The stories behind what people eat around the world. We write about festive and seasonal traditions, communal dining, street food, barbecue cultures and dishes that travelled far from home, from Japan and Korea to Scotland, Uruguay and New Zealand. Each piece explains where a dish comes from and why it matters.
Green sauce is one of the most elegant expressions of culinary intelligence: a practice where very little transforms into something luminous, and the world has been doing it for centuries. What all green sauces share Every great green sauce rests on 3 elements: fresh herbs, an acid, and a fat. The acid lifts the flavors. … Read more
Mediterranean cooking reaches its highest point not in a restaurant kitchen but at the precise moment in late August when a garden holds more than any single meal can contain, and a cook must decide, with clarity and restraint, what to do with all of it. The logic behind a garden-led meal August is peak … Read more
Grain salads occupy a quiet but confident place in the vocabulary of great cooking. Across every culinary tradition, cooks have long understood that grains and legumes, paired with acid and oil, become something more than sustenance. In summer, that understanding becomes essential. These 7 preparations reward patience, improve with time in the refrigerator, and arrive … Read more
Ethical cocoa is no longer a luxury concern held only by boutique chocolatiers. It sits at the centre of one of the most consequential debates in global food culture today, and the 2026 World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) Partnership Meeting made that tension impossible to ignore. What the 2026 forum addressed The 2026 Partnership Meeting took … Read more
Stone fruit deserves more than a bowl. Across Europe and the Middle East, pastry traditions have long treated peaches, plums, cherries, and apricots as the foundation of some of the most precise and beautiful desserts in any kitchen. What makes stone fruit ideal for baking Stone fruit holds its shape under heat in a way … Read more
Global kitchens gather at the Worldchefs Congress and Expo, and the conversation has moved far beyond recipes and competition results. The profession is asking harder questions about craft, responsibility, and what the kitchen must become. What Singapore revealed about the profession The 40th Worldchefs Congress and Expo 2024 took place in Singapore from October 20 … Read more
Slow braises are among the most honest expressions of culinary craft, and every culture that has built a serious food tradition has, in its own way, learned to coax profound tenderness and depth from time, heat, and a covered pot. Why slow braises work Long cooking at a lower temperature coaxes collagen, the main protein … Read more
Tomato dishes reach their full expression in August, when the Mediterranean’s long dry heat transforms a simple fruit into the foundation of an entire culinary season. Why August produces the finest tomatoes The tomato thrives in warm conditions. Tomatoes thrive in warm climates, which makes them an ideal crop during the summer months across the … Read more
Moroccan chermoula is one of those rare preparations that a trained cook recognises immediately as a marker of culinary intelligence: a single recipe that commands an entire cuisine, precise in its proportions yet generous in its applications. What chermoula actually is Chermoula, also written as charmoula, is the emblematic marinade of Maghreb cuisine. The name … Read more
Chilled soups have long tested a cook’s discipline: cold dulls seasoning, amplifies poor texture, and forgives nothing left to chance. Each of these 6 bowls from around the world rewards the cook who pays attention, adjusting salt with purpose, choosing quality produce, and chilling with patience rather than haste. Gazpacho (Spain): the Andalusian standard Gazpacho … Read more
Flatbreads carry a kind of quiet authority that no other food possesses: a thin, unassuming surface of grain and water that has fed every civilisation ever recorded. The oldest food on the table Researchers discovered the charred remains of a flatbread baked by hunter-gatherers 14,400 years ago at an archaeological site in northeastern Jordan. This … Read more
Moroccan cuisine stands among the world’s most layered food cultures, shaped by Berber, Arab, Andalusian, and Mediterranean influences that have merged over centuries. Marrakech sits at the center of that story, offering visitors a living kitchen where ancient techniques and vibrant market culture meet on every street corner. Knowing what to order, where to eat, … Read more
