very busy pastry chef to thank.
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The Dutch Oven, Redesigned for Gen Y
Cookware companies are vying for a place in the millennial kitchen with a seemingly universal template of mid-century nostalgia meets sleek futurism. Will it work?
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The Flour Tortilla Has Ascended
The road to flour tortilla greatness is full of risks and pitfalls, but a few American tortillerias are going the extra mile.
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Who Are These Maximalist Cheese Boards For?
The self-care industrial complex has come for your cheese and charcuterie. Are you ready to sail the salami river?
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Did Instagram Ruin the Chocolate Chip Cookie?
There’s way too much dark chocolate and salt in today’s most-liked cookies.
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New-World Sourdough Is Hardly New
A baker and cookbook author is on a mission to prove that sourdough is as much about the Mexican birotes as it is about the French loaves.
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What’s in a 100-Year-Old Tare?
The Ito family’s heirloom sauce, traditionally used for yakitori and unagi, holds more than just umami—it holds a sweet and complicated legacy.
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The Virtuous, and Virtual, Activism of Studio ATAO
The culinary nonprofit, run by chef and poet Jenny Dorsey, taps AR/VR technology to tell the stories of modern food.
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The Future of Food Media Is in Your Inbox
Indie newsletters are booming, and they’re home to some of the most exciting food writing today.
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The Art of Sardine Collecting
A look inside the often eccentric, sometimes survivalist, world of tinned-fish collecting.
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The Convenient Truth of Rotisserie Chicken
A look at America’s favorite illogically cheap, ecologically dubious roasted chicken.
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The Soul Food of Black Peru
Rooted in slavery, the food of Afro-Peruvians is an integral part of Peru’s culinary identity.
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Mapping the World’s Best Club Sandwiches
What makes a good club sandwich? Ask the guy who’s eaten them everywhere, from Paris to Phnom Penh.
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Reconsidering the Rice Krispies Treat
It’s not just for kids, doesn’t require an oven, and, for some, it’s even high art.
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Do I Know Anything About Harissa at All?
In America, the heavily spiced condiment has been diluted, distorted, and sold en masse. Mansour Arem’s setting the record straight.
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A Nation Turns to Pizza
We already knew the slice was recession proof. Now we’re learning the parlor is pandemic-proof, too.
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Mutual Aid Is on the Move
While neighbors helping neighbors is nothing new, the pandemic has mobilized extraordinary networks of free grocery and meal delivery services.
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Ruth Reichl, Mayor of Menuland
A look inside the former critic’s vast collection of menus from across America.
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The Industrial Croissant Deserves Your Respect
Humans may have invented the croissant. But machines perfected it.