This year at TASTE, we read, wrote, and cooked in vivid living color, thanks to a whole bunch of talented photographers and illustrators. Sometimes we even cooked in moving living color, thanks to the ingenuity of some of our favorite animators.
With photographers Dylan + Jeni, we got a glimpse into the badminton club in Pomona, California, where Indonesian oxtail stew is served against the red and turquoise backdrop of the court. Sharanya Deepak took us on a tour of living rooms in Kashmir, where pastel-pink tea is served daily with dimpled flatbreads. Lizzie Munro found a way to make a squeeze bottle of blue cheese dressing look illuminated and angelic.
Dingding Hu managed to turn a feature about the Instant Pot into a tumultuous illustrated love story between a meat bride and an Instant Pot groom. Carolyn Figel somehow managed to tell the story of beef Wellington (and how to make it) in a two-second animation, and gave us a new version of Washington Crossing the Delaware where all of the key players are budinos. Alex Citrin, who acted as our art director for much of the year, found time between commissioning work to illustrate and animate some fictional trophies you might receive for hosting dinner parties. Thanks for reading and watching (and sometimes laughing) along with us. —Anna Hezel, Senior Editor
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Good Indonesian Food? Go to the Badminton Club.
Sumatran cuisine, with a side of shuttlecock, at the San Gabriel Valley Badminton Club.
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Cheeseburger Cakes and Jell-O Surprise
Today we have cakes that look like hamburgers thanks to Pinterest and “spherified olives” thanks to Ferran Adrià, but chefs have been amusing diners with culinary wizardry for centuries.
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100 Cups of Tea in Kashmir
In one of the most militarized regions in the world, tea is both a daily celebration and an everyday struggle.
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Beef Wellington Isn’t Scary
No, you’re not going to destroy an entire tenderloin. Yes, everything is better wrapped in puff pastry.
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The Instant Pot Has a Honeymoon Phase
The first viral cooking appliance is an emotional trial by fire.
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Hot Sauce in My Veins
Hot sauce is our soy sauce. It’s our fish sauce. It’s how our dishes sing.
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The Dinner Party Flex: Cooking in the Age of Social Media
What motivates the youngest generation of home cooks? A writer of a certain age sets out to decode the dinner party flex.
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Thank You, WhatsApp. Or, How to Crowd-Source an Israeli Family Recipe.
A writer searches for the golden euphoria of toch, a potato-bread recipe lost in a family’s history.
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The Crimes Against Pizza
Should it be illegal to put bananas on pizza? Is a Chicago-style pizza actually a pizza, or is it a casserole? Dan Bransfield, the author of Pizzapedia, testifies.
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New York City’s Taiwanese-Food Boom (It’s About Time)
Once “too esoteric” and obscure to sell on its own, Taiwanese food now stands proudly in the spotlight.
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How the Budino Craze Swept Across America
A closer look at the high-margin, much-loved dessert that underpromises and overdelivers. Time after time.
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Wheels of Fortune
There’s an analog, and spiritual, approach to making one of the world’s finest cheeses—one you may just take for granted.
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A Life Without Fish Stew
As a Bengali who is violently allergic to fish, I can’t eat the region’s most important food staple: maacher jhol. I’ve been hungry for it for 24 years.
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The Bearded Chef of Akko
For nearly 20 years, Uri Jeremias has been cooking fish and spreading the gospel of Israeli cooking. It’s about time the world listened.
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The Life-Affirming Blackness of Southern Cakes and Pies
Dolester Miles winning the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef is the culmination of a long road traveled for African-American pastry chefs.
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The Seasoning That Inspires Salty Looks and Kanye Hooks
As early as the 1940s, Lawry’s seasoned salt had an important place in the spice racks of black families. But as home cooks become more health conscious and interested in fresh ingredients, are its days numbered?
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We Bow to the Master: Pâte à Choux
Whether or not you know it as pâte à choux, this is the classic pastry you’ve been eating all along.
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A Second Look at the Tuna Sandwich’s All-American History
How Japanese-Americans helped launch the California tuna-canning industry—and one of America’s most beloved sandwiches.
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Everyone Should Have a Gross Recipe
Sometimes your best recipe is a thing you would never in a million years serve to guests.
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Tourists Eat Wings. Buffalonians Eat Subs.
The Rust Belt town in Western New York is famous for one thing: chicken wings. But the people who live there are fueled by a sandwich that most have never heard of.