Foodies Clan

The Momofuku chef’s winnings will go to the Southern Smoke Foundation

A simple process and tons of flavor make sweet potato pie a perfect beginner’s baking project

Welcome to Ask Elazar, a column in which Eater staff writer Elazar Sontag answers your highly specific and pressing cooking questions.

I’ve never in my life made a pie before, but in the spirit of taking on a baking project during quarantine, I’ve decided I’m going to make my first-ever pie for the holidays this year. Can you recommend a recipe that’s reasonably foolproof but that gives good holiday vibes?

At the intersection of foolproof, low effort, and festive lives one perfect dessert: sweet potato pie. There is perhaps no simpler pie, and the payoff is tremendous, the sweet potatoes providing a rich custard-like texture that pumpkins just can’t deliver (even a mediocre sweet potato pie is, really, quite good). On the baking end, there are very few steps, and very little that can go wrong: Nearly all sweet potato pie recipes have you mix the filling in one bowl, before plopping it into the crust, and sliding the pie into the oven for the filling to set and the crust to brown. And when the process is done, and the pie is in the oven, you’ll have three or four dishes to wash, at most.

P Maxwell Photography/Shutterstock

My first encounter with this dessert was not on a holiday table, but at the birthday party of a childhood friend. His mom made a sweet potato pie for all three of her sons’ birthdays, and after tasting her pie once, I made it my business to be at as many of these family celebrations as possible. I distinctly remember the warm, cozy smell of roasted sweet potatoes, buttery pie crust, and nutmeg lifting into the air and filling her kitchen.

This sweet potato pie recipe, from the archives of Saveur, is about as simple as it gets, with a filling that calls for only a handful of ingredients. The recipe notably lacks spices, so you can treat the recipe as a base for light improvisation, adding a quarter teaspoon each of your favorite fall flavors — think nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and allspice. Or you can leave the recipe exactly as it is, planning to adapt it next year, when you’re a little more confident in your pie-making chops. For an absolutely no-fail version that’ll take even less time, you can use canned sweet potato, though I really recommend starting with baked or boiled sweet potatoes (plus, canned sweet potatoes are hard to find in many parts of the U.S.) Roasting or boiling the sweet potatoes yourself reinforces the feeling that you have played a meaningful role in the creation of this pie, even if the crust is store-bought and the “Pie Spice” came pre-mixed.

I’ve made sweet potato pie every holiday season for years now, but as a nervous baker who never gets more confident, I’ll be buying my pie crust this year. There are lots of good store bought options out there that’ll result in the buttery, golden-brown pie of your dreams. Or, if you’re deeply committed to making every inch of your first pie from scratch, you can roll up your sleeves, dust a rolling pin, and get to work. Either way, you should take pride in the fact that you made this pie (more or less) without a scratch of help, and that it’ll give even the best pumpkin pie a run for its money.

Turns out mailing cookies to your coworkers (and friends!) is easier than you think

Almost all of our holiday traditions are imperiled by COVID-19. Boisterous family meals, glittery cocktail parties, and gatherings to exchange presents could all become super-spreader events. But there is one holiday tradition the pandemic can’t mess with: mailing cookies. The 2020 baking boom was one long training session for turning out dozens upon dozens of snickerdoodles, thumbprints, rugelach, and brownies in the last month of this shitty year.

But after the cookies are made, what’s the best way to make sure they arrive in one piece? Twelve Eater staffers conducted a (somewhat) scientific experiment to determine which cookies travel best and which shipping methods ensure cookies arrive intact. Nothing ever has to be perfect, but in a year full of uncertainty, getting cookies from one end of the country to the other would be… nice.

For mailing, the experiment settled on three methods, each of which offers a different trade-off between beauty of presentation and annoyingness of packing. The first method, from Martha Stewart Living, is the most traditional: Pack the cookies in a Tupperware or tin without much wiggle room and put them in a box with a good layer of padding. The second method comes from Sally’s Baking Addiction, which calls for packing cookies in a tin and then placing padding around the tin, with the additional step of sandwiching cookies together in pairs and wrapping them in plastic wrap. The final method comes from Jessica Vitak, who bakes 4,000 cookies a year and shared her intel as part of Eater’s expert guide. This method calls for putting cookies into plastic baggies and wrapping those baggies up in bubble wrap before packing it all up to be shipped.

Then, we divided cookies into three main types: hard and crunchy (think shortbread and biscotti), soft and chewy (chocolate chip, snickerdoodle), and bar cookies (brownies, blondies). Staffers each baked a recipe of their choice, each of which fell into one of these categories, and used one of the three shipping methods above.

The original form of the experiment was a 3-by-3 grid of cookie type and shipping method, so that each type of cookie was sent by each method. However, some wildcards entered along the way. Amanda Kludt’s shipping guy suggested a new method, which called for padding the cookies in a Tupperware but dispensing with any padding outside the Tupperware before sending them off. We threw in a spoiler crumbly cookie into all of the shipping methods, to see how much of a risk it is. Shipping methods were not rigorously followed. We are not scientists. But with dozens upon dozens of cookies that all made it to Los Angeles, there are three major conclusions to be drawn:

1. Shipping cookies successfully is not that hard
2. The type of cookie doesn’t matter nearly as much as how it’s shipped
3. The enemy of cookies is other cookies

Shipping method No. 1: Cookies in a tin

Cookies sent using the most traditional method, packed into a tin with padding and then wrapped in more padding before being placed in a box, were also the most hit or miss in terms of how they looked upon arrival. With enough padding and/or the right kind of cookie, this method can definitely work, but it’s risky.

Both Jaya Saxena’s tiny, sturdy blondies and Monica Burton’s Mexican wedding cookies (our designated crumbly cookies) battered against each other in their boxes, arriving intact but with lots of crumbs. Nick Mancall-Bitel’s chewy peanut-butter miso cookies fared the best; they were wide and flat, as well as slightly chewy, which maybe enhanced their stability; they were also packed with parchment paper crammed into every crevice, which ensured they could not bump into each other, but that shipping method might be annoying to scale.

Shipping method No. 1.5: Amanda Kludt’s shipping guy

When Eater’s editor-in-chief took her cookies to her shipping store in Brooklyn, an employee talked her out of putting any padding around her package at all, and instead stressed that all her cookies needed was ample padding inside their tin. The cookies sent by this method (Matt Buchanan agreed to also test it out) fared about as well as the cookies sent in tins and padded boxes: hit or miss. Kludt’s iced sugar cookies, which were fragile to begin with, arrived with a dusting of crumbs sheared from their edges, and one was broken in two. Buchanan’s peanut butter-miso-white chocolate cookies (spot the trend) remained totally fine, although they were also more padded with parchment paper. The TL;DR is if you want to send cookies in a tin, don’t worry about adding a lot of additional padding around the tin; worry about padding the cookies inside the tin.

Shipping method No. 2: Sally’s Baking Addiction

Wrapping cookies in pairs before putting them in a box solves the major problem of a box as shipping vehicle: chaos. Each cookie is anchored to another cookie and surrounded by a soft layer of padding that prevents them from injuring any of their other boxmates. Probably the prettiest box I got was from Lesley Suter, which was filled with crinkle paper and maple sandwich cookies perfectly bound together. It’s also a good method for sending two types of cookie: Rebecca Flint Marx sent both brownies and blondies, both of them perfectly moist, and the plastic wrap kept them from sticking together when stacked. Parchment paper might have done the same, but the plastic wrap meant they didn’t stick to each other laterally, either.

The downside, of course, is that this method uses an unholy amount of plastic wrap, takes more time for the sender, and then requires the receiver to unwrap all the cookies. The process wasn’t that arduous, and maybe kept them fresh longer, but it took a little of the pleasure out of unwrapping the treats. If you want to send cookies in a tin and not lose too much time wondering if you’ve added enough padding, this method is probably the safest.

Shipping method No. 3: Jessica Vitak’s Baggie Method

Putting cookies into small baggies, wrapping those baggies in layers of bubble wrap, and then shipping them in a box was overall just as successful as the plastic-wrap method, if not more so. This is likely because the cookies are in a soft container, so they’re not as easily jostled, and the baggies can be thoroughly encircled with bubble wrap. It also offers a great deal of flexibility, especially if you’re sending multiple kinds of cookies. Brenna Houck sent both spicy, flavorful molasses cookies and shortbread cookies, and neither took on the flavor of the other when separated in baggies within the same box.

The main downside of this method is when the cookies arrive, there is no tin or even Tupperware to open, just bubble wrap to hack through, and then a bunch of baggies. It’s not super aesthetically pleasing if you’re sending something as a gift. This method works best if you want to go for volume and variety: lots of different kinds of cookies, which might be tough to fit together in a tin and would risk cross-contaminating each others’ flavors, can all be sent successfully in a big ball of plastic. But don’t skip the bubble wrap! Left alone in just a plastic bag, the cookies will pulverize each other. They must be immobilized for their own good.

A note of caution about powdered sugar

Lots of classic holiday cookies are dusted with powdered sugar. It’s cute! It’s like snow! It will not travel well! Cookies dusted in powdered sugar and put in baggies mussed up the baggie, creating an unpleasant effect. Plastic-wrapped cookies and cookies sent in tins seemed to absorb their powder, leaving them a bit dull.

Conclusions

If you want your cookies to arrive in a pretty box, pad them neurotically. If you want to send the max amount of cookies, consider the baggie method. With a little care, they should arrive safely.

And they’ll be worth the effort. At Eater, we work all over the country, but we usually get to see each other in person once or twice a year. This year, it’s been a lot of Zoom. Getting boxes of cookies from all my coworkers felt surprisingly lovely; something about the cookies being homemade made it feel like we were hanging out together when I unwrapped them. If worries about the quality of your bakes or the efficiency of the mail is what’s been keeping you from sending out your own batches of cookies, don’t let that stop you: All of the packages I received made me think fondly of their senders during a time when we feel far apart. And all of them were delicious.

The family-run business believes in the powers of natural, local, and raw honey

Zach & Zoe Sweet Bee Farm owners Kam and Summer Johnson started keeping bees thanks to their young son, Zach. As he struggled with allergies, Summer began to read up on the benefits of raw honey and exposing oneself to natural allergens. And after feeding their son a steady stream of raw honey, they decided to start making their own.

“A lot of commercial honey is corn syrup, it doesn’t have the natural vitamins and minerals that natural raw honey has,” says Kam. “So we try not to be honey snobs, but we do want people to understand there’s a difference, and what we consume does matter.”

The family learned about beekeeping and honey harvesting from their mentor and friend, “Uncle” Larry Saums, owner of Bee Flower & Sun Honey. They bought their bees from him five years ago, and continue to share bees, tips, and learnings with each other. “The biggest thing I learned from Larry is, you can’t rush it. My advice to any new beekeeper is find an experienced beekeeper and just spend time with them. Beekeepers is a very cool community.”

Today, Kam and Summer have three hives and roughly 2 million bees, and they pride themselves on doing everything themselves: from keeping the bees, to harvesting, filtering and extracting the honey, to bottling and selling. Once the honey is filtered, jarred, and packaged, the Johnsons enjoy hand-delivering their product to clients they have personal relationships with around New York City, such as Gabriel Stulman of Fairfax, and to customers at their shop in Chelsea Market.

“One of the cool things about naming it Zach & Zoe, is that we knew we couldn’t give up,” says Kam. “We knew that if it had [our kids’] names on it, we’d be forced to go that extra mile starting up. And so it’s been a hard road, but it is so rewarding.”

These new cookbooks are perfect for those missing their favorite NYC restaurants

Restaurants may be in flux, but cookbooks are a constant. These eight debuts from New York chefs and restaurateurs function as quarantine-kitchen inspiration and souvenirs of a pre-social-distancing past. They make great gifts, especially when purchased at one of the city’s essential indie bookstores.

• Buy a Cookbook, Support a Restaurant (and a Bookstore) [Strategist]
• The Best Cookbooks of Fall 2020 [Eater]

Plus, hazardous crockpots. and more news to start your day

You, too, can cook like Kamala

Although a conventional Thanksgiving is off the table for many people, as health experts warn against traveling and holiday gatherings while the coronavirus crisis surges to new heights, there are still plenty of ways you can pass the time this Thursday, including but not limited to cooking your favorite side and calling it a day. If that’s your playbook, here’s one more recipe to potentially add to your repertoire: Kamala Harris’s cornbread dressing.

The vice president-elect shared the recipe, which includes cornbread, sausage, and apples, on Twitter and Instagram, noting that it’s a family favorite. She (or, to be more accurate, whoever runs her social media accounts) was kind enough to illustrate each step with a photo. Thanks!!

Harris has made her love of cooking clear throughout the years, as Elle reports. Recently, a 2019 video — filmed by Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart — of Harris sharing her turkey brining tips in between filming for an MSNBC appearance resurfaced on TikTok, where it went viral. “Do it like a pot of water, a couple bay leaves, a little sugar, a cup of peppercorns, you could even do a slice of orange, something like that,” said Harris, recommending a wet brine if time allows.

The last time a veep or president talked recipes on Twitter appears to have been President Obama in 2015, when he added his voice to the chorus slamming the New York Times’s infamous pea guacamole. The last true bipartisan moment!

And in other news…

• Recall alert, right-before-Thanksgiving edition: Sunbeam is recalling nearly 1 million Crock-Pot multi-cookers because of a potential burn hazard in pressure cooker mode. [CNN]
• J.M. Smucker Co., owner of Dunkin’ and Café Bustelo, is having a good year in sales of mediocre coffee. [Food Business News]
• The confusing policies and discrepancy between rules and reality that explain why indoor dining is open in many places, but indoor Thanksgiving gatherings are being discouraged. [The Atlantic]
• The New York Times’s most popular Thanksgiving recipe is… [@nytfood/Instagram]
• How the founder of Max Brenner was pushed out of his own company and banned from making chocolate for five years, before making his way back from “hell.” [Entrepreneur]
• When the conservative Black Rifle Coffee Company declined to sponsor Kyle Rittehnhouse, the 17-year-old accused of fatally shooting two people at a Black Lives Matter rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin, people on the far right turned against the brand. [Daily Beast]

• All AM Intel Coverage [E]

The chef shares her tips for making homemade chicken tenders with super crispy batter for the ultimate crunch

“Everyone loves a chicken tender, yet some people might think it’s basic,” says chef and Plateworthy host Nyesha Arrington. “It’s not actually. It’s really complicated.”

She begins the complex process by breaking down the chicken to show where the actual tender can be found. Next, she brines the chicken in buttermilk with a little bit of salt and sugar for about 20 minutes. After the meat is prepared, chef Arrington walks us through the ingredients and techniques she uses to make her “shatter batter,” a super crunchy coating that will make and keep these tenders crispy.

After dredging the chicken in flour and the batter, she drops the tenders in hot oil, not once, but twice, to ensure the inside is cooked, and the outside is extra crispy, but not burnt. After plating her chicken, she takes an audibly crunchy bite.

“That is what you want when you eat a chicken tender: cr-unch!” she says emphatically. “That buttermilk brine goes all the way through. It’s exciting my entire pallet. And those spices shine... It just encapsulates all of your tastebuds”

A few of our favorite things on sale now and through the weekend

Somehow, we’ve reached peak holiday shopping season. With just four weeks until Christmas, only two until Hanukkah, an uptick in online shopping and all of the potential shipping delays that go with it, this weekend will be prime time for many to start (or finish) checking people off their shopping lists. To account for this, retailers are starting their sales earlier (as in, they’re already going) and some are even dipping their toes into Black Friday after avoiding the holiday in years prior.

It’s safe to say, the volume of deals to be had is overwhelming. And so for the home cook, we’ve put together this tight list of sales going on now and through the weekend. Consider it a short list of Eater’s favorite things, the ones that’d be worth considering even if they were full price.

On sale now:

Sales starting Friday:

The dive tradition of watching ‘Jeopardy!’ over beers and shots will end with Trebek’s final episode on December 25

As 7 p.m. hit on Monday, the bartender at Do or Dive in Brooklyn killed the music and two ancient black-and-white TVs roared to life, as they do every night at 7. On the screens, Alex Trebek took the Jeopardy! stage from his pre-taped purgatory. “I can’t believe how quickly the year is moving along,” he told the audience. One of the categories in the first round was “Masks.”

A handful of people — after getting their temperatures checked and giving contact-tracing information — sat at the few tables in the narrow bar. One of them, Franco Del Valle, was drinking a Miller High Life and celebrating the last night watching Jeopardy! at Do or Dive almost daily over the past three years; the next day he and his girlfriend were moving to New Hampshire for cheaper living as the pandemic wore on.

“I’m sure my girlfriend will be mad I’m getting drunk instead of finishing the packing,” he said. “There aren’t many things I go into a shared space for. This is one of them. This is about as close as I get to human beings.”

In the before times, bars like this would be the rowdiest and most devoted places for Jeopardy! fans to mourn the beloved host’s passing. Trebek died on November 8 after 37 seasons of the nightly gameshow; in March 2019 he had announced he was fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

Over those nearly four decades on the air, watching Jeopardy! at dive bars and local pubs became a nightly ritual followed with an almost religious devotion. (Last Christmas Eve, a regular at Alibi in Fort Greene, Brooklyn scolded me for putting money in the jukebox too close to broadcast time.) But in the never-ending twists of 2020’s knife, limitations on indoor gatherings have made it harder for fans to meet and grieve Trebek properly.

Four days after Trebek died, as the precious reserve of his final taped episodes was already running out, the TV at Alibi was dark and the bar was empty. The bar used to be one of the most famous Jeopardy! spots in the whole city, but manager Jenny Fowler canceled the cable at the beginning of lockdown. She likely won’t start it up again until people are allowed to sit at the bar.

“I would forget [to turn it on] sometimes and people would get mad at me,” she said. “I have a couple of people that scream, they were known for that. I think it’s comforting. People are creatures of habit.”

Jeopardy! fans can be found at dives across the country, from Washington D.C. to Kentucky. I reached out to a few bar culture historians but none were sure where the tradition started: one regular at Alibi says it dated back to the 1970s, before Trebek was even the trivia show’s host. In the ’90s, people would bet on Final Jeopardy; until someone found out the show aired earlier on a different channel and started cheating, regular Ricky O’Connell says.

Fowler said bars like hers typically show the 6 p.m. news so rolling over into Jeopardy became natural. The calming, unflappable presence of Trebek was an escape from current events.

Jeopardy! fits snugly inside dive culture: Its air time catches the after-work crowd a few beers deep and eager to show off by yelling answers. It’s over before most sports get started in earnest, quicker than a baseball game and at times more fast-paced than even basketball. It doesn’t zap conversation for those disinterested in watching, unlike like pub trivia, but it can be interactive and full of promise: maybe you, sitting on a stool, two Budweisers in, are smarter than a Jeopardy! champion.

Do or Dive imported the tradition when it opened in 2016 from another dive the owner used to frequent, Turkey’s Nest in Williamsburg, says Pasquale Reca, who does art for the bar. When Trebek announced his diagnosis last year, Reca designed Jeopardy blue T-shirts, with “We ♥️ you Alex!” written on the bottom, inside the shirt. Since Trebek died, bar patrons who guess Final Jeopardy get one for free.

Del Valle got a little teary talking about losing Trebek in a year when seeing loved ones is difficult. As a child in Peru, he learned English from Jeopardy!, among other shows.

“This was a man I spent a lot of time with drunk, which is essentially what a friend is supposed to be,” he said. “I saw Alex Trebek more than I would see friends from college, friends from high school.”

Trebek recorded new episodes of the show until late October. His final show will be broadcast on Christmas Day.

“Alex Trebek isn’t dead until December,” said Kelly Cobbs, a regular at Turkey’s Nest, who was there watching Tuesday’s game at a table with her boyfriend, two friends, and a pizza. “For us, he’s still alive. That’s how he’s always come into our homes,” Cobbs added. “He’s going to be doing that until Christmas, it’s his last present and he’s gone.”

It’s unclear how much longer even these Jeopardy! fans will be able to gather, regardless of how many episodes are left. By Wednesday, November 18, New York City canceled in-person schooling as the COVID-19 infection rate was surging; expectations were high that indoor dining and bars would be shut down within a week, just as the first freeze warning of the season hit. Bartenders told me of plans to show Jeopardy! outdoors but none sounded optimistic. Del Valle says he’ll be watching at home, not a bar, after he moves to New Hampshire.

Like all good dives, these Jeopardy! bars plan to be open on Christmas Day for the final episode — if they can open at all.

Tim Donnelly is a Brooklyn-based freelance reporter and editor. Follow him on Twitter: @timdonnelly.

Gerardo Gutierrez, a deli worker described as ‘friendly, dedicated and charismatic,’ died in April after contracting the novel coronavirus

Gerardo Gutierrez was already sick with a fever and cough when Publix, the Florida-based supermarket chain where he worked as a deli employee, began allowing all staff to wear face masks to work. Other grocery store chains, such as Kroger, had begun to source protective equipment and roll out mask-wearing protocols in the weeks prior, but Publix lagged behind. It was too late for Gutierrez, who passed away from COVID-19 complications in late April, several weeks after showing his first symptoms. Now, according to the Tampa Bay Times, his family is suing the supermarket chain for Gutierrez’s wrongful death.

According to a lawsuit filed by his family, and obtained by the Times, the 70-year-old father of four asked Publix for permission to wear a mask at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the company declined. An April 30 report in the Times showed Publix lagging well behind other grocers in responding to the impending crisis, forcing staff to work unprotected from the potentially deadly virus. That report noted that at the time, nearly 70 Publix employees in Florida were documented as having tested positive for COVID-19. It’s likely the true number was higher then, and has only grown since.

While other grocery chains — far from perfect in their response to the crisis — provided face masks, installed sneeze guards (something Publix would do only later, and which fail to fully guard checkout stations), and capped the number of shoppers who could enter a store at one time (something Publix does not enforce across all locations), the grocery chain was more concerned with the comfort of shoppers. “Employees told the Times and the federal safety and health administration that Publix supervisors said mask use would cause shoppers to panic,” the periodical reports.

Gutierrez, described in a now-disabled memorial GoFundMe campaign as a “friendly, dedicated and charismatic person,” worked alongside a coworker on March 27 and 28 who was showing clear symptoms of COVID-19, according to the lawsuit filed by his family. At the time, according to the Times, the store’s no-mask policy prohibited all employees from wearing masks unless they obtained a doctor’s note. A few days after Gutierrez was exposed to his sick coworker, Publix announced on March 31 that some employees could “use surgical or dust masks but this did not include deli employees.” That meant that, while other employees were allowed to follow the safety precautions that should have been in place weeks earlier, Gutierrez was still exposed.

According to the lawsuit and the Times reporting, Gutierrez was sent home on April 2 when his coworker tested positive for COVID-19, and on April 6, Gutierrez began showing symptoms, too. That was the same day Publix started allowing all employees to wear masks. Three weeks later, a priest read Gutierrez his last rites, his children spoke to him one final time over Zoom, and he died, alone, in a hospital.

Now, Gutierrez’s four adult children are suing the supermarket chain for $30,000 in damages. “This is a case that needs to be prosecuted and that we need to push forward in our court system and shed light on what Publix was doing and why they were doing it,” the family’s attorney, Michael Levine, told the Times. “The fact that they would choose profits over employees is shameful and disappointing.”

That Publix neglected to protect employees until the last possible moment is a particularly egregious example of workers across the food industry being treated as disposable, collateral damage during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is certainly not the only grocery chain that has put its staff at serious risk. Across the country, grocery store workers are on the front lines of the pandemic, unable to work from home, and often provided with paltry personal protective equipment and very limited sick leave.

As similar tragedies play out in other states, cases like the one brought by Gutierrez’s family may well set a precedent for how — or if — employers are held accountable when workers fall ill or die of complications brought on by COVID-19. Meredith Gaunce, a Florida-based lawyer specializing in employment law, told the Times “there is still a period of time where we could see these [wrongful death cases] on the rise… Some [attorneys] may want to see what happens with the Publix case first.”

Gaunce predicts these cases will face a number of hurdles, one being the challenge of proving that employees contracted the virus at work. Employers will surely argue that even when masks are provided, there is no way to completely mitigate risk. But even when the bare minimum safety precautions are taken, chain grocers like Publix are guilty of treating their staff as essential workers, while neglecting to enact the kind of sweeping protocol needed to keep those on the frontlines safe.

The extra weeks that it took Publix to equip its staff with masks should not be glazed over, or treated as an early hiccup in the chain’s response to the pandemic. Those extra hours, days, and weeks of exposure were, for employees like Gutierrez, the difference between life and death.

Three restaurant veterans engaged in the work of advocating for a better future explain how the industry and allies within it could amplify and support the movement for Black lives

“The expectation that to-go food should be cheap, that prices should be the same as they were before, complicates the situation even further”

Brands like Dunkin’ and Bud Light Seltzer want to win you over with memes. Here’s what it’s like to make them.

Brands like Dunkin’ and Bud Light Seltzer want to win you over with memes. Here’s what it’s like to make them.

Plus, House Democrats are now investigating Trump’s Farmers to Families Food Box program, and more news to start your day

McCormick is getting a little hotter with Cholula

Spice and seasoning company McCormick is purchasing Cholula hot sauce from private-equity firm L Catterton, the brand announced today. The $800 million cash deal adds the Mexico-produced sauce to McCormick’s extensive portfolio, which includes its signature flavorings, French’s mustard, Old Bay, Thai Kitchen products, and Frank’s RedHot buffalo sauce.

The demand for hot sauce has soared in recent years, fueled in part by “growing immigrant populations, increasing familiarity with global cuisines and thrill-seeking food shows,” according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the acquisition news. Domestic hot-sauce retail sales this year will approach $1 billion, not far off from ketchup numbers, per market research company Euromonitor.

McCormick, which has seen its sales grow thanks to the rise in home cooking during the pandemic, says that Cholula’s annual sales are about $96 million and are expected to grow in a “normalized” environment after COVID-19.

Per CNBC, now all that’s left is to see whether or not a deal of this size will receive regulatory clearance.

And in other news…

• The Trump administration paid a finance firm $16.3 million to supply milk and dairy boxes for the Farmers to Families Food Box program earlier during the pandemic. House Democrats are now investigating how much of that money actually went to middlemen and the firm’s own nonprofit instead of to people in need. [WaPo]
• Grocery workers are reliving the worst days of the pandemic as COVID cases surge, only this time, there’s no show of hazard pay or other pandemic-related safety policies like there may have been before. [CNBC]
• CEOs at chains like McDonald’s and Waffle House signal that they’re open to a $15 minimum wage, but customers will have to get used to higher menu prices as a result. [Business Insider]
• New Yorkers bullied Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has been propagating messages of sacrifice for the holidays, into rescinding his hypocritical invitation to his mother to travel to spend Thanksgiving with his family. [NYT]
• Ruby Tuesday got the official okay to go ahead with a bankruptcy sale. [Restaurant Business]
• Multi-state food recall alert: Organic romaine lettuce from Dole packaged in late October. [CNN]
• The cronut is now shipping nationwide. [NYT]
• Burger King Japan made a burger with one pound of meat and no bun. [SoraNews24]
• How food manufacturers are adapting to a strange holiday season, a time that is normally considered their “Super Bowl.” [Food Dive]
• Doughnut-flavored beer! Why not! [WTOP]
• A playbook if you need to decline any Thanksgiving invitations:

• All AM Intel Coverage [E]

For dressing pulled pork sandwiches or breakfast tacos, or for pouring over chicken, turkey breast, and shrimp

The United States’s barbecue belt stretches from the Carolinas to Texas, Kentucky to the deep South. All that land naturally means a profusion of regional styles, from the dry and wet pork ribs beloved in Memphis to the chopped whole hog barbecue served with a vinegar and pepper sauce that dominates North Carolina’s coast. (Within that there’s also an entire world of regional sauces, which you can read up on here.)

But occasionally, you’ll find styles afoot outside their home turfs, thanks to chefs who bring barbecue to cities where there isn’t necessarily a local way of doing it, or chefs who dare to take their region’s barbecue to another locale — like Texas native and acclaimed pitmaster John Lewis.

Lewis helped open the legendary Franklin Barbecue and was also the power behind the smokers at equally lauded Austin barbecue restaurant La Barbecue. But in 2016, he decided to bring Central Texas-style meats to South Carolina with the opening of Lewis Barbecue in Charleston. If you’re worried about locals not being welcoming to a barbecue outsider, don’t be. Lewis Barbecue was one of Charleston’s most-anticipated openings, with people eager for a taste of what was at least once referred to “knee-weakening brisket.”

A hit since day one, Lewis Barbecue visitors now know to ask for the housemade sausage, super moist turkey slices, and green chile corn pudding, in addition to the fatty brisket. And to go along with all that meat is Lewis’s beloved green chile barbecue sauce, a mustard-based topper in honor of Carolina Gold, a mustard sauce that’s thinned with vinegar. Take a stab at making your own with help from Lewis’ recipe below. Maybe even bottle it up and gift it to friends and family...

Green Chile Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients:

1 16-ounce jar Zia Hatch green chile sauce, found online or at Whole Foods
1⁄2 cup white vinegar
1⁄3 cup yellow mustard, preferably French’s
1⁄4 cup canola oil
6 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon ketchup, preferably Heinz
1 tablespoon kosher salt

Combine all in a blender and mix until well combined. Bottle and keep refrigerated. Enjoy on a pulled pork sandwich or with breakfast tacos, or pour over chicken, turkey breast, and shrimp.

From online cooking classes to virtual wine consultations 

I don’t have to tell you that you’ll be spending more time at home than ever this holiday season. Experts have urged gatherings this year to be more mellow and solitary, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find ways to enjoy each other’s company virtually (and I’m not talking about those now-dreaded Zoom cocktail hours that, needless to say, we’re all pretty burnt out on). If you’re hoping to give the gift of an experience this year to a loved one or yourself rather than a physical object, these cooking classes, tutorials, and consultations will certainly help mix up the at-home routine that’s become so endemic to these strange, socially distanced times.

Whether you’re looking for a food class that the whole family or friend group can join in on or a way to help someone finally learn how to cook (an empowering skill, especially these days), here are 10 ways to have fun and feel like you’re “going out” while staying safe inside. One thing is for sure, giving a loved one the chance to feel a little less lonely — while also helping with cooking fatigue or general cabin fever — is invaluable right now.

For the person who misses their grandmother’s cooking

While you might not be able to have your own family’s cooking IRL this year, the League of Kitchens offers virtual dinner parties in which surrogate grandmas from around the world teach the secrets of their home cooking, right out of their own homes. The instructors feel relatable, rather than stuffy cooking instructors teaching out of manicured test kitchens, making the classes a good gift even for the person who’s intimidated by cooking shows. You can sign up to learn how to make Uzbek butternut squash sambusas, Persian tahdig, or Greek meatballs, among other delicacies. Each interactive experience comes with a packet of the instructor’s family recipes as well as a recording of the class — in case you were zoning out while drooling over all the aromatics during the livestream.

For the person who loves “funky natural wines,” but might not know what that actually means

Eater’s own Wine Club can be a way to find community through a shared love of natural wine, with monthly virtual tastings (club membership starts at $70 a month). For those looking for a more personalized learning experience, Eater Young Gun Kae Whalen has launched a wine tutoring service (prices start at $50). Raquel Makler, a partner in the forthcoming Auxilio Space — a new New York City-based culinary center addressing racial disparity in food — is offering casual, one-on-one wine shopping consultations and educational resources; get in touch via their Instagram DMs to set up a virtual appointment and inquire about sliding scale pricing.

Somerville, Massachusetts’s wine bar Rebel Rebel also launched an online wine school with classes as little as $10, retaining some of the magic of visiting their spot without having to travel there. And roving pop-up wine party Thirsty Thirsty has figured out a digital way to gather with its own wine club that includes medicinal recipes and “resources to balance your connection to body and earth” (starting at $100).

For the person with an enviable mug collection

While in “normal times,” a pottery class would be a great gift for someone who loves cozying up with their mug of tea, the pandemic has made in-person clay-building — at least temporarily — largely a thing of the past. Those willing to get their hands a little dirty will love making their own ceramic mugs at home with this easy kit. The “Original Crockd Kit” comes with enough clay to make a pair of mugs as well as clay breakers and carving tools to fulfill all your gift recipient’s aesthetic preferences. (If they want to try their hand at it without the hassle of getting pieces fired in a local kiln, there’s also an air-dry clay version available.) They’ll be sipping in no time.

For the person with a penchant for chef crushes

Your know-it-all “cheffy” pal — the one who stays up-to-date on the new restaurant openings in their city and has all of this season’s hottest cookbooks — would still be impressed by Kitchen Rodeo. The new organization allows attendees to experience live cooking classes with some of the most important names in food right now: Hawa Hassan, Naomi Pomeroy, Nik Sharma, and Eater Young Gun Lucas Sin, among others. Plus, each event gives 100 percent of the proceeds to a charity of the host’s choosing, such as No Kid Hungry, the Okra Project, City Harvest, and more.

For the person who wants to be the next M.F.K. Fisher

Though there are plenty of non-linear paths to begin writing about food, sometimes it takes participating in a course to really get the juices flowing and have the confidence to pitch your story. In this six-week intensive, learn from food writer Devra Ferst, a former Eater editor, about how to write recipe headnotes, honing the angle of a story, and more industry intel. Classes are held online only.

For the person going a little stir-crazy

There are wild foods to be found no matter where you live; those needing a little bit of socially distanced fresh air might be especially eager to find them. Columbus, Ohio TikTok sensation Alexis Nikole Nelson (aka @BlackForager) recommends purchasing books such as Backyard Foraging to learn more about what’s edible in your own area. But if you’re looking to give something a bit more unconventional, those who pay for the top tier of Nelson’s Patreon will not only help aid in her projects but also have access to live Q&As and an invitation to her private Discord group chat for a more intimate education on foraging.

For the person with kids who are obsessed with watching MasterChef Junior

The Dynamite Shop is a culinary school led by Dana Bowen and Sara Kate Gillingham, two big names in food media who went off on their own to launch a way to get kids more engaged in mealtime. During the pandemic they pivoted in-person classes to an online after-school program and weekend workshops, with lessons that run the gamut on how to make pizza, holiday cookies, or tonight’s supper. The online-only program, dubbed Dynamite Dinner Club, also offers custom experiences for students and other one-off classes with community-focused, social justice tie-ins. (Disclosure: The author of this piece has worked at the Dynamite Shop in the past.)

For the person knows their way around a tarot deck... but not the kitchen

We all have that one friend or family member who is obsessed with tarot card readings. For that person, a company called Tadka Tarot has figured out the perfect gift: a set of 56 cards designed to get them comfortable mixing and matching spices, vegetables, aromatics, and herbs. Each card features an ingredient in Indian cooking along with how it’s typically used, what it pairs well with, recipes, and more to teach instinctive Indian cooking.

For the person looking for a new hobby

Throughout the pandemic, Contraband Ferments has been hosting online workshops on how to execute all different types of fermentations. Upcoming courses include lessons on how to make tempeh, miso, or even reuse fruit scraps to make vinegar.

For the person who hates meal prep

Meal prep expert Jane Morgan of Jane Cooks For You has launched personalized virtual cooking classes tailored to each individual’s needs and palate. Whether the person you have in mind is looking to sharpen their knife skills or simply learn about ways to beef up their pantry, her custom, open-ended course structure would be useful to anyone in a work-from-home lunch rut looking for a little inspiration to maximize meal time.

Emma Orlow is a writer for Eater, Grub Street, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and Bon Appétit (among others), where she covers the intersection of the food and design worlds.