Category: Travel

Marc Forgione has mastered the art of grilling steak—and is sharing a few pointers for getting it just right. The chef-owner of his eponymous Tribeca restaurant, which has received numerous accolades, began honing his culinary skills when he was just 16 years old. The youngest winner ever of Food Network’s The Next Iron Chef (he was 31 at the time), Forgione has become a successful restaurateur (also chef-owner of Peasant and co-owner-partner of Khe-Yo, both in New York City) and is the author of Marc Forgione: Recipes and Stories from the Acclaimed Chef and Restaurant.The celebrity chef can often be found firing up the grill at home. “I do it a lot, actually. I love it,” Forgione says, adding that he was grilling more frequently than ever during the pandemic when restaurants were forced to temporarily shut down (All three of his aforementioned restaurants have reopened for indoor and outdoor dining). He also has been documenting his cooking adventures with his son, Sonny, on Instagram. With summer grilling season in full swing, Robb Report chatted with Forgione about how he fires up the perfect steak—from picking out the best cut of meat to proper seasoning and even the right way to slice it. Here are his top tips and tricks for taking your grilling game to the next level.

Source: How to Grill the Perfect Steak at Home According to Chef Marc Forgione – Robb Report

I love traveling with my dog, Meeko. I can save on boarding or a sitter, I don’t need to worry about his health and anxiety, and he makes a great adventure buddy. He’s a little too big to fit on a plane, but we are avid road-trippers, hikers and campers. But let’s be honest, bringing him along can be a big hassle…and big mess. Sometimes his suitcase its bigger than mine! When it comes to packing for our adventures, I care about convenience, cleanliness, and size or weight. That’s why I took to Amazon to see other pet parents’ favorite products to make traveling easier. I have high standards, so I only focused on products with over 5,000 4+ star reviews, and I was not disappointed. My favorite item we have used so far is the car hammock to keep him safe and secure and save my car’s interior. Check out the products below and leave a comment to let us know your favorite, even if it didn’t make the list.

Source: Amazon’s Highest Reviewed Products That Make Traveling With Your Pet Much Easier – TravelAwaits

A breezy, low-key tribute to Wolfgang Puck, “Wolfgang” is most notable for the extent to which he can be thanked — or blamed — for the advent of the celebrity chef, as well as ripples that extended into everything from cooking styles to the way restaurants are designed. That might not merit full Disney+ documentary treatment, but for those even remotely interested in the topic, bon appétit.”Wolfgang was without a doubt the first celebrity chef,” says chef/author Nancy Silverton, as director David Gelb proceeds to detail the Austrian-born Puck’s humble beginnings, the child of a single mother later raised by an abusive stepfather, who told him that boys hanging around the kitchen was somehow unmanly.Coming to America, Puck worked his way up, eventually taking over the kitchen at Ma Maison before striking out on his own to open Spago, where the “California cuisine” “changed the way Americans eat,” says food writer Ruth Reichl, noting that Puck “changed the perception in the public for what a chef is,” as illustrated through clips of his ubiquitous media appearances.Until then, the experts note, being a chef had been largely a blue-collar job, with the owners of high-end restaurants occasionally basking in the spotlight. “Wolfgang” underscores just how much that has changed with a montage of cooking shows and chefs that have become fodder for reality TV and prevalent enough to support a network dedicated to their exploits.Puck explains that he was motivated by “fear of failure,” and in an age-old story, threw himself into his professional pursuits at the expense of his personal life. At those points “Wolfgang” becomes a trifle sappy, down to the musical cues, while documenting what is undeniably an American success story, punctuated by older footage of celebrities flocking to his restaurants.As is so often the case, Puck’s influence over his chosen field tends to eclipse his personal qualities, and while those interviewed include one-time super-agent Michael Ovitz, there’s probably not enough said about Puck’s flair for showmanship in selling the fabulousness that he represented. Instead, we get anecdotes like Johnny Carson buying Spago pizzas and freezing them, supposedly giving the chef the idea for his expansion into the frozen-food business.Still, “Wolfgang” nicely demonstrates how its namesake fundamentally impacted the world of cooking — and especially how high-end food is perceived — while carving out a pretty sweet life for himself in the process. For that alone it’s worth watching, even if, as documentaries go, it’s less a main course than an appetizer.

Source: ‘Wolfgang’ review: Wolfgang Puck, and how he created the celebrity chef, in this Disney+ documentary – CNN

Aplace to sit to rest weary legs, a tabletop to spread out a crinkled paper map, the glorious possibility of Wi-Fi or perhaps even air-conditioning: for the tired traveller, there’s no place like a coffee shop. And even the most hardened voyager sometimes needs an injection of caffeine and sugar before hitting the pavement, cobblestones, or museum flooring once more.There are plenty of faceless chain coffee shops in nearly every city on earth. But many cafés are so much more than that. Coffee draws a community around it, and, sometimes, coffee shops take on the character of their owners, patrons, and locations. And even more so than restaurants, these cafés have a longevity that puts many bars and restaurants to shame. Loyal customers looking to extend their waking hours often extend the lifespan of a coffee shop over decades or even centuries. Visitors and locals can drink café con leche at Café La Habana in Mexico City, where revolutionaries once planned their next moves, or sip a brew at St. Petersburg’s Literary Cafe, where Pushkin had his last-ever drink.Some newer coffee shops, though, are fascinating for reasons other than history. At Cafe Yeonnam-Dong 223-14 in South Korea, design is king: The entire interior was built to appear as a 2-D illusion to the naked eye. Other cafés are all about the future, like Bison Coffeehouse in Portland, Oregon. There, the proprietor proudly features the fruits of the exploding Native coffee movement, which is breaking new ground(s) with exciting blends roasted on reservations across North America. Whether you’re into the finest beans or Frappucinos, there’s a coffee shop for you.

Source: 25 Coffee Shops to Visit Before You Die – Atlas Obscura Lists