Claire Margine

You guys! Season Two of Stranger Things is almost here (it’s coming out this Friday, October 27, to be exact). There’s a good chance gobbling up the entire season in one epic binge-watching session is your plan this weekend, and we support you.

When challenged to track down the best Barefoot Contessa episode, I was sure it would feature beach picnics, themed dinner parties, or the company of much-adored Jeffrey, sighing into pasta. I hadn’t watched a new episode in years, preferring to treat Barefoot Contessa like a security blanket or comfort food. I returned to the early episodes again and again, ready to be soothed by the dulcet tones of “How bad can that be?” and the crinkle of linen shirts.

You could create an entire book club based around Real Housewives publications and never run out. Tinsley Mortimer has a novel. Bethenny Frankel has a children’s book about her dog. The Dubrows have an anti-aging book where they refer to themselves as “Dr. and Mrs. Guinea Pig.” There’s almost a dozen tell-all-but-not-quite-all memoirs.

What do you do when you need to unwind? Maybe you take a hot bath or get a massage. Maybe you make a double-batch of bolognese sauce or whip up a chocolate cake, frost it just so, and then eat it. My recharge routine? I binge-watch beautifully shot vegan cooking videos paired with gentle music. If you’ve been on the hunt for a blissed-out culinary experience bound to drop your blood pressure, it’s time to sit back and binge watch “Peaceful Cuisine.

The jazzy opening notes of Alton Brown’s Good Eats sound like an upbeat jam on a Casio keyboard. For me, this music may as well be a time machine. I watched so much of this show as a kid that the sight of Alton Brown’s sharp features can flood my senses with the smell of basement, Moose Tracks ice cream, and the worn fabric of long-gone family couches.

If you’re going to watch just one Hallmark Christmas movie, go for the one set in Cookie Jar. No, it’s not a surreal adventure featuring a team of tiny humans trapped in a cookie jar (hey, Hallmark, next year? Maybe?) — Christmas Cookies is the story of Hannah Harper, a hotshot New York food exec who is sent to the tiny town of Cookie Jar to buy Aunt Sally’s Cookie Company.

When I’m cooking for a dinner party, at some point I tell myself, “Food tastes fear.” Things have a way of not working out when I’m thinking about them too hard. It’s as true of first drafts as well as soufflés: Thinking has very little to do with doing, and “doing” goes poorly if it’s not the focus.

I have fond memories of being in the kitchen with my mom and sister, but I would never think to gather my family for a day of cooking. Usually lines are drawn in the journey from kitchen to table: cooks vs. eaters, hosts vs. guests. There’s something very “We’re all in this together! We’re a family!” about intentionally coming together in the kitchen to cook a meal. The Big Family Cooking Showdown captures this magic.

Looking forward to a final Hallmark Christmas Movie binge-watch? Super fans, you’ve probably been lapping up weeks of gentle Christmas cheer and snowy romances as Hallmark sets out a Christmas movie buffet. But now that the holiday is around the corner, it’s time to alleviate any lingering holiday stress (hey there, upbeat formulaic fare!) and get super in the Christmas spirit. Know what helps? Adding some festive cocktail magic to your Hallmark Christmas movie viewing.

Warning! If you haven’t watched the show yet, there are major spoilers ahead. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime is a retro smorgasbord, served up with jokes and a jaunty soundtrack. Every episode is studded with snacks and meals — chips snatched from a bowl at a party, bourbon paired with homemade babka. When no one quite understands each other, when everything is uncomfortable, food is the connection. The premiere starts with a food faux pas. A joyous newly minted Mrs.

Imagine if you could pull Ina Garten into your very own kitchen and have her walk you through how to cook. Not just recipes, but the miniature actions and skills that are muscle memory to a culinary pro. With her swingy lob and trademark denim button-down, you two could be elbow to elbow, suddenly kitchen pals as she showed you the exact moment when yeast comes alive or how to shingle prosciutto onto a tartine. This can be your life. No, seriously.

I’ve seen so many profiles on buzzy chefs lauded for their messy, unpretentious, kinda rock-and-roll attitude towards food. The vibe is always cool-kid boys club, typically populated by young or youngish guys, all sporting a charming glower, a few tattoos, and the ability to quote Kitchen Confidential. But what if this nonchalant, leather-jacket-sporting approach was actually inspired by two devil-may-care British women in their 60s?

Tackling new experiences can be really hard, whether you struggle with social anxiety (like me) or not. New jobs, new schools, new experiences with new people — it can feel totally overwhelming. And no version of this looks more intense than the “first day of a reality show” experience, especially for competitions. But on the Great British Bake Off, as usual, they do things a little differently.

I’m a sucker for time management systems. I’ve bullet journaled, read Getting Things Done, embraced everything from Trello to Omnifocus to elaborate webs of post-it notes. Without a ton of structure, my time gets slippery and hazy. Unless I focus, it seems to just disappear. I’m also a huge Great British Bake Off fan, and every time I watch GBBO I’m struck by how much of the show is clandestinely about time management and work strategies.

Julia Child knows how to kick off an iconic television career. While the first episode of most shows — especially classic shows — highlights its imperfections, the first episode of The French Chef is 30 minutes of soothing perfection. From the first notes of her jaunty opening song, I’m completely spellbound. She looks into the camera and says “Hello, I’m Julia Child!

“It’s lovely to talk about the magic and mysticism of food, but it’s a lot of hard work and time invested,” says Tunde Wey in the first episode of the fifth season of Chef’s Table. He’s talking about Cristina Martinez creating barbacoa, but for me, the quote provides a framework for these four new episodes. In Season five, there’s so much more than magic at the Chef’s Table.

I spent four hours at my favorite kind of dinner party, and I never left my couch. I traveled the world and laughed and wrote all caps notes like “LAYER YOUR SALT!” and “CREATE HEAT ZONES” and “I AM DELIGHTED!!!” I got to bask in the food glow, and you can too, thanks to the first season of Salt Fat Acid Heat on Netflix, the new show based on Samin Nosrat’s award-winning cookbook. Drop your weekend plans, because this is the show you need to watch.

Rosanna Pansino is the queen of geeky baking. On her popular YouTube series “Nerdy Nummies,” she creates edible, sugary homages to all of her favorite video games, movies, and TV shows. She’s made everything from a Disney Frozen dress cake (with a massive 180 million views) to Minion cupcakes. After seven years on YouTube, “Ro” has become a verified YouTube celebrity, racking up over 10 million subscribers and close to two-and-half-billion views.

“How to Cake It” is my favorite YouTube channel. But actually baking one of her cakes? It kind of destroyed me. I’m an unfussy home baker. I’ll make a one-layer cake or a crumble or maybe a blondie, but I stick to simple and not necessarily aesthetically elaborate desserts. My frosting is swoopy and my cookies are unadorned.

Have you ever wondered how a food from your favorite show would taste? Andrew Rea takes those mental gymnastics and transforms them into culinary adventures on his YouTube series, Binging with Babish. He recreates everything from the lush boeuf bourguignon in Julie and Julia to the mysterious legendary Szechuan sauce from Rick and Morty. He also does “Basics with Babish,” a series where he breaks down the skills that will upgrade your culinary repertoire.

Welcome to Kitchn’s series My Superpowered Morning, where we show you how interesting people use their morning routine to help them fuel the rest of the day. Karen Washington, urban farmer extraordinaire, is a woman so devoted to happiness, she called her urban farm in the Bronx The Garden of Happiness. Her commitment to the joys of growing your own food is so inspiring that one conversation with her could make the least earthy person suddenly want to get into gardening.

Nigella Lawson taught me everything I know about home entertaining, chocolate mousse-making, and the benefits of post-party solo snacking. In her many cooking shows, she slid through the kitchen with loose hair and a wide smile, the picture of kitchen confidence. But recently Nigella revealed that even she battles the recipe and technique goblins that plague every home chef.

I have to admit that I was very skeptical when I heard about Compartés’ super-trendy avocado toast chocolate bar. Salty and sweet? Great. Savory and sweet? Delicious. Avocado toast lodged in a chocolate bar? Nothing about this combination was making my mouth water. I was intrigued, but more in the way of I assume this will be terrible, so let me prove it. You see, I have a knee-jerk dislike for food trends. I can’t with charcoal.

I love the idea of a dining room table. I mean, who doesn’t? Yet so many friends and family members keep their dining room table in a space reserved for their “someday life.” Someday they’ll eat there. Someday they’ll want to eat there. Someday they’ll have dinner parties and weekday dinners. Someday they’ll be the kind of people who want to sit totally upright in a quiet room. I used to dream of a dining room. It seemed so adult, so important.

Conditions are perfect for a new reign of the French bread pizza. Between Stranger Things and a fashion week dominated by gargantuan shoulders, we can safely say we’ve reached peak ’80s nostalgia. And according to 2018 food trend predictions, bread is coming back in a big way this year. So what’s the perfect combo of ’80s fandom and carb-lover bliss? French bread pizza.

It’s safe to say 2018 was an incredible year for food TV. So where do you start when there’s so much to watch? How about a sampler instead of a binge watch — a taste of the very best of what 2018 had to offer? This year we left the perfectly lit kitchen and the chew-and-moan style of food travel TV. Television and food both offer these opportunities for connection. Food TV doesn’t have to be cute prattle and quick menus, fraught competitions or glossy adventures.

It’s nearly here: the most glorious TV-bingeing season of the year. For your sleepy post-gift-opening Christmas-day family bonding, your lengthy flights, your New Year’s Day after-brunch plans, there is a bushel of food-themed television from 2018 just waiting for you. It’s end-of-year list catch-up time, folks! Make some snacks. Throw on some pajamas. Dig in. Food television in 2018 was electric.