Ella Quittner

Me on the yassified MRE! Soylent 2.0! Etc. Does this little callout on A1 count as A1???? For @nytimes with @tanyasic 😘

13,550 miles flown and trawled by problematic rental car, from the Alabama black belt to a lesson in kneading udon dough in a hip hop-themed restaurant in Osaka. Ramen festivals, soufflé pancakes across Tokyo, meatball school on various hilltops in Rome, prosciutto slicing competitions in the Langhriano Valley (not as windy as it sounds in August), learning to perfect fresh pasta in Modena, interrogating the American dream at the Texas state fair, 36 hours spent eating through the last surviving Las Vegas buffets. Hundreds of batches of brown butter cookie dough to find the three most precisely delicious recipes, thousands of strands of fresh pasta rolled on my countertop, more latkes than my doctor would like me to disclose… I can’t wait to share this book with you. It’s all about obsession with being the best. Pre-order available now! Plus some BTS from the reporting and shoot ^^^ Also can’t believe my scrambled brain forgot to say this in the first post but: Stunnnnnnnning cover by @chriscristiano With the photos of my dreams by @nikoleherriott @graydonpictures Styling by @heysueli Set design by @kalen_k_ And much much more from @tmckiernan @cakes4sport and many others!!!! Made possible by @cassiejonesmorgan @a.seddy @harpercollins @williammorrowbooks @wmebooks @nicole__braun

For my final act of the year, I joined a cult to see if I would like it.

Jacques Pépin didn’t mean to make me cry. My latest profile for @nymag , c/o @alansytsma , out now and discoverable via @grubstreet !!!! Scroll for wishbone evidence, plus receipts for my tears (not a Smokey Robinson song somehow).

What is it about cookbooks that lend themselves so fluidly to self-reflection and experimentation alike? In the latest installment of her column, Word on the Street, Books Editor @emmelc investigates the resurgence of the narrative cookbook, whose inquisitive spirit, she posits, “might provide a portal for physical connection in an Ozempic-saturated, exsanguinated era.” Clein sits down with two recently published authors who are pushing the form forward in new ways, Ella Quittner and Tanya Bush, to talk taste tests, virality, finding pockets of intimacy under late capitalism, frictionmaxxing, and more. Link in bio to read their conversations.

OBSESSED WITH THE BEST, out now! Get a copy today and reap dividends (delicious soup).

The word “perfectionist” comes up in most any conversation with @chefgabrielkreuther ’s staff, but they don’t mean it *like that.* It isn’t a euphemism for screaming at people in walk-in freezers. Kreuther is a gentle guy. A nice, regular guy. In an industry that has mythologized the tyrant, Kreuther has instead developed a reputation for decency. He mentors young chefs and “he’s real and down to earth,” says Evan Douros, his business partner. “Every time he wins an award, he goes back to the kitchen.” That head-down mentality may be why, when compared to his peers’, his profile seems surprisingly low. He also belongs to a generation of chefs who came up behind the titans of late-’90s haute stardom: Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the last of whom Kreuther once worked for. This week he’s opening @savernenyc , his first new restaurant in more than a decade, and spoke with @equittner about his childhood in Alsace, his career, and the philosophy behind the brasserie. Photo: @francescosapienza

“I have many character flaws,” writes @equittner . “But according to my brother-in-law Ray, the gravest among them is my devotion to ‘filler.’” It’s a term that Ray and his fellow buffet aficionados use to describe the lower-cost items on offer within the Americana bacchanalia that is all-you-can-eat dining in Las Vegas, Nevada. The chafing dishes of overcooked elbow noodles with melted Velveeta and Gruyère are filler, the great heaps of mashed potatoes are filler, and the contents of the ever-puffing rice cooker, sweating in the corner next to the delicate steam baskets of shumai, are filler. Quittner was not totally unfamiliar with buffets, of course, but this was her first time in “the big leagues.” This sprawling set piece of culture that was — with its infinite options, with its lack of even a performative hint at community, with its actual historic roots from another place, and importantly, filled as it was with individuals hot on the pursuit of the absolute best value — very American. At the link in our bio, read more from Quittner on the sport and decadence of the Las Vegas buffet. Photo: Bridget Bennett/The New York Times/Redux

OBSESSED WITH THE BEST x @lappartement4f !!!! Tomorrow only, starting at 10 am, at both locations, Gautier turned my Strawberries Three Ways cake into a croissant!!!!! I’ll be at the Brooklyn location signing books around 10 :) Base is Gautier’s croissant glazed in berry soak Topped with my macerated strawberry raspberry lemon jam and my mascarpone whipped cream With a glazed @oishii.berry on top!!

For Valentine’s Day, I went on dinner dates with four NY-based singles, each of whom used the word “vibe” more readily than the last. Field notes from dystopia avail now if you dare @nytimes (via @tanyasic )

Forgot to post this last week but you guys certainly did not forget to comment on it.

Caught enjoying hot pot >>>>>> Yes that’s steam fogging up my glasses. Proud to share a publishing season with Natasha! If you don’t yet have @natashapickowicz ’ book EVERYONE HOT POT, why???????? And HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!