This year, we collaborated with many artists—who through ink, camera, digital pen, and boundless imagination helped bring our stories to life. At TASTE we commission original art for the majority of our features, and our homepage is constantly evolving and showcasing work from all mediums, be it illustration or photography.
This year, garlic knots became ’80s-themed cartoon characters, and Christmas plum pudding was set ablaze in the style of Baked Alaska. Works of fiction were illustrated with vivacity, giving color to our authors’ imagination. Through a camera lens, we saw a rare behind-the-scenes view of a Hawaiian pineapple farm, and the first crack to break up a tahdig in a Brooklyn home kitchen.
Here, we celebrate our illustrators and photographers, constantly amazing us with their creative interpretation of our stories. From surrealist photo collages to hypnotic animations, whimsical graphics to sharp photography, our contributors show us there are as many ways to visualize food as there are to write about it. Ranging from literal to abstract, and everything in between, we’ve put together some of our favorite artwork from 2017.
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Pineapple Island
While Americans import most of our pineapples from other countries, it’s rare to eat pineapple straight off a plant in the tropical sun.
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Girl vs. Food
For a chef struggling with an eating disorder, a restaurant kitchen is an especially painful place to be.
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The Wedding Stairs
In a work of fiction, a curious wedding guest climbs a stairway of discovery.
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The Best Egg Cream in Alphabet City
At Ray’s Candy Store, late-night snacks are served with a sense of humor and a lot of love.
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High Cuisine: How I Wrote a Serious Pot Cookbook
We have moved on from the pot brownie. A former Cook’s Illustrated staffer has cracked the cannabis code. That is, cooking smartly and deliciously with these newly legalized herbs.
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The Burning Truth About Plum Pudding
The story of how a medieval stew of meat and dried fruits became a cake that people eat at Christmas.
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We Like Knots Lots
Garlic Knots, a 1980s pizzeria throwback, deserve a place in your weekday dinner rotation.
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The Official Drink of Arctic Exploration
Malted milk powder may have turned into a nostalgic dessert flavoring, but it all started out as a way to feed babies and explorers.
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Urfa Biber, Say It With Us
This Turkish chile will add a touch of mild, smoky spice to everything from poached eggs to brownies.
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The Art of Malaysian Grilled Meat on a Stick
A deep dive into the grilling techniques used at Saté Kampar, a Malaysian restaurant in Philadelphia.
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Instacart. Instant Cooking?
With the rise of grocery-shopping-on-demand services like Instacart, there are more reasons to cook at home. But will anybody actually do it?
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The Eton Mess Is Beautiful, Chaotic, British
Everyone’s mess is always ultimately theirs and theirs alone. Here’s one writer’s recipe.
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Sa-shi-su-se-so: The ABCs of Japanese Cooking
In rural Ishikawa, an outsider learns to cook with zero compromises.
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A Cake That Demands an Oven of Its Own
Baumkuchen is a centuries-old staple of German weddings and Christmases, but it’s getting harder to find. Except one place.
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Mission: Make an Extremely Large Cinnamon Roll
With help from Dominique Ansel and the executive chef at Cinnabon.
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The Mythos of Sourdough Starter
Making a sourdough starter? Don’t be afraid to stray from the recipe and add a dead wasp or a leaf of roadside kale.
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Pepper Hall of Fame
Stocking your kitchen with dried peppers and pepper sauces is a pretty good idea. But where to start?
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Appalachian Masala
On a North Carolina mountainside, the chefs of Chai Pani introduce us to an exciting new era of Indian-American home cooking.
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David Lebovitz Loves His Dusting Wand
When food blogger David Lebovitz first encountered a little gadget designed for dusting powdered sugar over cakes and pies, he knew he was in love.
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Extreme Fruit Salad
Refreshing, cartoonishly large, crazy good. The sandia loca is the Latin Black Tap milkshake.
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The Fruit of Japanese Fairy Tales
When you get them in season, persimmons are a perfect ingredient for both folklore and layer cakes.
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The LGBTQ Sandwich
A more inclusive spin on the classic BLT. Just add guacamole and cashew queso.