Expert Interview

If you’re like the majority of Americans — 64 percent, according to the National Coffee Association — you rely on that first cup of coffee to get you going each morning. Well, devotees of Bulletproof coffee, the trendy drink that infamously introduced butter to brew, claim the stuff can give you even more, and longer-lasting, energy. Let’s face it — most of us would gladly chug movie-theater-popcorn-flavored java by the gallon if it were true. So, is it?

Love to travel but don’t have a companion? No worries. More and more, traveling alone is an active choice, with women leading the way, according to Mary Bond of The Gutsy Traveler. (In fact, when it comes to travel, women are leading the way, period. Bond notes that 75 percent of those taking cultural, adventure, or nature trips are women, while women-only travel companies have increased by 230 percent.

Unwinding in a hotel bar might be an act of comfortable convenience. If you are a weary traveler, it is surely the shortest distance from your drink to your bed. If you are lucky, you will find yourself ensconced at the likes of Dandelyan at the Mondrian on London’s South Bank, or Sable Kitchen & Bar at the Hotel Palomar in Chicago, where well-made drinks served amid swanky surroundings promise memorable imbibing experiences for locals and itinerant interlopers.

Constructed entirely of cookies and icing, gingerbread houses are among the most magical of holiday treats. But for the home baker, embarking on such an intricate project can seem intimidating. Is it possible to build a beautiful biscuit structure from scratch and still have fun? I spoke to Jon Lovitch, New York chef and creator of GingerBread Lane, a collection of over 1,200 edible houses currently on display at the New York Hall of Science.

Is there anything better than movies and popcorn? They go together like Beyoncé and Jay Z. When you think of one, the other automatically pops into your head. And movie theater popcorn, in particular, is a special breed. As soon as you walk into the theater, it hits you: the buttery, salty smell of popcorn. It beats the microwaved version every time.

In the United States, one in seven people struggles with hunger, and many rely on food from local food banks to help feed their families. We’re about to embark on the holiday season, which is an especially difficult time to live with food insecurity — that is, not knowing when you will get your next meal. Many of us think about making food donations to local food banks at this time of year. But what types of donations help most? And what kinds of food should you avoid donating?

With Hanukkah around the corner and Christmas coming soon, holiday cookbook season is in full swing. Among the piles of recently published, glossy tomes, the book I’m most excited about is Jewish Soul Food: From Minsk to Marrakesh by Janna Gur. Gur is the longtime editor of Al Hashulchan, a popular food publication in Israel.

Take one sweet Brit finishing up school, a love for cinnamon-topped muffins, and a knack for photography, and what do you get? Izy Hossack’s fabulous blog Top with Cinnamon. Izy has been sharing some of her creations with us over the past few months, like her Toasted Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies and her Earl Grey Hot Cross Buns, and today we’re very happy to congratulate Izy on the release of her first cookbook!

Put away your brown rice. Forget quinoa. This fall, freekeh is where it’s at. The Kitchn’s very own contributing editor Kelli Dunn has just published a brand new cookbook, Everyday Freekeh Meals, that tackles this new-to-us ancient grain head on and gives us plenty of ideas for how to cook with it. What is freekeh, exactly? Glad you asked! Here’s what Kelli has to say about the grain that inspired her whole cookbook. In short, freekeh is wheat.

Does the idea of grinding things like wheat berries, black beans, and lentils into fluffy, bakery-worthy homemade flours pique your curiosity? Inspire passion? Make you want to run in the other direction? Erin Alderson, the talented gal behind Naturally Ella and our very own Kitchn recipe contributor, has just published a cookbook devoted entirely to this topic — and to convincing us that homemade flours are not only a smart part of a label-free diet, but incredibly fun, too!

This week I shared a peek into the Toulouse kitchen of Sandrine Follère, a French painter and sculptor, who welcomed me into her home with a beautiful and improvised lunch that capitalized on the delicious ingredients that the south of France offers. As Sandrine is an accomplished and experienced artist, I was curious how her art affects her cooking, and vice versa. I asked her about this and here’s what she said.

Ryan Farr is the owner of 4505 Meats, a well-loved butcher shop in San Francisco’s Mission district. In the past two weeks he’s both opened a new restaurant, 4505 Burgers and BBQ, and released a new cookbook, Sausage Making: The Definitive Guide with Recipes. Clearly, he is a busy guy but he’s the one to tap when it comes to solid advice on the essentials of sausage making! Read on for Ryan’s thoughts on the art and science of making sausage at home.

Who: Jesse Jacobs Where: Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco, CA The Question: What kind of tea should I drink with my favorite foods? Jesse Jacobs is a passionate, wholehearted tea-lover and the owner of Samovar Tea Lounge, a small chain of four tea cafes located in San Francisco. Samovar is noted for its top of the line tea offerings as well as its innovative pairings of tea and food.

Elissa Altman is the author of the blog and the book Poor Man’s Feast, a collection of reflections and stories of her life in and out of the kitchen. She is also a longtime cookbook editor and very well versed in cookbooks and books on food. Clearly she was the perfect person to tap when we got to wondering about which books that have really changed our lives, the books that have inspired not only our cooking but how we view the world.

Ben Corey-Moran is the Director of Coffee Supply at Fair Trade USA where it’s his job to develop and strengthen the supply chain between the small coffee farmers of Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America and coffee buyers from all over the world, some of them as large as Walmart. He’s been in the coffee business since 2003 and has an intimate understanding of the whole picture, from the harvest of the fruit to how to create the perfect cup at home.

We’re big fans of Davis Tanis here at The Kitchn. We love his new book One Good Dish, previous books (A Platter of Figs and Heart of the Artichoke), and his NYT column City KitchenThanksgivukkah David Tanis’ authority on cooking may have originated in the august Chez Panisse kitchens, where he was chef of both the upstairs and downstairs kitchens for several years. But he also passionately believes in home cooking, as his three cookbooks and dozens of NYT articles can attest.

For over a year now, we’ve been talking with cooking experts (chefs and cooks, cookbook authors, food writers, recipe developers) about what they feel are their top five essential things a home cook should know, do, own, or understand in order to be a great cook. In honor of the Big Feast day tomorrow, we combed our Expert Essentials archives, pulling out nuggets of kitchen wisdom to help you make it though your cooking marathon with body and mind intact.

Alice Medrich is truly the queen of all things chocolate. We loved her newest book Seriously Bitter Sweet but we also love many of her other award-winning chocolate and dessert books (Pure Dessert) and her helpful tips, like how to peel hazelnuts. With the winter holidays arriving and the many sweet kitchen projects that they bring, we thought this would be a perfect time to talk with Alice about her five essentials for working with chocolate at home.

It’s Farm Week at The Kitchn, so I’m bringing back my favorite farm visit of all time: The Chef’s Garden in Huron, Ohio. Farmer Jones and the rest of the Jones family found some smart, creative ways to revitalize their family farm and offer something special — take a look! – FaithThe Chef’s Garden is a company that has mastered the drama of vegetables. On my recent visit to this utterly unique Ohio farm, spectacles of vegetables and herbs paraded by.