Rachel Laudan

After my post on the invention of the tourist luau, Henry Voigt (who has a wonderful collection of menus that was written up in Gastronomica) sent me scans of this luau menu and asked for some background.
The story behind it is so poignant, it has had me gripped all day.  I’m simply going to tell [...]

You’ve probably seen some of the few photos that have filtered out of the private annual congressional White House picnic that took place last Thursday.
Barack Obama invited Alan Wong from Hawaii to prepare a Hawaiian luau, strewing the White House grounds with   straw huts and tiki lamps.
When I saw these photos, a little shiver went [...]

It’s cookbook award time. And the number of stunning cookbooks that are out there is overwhelming: beautifully written, well-tested recipes, and glorious photography.
Yet there are so many lovely books that are never entered, often books of the heart, books that had to be written, whether or not they were attuned to the latest fads and [...]