Is being a chef bad for your mental health? In October last year Andrew Clarke, head chef of the much-admired Brunswick House restaurant in Vauxhall, London, posted a picture of himself to Instagram. It’s in black and white. He is sitting at a table against a wall of distressed plaster, his straggly hair unsuccessfully tucked away beneath a ragged beanie hat, tattooed arms on show. In his hand is a teacup and before him, a bottle of spirits, the implication being that the contents of one are filling the other. It could have been the moody cover to one of the albums Clarke thought he would release when he was pursuing his first love, music.
A culinary cruise from Dublin to Lisbon: super markets and caramel bottoms: To the opening chords of Hotel California, Calvin the Indian accommodation director walks onto the brightly lit stage. Then comes the ship’s Filipino doctor, to Bad Case of Loving You. The Ukrainian chief engineer joins them, somewhat disconcertingly, to the theme tune from Mission: Impossible. It is a novel way to introduce key crew members aboard the Windstar Legend as it sets off on a 10-night cruise from Dublin, Ireland, to Lisbon, Portugal, with the British captain, Neil Broomhall, last to join the ranks gathered in the theatre.
How the sandwich consumed Britain: The invention of the chilled packaged sandwich, an accessory of modern British life which is so influential, so multifarious and so close to hand that you are probably eating one right now, took place exactly 37 years ago. Like many things to do with the sandwich, this might seem, at first glance, to be improbable. But it is true. In the spring of 1980, Marks & Spencer, the nation’s most powerful department store, began selling packaged sandwiches out on the shop floor. Nothing terribly fancy. Salmon and cucumber. Egg and cress. Triangles of white bread in plastic cartons, in the food aisles, along with everything else. Prices started at 43p.
This New Times Square Hotel Will Be Wrapped in New York City’s Biggest Billboard: Travelers who want to experience the epicenter of New York City can now stay in a hotel behind the city’s largest LED billboard. Behind the nine-story, 18,000-square-foot LED billboard on West 47th Street and Seventh Avenue, there will be a massive, multi-billion dollar hotel and entertainment complex for those who want to spend their time in the Big Apple in the hubbub and electricity of smackdab midtown.
The Hidden Risks of Writing a Cookbook: Chef Chris Fischer hadn’t thought much about writing a cookbook. He was busy enough managing his grandmother’s 56-year-old, five-acre Beetlebung Farm on Martha’s Vineyard, where he often hosted dinners, as well as working as the chef at the Beach Plum Inn. But after an editor from Little, Brown and Company visited the farm and ate Fischer’s food, she told him she thought he should write a book for her. He spent eight months putting together a proposal, Little, Brown offered him an advance of $125,000, and in 2013, he happily signed the contract.
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