Ann Limpert, food and wine editor
• Matt Selman, executive producer of The Simpsons, talks to LA Weekly about this weekend’s much-hyped episode “The Food Wife.” In it, Marge and the kids take up food blogging (obviously, “Homer thinks being a foodie is lame”). The whole thing sounds packed with insider-y allusions and cameos—keep your eye out for the José Andrés/Ferran Adrià–inspired character. Q&A With Simpsons Exec Producer Matt Selman: The Food Wife, Food Blogging + Dining at Jitlada With Matt Groening.
• Eater scours the countless Thanksgiving-themed food magazines out on stands—and piled up on my desk— and bestows some awards, such as Poorest Choice of Words in a Recipe Name (Cooking With Paula Deen’s cherry-pineapple congealed salad) and Pie Porn of the Year (Martha Stewart Living’s pumpkin meringue pie). Turkey Totality: Eater’s 2011 Thanksgiving Magazine Smackdown Spectacular.
• Words of wisdom for budding sommeliers. (“A sommelier is still a busser. Or should be.”) What I Should Have Known in the Beginning, and Wish I Could Always Remember Now.
Jessica Voelker, online dining editor
• Here’s a good life rule: Don’t compare people to murderous dictators. They tend to freak out and stop eating at your restaurants. After Chef’s Hitler Remark, Bankers Change Lunch Plans.
• On Esquire’s Eat Like a Man blog (it’s okay to read it if you’re a lady), beer writer Evan S. Benn suggests three nonboring brew books. Oxford Companion to Beer, I must have you. The New Beer Bibles a Man Should Read.
• “It has become a street-food world,” proclaims Jonathan Gold in his 2011 feature on essential Angelino restaurants. His writing is so evocative and appetizing, I almost want to move to LA. Almost. Jonathan Gold’s 99 Essential L.A. Restaurants 2011.
Sophie Gilbert, associate arts editor:
• This is totally how everyone should do dishes. Awesome Kid Caught Doing Dishes While Dancing To “Smooth Criminal.” (VIDEO)
• Until I learn not to spill, drop things, or splatter while cooking, I will keep my iPhone/iPad as far away from the kitchen as possible. So hopefully the answer to the question posed in this New York Times story is “No.” Are Cookbooks Obsolete?
• Hard to believe, but eating roadkill is apparently trending right now. Roadkill Roundup: How Americans Eat What They Hit.
• And the Post’s Jane Black talks to the Sweetgreen founders about how to keep things local and sustainable when your stores require 30,000 pounds of lettuce a month. Sweetgreen, growing yet committed to local sourcing.
Anna Spiegel, assistant food and wine editor:
• Ruth Reichl, former Gourmet editor and food writer extraordinaire, tells New York magazine that she enjoys raw scallops for breakfast and self-medicates with Pappy Van Winkle bourbon. Ruth Reichl Has a Recurring Nightmare About Becoming a Bag Lady.
• McSweeney’s has an entertaining chronicle of recently released edibles tested by various writers. Wonder what Pringles Xtreme Screamin’ Dill Pickle chips taste like? Here you go. Reviews of New Food: The Ninth Batch 2011.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
