humanity
Humanity topics include pieces on the real lives of chefs, professionals, amateurs, inspiring youth, influencers, and general feel good human stories in the Feast food sphere.
Spaghetti Aglio Olio e Peperoncino
Three times a week for dinner my dad makes his current favourite dish, spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino (pasta with garlic, oil and chilis). It is a sublime dish that brings comfort and positive emotions. You know he's cooking it because the house gets this warm and strong scent of garlic and you might cough at times if he’s put too many chillies. I don't remember him being so obsessed with it when we used to live in Milan so I finally asked him why he was so enamoured with it. Before answering it he gently put the fork down on his cotton napkin, swallowed the pasta, took a sip of wine while swishing it in his mouth (as if he had mouth wash) and finally swallowed it all down. He tells me it was one of his favourite dishes his mother used to cook for him when he was a kid. This dish reminded him of those warm days in Mogadiscio while coming back from school.
By Joshua Kauten4 years ago in Feast
Don't Let Them Eat Cake?
Tina Fey says that the most important rule of beauty is this, "Who cares?" And thank God for wisdom like that, because when it comes to baking, "Who cares?" really captures the aesthetic I'm (not so purposefully) going for. My work is not elegant, or beautiful, or even consistently tasty, it's more the product of a woman who gets into the kitchen and wings it while drinking wine and blowing off steam. Not everyone loves what comes out of my oven, mostly because it’s either burned or according to my daughter, tastes like “sweet dirt” (whatever princess), but that's what's great about being an amateur baker like me. You pretend to be learning, until you can go fake pro. And even though I believe I’m ready now, people tell me I still need to work out some of the kinks. It's hard to understand the logic entirely, as I’m pretty sure that Duff guy bakes a salty cake every now and again, but fine, I’ll be patient. Taking the time to solve why my biscotti taste metallic, isn't the worst idea ever.
By Abigail Saunders4 years ago in Feast
How Cooking Lets Me Be an Imperfectionist. Top Story - July 2021.
I am a perfectionist with almost everything I do. And while some might consider it my superpower, it gets exhausting. I constantly revise and rewrite drafts of pretty much all my writing. I only ever paint landscapes or flowers because I can never get noses right. Sometimes I even refold the laundry when my husband isn’t looking.
By Sarah Shea4 years ago in Feast
A Piece of my Memories
One of the first things I wanted after giving birth to my second daughter was a piece of cake. The cake was called Chocolate Lasagna, offered back in the 1990s by a popular chain restaurant. While pretty to look at, it wasn’t really that fancy; it was simple, in fact, with 5-6 layers of dark chocolate cake interspersed with buttercream frosting and topped with white chocolate shavings.
By Cheryl Wray4 years ago in Feast
Baking My Way To A Happy Life
Jack of all trades, master of none. That’s how I started my life. I bounced from hobby to hobby, sport to sport, but nothing ever stuck. That is until the day I threw my leg over a thousand-pound animal for the first time. From the moment my butt hit the saddle, horseback riding was my passion. I took lessons, I leased horses, I owned an off the track thoroughbred. I even went to college for equestrian studies. I found my passion at nine years old and I knew what I was going to do for the rest of my life. I’m now 38 and haven’t been on a horse in more than 2 years. That’s the danger of turning a hobby you love into a career, I guess, you run the risk of burning out. I will probably get back on a horse someday but for now my peace lies elsewhere.
By Sarah Aldrich4 years ago in Feast
Casting Spells
Cooking is a kind of slow moving, deep seated magic. I have always thought of it this way...it is passed down through generations, taught with kind eyes over a bubbling stew pot and whispered in secret, absolute trust over the sizzling of onions and garlic in olive oil. Whenever I think of home, it is the food that comes to mind first. The food and the people that make it, the kitchen and all it stands for. I think that is what so many have tried to convey through food writing…that specific kind of kitchen magic that can seep into your bones and cast a hazy spell, making everything else seem distant, and secondary.
By Hannah Warry-Smith4 years ago in Feast
No Chocolate In This House
My mother never liked chocolate. She claimed it gave her terrible headaches. Aside from the fact that she usually had headaches, I took her choco-abstinence as an excuse to have more for myself. Someone had to make up for the average chocolate family intake.
By Oneg In The Arctic4 years ago in Feast
A Slice of Chocolate Cake
A Slice of Chocolate Cake In the middle of a sleepless-night, edging towards an “early” early-morning at 3:46 am, an anonymous refrigerator-door opened and inside was a plate (covered with a stretch of plastic-saran-wrap) centered with a slice of chocolate cake. Not any chocolate cake, but chocolate cake with chocolate icing (with chocolate sprinkles) where the cake itself was made with milk-chocolate in a semi-swirl pattern with dark-chocolate having semi-sweet chocolate-bits mixed-in with bitter-sweet chocolate, sweet German-Chocolate, and white-chocolate, while the icing was made up with Couverture Chocolate (Footnote #1), and with the sprinkles made up with Compound Chocolate and Ruby (Pink) Chocolate.
By Albert Gavalis4 years ago in Feast
"Death By Chocolate"
“DEATH BY CHOCOLATE” glut·ton·y /ˈɡlətnē/ noun: gluttony 1. habitual greed or excess in eating. I blame my parents. In fact I could probably blame all parents, mothers in particular. Sorry mom's, but you are generally the de-facto eating coaches of young kids. You all know the exhortations, “finish your food there are starving children in China”, “if you don't finish your dinner you won't get any dessert”, and “don't you want to be in The Clean Plate Club”? I did! In fact I would go so far as to claim myself the president of The Clean Plate Club. I was also the apple of my grandmothers eye. What a good boy you are, you cleaned your plate again she would say. Jenny, she would say to my mother, I have never seen such a good eater. How many young boys would polish off a plate of baked salmon and Brussels sprouts? Fact of the matter is I hated Brussels sprouts, I hated Salmon, I hated Liver. In fact I pretty much hated everything, but dessert. The only reason I cleaned my plate was that it got me closer to said dessert. Now my mother happened to be an excellent baker and it showed. She was not a svelte woman, and unlike Jack Sprat, my dad could in fact eat fat, but he too preferred sugar, and my grandmother? Fuggedaboutit! She was old world European; come on bubbie just one more bite and you'll get dessert. With my grandmother a world of cakes and cookies would appear the likes of which you usually find only in the Disney movie.
By ADAM GOLDSMITH5 years ago in Feast
The Free Restaurant
I have a roommate who hates eating. He views food as a distraction and a hassle. Once a month, he buys a couple of pounds of hamburger, some jars of tomato sauce, and some macaroni. He cooks it up, and when hungry, he nukes a scoop or two. At the end of the month, he tosses what's gone bad. Even though he's shown a total disregard for "cuisine," he acknowledges that he needs to eat.
By J.S. Kohout5 years ago in Feast
All Children Deserve Free School Lunch
The number of American children living in food-insecure households continues to grow at an alarming rate. This is a public health crisis of epic proportions as proper nutrition is necessary not only for a healthy body but a healthy mind.
By Kathy Copeland Padden5 years ago in Feast
