All of which goes a long way toward explaining why Redzepi has said that the fine dining model at Noma is “unsustainable.” If that system is on the cusp of change, and if the Noma announcement nudges that change forward, that’s all for the better. As far back as 2014, in fact, Redzepi has been talking about trying to change himself and find a remedy for the toxicity of kitchen culture. “The future is not any more of that screaming,” he told chef Danny Bowien in Mexico that year as I traveled along with them. “I used to be so angry in the kitchen. Insanely angry. A monster. I made a decision: ‘What the fuck am I doing?’” As we’ve seen in episodes of The Bear, long hours and low pay and cramped quarters and menial tasks and fraying tempers do not foster esprit de corps. Even when there happens to be a sauna on the property.
At Kunyah Cafe, weighing scales can speak, light switches are paired with dimmers, and its chefs are more afraid of prejudice than sharp knives.
And the signature sandwiches — filled with crispy breaded chicken thigh, tempeh, otah or shrimp cake — were creations of two visually impaired chefs.
Although Kois now lives in Northern Virginia, his recollections of 1990s Manhattan tell us that he was too. “Vintage Contemporaries” is crammed a bit too full of plot, not unlike the cramped city it documents. Fortunately, it’s also overstuffed with bittersweet beauty, not unlike the vintage contemporaries of Laurie Colwin.
In “Masters of the Lost Land,” Heriberto Araujo set out to document this ongoing conflict in one bloody corner of Brazil’s wild north. A Spanish journalist who relocated to Brazil from China in 2013, Araujo was quickly swept up in the region’s biggest story: the destruction of the rainforest and the role it plays in accelerating global warming. Intrigued by the human drama behind the catastrophe, he decided, he writes, “to capture, in a single narrative, the factors that have made the largest rainforest on Earth the world’s most dangerous place for environmental and land activists.” The result is an often gripping, sometimes unwieldy narrative that spans five decades and follows the lives of a large cast of characters, from labor leaders to low-level hit men, from criminal bosses to the government officials who abet them.
While Miller’s critical reputation rose and fell throughout his lifetime, Lahr’s perceptive book makes a strong case for the enduring relevance of the playwright as well.
Do NOT stick your broccoli
all up in my cheese sauce.
If you are going to push
my buttons, have the decency