The Thrill of Losing Money by Investing in a Manhattan Restaurant: If you live in New York City long enough and appear to be successfully employed in an industry that Bernie Sanders dislikes, you will be asked at some point to do three things: sponsor a table at a vanity fund-raiser, become a “producer” of a Broadway play, and invest in a restaurant. I had no trouble declining the honor of hosting a benefit or helping “Hedda Gabler” back to the stage.
John Besh restaurants fostered culture of sexual harassment, 25 women say: Madie Robison said she was done with the uninvited touching from a male colleague, the comments about her physical appearance and the repeated requests by her famous boss to discuss his sex life. That boss was celebrity chef John Besh, co-owner of Besh Restaurant Group, where Robison was hired as a graphic designer after graduating from Loyola University at 22. She resigned in February after just over two years on the job, alternately confused, angered and traumatized by a corporate culture where sexual harassment flourished – at least in her telling, though not in her telling alone.
French butter shortage puts pastry supplies on a slippery slope: French pastries and butter have become so popular abroad that the increased demand has led to a mini-shortage in French supermarkets. The price of butter has risen 60% in a year to reach €6.70 per kilogram in August, according to official data, creating problems for pastry exporters and fears of a shortage in France of Christmas delicacies such as the traditional Yule Log dessert.
My Interview with Enzo and Paolo Vizzari: This morning, in one of the wonderful rooms of “Palazzo Veneziano” in Malborghetto, I had the pleasure of interviewing Enzo and Paolo Vizzari for my project Fall for Fvg. Since 2001, Enzo Vizzari is Director of the Section “Guides” for the Editorial Group L’Espresso, and editor in chief of the Guides “Ristoranti d’Italia” (he is working in the project as vice editor since 1983), “Vini d’Italia” and Alberghi e Ristoranti d’Italia.
Les Halles de Paris: From the Middle Ages to modernity, the central market of Paris was one of the city’s liveliest locales, as farmers, fishermen, butchers, and customers commingled among tons upon tons of fresh produce, meat, fish, and other goods.
On a roll — an ancient history of bread: “We believe it’s time for a truly disruptive change in breadmaking,” declare the authors of Modernist Bread, a new book out next month. This doughy disruption involves a thorough re-evaluation of bread lore. Think ciabatta is an ancient Italian speciality? Wrong. It was invented in 1982. Confident croissants are French? Sorry. They originate from Vienna. Believe a sourdough starter can last hundreds of years? No. Not possible.
Wildfires in California’s winelands: The wildfires that have cost so many lives and devastated the northern California wine counties of Napa and Sonoma are just the most recent — and most financially painful — example of a phenomenon that is affecting world wine production with increasing frequency. Hotter, drier summers leave vineyards and the land around them horribly easy prey to a dropped match, lightning strikes or the sort of spontaneous combustion that can arise when metal hits stone. And when the wine those vineyards produce is some of the most expensive in the world, the consequences will be widely felt, both in terms of production and tourism. Early estimates put California’s losses in multiple billions of dollars.
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