The archive
Everything we've cooked.
Every piece we've published, in the order it shipped. 23 recipes, 7 essays, 6 techniques, 0 postcards.
May 2026
- RecipeAin't Got No Beef Smash Burger — from Ashland A smash burger built on a TVP patty with a real lacquered crust, served with hand-cut double-fried fries and a sharp special sauce.
- RecipeBaba Ganoush — from Tunis Charred eggplant, tahini, garlic, lemon. The smoke is the whole dish — char the eggplants over open flame, not in the oven.
- RecipeFalafel — from Alexandria Crispy fava-and-chickpea falafel, the Egyptian-Levantine combination Alexandria has been cooking for 1,600 years. Coriander-forward, parsley-bright.
- RecipeGazpacho — from Seville The Andalusian cold soup that breaks every northern rule — raw bread, ripe tomato, olive oil emulsified by hand. Summer in a glass.
- RecipeHummus — from Beirut The Levantine standard — dried chickpeas slow-cooked with baking soda, ice cubes in the blender, fresh-pressed lemon, real tahini. The texture is the dish.
- RecipeTabbouleh — from Beirut The Levantine herb-and-bulgur salad — fine bulgur, mountains of parsley and mint, almost no grain. The proportion is the point.
- RecipePuttanesca — from Naples The Naples late-night pasta — tomato, capers, olives, garlic, chile — with nori and white miso replacing the anchovies. The dish, with the sea kept in.
- EssayOn Not Apologizing for What Is Not on the Plate Every dinner party host explains the plant-based meal before the first bite. Stop. The food is the food. The apology is what makes the meal small.
- EssayStop Calling It Plant-Based The phrase is a clinical artifact from 1980, coined for medical literature, then handed to marketing. The food does not need the qualifier.
- EssayThe Substitute Word Every product labeled 'substitute for X' admits defeat. The mushroom is not a substitute for beef. The chickpea is not a substitute for veal.
- EssayWe Are Living Through the Most Exciting Frontier in Cooking For ten thousand years cuisine was built on meat. We are the first generation to see what cooking looks like without it. Ángel León is showing us how.
- EssayWhy French Bistro Technique Is the Best Toolkit for Plant Cooking Three hundred years of French bistro technique was never about the meat. It was about structure. That toolkit works unchanged on plants.
- RecipeAglio e Olio — from Naples Four ingredients. Twenty minutes. The Naples pasta that ends every long-night argument about whether you need anything more than garlic, oil, and salt.
- RecipeWellington Forestière — from London A Wellington built on a king oyster mushroom log, a deeply savory duxelles, and buttery puff pastry that shatters when cut. Forestière, the Escoffier way.
- RecipeBourguignon — from Dijon King oyster mushrooms slow-braised in a heavy red Burgundy, with pearl onions and the kind of glossy reduction that doesn't miss what isn't in the pan.
- RecipeParmesan Three ingredients, five minutes — toasted cashews, nutritional yeast, salt. Grates over pasta the way the real one does, with the umami the real one wishes it had.
- RecipeBouillabaisse — from Marseille A Marseille bouillabaisse rebuilt around dulse, kombu, and fennel — saffron-perfumed, finished with rouille and grilled bread, the proper two-course way.
- RecipeMilanesa — from Buenos Aires Crispy breaded cutlets, Argentine style — chickpeas inside, panko crust, mustard-caper aioli, and the lemon wedge that doesn't negotiate.
- RecipeSous-Bois au Vin — from Dijon King oyster mushrooms and seitan slow-braised in red Burgundy with pearl onions and the kind of reduction this Dijon dish has always lived on.
- RecipeCassoulet — from Castelnaudary A Languedoc cassoulet of white beans, smoked seitan sausage, and a slow-built confit of mushrooms, baked under a crust of toasted breadcrumbs and patience.
- RecipeFrench Onion Soup — from Lyon Six onions, forty-five minutes of patience, a miso-darkened broth that earns the gruyère it doesn't need. A Lyon bistro soup, the slow way.
- RecipePaella — from Valencia A Valencian paella built on what matters — short-grain rice, real saffron, the socarrat at the bottom — with artichokes and white beans instead of seafood.
- RecipePesto Pasta — from Genoa Pesto pasta the Ligurian way — basil-and-pine-nut paste folded with toasted cashews and nutritional yeast at the plate, never in the mortar. Edda's rule.
- RecipeRatatouille — from Nice A Provençal ratatouille the proper way — vegetables cooked separately, layered at the end, finished with fresh basil and good olive oil. Not the Pixar version.
- RecipeRisotto allo Zafferano — from Milan A saffron risotto in the Milanese tradition — toasted rice, a slow ladle of stock, and the gold that comes from saffron threads bloomed properly.
- RecipeMoussaka — from Athens A Greek moussaka of eggplant, lentils, and cinnamon, with a béchamel that knows it doesn't need cheese. Built the way Athens built it.
- RecipeChorizo — from Madrid Smoked paprika, toasted fennel, a 24-hour fridge cure. The Spanish chorizo that holds its bite and pan-fries crisp — built on seitan.
- RecipeKinoko Ramen — from Sapporo An eight-hour mushroom-and-kombu broth, coal-blackened onion, soy-tare, alkaline noodles, and the lessons Tetsu's broth taught me in Sapporo.
- EssayPesto Without Parmesan What I learned from a woman in Camogli about why parmesan does not belong in the mortar — and what to do instead. A short polemic, served at the plate.
- EssayI Don't Make Vegan Food. I Just Cook. The manifesto. Why this site refuses to call its food vegan — and what it calls it instead. The thesis behind Maison Teulade.
- TechniqueHow to Build Plant-Based Umami The seven plant ingredients that supply the deep savory backbone meat-based dishes get from bones — and how to use them in the right order, in the right amounts.
- TechniqueHow to Make Seitan from Scratch A complete guide to making seitan at home — the wet base, the gluten ratio, the 90-second knead, the steam method, and why the overnight rest is non-negotiable.
- TechniqueHow to Bread Without Eggs Four methods for breading anything without an egg — ranked by reliability and final crust. Aquafaba, cornstarch slurry, flax-meal gel, and the naked dredge.
- TechniqueHow to Make Tofu Crispy Five methods ranked, the science of crisping, and the seven mistakes that wreck it. A French-trained chef's guide to tofu that shatters.
- TechniqueHow to Make Mushroom Dashi A 4-hour cold-soak dashi built on kombu and dried shiitake — the foundational plant-based stock that carries miso soup, agedashi, ramen, and a dozen other dishes.
- TechniqueHow to Make Vegan Demi-Glace A chef-grade plant-based demi-glace — roasted mushrooms, charred onion, tomato paste, red wine, and the slow reduction French classical cooking lives on.