He considers himself a bloomer and got to fame in his early thirties, competing with a great number of young influencers around.
“I knew I had to put 10 years of work into five years because I’d be competing with kids who were 23 who were way funnier and way better. But I had one thing they didn’t: perspective.”
For all the late bloomers!!! It’s never too late!!
Kareem Rahma – FOR THE GUARDIAN US, November 2024
He’s super well know for his @subwaytakes where he interviews form random to famous people. With the most unexpected and witty conversations during a metro ride.
He also has ‘Keep the meter running’ where he has conversations with taxi drivers, most about their immigrant culture and they normally end up having a meal somewhere. Last but not least, SubwayTakes has its own podcast as well.
In a world where cultural differences are at a very delicate level, Kareem has the talent to blend intelligent sense of humor with some serious points.
So here we have actually quite a few suggestions in one post: a cool Instagram account (or two actually), local NY food places and a podcast to keep you company while walking on your treadmill or at the park or simply chilling at the couch.
Actually what do you normally do while listening to a podcast? Here’s a poll I shall doing soon.
Anyways, hope you enjoy Kareem’s work as much as I do.
In 2025 the 10th anniversary of the Netflix series “Chef’s Table” is being celebrated with a new season titled “Chef’s Table: Legends”. This season, released on April 28th, focuses on the lives and work of four culinary icons: Jamie Oliver, José Andrés,Alice Waters, and Thomas Keller. The season is a mix of celebration and a continuation of the show’s focus on the artistry and passion of chefs.
Each one of them telling their story, how it all started, the high and lows and their profession, everyday challenges.
Jamie’s episode hits close to my heart as I was living in London right at the start of “The Naked Chef”. Every Tuesday, prime time on ITV and it became a weekly gathering with out friends with snacks and wine. I remember vividly seeing it all coming to life from that shy guy with his tiny apartment and his then girlfriend Jools to becoming this phenomenon that changed the way Britons would enjoy a good meal. And that was April 1999…just the beginning.
Jamie Oliver
He personified a societal change.
Former UK Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair
José Andrés with his absolute genuine Spanish heart shares his stories in between marvelous takes of cooking and eating with friends and his staff. Most of the episode he’s wearing a very subtle political statement t-shirt saying “Immigrants Feed America“.
Life starts at the edge of your comfort zone.
From that navy guy from Asturias, after studying and working around Barcelona and getting his proper first job with Ferran Adrià at El Bulli. DC was his next stop and he just couldn’t stop. The world was his oyster.
I want food to be the solution.
José Andrés
His most audacious yet human project is World Central Kitchen, where teams from every corner of the world made of volunteer to help with humanitarian aid at war zones and places affected by natural disasters.
Thomas Keller gives a more serious tone to the documentary being a very reserved person he is, but nothing takes away how mesmerizing it is to see how The Fresh Laundry came to life in between so many failures during the beginning of his career. Thirty years of one restaurant and never loosing its magnificent profile is aa merit for a few. That’s not to mention Per Se, a more recent of his creations within his Group.
Thomas Keller
To end in gracious style the documentary has the one and only, Alice Waters.
Alice Waters
One of my favorite lady in the food world. The most quintessential, genuine and real as it can be. She does what she believes in her heart. And that is all inside that precious historic gem in Berkley, California, called Chez Panisse. As Samin Nosrat wisely say, Alice Waters brought the concept of ‘Farm to Table’ to reality worldwide. Her most precious and proud project is called Edible School Yard where children across the States have access to gardening and eating fresh organic fruits and veggies, cultivated by them.
Chef’s Table – LEGENDS
The photography of all 4 episodes are a masterpiece of food photography in cinematography. Soundtrack brings you to laughs, happy tears.
Worth every minute! You might get a tad peckish too with all those mouthwatering dishes.
This week it was time for Brazil to have its stars shining in the world of culinary.
Since Michelin made their return last year after suspending the awards a few years ago, Brazil is back in the map represented by its two main capitals of restaurants, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Last year they introduced the Green Star, to award the restaurants that are working with special attention to sustainability and tenability.
They are A Casa do Porco by Chef Jefferson Rueda, TUJU by Chef Ivan Ralston and Corrutela by Chef César Costa.
But Michelin is not only made of its star recognition. It is important to remember that The Michelin Guide also highlights other restaurants that deserve a place in the selection for the quality of their cuisine, regardless of style.
In both Rio and São Paulo, the number of establishments continues to grow. With 12 new additions this year, the total is now 84 restaurants: 54 in São Paulo and 30 in Rio de Janeiro.
Monique has spent over a decade in the culinary and hospitality industries at places like: Balthazar Bakery, Liddabit Sweets, and Russ & Daughters. She loves cooking, refining silly snack opinions, and devouring as many foods and experiences as possible to earn the title of “The Eatinist.” Monique lives in Jackson Heights, Queens and enjoys spending way too much money on live music, taking pictures of sunsets in the neighborhood, and eating ice cream for breakfast.
She is on all social media platforms but Insta is her most active one. Where she also shares her beauty moments like freshly done out of nail salon, new hairdo, her cat sitting moments just to mention a few. Her kind human self.
I also was obsessed with all of the cooking shows on public television! Right after Sesame Street and Mr Rogers were done for the morning, I would watch Julia Child, Martin Yan, Mary Ann Esposito, Nathalie Dupree, Cooking Secrets of the CIA – pretty much anything having to do with cooking
Oh and we now share the passion for some series, especially Severance which she got me totally hooked on. So many messages we’ve exchanged over the second season. (more laughs!!)
Thank you Monique for accepting to share your Kitchen Story.
1. What is the importance of your kitchen in your house?
My kitchen is really the heart of my apartment. As soon as I use the bathroom in the morning, the first thing I do is fire up the electric kettle so my husband and I can have our morning tea (Earl Grey for him, Assam or Chai for me). Mornings during the winter are difficult for me haha, so I need warmth and caffeine. I wander in and out of the kitchen most of the day eating snacks, figuring out grocery lists, washing dishes, and looking at the neighborhood cats from the window. There’s great light that streams in all day in there so it’s kind of like a beacon of coziness that calms me throughout the day.
2. What’s the best part of the day for you to cook?
Honestly? Early in the morning when no one else is awake. When I’m baking/cooking a bunch of things for an event or a holiday, I love to take advantage of the solitude. I think it takes me back to when I worked early mornings in a commercial kitchen and me and my coworkers would be working to music or even the thrum of the machines. It makes me feel purposeful and accomplished – and even though I love to cook with friends, I get easily distracted haha. Sometimes my brain works better with the quiet.
3. Are you a creative chef or simply love to follow recipes?
I love the structure of a recipe and I like to see how other recipe writers’ brains work. I’ll follow my favorite recipes for a while but then I’ll augment them to my tastes. I do wish I was better at writing down my changes though – definitely something to work on this year!
4. Three ingredients that are never missing from your kitchen cabinet?
Canned/Dried legumes, kosher salt, tinned fish
5. How did your passion for cooking come about?
Definitely from my parents. My mom would cook for my family during the week as much as possible (she worked too!) and my dad loved to go out to eat and try new things. I also was obsessed with all of the cooking shows on public television! Right after Sesame Street and Mr Rogers were done for the morning, I would watch Julia Child, Martin Yan, Mary Ann Esposito, Nathalie Dupree, Cooking Secrets of the CIA – pretty much anything having to do with cooking. My mom also has a small cookbook collection that I would spend hours reading. As soon as I was 9 or 10, I started helping to make dishes for our holiday meals too.
6. What’s your favourite dish to cook that you know can never go wrong with it?
Samin Nosrat’s Buttermilk Brined Chicken! And if you have a container of Puerto RIcan Sofrito in your freezer, you have a foolproof ingredient that will bring so much flavor to any savory dish.
7. Would you receive an entire TV crew in your kitchen for a day?
If you mean one person with a camera and one person with a boom mic hahaha – I have a classic NYC kitchen. It’s pretty dang small but also is fairly easy to cook in and navigate.
8. Do you follow any tv shows or have a favourite cooking book?
Oh gosh – that’s really hard. I don’t follow a lot of food reality TV if I’m being honest but when I’m in the mood for:
Something comforting: Great British Bake Off, any Nigella cooking show, Two Fat Ladies, International food videos on YouTube
Something silly/trashy: Kitchen Nightmares, Bar Rescue
Something educational: Tasting History on YouTube, High on the Hog (Netflix)
My favorite cookbooks right now are: Diasporican by Illyana Maisonet, Start Here by Sohla El Wally, I Dream of Dinner by Ali Slagle. My favorite food newsletters are Alicia Kennedy’s (a great combo of food/political writing and fantastic vegetable recipes/methodologies) and Hetty McKinnion’s (amazing recipe writer and person – she’s also very vegetable focused and her recipes are flavorful and well-written).
Monique and I also share the love for a great New Yorker baker, Jessie Sheehan. I’ve seen quite a few times Monique baking /sharing on IG stories great results from Jessie’s books! You can actually read Jessie’s Kitchen Story here.
Another curiosity that hit me while putting this post together was about Monique’s nickname – The Eatinist Bitch. So I’ve asked and she told me this pretty funny story from early years of college time, during summer job as a theatre usher…inside story. The things you do for an extra bite and $7 bucks. Put it that way, from early years of college to grown up life and it became her trademark.
Chef Jefferson Rueda took some time away from his kitchen so to look after his health, reinvigorate. The result is remarkable come back, completely renovated, full of energy and his creativity at its highest. Working really hard to stay focus with his beliefs. This year the restaurant received the Green Michelin Star, a new world award recognizing restaurants that work with strong sense of sustainability and helping the environment. Worldwide with 50Best they hold a well deserved 27th position.
He’s back!
a Casa do Porco has the two options of menu: a 6 course tasting menu as well as the à la carte.
The last time I visited was in 2019, so it was about time I placed a visited back.
I care to mention my admiration for the work the Rueda family did during the pandemic years in order to keep their farm producing and making part of their restaurants serving delivery lunch and dinner with safe and stable conditions for their staff, guaranteeing they wouldn’t loose their jobs.
Back to my recent experience, every now and then I very much enjoy going to restaurants by myself so I can have the in depthone to one experience with the food, understanding the Chef creations’, exploring the flavors and beauty of each course.
I had a Friday lunch reservation for 12pm on the dot. It was raining ‘cats and dogs’. That usual waiting line going around the corner for those trying to enjoy some lunch without reservations. When the hostess called out my name from the list I walked in and suddenly it felt as if the sun came out, inside! To welcome the guests. That’s the energy you feel from this vibrant lively restaurant.
I asked to seat by the bar, facing the kitchen and watch the so well synchronized work from the brigade.
For those reading me here, at lafoodsitter, for the first time, Welcome! Some of you might not know what I do for work. I’m a consultant in the food industry so I get the privilege to work a lot with chefs, restaurant teams to mention a few of my multitasking profession. So when eating out, it happens so naturally that it gets my attention during their service.
This time, however, I’ve “turned off work mode” and focused in enjoying my experience to the fullest.
I had the most was kind, very polite waiter allocated. Perfectly in tune with all the detailed explanation to every course served. Bartenders were also up to the beat and very entertaining.
Each bite was pure delight. But even more delightful was to look around and see something like a ballet performance from the waiters going around, cordially, smiling and making all guests feel like they were the most important people in the room.
Yeap, work mode never does switch off completely, I know! (laughs)
During each course I could see the Chef’s study and work in platting parts of influences from more exotic Brazilian flavors combined with the star of the house, San Zé, the world famous, and winner, pork the Rueda family breed in their farm.
When leaving the restaurant, it was still raining but the sunny felling from inside a casa do Porco was still in me.
Rua Araujo, 124 Centro São Paulo Tel: +55 11 3528 2678 / For reservation please visit their website
Versão em português
Que tal começarmos este post com um enorme parabéns à A Casa do Porco pela sua mais recente conquista do 15° lugar no Latin America 50Best Restaurant 2024!!
O Chef Jefferson Rueda tirou um tempo da cozinha para cuidar da saúde e se revitalizar. O resultado é um retorno notável, completamente renovado, cheio de energia e com sua criatividade no auge. Trabalhando duro para manter o foco em suas crenças. Este ano, o restaurante recebeu a Estrela Verde Michelin, um novo prêmio mundial que reconhece restaurantes que trabalham com forte senso de sustentabilidade e ajudam o meio ambiente. Mundialmente, com o 50Best, ocupam uma merecida 27ª posição.
A Casa do Porco oferece duas opções de menu: um menu degustação de 6 pratos e também à la carte. A última vez que visitei foi em 2019, então já era hora de voltar. Gostaria de mencionar minha admiração pelo trabalho que a família Rueda fez durante os anos da pandemia para manter sua fazenda produzindo e fazendo parte de seus restaurantes, servindo almoço e jantar por delivery em condições seguras e estáveis para seus funcionários, garantindo que não perderiam seus empregos. Voltando à minha recente experiência, de vez em quando gosto muito de ir à restaurantes sozinho para poder ter uma experiência profunda e individual com a comida, entendendo as criações do Chef, explorando os sabores e a beleza de cada prato. Eu tinha uma reserva de almoço de sexta-feira para o meio-dia em ponto. Estava chovendo muito. Aquela fila de espera habitual contornando a esquina para quem tenta aproveitar um almoço sem reserva. Quando a hostess chamou meu nome da lista, entrei e de repente foi como se o sol tivesse aparecido, lá dentro! Para dar as boas-vindas aos clientes. Essa é a energia que você sente ao entrar neste restaurante vibrante e animado.
Pedi para sentar no balcão, de frente para a cozinha, para observar o trabalho tão bem sincronizado da brigada.
Para aqueles que estão me lendo aqui, no lafoodsitter, pela primeira vez, sejam bem-vindos! Alguns de vocês podem não saber com o que trabalho. Sou consultora gastronômica, então tenho o privilégio de trabalhar com chefs, equipes de restaurantes, para mencionar alguns dos diferentes escopos de trabalho.. Então, quando saio para comer, acontece naturalmente que isso chame minha atenção durante o serviço deles.
Desta vez, porém, “desliguei o modo trabalho” e me concentrei em aproveitar ao máximo minha experiência.
Tive o melhor garçom, muito gentil e educado. Perfeitamente sintonizado com todas as explicações detalhadas de cada prato servido. Os barmen também estavam no ritmo e muito divertidos.
Cada mordida era puro deleite. Mas ainda mais delicioso foi olhar ao redor e ver algo como uma performance de balé dos garçons circulando, cordialmente, sorrindo e fazendo todos os clientes se sentirem como se fossem as pessoas mais importantes no restaurante.
Sim, o modo trabalho nunca desliga completamente, eu sei! (risos)
Durante cada prato, pude ver o estudo e o trabalho do Chef em partes de pratos com influências de sabores brasileiros mais exóticos, combinados com a estrela da casa, o San Zé, o porco mundialmente famoso e premiado que a família Rueda cria em sua fazenda.
Ao sair do restaurante, ainda estava chovendo, mas a sensação de sol que senti dentro da Casa do Porco ainda estava em mim.
Over the course of her career, Andrea has been a lawyer, a restaurant manager, a waitress, a farm hand, a humanitarian activist, an advocate, and for the past two decades, a journalist.
1. What is the importance of your kitchen in your house?
The kitchen is the heart of our home. I live in a garden apartment in Carroll Gardens with my two kids Sam and Eiji who are 9 and 13 now. I am always in the kitchen, probably because it’s the biggest room in the house. It’s large enough to fit my desk where I write and work, and a big, old well-loved (marginally destroyed) dining room table where we eat all our meals, but also do homework, play board games, and have fierce games of cards. It’s where the kids can sit around with their friends and be ridiculous when they are not in front of the TV and their phones. I love to read and the kitchen is full of bookshelves stuffed with novels and many cookbooks. The front door opens right up into the kitchen, and it’s very homey and warm, and that’s important to me. When people come over I hope they feel the warmth and the love that’s in this room.
2. What’s the best part of the day for you to cook?
I have two kids so I cook all the time – particularly during the pandemic, it was three meals a day, for everyone, every day for months. It was a bit bananas. But things have smoothed out now, thankfully, and mostly I cook in the late afternoon. We eat dinner together as a family every night we are home, and the kids get hungry early (well honestly they are hungry all the time), so I cook around 4ish and we eat by 5:30pm-6pm. But I am always putting out snacks, slicing veggies and fruit for them, or making them toast, or bagels or what have you. I’m a very good short order cook.
I should also say that both my kids can cook, particularly my older son Eiji. Both kids have been cooking with me since they could stand. They started out putting flour in the bowl, stirring, adding chips to cookies, and as they got older, they did more. Eiji went to the Dynamite Shop, a tween and teen cooking school in Park Slope, and thanks to that he can cook anything. He cooks once a week for his Volleyball team. He’s amazing. Sam is also getting good—he can make scrambled eggs, fried fish, and lasagna. They both love to bake. Sometimes I’ll wake up to them in the kitchen making muffins. Lest you imagine some dreamy scene, you should know they are not particularly tidy cooks. The kitchen is usually a massive mess, like a tornado has blown through. But I don’t care. I am happy to see them cooking and enjoying being together. These are the memories that they’ll have forever. So if we have to clean up for a while, so be it.
3. Are you a creative chef or simply love to follow recipes?
I’d say I follow recipes and then create. I like the NY Times Cooking and Smitten Kitchen in particular. Once I have cooked a recipe once, I’ll put my own spin on it. I tend to like things with high acidity and some heat so I’ll usually add a squeeze of lemon juice and red chile flake to nearly every recipe I make. And I’ll play with different vegetables or grains or proteins, whatever is in season and in the house.
4. Three ingredients that are never missing from your kitchen cabinet?
As I mentioned I like heat, so I always have a jar of Onino on hand. This is an amazing crunchy chili made in Brooklyn by Cristy Lucie-Alvarado, a recipe developer who has worked most of her life in food marketing. It’s nutty, spicy, garlicky, and just amazing on EVERYTHING. I eat it by the spoonful. No that’s not weird; try it and you will too.
I love good salted butter so I always have that out on the counter. I really don’t like cold butter, so it’s never in the fridge.
I love pesto, so I try to have pine nuts, or even pistachios or almonds in the pantry, some sort of nut that I can toast, toss in the food processor with a clove of garlic, some good Parmesan cheese, lemon, olive oil, and basil and make a quick pesto. Sometimes I’ll add some avocado or a zucchini or half a chili pepper. I told you, I like it spicy. And pesto is so versatile and forgiving. It’s also one of those sauces that’s just great on pasta but also as a sandwich spread, or on fish or chicken, even with raw veggies.
5. How did your passion for cooking come about?
I’d say I first had a passion for eating and for food and restaurants that grew into a passion for cooking.
My parents divorced when I was very young and my dad did not know how to cook. We’d see him once a week at his apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan and he’d take us out for dinner, sometimes to neighborhood places and diners, but other times to really wonderful restaurants like Rumplemeyers and Maxwell’s Plum (I am giving away my age here). I was captivated by the food and the dazzling rooms, the magic of restaurants.
I studied law and practiced for a while and my passion for restaurants only grew – I was lucky enough to be eating out at the best restaurants in the city. Then I ended up working in restaurants and writing about them. I did go to Peter Kump’s Cooking School for a semester (now Institute of Culinary Education) so I had the basics down, but honestly I didn’t cook much until I had kids because I was too busy eating out. Sure, I’d cook a special occasion meal, but mostly on the rare occasion when I was home I ate a bowl of cereal or ordered in sushi or Chinese. But when I had kids that all changed. I needed to cook for my family, and I learned to cook family recipes from my Persian grandmother, and the rest I sort of cooked what I knew I liked to eat and what I knew they would eat. I was never into making one meal for the kids and one for the grown ups. We all ate the same thing. (Even though Sam used to be quite picky — I’d just make sure to have rice and beans for him at every meal.) And we always ate together. Family meals are very important to me. Yes there are many pizza nights in front of the TV, but I really like the ritual of sitting down to dinner together. Even if it’s fast and furious, it’s together. There are some words of conversation even too.
6. What’s your favorite dish to cook that you know can never go wrong?
That’s an easy one—Persian Rice and Choresh. These are two Persian recipes that my Bibi taught me. Choresh is a stew, there are many variations on it, but every Friday night I make Chickpea Choresh and a big pot of rice with a potato crust. We are Jewish and while we are not religious, I like the customs and the notion of having a special Friday Sabbath meal where we eat Persian food that my mother and my grandmother used to make for me as a child, It makes me feel like I am creating this lineage of love through food and the generations.
7. Would you receive an entire TV crew in your kitchen for a day?
If they can fit inside, yes!
8. Do you follow any tv shows or have a favorite cooking book?
We love to watch “Nailed It” as a family. The show cracks us up. It’s great. We have also watched the Great British Baking Show but it makes me too hungry. I always want to eat many pieces of cake afterwards.
Tamar Arslanian is founder of the popular blog IHAVECAT and author of the book Shop Cats of New York written-up in the New York Times, USA Today and New York Post. Most recently Tamar has founded “Flirting With Vegan,” a community and tour company that encourages all foodies to give delicious plant-based cuisine a chance.
Because no one has time for mediocre food.
1. What is the importance of your kitchen in your house?
Well I love to eat so I do spend quite a bit of time there. I live in NYC so by our standards I have a good sized kitchen. In the rest of the United Stated however, it would be considered minuscule.
2. What’s the best part of the day for you to cook?
Evenings.
3. Are you a creative chef or simply love to follow recipes?
I started off following recipes but during COVID I had more time to cook and became more comfortable with “going with my gut” so to speak. It was exciting to know what flavors go together to enhance a dish.
4. Three ingredients that are never missing on your kitchen cabinet?
Olive oil, zataar and salt.
5. How did your passion for cooking come about?
To be honest I would say I have more of a passion for eating well than for cooking, but seeing as I live alone, I have had to learn how to cook! My mom is an excellent self-taught cook so she has taught me to be very discerning when tasting food. She cooks delicious low-fat high flavor dishes from all cuisines and finds using butters and creams the lazy way of making a dish taste delicious. Herbs and other seasonings are her favorite.
6. What’s your favourite dish to cook that you know it can never go wrong with it?
A veggie curry with coconut milk.
7. Would you receive an entire tv crew in your kitchen for a day?
Of course as long as they were a NYC size crew to fit into my NYC size apt!
8. Do you follow any tv show or have a favourite cooking book?
My greatest inspiration comes from all the amazing TikTok chefs who are able to share incredible inspirational meals in 3 minutes or less.
When George Whitman opened his parisian bookshop, together there was always a second part of the project that never came to life. The Shakespeare and Company Café. That was until 2015 when his daughter Sylvia and husband David decided to make her dad’s dream become reality.
With spring season right on, if you happen to be in Paris, do make sure to visit the location. Bookshop and Café are right next to each other, same place where Whitman started it all. A visit to their website is also well worth it! Not only impacably cool but full of historical information too. Vogue magazine made a delicious article about it! Read it on…
A little family farm in the Maremma region of magical Tuscany that has been transformed in an Agritourism. They have horses, cats, chickens. They produce their own wine. Tina, the host, makes a mean seasonal fruit jam. Breakfast at Statiano is the best pampering to start off your day. Actually after having watched the sunrise. Totally worth waking up at 5:50/6am for such experience.
I did stay in one of the small houses where I had my own, fully equiped kitchen, which is always handy when you want to make a quick bite during the day, some italian coffee to brew in a vintage moka or even cook your owm meal. It was called Tiburzi. All rooms, small apartments and houses have a name. Tina and Paolo (her partner and host as well) cook and serve dinner upon request. They are delicious, very on the comfort side idea of a tuscan meal. Never without a glass of vin santo and some crunchy cantucci to wrap up your dinner time.
They are dog friendly. They have a swimming pool. There is an unbelivable silence. Only nature chats to you.
The location, Pomarance, is perfect to access Volterra, the sea side and beautiful drives to reach San Giminiano and Siena.
It was all I needed. Peace & quiet with some small adventures in between. Some days I didn’t even leave the farm. Books, sun, good food and amazing blue sky kept me company.
I can’t wait to visit Tina & Paolo at Fattoria di Statiano again very soon!
