Welcome to Secret Breakfast / An exclusive newsletter, the best place to start your day with calorie trays, carrot problems, and wholesome romances

Hi there!

When I asked 23 food talents their predictions on the year 2023 for the Secret Breakfast ebook, no one could foresee this: the floating breakfast tray.

And here it is now, a viral staple of this year’s holidays. The “Infinity Pool” of the morning meals. The perfect selfie-envy generator.

Nor any of us could predict the “gravestone recipes", as recipes inscribed on tombstones by people wanting to leave a trace of their culinary talent.

What a time to be alive.

Piero

PS: not many recipes today, but much reading material.

␥

THE BEST QUOTE

✦ Steve Albini, musician, reminds us that it’s important to be true to ourselves, but it’s also crucial not to be an a**hole.

⎚

THE MISSING INGREDIENT

WE’RE LIVING THE WHOLESOME ROMANCE ERA, THE COMFORT FOOD OF FEELINGS

In this brilliant article, The Alarming Rise of the Wholesome Romance, Judy Berman writes about “a new generation of love story that has conquered pop culture”.

The multiplatform romance (and adjacent) juggernauts of the recent past, from Twilight and The Fault in Our Stars to Fifty Shades of Grey, seduced fans with bloodsucking dreamboats, BDSM billionaires, and terminally ill teens. Now, when we immerse ourselves in a love story, fewer of us seem to seek that frisson of danger. What has become more exotic, and thus more desirable, is comfort, safety, stability.

Now you can launch your post-Pandemic guess, but what I find interesting is what you get when you think about the culinary paradigm of this “wholesome romance”.

Is it a traditional dish? Is it comfort food? Or is it a quick takeout? A dumb supper like a microwaved can of mac’n’cheese? Is it an ancient flavor or a couch potato lazy temptation?

I don’t know. But I agree with Berman when she writes: “that our collective daydreams now seem so healthy and achievable is not necessarily a sign of progress”.

Picture: Red White & Royal Blue, Prime Video

⎅

THE BOOK

The Conscientious Omnivore Playbook

★★★☆☆

Here’s the most important book launch of this Summer. Alicia Kennedy is truly one of the smartest voices in the food world today. Her newsletter is something you shouldn’t miss and her way of writing things down is honest, crystal clear, and somehow progressive (as in “good progressive”). The book has even a shiny blurb by Nigella, nevertheless, I’ve found that a little stretched. Anyway, you can read more about Alicia’s essay here and here. Then place your order and tell me what you think of it. It’s not about being vegan or vegetarian, it’s about the future we’ll be serving on our table for a better world.

No Meat Required by Alicia Kennedy
→ Shortplot: 🍅 🍚 🍋 🥬

❍ OnlyPans
This is where Secret Breakfast picks juicy content from food creators

Ⓡ

RANDOM ACTS OF HUNGER

This is the space where I share some food (un)related stuff of my week

🧊Always keeping popsicles in the freezer is one of the 100 things Mari Andrew knows 🎁Grocery stores are the best travel souvenir shops 🍝How Germany’s Spaghetti Ice Cream Came to Be 🧅Indian Government is Imposing a 40% duty on onion exports 🌶️Didn’t know that Sriracha sauce inspired a Lexus Car 🪛IOT’s next step: Microchips inside Your Parmigiano Reggiano 🗓️Have You Bought Your French Delicacies Advent Calendar, Already? 🏋️Be a Beefcake, Bro. Have a Proper Hotel Gym Workout 🍑 Marian Burros’ Plum Cake is the Best Tart Framework You Can Learn, then use Peaches in the place of Plums (★recipe) 💌Thank you to The Healthy Dose! Many people came here from that awesome newsletter, I’m honored

⌇⌇⌇

FOOD FOR LATER

What Is Lifestyle?
Daisy Alioto / Dirt

This one is about three years old now, but it has a new introduction (start from here), featuring the closing of the Four Seasons, the most famous power dining room in New York. Long read. Fascinating. Take your time with it.

America’s Bee Problem Is an Us Problem
Lex Pryor / The Ringer

Bees directly contribute to a third of America’s food: “apples, peaches, lettuce, squashes, melons, broccoli, cranberries, tree nuts, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, plums, clementines, tangerines, sunflowers, pumpkins, alfalfa for your beef, and guar for your processed foods. Ninety-eight percent of organic vitamin C sources, 70 percent of vitamin A, and 74 percent of lipids; $17 billion worth of crops annually from honeybee pollination alone”.

➤ Last week's most clicked link was the one about the guy who tried to make eight dishes from The Bear. And that's all for today.

• SEASON 3 - ISSUE 147 •
Secret Breakfast is a newsletter
by Piero Macchioni

Think of it as The Morning Brew for food people, or just the most unconventional email you'll get today. In about three years we have shared more than 2,000 recipes, hundreds of books, and countless hours of news, gluttony, and joy. Download our free ebook about food in 2023.

★★★★★
Recommended by
Food&Wine US: Best Food Newsletters to Subscribe To
Gastronomika: The Newsletters Not To Be Missed on Food