Make-ahead Breakfast and Spaghetti for a Tyrant 🍝
Welcome to Secret Breakfast / The best place to start pouring brown butter into your Bibimbap, while baking Scottish morning rolls and Shrek-dating
Hi there!
This week you will find few recipes (but ones to save forever) and two very intense (even if a bit somber) long reads.
It happened a bit by chance, but sometimes chance encounters are a good thing, aren't they?
Piero
✹Emily Henry, People We Meet on Vacation, is somehow on the New York Times Best Sellers list again.
Cooking for the (good-looking) Tyrant
Last weekend I started watching Bon Appétit, Your Majesty.
This Korean historical drama follows a modern-day chef who unexpectedly travels back in time and becomes the royal cook during the Joseon Dynasty (real history here).
In each exceptionally long episode, the protagonist (the lovely Im Yoon-ah) must solve a difficult situation or save her life by cooking something for the problematic, capricious, and fascinating sovereign (actor Lee Chae-min: his lips are probably the most beautiful part of the show).
In the early episodes, we've seen her:
- make an improvised gochujang Bibimbap (★recipe, vegan) with brown butter;
- create monosodium glutamate (aka MSG) effect using fried shrimps and dried mushrooms;
- tenderize tough meat through sous vide technique (hand-measuring the temperature of water!);
- pull pasta to make Italian spaghetti with Korean sauce;
- slip clams into a spinach broth to make it more invigorating for an old lady with a sour attitude.
In short, it's going to be really hard to stop this binge-watching.
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And now, if you love things of political power and food, enjoy this old video of
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping making pancakes, years ago in Vladivostok.
🍫Billie Eilish's Vegan Dubai Chocolate Dessert (★recipe) 🍌Somebody Give John Cena a Banoffee Pie (★recipe) 🍅Tomato Protein Soup Will Be a Staple of the Coming Weeks (★recipe) 🍳 18 High-Protein, Make-Ahead Breakfasts That Will Keep You Going Until Lunch(★recipes) 🍽️Food & Wine named Diane’s Place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the 2025 Restaurant of the Year 🧌 What Is the “Shrekking” Dating Trend?
Ghost Kitchens
Nikesh Shukla / Vittles
In this touching memoir, the author takes us on a poignant journey through London's eateries, each a time capsule of their friendship with a loved one who has passed away. From a humble kebab shop to a shisha lounge, every shared meal tells a deeper story—of laughter, vulnerability, and unwavering support. The narrative reaches a heartbreaking climax when the author, after months of avoidance, finally returns to the last spot they saw their friend, only to discover that this final, cherished memory has been erased by the city's relentless change.
Life and death at Balthazar
Amelia Granger / Dirt
An eighteen-year-old girl working as a hostess at the celebrity-filled New York City restaurant Balthazar navigates the constant humiliations and objectification of her job. She feels like a replaceable part of a grander machine, her self-worth tied to being a "pretty-enough face" for the owner and management. This feeling of being an object rather than a person is tragically underscored when a homicide detective visits the restaurant, revealing that a woman was murdered on a night the hostess had felt a sense of "consequence-less, total freedom."
