Food & Wine July 2017

WE’RE ONLY HALFWAY through the year, but I already know that one of my favorite memories of 2017 will be the night I told Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson they’d been named two of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs. We were standing outside Kismet, their fantastic new restaurant in Los Angeles, while rush-hour traffic crawled by on Hollywood Boulevard. I’ll never forget the looks on their faces: astonished disbelief slowly turning into pure joy. As Sara and Sarah and I hugged on that Los Feliz sidewalk, I remember thinking: Man, I love this job. This is the 29th edition of F&W’s Best New Chefs, and it’s no exaggeration to call our 2017 class the most exciting and diverse in memory. These are the people shaping the way we eat in…

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED Growing up, my brothers [actors Billy, Stephen and Daniel] and I practically fought over my mother’s “world-famous” Love Pie. She made it in a large bowl with one layer each of chocolate pudding, whipped cream, chopped nuts and crushed graham crackers. It sounds basic, but it was always gone by the end of the night. WHO’S THE BOSS? Thanks to my wife, Hilaria, our family eats quite healthy. The fridge is always stocked with hummus, olives, almond milk, dairy-free yogurt, coconut water, at least three types of bottled water and, thankfully, some existence of dark chocolate. COLOR ME HAPPY Every kitchen over the past 30 years looks like a French inn, right down to the giant stainless steel stove at the center of it. I think that’s changing now. People…

PLUG IT IN Stand Mixer Worth the investment, the KitchenAid Artisan mixer (left) is a multitasking workhorse that has outlived all of the other models we’ve tried. We use it for making everything from dough to meringue, and, with some of our favorite attachments, for rolling out pasta, grinding meat and stuffing sausages. From $400; kitchenaid.com. Blender We love our Vitamix, but not everyone has one at home, so we test recipes in our favorite Breville model, the Hemisphere Control. It made the creamiest nut butters and soups during our tests and crushed ice for cocktails with ease. The shape of the jar makes it easy to scrape every last bit off the bottom. $200; brevilleusa.com. Grinder Sometimes simple is just better. We’ve tried a lot of grinders over the years and keep going back to…

1 LARGEFORMAT DESSERTS AMP UP THE PARTY Call us gluttons, but maybe bigger actually is better. Across the country, we spotted XL desserts catching up with the family-style, shared-plate trends. At Maple & Ash(mapleandash.com) in Chicago, massive wedges of coconut cream pie are sliced from a sheet pan, while steering-wheelsize doughnuts at Stoke(stokecharlotte.com) in Charlotte, North Carolina, are a party on a plate. Our favorite of the go-big-or-go-home sweets: the mountain of pistachio gelato from Miami’s Forte dei Marmi(fdmmiami.com), weighing in at an impressive 16 ounces. 2 CONDIMENTS STEAL THE SHOW The kimchi Thousand Island at Wares in Portland, Oregon (warespdx.com) is a salad’s BFF. We scored you the recipe, plus four other addictive secret sauces worth seeking out. Kimchi Thousand Island Dressing Total: 10 min; Makes 1 cup In a blender, puree 5 chopped garlic…

Burritos La Palma “Hands down my favorite burrito in town. I always get the birria (shredded beef) with refried beans and cheese. Jonathan Gold brought them over to Ruth Reichl’s place for the Academy Awards. We forgot about the Oscars.” burritoslapalma.net. Everson Royce Bar “I could sit for hours on the patio in the Arts District, drinking red wine and munching on Matt Molina’s simple, tasty food. I especially like his burger.” erbla.com. Felix “Going out to Venice for me takes practically an act of Congress. But Evan Funke’s pastas, like tonnarelli cacio e pepe, are worth it.” felixla.com. Here’s Looking at You “My usual is the frog legs, with salsa negra scallions. This Koreatown spot has such a good neighborhood feel, and bonus: It’s six blocks from my house.” hereslookingatyoula.com. HomeState “I rarely…

B’s Cracklin’ “Bryan Furman is a whole-hog guy, and he makes pretty much the greatest barbecue around. I always get the pulled-pork plate with coleslaw and okra.” bscracklinbbq.com. Busy Bee Cafe “It’s not just any fried chicken; it is the best. This is the quintessential meat-and-three-style soul food spot. It’s iconic but well done, and shows you what Atlanta really is: a wonderfully diverse city with historic and important enclaves.” thebusybeecafe.com. “Atlanta has become an amazing dining city—a big mosaic of different food cultures.” Chrome Yellow Trading Co. “It’s a really funky store with ceramics and jeans, but there’s also a great coffee shop up front with beans from Stumptown. I go for a cappuccino—it’s the test of a good coffee shop.” chromeyellowtradingco.com. Kimball House “Miles Macquarrie runs the drinks program in this beautiful…