Kayla Stewart

Spring 🌷 Driving a lot, thinking, necessary, built up yapping-turned-to-writing again, cleaning (home and thoughts), death and birth, searching for peace, hoping the next generations have it better, wonderful friends, festivals, etc…

First Mardi Gras, 2026. Somehow better than anything I’ve ever imagined, paired with a magnificent realization that I’ve found home. Happy Mardi Gras, folks! 🪅

King cakes of New Orleans!   🎺 Coveted @lagniappebakehouse king cake (this year’s flavors so far include sweet potato, and chocolate and pecan, to the joy of all of New Orleans) 🎺 Praline king cake from @bywaterbakerynola 🎺 King cake cheesecake from @the_batterina (been eyeing this bad boy for years the race is not to swift etc…, etc…, ) 🎺 Nocca’s (@nocca.nola ) Goddess king cake, complete with fig, goat cheese, orange, thyme, and walnuts (shout out to these talented, hard-working high school culinary students for delivering a KILLER cake. This was excellent!) 🎺 Pandan and ube king cake from @mrbubblesnola 🎺 Rose queen cake from @lavieenrosecafenola 🎺 The Big Book of King Cake from the excellent @matthaineswrites . A favorite to return to during this season (plus have loved Matt’s many king cake education events around town this season)  🎺 Fig king cake, also from @smokesmokehoneyhoney 🎺 King cake workout for management of mass king cake cake consumption 🎺 Big Boy’s ooey gooey king cake

This is a monumental moment …not just because I’m writing my first cookbook, but because of what this book represents. This project is more than food. It’s about preserving our families’ history, honoring the stories that shaped us, and celebrating the diversity and cultural heritage shown across the incredible city we come from. “NEW ORLEANIAN: CREOLE RECIPES FROM A NATIVE SON OF THE CRESCENT CITY” is one of the biggest accomplishments of my career, and it’s important to me to share this moment with the people I love. I’m incredibly grateful to work with the brilliant @kayla_s_stewart in bringing these stories to life, and to my agent @andriannadelone at @creativeartistsagency and the team at @abramsbooks for believing in this vision. You’re all a part of this story, because without the love and support of my family, friends, and community, there could never be a Chef Dom.

Senior editor Kayla Stewart (@kayla_s_stewart ) takes us behind-the-scenes at Olivieri (@olivieri1882 ), a legendary panettone producer in Veneto, Italy, that’s been making the light and sweet bread since 1882, and continues to *rise* to the occasion every holiday season.

My last feature of the year is also a first. In Dakar, I stepped away from food for a bit and wrote about the city’s mesmerizing and thriving art scene, out in this month’s issue of @travelandleisure ! I placed this story years ago, and my grandmother — my only living grandparent during my life — passed away the week I was supposed to be in Senegal reporting. A slog of misery followed: trusted agreements broken, major payments late or non-existent, deadlines a constantly moving nightmare, bright-eyed views of the industry and its claims to be ready to properly and fairly treat Black and Brown writers dissolved, and basically about two years of “functional” chaos. With the edits and graciousness of @liz_theduke , this piece still came to life, as did other meaningful work during this period thanks. And we are indeed still out here. And we always will be. (My grandmother would’ve accepted no less) Among the many things I’ve internalized over years of reporting on Black diasporic culture is our resilience. It’s a double-edged sword — I hope the future provides a world where we don’t have to constantly overcome, constantly convince, constantly pull ourselves out of the holes others put us in to protect their greed and their selfishness. In this moment, I’m so proud and moved by the ways in which we’ve shaped the creative world, even when often lacking resources, and institutional respect and support. The artists, museums, and galleries featured in this piece highlight a capital city seeped in expansion and honesty, illustrated in the most magnetic, beautiful, and liberating ways. I cannot thank @cherifmbodji enough for taking me beyond the surface of his home, and helping me to bring a deeper narrative to life. And huge thank you to @ricci_s for capturing this all so beautifully. I hope you enjoy the story and the work of these talented African artists, and I hope you’re celebrating the wins of the year, being gentle with the challenges you struggled through, and gearing up for a year of beauty. It does, very much, still exist. Dakar says so. 🇸🇳

A non-exhaustive list of 10 stellar restaurant dishes in 2025: - Slices, including the Sinful Trinity, @prettyboy.pizza in Portland, OR - Poutine fries with a root beer milkshake @duckfatmaine in Portland, ME - Lengua and pastor tacos @taqueriafrontera in LA - Pepperpot @canjeatx in Austin, TX (the boar, y’all. The boar.) - Lamb tagine with prunes, almonds, and boiled egg at Restaurante Árabe Sultán in Granada, Spain - Sweet potato breakfast sandwich with ham @lagniappebakehouse in New Orleans - Cinnamon and coconut dusted plantain @chukusldn in London - Macaroni and comté from @larretparis in Paris - Bad honey bunny @mercadosinnombre in Austin, TX - Ricotta toast with satsuma from @cafe_malou New Orleans In a year when a lot of things didn’t make sense, the value of great food was exceedingly clear. Cheers to a year of good eating, and may your holiday dining, wherever you are in the world, be merry and bright!🎄

Some personal news: a few months ago, I moved to New Orleans! During years of visiting with loved ones and convincing editors to send me down for stories, I fell wholly, entirely in love with the place, and decided made the jump. Folks have been asking me why I moved, and the only word I can use to describe my decision is “romance.” In the traditional sense, sure, but equally in the sense of writing and craft. Jobs aren’t and shouldn’t be everything, but increasingly (and frankly, always), writing isn’t solely a job; it’s how I communicate and is part of my way of being. It’s also what has saved our world time and time again, and it’s a virtue and practice I fully believe in. I wanted to nurture that part of myself in a city that feeds me — inspirationally, culinarily, and personally, too. I have hesitated on sharing because I’ve been moving around the world at a rapid and often unpredictable pace, waiting for the perfect moment when I was home for an extended amount of time. However, the routine of travel is not longer occasional, but rather a core and required part of my life, and I’m finally starting to both accept that, and figure out how to make it all work. I may be bouncing across the country and sometimes the world pretty often, but New Orleans is home. I live a nomadic life, and nowhere am I happier to catch my breath and resettle into my routine than in this beautiful city. Building community in this very special place is extremely important to me, so please do let me know of all the things! Where to see musicals! Favorite spots for jazz! Queer spaces and events! Book clubs! Film and art festivals! What’s special about *your* favorite bowl of gumbo! I’m ready to rebuild home. 🦐

During this calendar year, I’ve scuttled across busy streets in Nashville to obtain fried fish, driven to Gulfport, MS, in search of housemade pasta, and spent time in both Portlands devouring sausage rolls and bison sliders. It was all, in addition to other travel journeys taken across the U.S. by myself and other @eater editors and writers, in search of America’s best restaurants. Among plates of pomegranate-glazed ribs, outdoor pizza joints, and expansive fine dining, we found chefs and restaurants reinterpreting traditional cuisine, advancing underrepresented gastronomic narratives, and always — always — putting excellent food first. Following a year of back-to-back flights, early morning train rides, guest houses, curious hotels, and a whole lot of dining out in just about every form of restaurant imaginable, I am so proud to, with my great team at Eater, present this year’s 15 Best New Restaurants in America. This list is packed with equal parts flavor and gumption: we’ve got a restaurant in the Midwest boasting tangra chile pork and Dungeness crab milagu from Kolkata; there’s exceptional, and financially accessible, West African customizable rice bowls in Houston and showstopping rotisserie chicken in Arizona; and in Portland, Maine, we’ve got warm tomato pies against the backdrop of jazz and folk tunes — a winning dining combo sure to up the mood of any day. And there’s so much more! Congratulations to each and every one of the winners, who stood out in an impressive and competitive field of great contenders. And in a year like 2025, thank you to all of the chefs, bars, bakeries, restaurants, and spots in between that give our society a sense of home and community through taste, and remind us of this nation’s enduring excellence through each and every bite.

Florence and Venice and books and music and art and snow-capped mountains and finally getting to show my sister one of my favorite cities on earth, and pasta — just, so much pasta. I am thankful.

My sister flew across the Atlantic, listened to Blackbird and BLACKBIIRD on the way to Abbey Road, Europe is magnificent, tea time kinda eats, etc…, etc… Snippets from London and Paris!

Miserable year, magical month. October memories from Sicily, Rome, Veneto, Madrid, Andalusia, Lisbon, and of course, Houston. ✨