On not apologizing.
Long-form pieces about cooking, technique, and the language we use to describe food.
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On 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.
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Stop 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.
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The 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.
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We 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.
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Why 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.
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Pesto 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.
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I 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.
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