cooking Archives - Tracie McMillan

Southern Foodways Symposium Lecture:
Jiffy to Maseca

April 1, 2024October 14, 2016

Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium • Oct. 14, 2016 Jiffy corn muffin mix is the second-most sold dry grocery item in the U.S. Maseca is used in more than two-thirds of all corn tortillas in Mexico. Yet the food world tends to sneer at them both. By tracing the origin stories of these two iconic corn mixes, I explore how … Read more

Beyond Banjos: The Bountiful ‘Victuals’ of Appalachia

December 16, 2023August 30, 2016

“The Plate,” National Geographic • Aug. 30, 2016

Sometimes there are cookbooks that you wish had stuck to the recipes. Witness, for example, Thug Kitchen. And then there are books like Victuals, by Ronni Lundy.

Recipes for a Healthy Planet Make Worms and Algae Tasty

December 16, 2023April 22, 2016

“The Plate,” National Geographic • April 22, 2016

Earth Day is a good time to think about what we’re eating and its impact on the planet. While chefs have long played a role in changing our ideas about food, Alice Waters and other sustainable foodies may have some international competition brewing, if Lars Charas has anything to say about it.

The Global Cooking Class That Promotes Diplomacy

December 16, 2023March 30, 2016

“The Plate,” National Geographic • March 30, 2016

When Razi Jafri, an Indian-American from Detroit, saw a Facebook post about a cooking class with an Iranian chef, he knew he wanted in on it. “I love cooking for people and I love looking at different types of cuisine,” he said. Plus, said Jafri, a fellow with micro lender Kiva, he was fascinated by Persian food and diplomacy; he’d followed the Iran nuclear deal closely. This would be perfect.

The catch? It required an application, and if Jafri made the cut, there would be no trip to a formal kitchen. Instead, he’d share a lesson over a Google Hangout with eight or nine others.

Why Thick Flour Tortillas Never Made It Big And Thin Tortillas Did

December 16, 2023August 26, 2015

“The Salt,” National Public Radio • Aug. 26, 2015

Janet Stein Romero of El Ancon, New Mexico, shapes the dough before rolling out flour tortillas. (Tracie McMillan for NPR)

About 16 years ago, I lost my hungry heart to a flour tortilla. I was in the small town of Las Vegas N.M., at Charlie’s Spic & Span Café, when a server placed a basket on the table. Inside was a stack of thick, charmingly floppy tortillas, dotted with browned bubbles and closer in thickness to pancakes than the wan, flaccid discs I was used to at the supermarket. My Brooklyn-by-way-of-Michigan palate was infatuated: What magic was this? How could I not have known that tortillas like these existed?

Food Fetish

December 16, 2023May 1, 2015

OnEarth • May 1, 2015

Last summer I asked Tamar Adler—the only professionally trained chef I know well enough to invite over to my house—to come help me clean out my fridge. I had reached a point where my kitchen was full of decrepit leftovers and castaways. I described the project as “sort of like Iron Chef, but broke.”

Check out nation’s best cookbooks

April 1, 2024March 27, 2013

GoErie.com • March 27, 2013

Awards season is in full bloom in the food world, which means it is time for the International Association of Culinary Professionals to announce the finalists for this year’s cookbook awards, based on new books from 2012.

Thanks for the shout-out! @BostonGlobe On the family menu: What’s familiar

April 1, 2024January 30, 2013

The Boston Globe • Jan. 29, 2013

For Americans, particularly in the cold months, dinnertime mostly means home and hearth. It also means convenience and comfort.

In 2013 we are making family dinner more often than we dine out, a trend that took root before the recession. Mostly, we’re cooking with and eating a narrow range of foods — and relying, to some extent, on prepared, frozen, and canned items to feed our families quickly and economically. “It’s very boring. That’s the sad truth,” says Harry Balzer, chief food industry analyst for the NPD Group, a national market research company. “For the most part, we’re looking for what’s the easiest way out of this, what’s the cheapest way out of this.”

Flattered, humbled at the company @WholeLiving put me in as a Food Visionary @MarcusCooks @DanBarber @MikeBloomberg etc.

April 1, 2024October 15, 2012

I”m still getting used to seeing portraits of myself, but I can’t complain about the roster of talent that Martha Stewart Whole Living put me in line with in their November issue’s Food Visionary List: Dan Barber Wendell Berry Michael Bloomberg Jeff Bridges BrightFarms FoodCorps Maisie Greenawalt Will Harris Wes Jackson Abeni Massey Jim McGovern … Read more

Cooking Isn’t Fun

December 16, 2023August 27, 2012

Included in 2013 “Best Food Writing” anthology

Slate • Aug. 27, 2012

It took me until I was 33 to start cooking dinner.

Don’t get me wrong—I was no stranger to the kitchen. I had prepared laborious, extravagant meals before, often using exotic ingredients I’d learned about in magazines.