In “Rice,” historian Michael Twitty goes deep on the most versatile Southern grain, with recipes

Like The Cooking Gene before it, the newest book from historian Michael Twitty provides lessons on African-American culinary history in the South, and excitingly, its insights into the region’s food culture come through a laser focus on one ingredient: rice.

Rice: a Savor the South cookbook is the latest in UNC Press’s series of deep dives on single subjects essential to Southern cooking. “For many of us southerners, no other ingredient tastes this much like home,” Twitty writes in the book’s introduction. But rice is also global, and “bonds the Lower South with much of the rest of the planet, for whom a meal without rice is, frankly, not a meal at all.”

After tracing rice’s journey to the South through Asia and Africa, Twitty lays out 51 recipes for rice dishes from the South and around the world. In the “Deep Origins” section of the book, you’ll find recipes for African rice dishes like jollof, Liberian rice bread, and thiebou niebe, while the “Diverse Approaches” chapter features the Cuban rice and beans dish Moros y Cristianos, Sephardic pink rice, and a recipe for “unforgettable rice” from Mexican chef Pati Jinich, among others. Throughout the book, Twitty calls on chef friends like Jinich, as well as culinary experts; legends, including Edna Lewis and Princess Pamela; and family members for a collection that demonstrates that of all the Southern grains, rice, as Twitty puts it, is “without question the most versatile.”

From the “Southern Classics” section of the book, here is a recipe for country captain, a Southern curried chicken and rice dish. This version comes from Twitty’s “Alabama grandmother,” Hazel.

Country Captain à la Hazel

This is my Alabama grandmother’s recipe for country captain, a Southern curry-flavored rice dish popular in the Carolina Low Country and other parts of the Lower South. You can also taste the influence of West Africa, India, and Great Britain in the rural South all at once.

Makes 6–8 servings

Ingredients:

8 pieces skin-on, bone-in chicken (thighs, legs, drumsticks, breasts cut in half)

For the chicken rub:
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon Kitchen Pepper (see recipe below)
1 teaspoon Madras curry powder
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

For the country captain:
3 cups basmati rice, washed and drained
1/4 cup canola oil or bacon fat
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped 1 large red onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tablespoon Madras curry powder
2 teaspoons Kitchen Pepper (see subrecipe below)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, with juice
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
4 cups no-salt-added vegetable stock, homemade or store-bought
1 cup vegetable or canola oil, or 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil mixed with 1/2 cup bacon fat
1 cup all-purpose flour

For garnish (optional):
Carrot shavings
Chopped fresh parsley
Chopped tomatoes
Raisins
Sliced green onion
Slivered almonds
Unsweetened coconut flakes

Instructions:

Step 1: Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and place it in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and seasonings and rub them all over the chicken, coating it well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours, or preferably overnight.

Step 2: When you’re ready to begin cooking, place the rice in a large pot with a tight-fitting lid and add enough water to cover the rice by 1 inch. Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then turn the heat down to low and simmer, covered, until the rice is fluffy and the liquid has evaporated, about 20-25 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork and then replace the lid to keep it warm. Set aside.

Step 3: While the rice is cooking, in a large, heavy-bottomed pot with a tight-fitting lid, heat the canola oil over medium-high heat. Add the bell pepper, onion, garlic, and ginger. Sauté until the onion has softened and become translucent, about 5-8 minutes. Stir in the curry powder, kitchen pepper, and salt, then add the crushed tomatoes with juice and the tomato paste. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, for 3-4 minutes. Add the stock and bring it to a boil over high heat, then turn the heat down to low and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed.

Step 4: While the sauce cooks, prepare the seasoned chicken for frying. In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. The oil is hot enough when it can brown a cube of bread. Place the flour in a shallow bowl, dredge each piece of chicken in the flour, shake off the excess, and place the piece of chicken on a plate. Working in batches to avoid over- crowding the pan, shallow-fry the chicken for about 4–5 minutes per side, until the chicken is golden brown on both sides. As you finish each piece of chicken, place it on a plate lined with a paper towel.

Step 5: Add the fried chicken to the pot of simmering sauce and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat, then turn the heat down to low. Cover and simmer for about 35 minutes to allow the chicken to finish cooking and the liquid to thicken into a stew. Turn off the heat and let the chicken rest for about 10-15 minutes. Serve with the rice and any or all of the suggested garnishes.

Kitchen Pepper

Kitchen pepper is an old-school spice mixture that was very popular in early American cooking, especially in the coastal South. While it takes its main cues from quatre épices, a spice mix of pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and ground ginger common in French cooking, it also helped to preserve both medieval and Silk Road flavors in southern foodways, as well as the flavors of West Africa, where indigenous and Middle Eastern spices had long influenced the cuisine. This is my take on this classic. It has the complexity of garam masala without quite the punch and heat.

Makes about 1⁄2 cup

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
1 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground mace
1 tablespoon ground white pepper
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to six months.

From RICE: a SAVOR THE SOUTH^® cookbook by Michael W. Twitty. Copyright © 2021 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.org

Astonishing revelations from a leaked report show that data that could have provided insight into COVID-19’s spread in hospitality was never harnessed

“Public health authorities tell us there will be an increase in new cases and hospitalizations in the coming weeks, so we must keep these regions in red zones”

The controversial measure may pick up support as the vaccine becomes more readily available in the city

The Austin-based chain will be sold to a private-equity firm

Alamo Drafthouse, the independent theater chain known for its dine-in meal service, including food and drink specials inspired by films, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Austin-based chain’s assets will be sold to private-equity firm Altamont Capital Firms, a previous backer of the company, and affiliates of investment management firm Fortress Investment Group, Variety reports. Tim League, co-founder and executive chairman of Alamo Drafthouse, is among the group of buyers and will continue to be involved with the company.

“We’re excited to work with our partners at Altamont Capital Partners and Fortress Investment Group to continue on that path of growth on the other side of the pandemic, and we want to ensure the public that we expect no disruption to our business and no impact on franchise operations, employees and customers in our locations that are currently operating,” CEO Shelli Taylor said in a statement.

The size of Alamo Drafthouse — with estimated assets valued between $100-$500 million, and an equal amount of estimated liabilities— makes this one of the “highest-profile casualties of the pandemic,” per Deadline. Coronavirus-related closures and capacity restrictions have decimated parts of the entertainment industry, including cinemas. At the beginning of the pandemic, Alamo Drafthouse closed its theaters and furloughed employees; many of those furloughs became permanent layoffs in July.

The first Alamo Drafthouse opened in Austin in 1997 and soon became a haven for film geeks. It hosts premieres and Q&As, and its screenings have strict no talking policies (except for specific screenings where talkback is encouraged). Among its themed menu items have been beef bulgogi pizza inspired by Parasite and an Avengers: End Game burger,

Despite its popularity, the company has also been the flash point of controversy, facing multiple accusations of “sexual harassment and abuse, racist attitudes toward customers, unsafe (and often illegal) work environments, and even stories about ticket sales being shorted to add to Drafthouse’s own coffers,” according to IndieWire.

As states continue to re-open amid the pandemic, Alamo operations are mostly expected to continue normally. A few of the chain’s 41 locations across the country will shutter as part of this restructuring process.

• Alamo Drafthouse Files for Chapter 11, Announces Sale to Altamont Capital, Fortress Investment [Variety]
• Alamo Drafthouse Files for Chapter 11 [THR]

Alamo Drafthouse Movie Chain Files For Chapter 11, Selling Assets To Investor Group, Closing Three Theaters [Deadline]

From the iconic Lao Gan Ma to new classic Fly By Jing, the spiciest, savoriest, and most essential chile crisps and oils to have in your pantry

These days when I open my fridge, a stack of chile crisp jars greets me. I’ve been collecting them for months now; I currently have at least 10 different chile crisps and oils, ready to turn up the volume on anything I make. I don’t think I’m alone. From Sze Daddy sauce from 886, a Taiwanese restaurant in NYC, to the classic Lao Gan Ma, which started the chile oil boom in America, chile crisp — which, put simply, is a condiment with oil and chile flakes — is so hot right now.

There are two things to consider when trying a new chile crisp: the oil-to-crisp ratio and any flavoring ingredients. Most often, the name suggests whether it will be more like an oil or a crisp; the latter contains more chile flakes and other flavoring ingredients — like garlic crisp, fennel seeds, anchovies, or preserved black beans — that add more textures to the mix. Some options are so powerful that they should be used as a dominant flavor profile when cooking: Think of chile oil-drenched noodles with fresh cilantro and cucumber, which usually feature an oil with intense, spice-forward flavors. Other varieties are more like condiments, mostly used as a finishing touch that’s mild, not overpowering, creating a perfect balance with other ingredients.

I love using both the oil and crisp parts from chile oil as a flavor boost for toast, pizza, fried eggs, and fried chicken (my personal favorite). I often combine softened butter and chile crisp and slather it all over roast chicken, to fantastic results. I add a spoonful of chile oil to water to make a quick broth for soup. And I mix and match different chile crisps to add a complex finishing note to my noodles.

There’s so much you can do with this powerful condiment beyond drizzling it on dumplings. Here are the ones to know:

Crispier

Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp

This crisp is by far the best known, a pantry staple for many households, and the one that opened my eyes to the world of chile crisp. There are other varieties under the iconic Lao Gan Ma brand, including fried chile in oil and chile oil with black bean, but the spicy chile crisp is god-tier. Flavorful without being assertive, it’s my choice when I’m cooking with chile crisp, and excels when tossed with noodles or added to a marinade. Eat with: A buttery biscuit and crispy fried chicken from Popeyes.

Trader Joe’s Chili Onion Crunch

This chile crisp may not be spicy, but it adds a ton of crunchy texture: toasted dried onions, dried garlic, dried red bell peppers, and other crispy bits are bound with olive oil, resulting in a mild flavor. You can use it on anything without overpowering it; it’s a great topping for salad and toasts. Eat with: Congee, which is a perfect canvas for texture-forward toppings.

Fly by Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp

If there’s one jar of chile crisp that I’ve used more than any other, it’s this one. The spicy, delightfully numbing, savory condiment, which is crafted in Chengdu, China, has an ideal ratio of oil to chile flakes. It makes a great introduction to Sichuan cuisine, known for its numbing spice. Plus, the little bits of savory preserved black beans soaked in spicy oil will leave you wanting more. Eat with: Use a spoonful (or more) with your store-bought scallion pancakes and dumplings.

S&B Crunchy Garlic with Chili Oil

As the name suggests, the first thing you’ll notice after you open this Japanese crisp is an abundance of dried garlic chips. The spice level is fairly mild and extremely subtle, making it ideal for dishes that need more texture, such as risotto, rice, and ramen. Eat with: Salads and fried eggs.

Momofuku Chili Crunch

Developed by David Chang’s Momofuku culinary team, this crunchy crisp is full of umami. What sets it apart from the rest is the use of shiitake mushroom powder, which contains naturally occurring MSG. It’s garlicky, oniony, deliciously spicy, and quite similar to a seasoning powder of Shin ramen. Eat with: Dairy products: Serve this with baked brie, and you will be hooked.

Su Chili Crisp

If you love a numbing peppercorn-forward taste, this Taipei-batched, Sichuan-style crisp is for you. It’s flavorful but not overpowering, yet strong enough that you can use it as a key cooking ingredient: The mala tingles you get from this crisp makes a particularly great mapo tofu. Eat with: Toast or dumplings.

Don Chilio Chile Crisp

This Mexican chile crisp, made with serrano peppers, has a different kick: a spoonful tastes like taking a bite of spicy, crunchy dried serrano pepper (which means it can be very spicy). Think of it as a dried chile salsa with a bit of oil. Eat with: Cheesy nachos; it works well as a replacement for jalapeno peppers.

Oilier

Sze Daddy Chili Sauce

Unlike any other chile oil I’ve tried, I couldn’t really distinguish what’s in this sauce — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. All the ingredients, such as scallion, garlic, star anise, and more, are ground into fine textures, making it extra silky and spicy without hurting your taste buds. Chef Eric Sze from 886 in New York City proudly serves this flavorful chile sauce that’s used in almost everything at the restaurant, including its much-beloved beef noodle soup. And, as the chef suggests, it’s more than just a finishing touch, and can be used as a major component in flavor-packed dishes like mapo tofu, bacon ramen, and spicy dumplings. Eat with: Your next Popeyes order. Thank me later.

Momiki Black Garlic Chili Oil

Black garlic, which has a surprisingly sweet, molasses-like texture, is blended with chile peppers, creating a one-of-a-kind chile oil that’s more savory than spicy (the presence of kombu and shiitake mushrooms adds to the effect). A spicier version of the oil exists for those who are seeking more heat, but this too is less mouth-tingling and more jalapeno-spicy. Eat with: Poached chicken breast, as a dipping sauce.

NoWon Chili Oil

Chef Jae Lee adds a Korean twist to chile oil, which is typically made with Sichuan peppers. But by mixing peppers with Korean gochugaru, known for its subtle, fruity spice, this chile oil achieves balance without being overly spicy. There are lots of sesame seeds in it too, adding crunch. Eat with: Avocado toast, as at Lee’s NYC restaurant.

Boon Sauce

Created by chef Max Boonthanakit, this condiment is a product of his love for Chinese chile crisp and his Thai roots. What’s unique about this sauce is the usage of crispy anchovies, which soak up extra flavors from ingredients like shallots and fennel. Because of the anchovies, it’s better for cooking, so use it as a part of your noodle sauce or broth. Eat with: As the chef suggests, it pairs well with Shin ramen.

Umamei Chili Oil

Developed by 2014 Eater Young Gun and Top Chef Season 12 winner Mei Lin, this chile oil is packed with spice and umami, as the name suggests. The first whiff reminds me of a combination of deeply savory oyster sauce and XO sauce, and as you stir up the jar, the beautiful seeds of dried peppers float within. Eat with: Chicken porridge, allowing the oil to seep into the bowl of comfort.

Junzi Kitchen Chili Oil

If you want to experience true mouth-tingling, burning, very spicy chile oil, this is for you; just a small amount can add some serious heat to your dish. Developed by chef Lucas Sin from Junzi Kitchen, this fiery condiment punches your taste buds in the best way. I used a heaping spoonful of it for some noodles recently, and I was a sweaty mess. Eat with: Compared to other varieties, this is a more oil-heavy condiment, so use it to make dishes like dan dan noodles.

CY Eats MaLa 麻辣 Chili Oil

Created by Christine Yi, known as @cy_eats on Instagram, this mala chile oil has cultivated a following. With more oil than mala pepper flakes, it’s smoky, savory, mouth-tinglingly spicy, and great for cooking vegetables and proteins, especially steak. Eat with: Dumplings, as Christine does.

Restaurant owners across the city share stories of resilience and remembrance one year after the March tornado in Nashville

From across the Eater network, here’s the latest in indoor dining and vaccinations

Nationwide distribution of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is trending positively and, with a third vaccine by Johnson and Johnson recently approved by the FDA, President Joe Biden projects that all adults could be eligible for vaccination by the end of May. With the rate coronavirus-related deaths and hospitalizations dropping, several states — including New York and California — have responded by reopening in varying capacities. But this, as it was the last time and the time before that, goes against the advice of experts.

The vaccine rollout hasn’t been without major disruptions, such as limited appointments and widespread confusion about eligibility since the rules changes state by state, and sometimes even county by county. For example, restaurant workers are vaccine-eligible in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Kansas, Nebraska, and New York; they can get vaccinated in Philadelphia, but not the rest of Pennsylvania. In Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott has announced a plan to end statewide mask mandates and re-open everything at 100 percent capacity on March 10, restaurant workers are not yet eligible and don’t know when they will be.

In most of the country, the percentage of the population that’s received the first round of vaccinations is still in the teens. States, territories and sovereign nations with over 20 percent of the population partially vaccinated are mostly those with low populations, such as Palau, American Samoa, and Alaska. Meanwhile, we must contend with newly emerged COVID variants, which is all to say that despite making progress, we’re not out of the woods yet. Until the majority of the population, or — at the very least — public-facing workers like servers and cashiers, are vaccinated, everyone should still be taking extreme precautions, like wearing masks and limiting exposure to people outside one’s household.

We’ll continue to update with the latest from the Eater city sites on re-openings and restaurant worker vaccine eligibility:

California

• Mayor Garcetti Says LA ‘On the Verge’ of Return to Indoor Dining This Month [Eater LA]
• What Documents Do LA Restaurant Workers Need to Show to Get the Vaccine? [Eater L
• San Francisco Officially Reopens Indoor Dining [Eater SF]

D.C.

• D.C. Grocery Store Workers Are Eligible for the Vaccine, But Restaurant Staff Have to Wait [Eater Washington D.C.]

Georgia

• Georgia Expands Vaccination Eligibility to Teachers, Restaurant Industry Workers Continue to Wait [Eater Atlanta]

Illinois

• Chicago Eases COVID-19 Indoor Dining Restrictions [Eater Chicago]
• Chicago Restaurants Workers on Target For March COVID-19 Vaccinations [Eater Chicago]

Louisiana

• Louisiana Governor Allows Bars to Open Statewide, Eases Indoor Dining Restrictions [Eater New Orleans]
• New Orleans Won’t Loosen Bar and Restaurant Restrictions With the Rest of Louisiana [Eater New Orleans]

Massachusetts

• What Are Massachusetts’s COVID-19 Rules for Restaurants and Bars Right Now? [Eater Boston]
• Outdoor Dining Will Return to Boston on April 1 [Eater Boston]

Michigan

• Michigan Restaurants and Bars Can Increase Indoor Dining Capacity Starting March 5 [Eater Detroit]

Minnesota

• Minnesota Aims to Vaccinate Food Service Workers in Late Spring [Eater Twin Cities]

New York

• It’s Time for NY Gov. Cuomo to Follow de Blasio’s Lead on Indoor Dining Regulations [Eater NY]

Oregon

• Oregon Restaurant and Bar Workers Finally Have an Approximate Vaccination Date [Eater Portland]

Pennsylvania

• Philly Restaurants Can Double Indoor Seating — But There’s a Catch [Eater Philly]

Tennessee

• Curfew Extends to 1 a.m. for Nashville Restaurants and Bars Serving Alcohol [Eater Nashville]

Texas

• Texas Governor Lifts Statewide Restaurant Indoor Dining Capacity Limits and Mask Mandate [Eater Austin]
• A Slew of Houston Restaurants Plan to Continue Mask Requirements, Capacity Limits [Eater Houston]

Washington

• What Washington’s New Pause on Restriction Rollbacks Means for Seattle Restaurants [Eater Seattle]

International:

• What Reopening Means for London’s Restaurants [Eater London]
• Reopening Montreal Restaurants Isn’t Part of Legault’s Spring Break Plans [Eater Montreal]

Without a plan to vaccinate food service workers, Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to roll back capacity limits and the mask mandate endangers some of Texas’s most vulnerable

By blending different material and styles, the South Carolina-based forger makes truly unique knives

At Middleton Made Knives in South Carolina, Quintin Middleton makes Damascus steel chef knives by welding two types of steel together. The bladesmith extends the concept of “blending” into his forging process as well. “My style is Japanese a little bit, but I take bits from the Japanese culture and the European culture, and kind of blend it together to make my own,” he says.

The blending of styles can be seen in the bunka knife he makes in our video, which combines design elements of rectangular Japanese nakiri knife, and a pointed European-style chef’s knife. Aside from the expert craftsmanship, what makes Middelton’s knives truly unique is the pattern on the blade. The wavy design appears after applying a chemical called ferric chloride, which highlights the contrast in the two types of steel. “I want to make the grain pop because we went through the whole process of using two types of steel,” he says of his signature mark.

“The reason I got into knife making is a boy’s love of making a sword,” he says, referring to sword-brandishing childhood heroes like Conan the Barbarian, He-Man. “That’s where the passion for swords, or knives, or adventure really started.” As a teen, he had the opportunity to be mentored by a master bladesmith. After learning how to make many types of knives and swords, Middleton decided to focus on making chef’s knives. He shadowed chefs in professional kitchens as they used his knives, then went back to the drawing board to refine his design and technique. Now, his pieces are highly regarded by chefs, and have been featured in magazines like Food & Wine and Martha Stewart Living.

“Instead of doing thousands at a time, I’m doing one knife at a time and I’m paying attention to the small details, the little things that come from my 18 years of making knives, my experiences, my mistakes,” Middleton says. “I’m putting everything inside that knife. Each and every knife I make.”

Indoor dining capacities can go back to 100 percent and masks will not be required starting on March 10

Restaurants can now operate at 50 percent capacity, and operating hours have been lengthened

 This will be the first time diners are allowed to take a seat inside the city’s restaurants since COVID-19 cases skyrocketed by 250 percent last November

How a new generation of social media-savvy bakers are breathing life into old-school cake decorating techniques

Scroll through enough social media accounts belonging to women ages 18 to 34 and you might be convinced that, despite the drab sweatpants you’ve been wearing for days straight, there’s never been a prettier time to be alive. “Soft girl” and cottagecore aesthetics have given rise to a wash of dreamy pastels and pastoral fantasy, a celebration of hyper-femininity and domesticity, largely — as is part of the appeal — without the presence or demands of straight men.

Photo and cake by Charlotte Zoller.

This highly curated tea party — wherein everyone is dressed in influencer-embraced Selkie puff or Lirika Matoshi strawberry dresses, their makeup laborious in the service of looking naturally rosy from the outdoors, and glowing like the wearer always happens to be sitting in a sunbeam — happens to be catered only with the prettiest of desserts, all of which look like they sprang directly from a Sofia Coppola film. As hobby baker Charlotte Zoller succinctly puts it, “Who among us millennials didn’t see Marie Antoinette and say, ‘Oh, I love cakes now’?”

Enough has been written about why cottagecore and its many aesthetic offshoots are having a moment, which allows us to jump past that and right into the buttery center that is our subject: the sudden ubiquity of flouncy and fussy layer cakes, an evolution of the cute-yet-furious activism and resistance cakes that followed former President Donald Trump’s election in 2016. It’s a trend fueled by quarantine baking, but inspired by everything from the Instagram- and Pinterest-famous bakeries of South Korea to the video game Animal Crossing.

Many of the newly emerging group of dessert decorators rightfully cite 2006’s Marie Antoinette as visual inspiration, but, like much of the movie, anachronisms are at work. Marie-Antoine Carême, considered “the father of French cuisine,” is widely recognized for his pièces montées, masterful centerpieces created from ingredients like sugar paste and nougat, but he was only 9 when the French queen lost her head at the Place de la Révolution. Layer cakes as we know them, according to the Food Timeline, aren’t mentioned in cookbooks until the late 1800s, growing in popularity in tandem with the wedding cake. The lacey and abundant piping style we see today owes itself largely to Joseph Lambeth, the British expatriate and pastry chef whose book, Lambeth Method of Cake Decoration and Practical Pastries, was first published in 1934. In America, Lambeth popularized what’s known as “over-piping,” a centuries-old technique of overlapping lines to create intricate and layered dessert decorations.

While such layer cakes might be a fairly modern invention, there’s a reason why they feel so vintage. Lambeth-method cakes have remained popular for weddings, but the style of overpiping began falling out of fashion in the 1950s, with home bakers gravitating toward the ease of box mix. By the ’70s, “cake was not cake anymore,” food historian Jessica Reed tells me as she walks me through the evolution of cake design. “Wonderful cake artists [were] creating these sculptural masterpieces that don’t look anything like cake.”

The emergence of fondant as a popular decorating method in the ’80s allowed bakers the ability to make cakes that look like anything they wanted, a novelty that the public still can’t get enough of. In 2006, Food Network debuted Ace of Cakes, a reality show in which baker Duff Goldman was challenged by clients to make increasingly deceptive cakes, which took the form of anything from cartoonish hamburgers to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Three years later, TLC premiered Cake Boss, a similar concept starring Buddy Valastro. Both ran in their original format for 10 seasons and have inspired an entire genre of shows about representational fondant cakes, including Ultimate Cake Off, Cake Wars, Nailed It!, and even, on at least one occasion, the Great British Bake Off. Meanwhile, many high-end chefs eschewed putting cake on their dessert menus, either because it was too pedestrian or too simple, instead opting for more outwardly complicated fare. As Melissa Clark opined in the New York Times in 1999, “Layer cake, an American icon, is in dire straits,” adding that “[h]igh-end restaurants, where the layer cake once played such a proud role, have left it for dead, a casualty of the war among today’s dueling pastry chefs.”

Thanks largely to Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi, Clark’s hopes for a layer-cake renaissance eventually came true. Tosi’s naked cakes erupted in the 2010s and were celebrated for their simplicity: With layers of sponge in uncomplicated-sounding flavors like “birthday cake,” separated by fluffy buttercream, and with no decorations on the side, they were the aesthetic antithesis of the sculptural fondant cakes that dominated the previous few decades. They also had the benefit of being actually appetizing. Despite its ubiquity and usefulness, fondant — made from shortening, gelatin, sugar, and glycerol — is more for show than flavor. Naked cakes represented the opposite. By 2016, they were popular enough to merit their own backlash.

That same year, another cultural shift would shake up the American baking scene. Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and ultimate election inspired leftist bakers like Butter & Scotch and Ashley Shotwell to infuse their cakes with activism, creating desserts that were witty, scathing, and explicitly political. Emblazoned with messages like “KILL NAZIS,” the cakes were decorated in bright colors and swirls of icing reminiscent of a childhood birthday sheet cake. The irony is inherent — to use something seen as frivolous, domestic, and literally sweet to convey important, angry messaging about how fucked up the world is. Though they’re not without their critics, activism cakes remain a popular way for professional and hobby bakers to combine their passions of baking and social justice. As Arley Bell, a Richmond, Virginia, baker and activist who routinely incorporates the fight for racial justice into her work, puts it, “My hope is to help people connect these things. Yeah, you can celebrate and have fun, and also acknowledge and support Black Lives Matter. To me, it’s important that we don’t compartmentalize those things.”

Now, young, social media-savvy bakers are recalling the Lambeth method (exemplified by the stunning cakes of Hebe Konditori) and combining it with ’70s kitsch (see the delightful shag cakes of Alana Jones-Mann) and feminist, progressive snark. Cakes are being made to celebrate previously unfeted life events like breakups, genders transitions, and abortions. “Let they/them/theirs eat cake,” reads one recent cake by Butter & Scotch. Another simply says “REAL MEN EAT ASS.”

Photo via Shelby Eastman.

Over the past year, with the novel coronavirus pandemic and its lockdowns ongoing, many people have found themselves out of work, bored, and in search of a hobby. For young creatives, cake decorating has emerged as a virus-safe way to express themselves, connect with people on social media, and, in some cases, create a new business. When digital marketing consultant Shelby Eastman left New York City for her hometown of Houston in March 2020, she assumed it would only be for a couple weeks, but that soon dragged into several months. “I was kind of just getting FOMO. Everyone was baking bread, crafting, or doing TikTok dances,” she says. And so, to help herself adjust to her new reality, she turned to a favorite pastime of her mother’s: “I grew up with my mom making the most incredible cakes. Really going above and beyond with thoughtfulness and refusing to buy us any sheet cake or store-bought cake for our birthdays. I tapped into my mom and was like, ‘Hey, I want to bake a cake,’ she said she’d help, and it really just unfolded from there.”

The first cake Eastman posted was a from-scratch cherry cake with pink frosting and white dollops of whipped cream topped with fresh cherries, inspired by a fabric print. She began hashtagging her baked creations with “shelbcake” and estimates she got 3,500 more followers from the cakes alone. She’s since moved to LA and has turned cake decorating into a side hustle, doing custom work for Lazy Cake (which, twist, is actually a sweatsuit line), Local Eclectic, and Shopbop. “Brands are coming to me for cakes and it’s hilarious and amazing,” Eastman says. “Every time I get like a new collaboration request, I look at my roommate and I’m just like, ‘What is happening?!’”

Charlotte Zoller, a creative entrepreneur who writes Teen Vogue’s “Ask a Fat Girl” column, only started decorating cakes in the last few months. “I feel silly talking to you,” she says over the phone. “Like I’m an expert on this, but I’m having fun.” As someone who shares a lot of her life online, she says she was driven to start baking as a way to get away from her computer and phone screens. Almost immediately after posting her first creations to Instagram, she was asked by Bitch magazine to make a cake for its 25th anniversary. Despite her intentions to keep her cake making mostly to herself and friends, Zoller says, “You know, when Bitch calls, you can’t hang up.”

When I first reached out to Haadiyah — a 24-year-old baker from South Jamaica, in New York’s Queens, who requested we not share her last name — her TikTok account @bakeitupbuttercup had under 100 followers. By the time of our interview a couple weeks later, she had 30,000; by the time of writing, she’s hit 37,600. Not bad for a hobby baker who’s only been posting online, and without a preexisting following, since August 2020.

Haadiyah was inspired to start sharing her cakes after she lost her job, moved to an Atlanta suburb, and was suddenly homebound in a new state because of lockdowns. Cake decorating emerged as an enjoyable escape. “I’ve always loved really cute things,” she says. “I’ve been obsessed with Hello Kitty. I used to play Animal Crossing when I was a kid, too, and I really liked the vintage style of cakes,” she says, also naming vintage Wilton cookbooks and Korean-style cake decorating as big inspirations. Though she says that she’s content to keep cake decorating as a hobby and not a business, opportunities have already started to arrive. On February 20, she appeared on the Trap Nation TikTok account, which has over 2 million followers, to decorate a cake and answer questions.

Furloughed because of COVID, Michelle Cruz, a 28-year-old in San Diego, turned her baking and decorating skills into a part-time cake business called Pinkdish. Baking has long been her “happy place”; her mother was a cake maker in the Philippines, where Cruz grew up. Like a lot of the young women I talked to for this story, her decorating style is inspired not just by her mom, but also fashion and design. “I love clothes,” she says. “I have this really frilly, ruffle-y pink top with glittery buttons, and looking at it, I thought, ‘If this was a cake, what would it look like?’ And so that’s how the ideas start flowing.”

A lot of words used to describe these Instagram-friendly cakes — flouncy, frilly, fussy — suggest trite ideas typically used to diminish girlishness. If anything, though, the current cake trend represents young women taking creative ownership of an art that’s typically only seen as such when it’s a man, like Lambeth, who’s holding the piping bag. Says Reed, “This convergence of what primarily female bakers are doing right now, which is taking all these techniques like the Lambeth method — those were [once used by] all male pastry chefs. Now, it’s female bakers taking back these bright colors. It’s frill, but it’s not frill. Most of [the cakes] have dark elements to them.” Within the flounce, frill, and fuss are layers, and not just the sponge kind. There’s anger, humor, and sadness — all the emotions that together paint just one version of femininity in 2021.

This isn’t the first time that desserts have emerged as a symbol of an era or a movement, nor do these layer cakes encapsulate an ideology or point of view as neatly as the wife cake, tied to recent protests in Hong Kong, or the crescent shape of a croissant (which, according to legend, was molded by an Austrian baker to mock the Ottomans in the 17th century). But the current iteration of cakes are indeed an emblem of these times. Malaise and listlessness are prevalent, and reasons to celebrate are lacking. More optimistically, femininity is less tied to gender than ever before, and hopefully will continue to evolve. “So why not get a frilly celebration cake for nontraditional milestones and non-occasions?” While Cruz makes cakes for all kinds of occasions, she says many of her customers “will have picnics or dress up and the cake is that special touch,” just because. Tens of thousands of people who will never taste Haadiyah’s cakes watch her videos because they’re soothing and her creations are beautiful, so — while it may be ideal — eating the cake isn’t even the most important part.

Once you try one, you’ll wonder why you bothered cleaning produce with past-their-prime sponges or dish towels

In a bid to cut down on grocery trips last year, I signed up for a community supported agriculture (CSA) box. Every Thursday, the produce arrives fresh as can be, usually unwashed and occasionally housing a live insect. The weekly unboxings are largely delightful, especially resplendent right now with winter citrus. But I dreaded the inevitable pileup of vegetables so dirty the beets were indistinguishable from the potatoes — until I remembered a tool from my childhood that we kept to polish the products of my dad’s garden: a vegetable scrubber.

Whether you’re getting grubby in your own garden or outsourcing through a CSA like me, a vegetable scrubber is essential to transforming mud-speckled plants into gem-like produce. Not much more than a wooden handle with some bristles, the vegetable scrubber I bought scrubs off grime brusquely, getting into all kinds of crevices and standing firm against the heartiest of dirt. Like a lot of unitaskers, it’s streamlined; its only purpose is to de-muck your parsnips and daikons, and it does it well.

I’ve incorporated the scrub-down into the whole CSA unboxing affair, the last step after packing away the perishables, arranging the fruit on my counter like a still life, and collapsing the box itself. Getting it all done ahead of time cuts down drastically on the barrier to entry for cooking, and I can use all the help I can get on that front. I don’t have to fuss with cleaning before I pull out my vegetables to chop, an aspect of cooking I find infinitely more satisfying. Plus, carrots are much less intimidating when they’re freshly scrubbed, splayed in a bowl like a fancy centerpiece, and I can better admire a medley of beets if I can actually see the reds and golds when I open the fridge. The old saying goes that you eat with the eyes first — I think sometimes you cook with them first, too.

In previous years, I was pretty cavalier about the cleanliness of my foodstuff; I’m the sort of person who’d wipe a grocery store apple on her shirt and call it clean. Increasingly, though, I regard my cleaning implements with a shadow of anxiety, concerned about cross contamination both internal and external. Now that I have this cheap tool in my kitchen holster, I no longer side-eye my past-their-prime dish sponges or worry about dirtying a fresh towel. I feel a surprising amount of relief knowing this brush will only ever clean the beautiful flesh of vegetables. However minor, it’s one less thing to worry about.

Jenna Stoeber is a writer, streamer, academic, and known lover of vegetables.

The almost-no-staff store is set to open in London this week

From the Editor: Everything you missed in food news last week

This post originally appeared on February 27, 2020 in Amanda Kludt’s newsletter “From the Editor,” a roundup of the most vital news and stories in the food world each week. Read the archives and subscribe now.

This week, I’d love to highlight a collaboration we just published with the Museum of Food and Drink, a collection of stories we’re calling The African/American Table.

Last March, the museum was on the verge of debuting its latest exhibition, African/American: The Making of the Nation’s Table at the Africa Center in Harlem when the pandemic hit. We started talking to them this past summer about publishing a package tied to the themes and ideas of the exhibit when they were finally ready to open. As it became clear this fall that we’d be waiting a long time for that day, we decided to publish this collaboration timed to the museum’s virtual celebration of Black History Month.

The museum’s curator shared the full text of the exhibit, which includes a impressively deep exploration of African migrations and foodways and Black influences on the culinary arts, beer, barbecue, and more. Our editor Monica Burton chose five pieces to pursue inspired by this work: A report on discrimination against Black farmers; a look at the pop-ups celebrating Blackness in food; an exploration of Black-led efforts to feed underserved communities; a piece examining the narrative of Black brewing; and an interview between Osayi Endolyn and Toni Tipton-Martin on the legacy of cookbook author Malinda Russell, all tied together with an introduction from Jessica B. Harris.

We hope you enjoy these stories and get to experience the exhibit that inspired them when the world opens back up again. In the meantime, consider donating to MOFAD’s efforts.

On Eater

— San Francisco will reopen for indoor dining on March 3 at 25 percent capacity. Meanwhile Boston is removing all capacity restrictions for dining starting Monday.

— The latest round of the Paycheck Protection Program will only be available to businesses with fewer than 20 employees for the next couple of weeks. And solo proprietors can now access larger loans.

— As if the pandemic weren’t enough, now restaurateurs are battling with fraudulant chargebacks from credit card companies and outdoor heater thieves.

— Relatedly, beloved little LA Korean restauarant Spoon By H announced it would close after falling victim to a chargeback scam but now has over $50,000 in GoFundMe money so ... maybe not?

— Salesforce, San Francisco’s largest private employer, announced employees can work from home well beyond the pandemic, a shift that will have a massive impact on the food businesses that catered to its 10,000 workers.

— Famous Brooklyn steakhouse Peter Luger is borrowing wax celeb statues from Madam Tussaud’s to fill its empty tables.

— Down in Texas, mutual aid networks sprang into action when the government didn’t, AOC volunteered at the food bank and raised millions for those in need, and the owners of Olamaie in Austin connected struggling farmers with hungry residents at warming centers.

— Seattle is considering loosening the rules for at-home food businesses.

Rey Lopez/Eater D.C.

— I’m very jealous of everyone who lives in San Francisco and has access to these pastry boxes. Meanwhile, people living everywhere else should be jealous I have access to these breakfast burritos.

— D.C. in enjoying a yeasted doughnut boom.

— LA’s 83-year-old Firestone Tire building, a former car service station, has been fully overhauled as a do-it-all space for tacos, beer, and more.

— A guide to 20 pandemic pivots and pop-ups in Chicago.

— Watch: The guy responsible for bringing the best avocados to New York restaurants and residents.

— Listen: This week our Chicago editor Ashok Selvam hosted a panel with Tejal Rao, Korsha Wilson, and Devra First about the future of restaurant criticism.

Without widespread vaccination, single-digit case numbers, and proper contact tracing, they say it’s just too risky

Upton’s Breakroom in Chicago uses banana blossoms for its version of the classic Lent dish