This year’s recipient of the Julia Child Award, which recognizes those who have made an impact on the American culinary scene, is Sean Sherman, chef, author, and co-founder of the nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS). and its natives. Food Laboratory. The award has been given by the Julia Child Foundation for Food and Culinary Arts since 2015 and comes with a prize of $50,000. Mr. Sherman, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, is also the owner of Owamni by the Sioux Chef in Minneapolis, an indigenous restaurant that was named Best New Restaurant in 2022 by the James Beard Foundation.
juliachildaward.com, seansherman.com.
An iconic test kitchen will be preserved
Ebony Magazine, which began publication in 1945, had three successive kitchens to test recipes at its Chicago headquarters in the Johnson Publishing Building. The last one, built in 1972, has now been donated to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. The kitchen was all-electric and state-of-the-art for its time, designed by Arthur Elrod and William Raiser of Palm Springs, California, and used to test recipes featured in the magazine. (Ceased from print publication in 2019.) The kitchen, which was salvaged by Landmarks Illinois, disassembled and restored, was put on display by New York’s Museum of Food and Beverage for its exhibition, “Africa/Americana: Making the Nation’s Table” last year. The Smithsonian’s plans to display the kitchen have not been confirmed, but until it is available to the public, it can be viewed in photos and video at searchablemuseum.com/the-ebony-test-kitchen.
Locanda Vini e Olii restaurant has created an ice cream cart, Biddrina Gelato, named after a Sicilian water monster, parked to the side of its outdoor seating area. Alessio DiGino, waiter at the restaurant, and executive chef and co-owner, Michele Baldacci, developed a variety of flavors such as Sicilian pistachio; a surprisingly bright turmeric mixed with amerina cherries; and rich chocolate sprinkled with marshmallows and fragrant with cardamom. Three of the nine flavors are plant-based, the others milk-based. Mr. Baldacci, who is from Florence, Italy, returned to his hometown to work with Silvana Vivoli of that city’s famous Vivoli il Gelato to improve his craft before opening the cart. Scoops are $6, Double Scoops are $8, and Pints are $15.
129 Gates Avenue (Cambridge Place), Clinton Hill Brooklyn, biddrina.com.
A new flare from South West France
Long before French sparkling wines made outside of the Champagne region were called crémant, and perhaps even before Champagne came along, there was Blanquette de Limoux. (“A story older than champagne,” says “Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Book of Wine.”) In this category is the new Faire La Fête brut, an all-purpose, slightly floral Bengal that benefits from aging for 15 months on lees (compared to the required 12 months) to provide a slightly bitter yeasty lemon finish. The pink version has more body. The traditional blend of this sparkling wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southwestern France was dominated by the local mauzac grape. Today’s blends, often called crémant, are more international, drawing on chardonnay, chenin blanc, and pinot noir.
Party Brut, $21.99, Party Rosé, $25.99, both 750ml, vino.com.
New BBQ Shawarma and Harissa sauces
New York Shuk, the Brooklyn company that has been churning out Middle Eastern-style condiments for the past 10 years, has its outdoor grill on their radar. It has introduced three barbecue sauces, made with chiles, dates, lemon preserves, cilantro, cumin, turmeric and more, that stray from sweet or vinegary tomato concoctions to season ribs, chicken, seafood and vegetables. They are all thick with some texture, and they work as sauces and seasonings for brushing on sizzling foods. The tawny Shawarma glows with warm spices; the mustard-colored Preserved Lemon is appropriately spicy; and the mahogany variety Harissa, while sweet, offers a spicy reaction.
Harissa BBQ Sauce, Preserved Lemon BBQ Sauce, Shawarma BBQ Sauce, $12.95 for 13.5 ounces, nyshuk.com.
“Agave Spirits” by David Suro Piñera and Gary Paul Nabhan is a manifesto. He opposes the Blue Weber agave, or tequilana agave, and the liqueurs made from it. The authors explain how the recent blue agave monoculture, adopted by commercial growers, is agriculturally and culturally unsuitable, environmentally destructive, and ultimately unsustainable. The tequilas made with it, they complain, are mostly industrialized and, if not completely bland, lack the complex character of more traditional agave spirits, particularly mezcal, which can be made with more than 200 varieties of agave. His book offers a lively and compelling journey through much of Mexico, highlighting the history of agave and mezcal in Mesoamerica going back 10,000 years; the value of the versatility, taste, nutrition of the plant; and its place in indigenous culture. They offer a positive spin on the future of mezcal, also arguing that the distillation was used in the region long before the Spanish appeared.
“Agave Spirits: The Past, Present and Future of Mezcals” by David Suro Piñera and Gary Paul Nabhan (WW Norton, $30).
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