Welcome to the latest edition of Food52 Founder Amanda Hesser’s weekly newsletter, Hey There, It’s Amanda, packed with food, travel, and shopping tips, Food52 doings, and other matters that catch her eye. Get inspired—sign up here for her emails.
I’m in Oslo with my friend and co-founder, Merrill—get ready for some Norway tips coming soon!
Also, a number of you have sent me photos of your kitchen and dining areas so I can share my styling suggestions. I’ll be posting them as I can, in the coming weeks.
• ReWORK We’ve introduced a new hiring program called ReWORK, designed for moms who are looking to get back to their careers and who would like freelance or part-time opportunities. We’ve got options for everything from social media to customer care. Check it out here.
• Nea describes her Swedish Thin Buttery Pancakes as softer, more delicate crepes—they look as light as tissue paper.
• On her show, It’s Fine, Tess makes classic recipes for the first time. This week, she did a deep-cut on French Coq au Vin, which she made with chicken and to my surprise, no haters came out to bash this risky shortcut! Is the internet getting nicer?
• My sister sent me this spring meme. She lives in Colorado, where April can be 80 degrees one day and 30 degrees the next. New York City isn’t much better. So bean stew is still technically in season. Noah, one of our talented and hyper-productive test kitchen cooks, created this Georgian Bean Stew, made with ground nuts, harissa, and whole coriander seeds. It’s served with fried corn cakes. Both recipes are here.
• We re-issued a Dansk serving board in two sizes. Dansk released an army of serving and carving boards back in the day—the teak ones with end-grain centers are the best, in my view. End-grain boards are incredibly sturdy, and the tessellations in the wood gain character with each use.
Printemps, the storied 160-year-old Paris department store, recently opened a location in Manhattan’s financial district. The bar/cafe-to-shopping-space ratio is remarkably high: 5 places to eat and drink in a two-floor store. It made me realize just how much shopping has moved from procurement of goods to social spectatorship. Printemps was designed as much as a place to socialize and gawk than as a place to sell clothing. It sells aspiration and fantasy, and this type of escapism feels just right in this moment.
My first post for Homeward, my new home-design newsletter, went up, and it’s a panorama of the ’70s and ’80s. Read the post and see the photos here. And check out the wildly active Chat here!
Yours, from the fjords,
Amanda
English (US) · 