Eater has been doing a pretty cool "Best New Restaurants in America" list of late, and since I found myself with a car and no real...

Once I'd dropped off my friend's new Bernedoodle puppy in Boston and enjoyed some culinary offerings in one of my favorite cities in the...

I'm on the cusp of bidding "adieu" to Charlotte for good but have many fond memories of the Queen City, particularly its many green...

Y'all already know the Maestro's first item on his to-do list when visiting Los Angeles––eat sushi. Because of LA's proximity to the...

Many restaurants made dramatic changes to their operations as a consequence of the pandemic. Lord Stanley, a one-Michelin-starred...

A little curveball today celebrating Spring Break Round 2 visits to two spots producing some of the best pizza in the country––one from...

Oooo kiddos––it's been a busy time in the Maestro's life, and I have a backlog of blogs that resembles a California freeway at 4pm. So...

If I'm in LA, I'm in the best sushi city in the United States. And that means I am almost certainly seeking out a new omakase to sample....

It was a frigid evening and I was about three cocktails deep when a well-agorithmed article found its way to my feed––"SingleThread...

Provisions reliably serves some of the best food in Salt Lake City. When Lugano, the previous occupant of the space, closed some ten or...

Perhaps it was the sense of impending doom resulting from waking up every day in this pandemic, now again in a terrible phase, that...

I am woefully behind on blog posts owing to the end of the semester at Davidson and the ensuing whirlwind travel schedule. I know both of...

Years before I came to understand what fine dining really meant––or rather, what it really could mean––my attraction to the best...

It was wonderful to be back in London, the site of a brisk 36-hour layover en route to meet my sister's probably-future in-laws in...

I can't stay away from omakase meals in New York City. My last NYC omakase at Nakazawa just reinforced what I already knew––an excellent...

I am bad at making reservations. I tend to wait to book trips until only a few weeks before, and at that point it's too late to get the...

Charlotte is a budding food city, and a particularly good locale for many varieties of Asian cuisine. The notable exception is...

I am having a passionate love affair with Sichuan cuisine these days. This started with my exploration of one of the most classic Sichuan...

When I was first preparing to move to Charlotte, I heard all around that South End was the happening-est neighborhood in town. When I...

There are some restaurants that are just too precious, wonderful, and important than can be believed––institutions of food that quietly...

Certain areas of Charlotte experienced a mass migration of rural Appalachian and Carolina Piedmont populations, as well as formerly...

It's hard to pinpoint a seminal dining experience that made me into the insatiable food lover that I am today, but the closest thing I...

I've always been a staunch defender of northern California's food scene over New York City's, mostly because that's where I learned to...

Sushi omakase meals are a dime a dozen in New York City (or, perhaps more accurately, three grand a dozen). The super-high-end sushi...

The Maine coast has approximately 24,398,423,876,323,907 restaurants serving lobster. This is the land of “lobstah,” especially this time...

Boston is one of those cities I feel bad that I haven't spent more time visiting. I finally got up to Boston to see a dear friend's...

I must admit that I have been pretty bad about exploring my new city and environs and seeing what's on offer. When I had dinner with a...

I hadn't been back to Chicago since my last (brief) visit mid-summer of 2020, when almost everything was shuttered, but my sister and I...

Back in the era of big name European celebrity chefs establishing outpost restaurants, in the heyday of places like the Bellagio, when...

Both regular readers of my blog know that I adore José Andrés, the Spanish celebrity chef who is also the founder of World Central...

When I lived in Los Angeles, I used to visit Mélisse, one of West LA's most storied fine dining destinations, with some regularity, since...

Los Angeles is probably the best sushi city in the United States. New Yorkers may @ me, but much of the better sushi in NYC, while world...

Back when I was starting to realize I wouldn't get a teaching job for Fall 2019, fresh out of my doctorate and settled in Mom's guest...

Stone Barns is starting to feel like a bit of a home. The people, the ethos, and the amazing food––everything about it makes me so joyful...

When I posted my first food photos from Lima to my Instagram story, a friend of mine who is a fellow lover of food and works in the...

Instagram has figured out that most of my life is food/wine, airplanes, music, and cute guys. The algorithms are precise, y'all! Though,...

So I think I might have had COVID at the tail end of my trip to Peru. I am vaccinated. I tested negative. I had a nagging, mild cough and...

North Carolina is the land of beer. I have five breweries within a five minute walk of my apartment. Charlotte has dozens in its city...

Our weeklong visit to Lima was to culminate in two blockbuster meals at the two places seen as the very best restaurants in the city, two...

Lima, Peru, a vibrant city of nearly ten million people, has earned a reputation as one of the culinary epicenters of the Americas, if...

Miami, Miami, you've got style! And killer food! Deep in the Design District of the Magic City is an outpost of Michelin-starred Korean...

Seattle is one of the best food cities in the US, if not the world! The combination of the incredible local seafood and west coast...

If I told you the best margarita I'd ever had was at a restaurant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, you would certainly accuse me of at least some...

"What do Americans eat when they eat out for dinner? That’s the question that inspired us as we designed Season Two of Chef in Residence....

Cobble Hill was the restaurant that started my blogging journey. I'll never forget when I found Cobble Hill. Mom moved to Cedar Rapids...

When I was a budding foodie, I often turned to the Michelin Guide to figure out where to dine whenever I traveled hither or thither. It...

It's hard for me to believe I have been blogging for a couple years and have not written up the restaurant that is probably the one place...

"Different cultures inspire me. Colors inspire me. Travel inspires me. That’s what really excited me when I left Chile the first time at...

I was thrilled to be coming back to San Francisco for my first time in over two years as a little celebration after completing my first...

“At the other places I worked, it was always about the outcome . . . The ingredients were less the focus than the idea. Here, the...