Anna Mindess

‘ALWAYS ENOUGH FOR EVERYBODY’
A modest bungalow with a spacious kitchen and a glorious garden in a cozy corner of Richmond is home to a food-world celebrity, Kristina Cho. In 2022, when Cho was just 30 years old, she won two prestigious James Beard Awards, one for her cookbook, Mooncakes and Milk Bread, and another as an Emerging Voice in Books. Her second cookbook is coming out this fall...

Mooo-ve over, Mona Lisa, there is another must-see attraction in Paris! Le Musée du Fromage, a museum celebrating the world of French cheeses opened in June 2024. It’s housed in a stately 17th century stone edifice located on the historic Île Saint-Louis. Looking at the sign above the entrance, another word jumps out, “vivant,” which translates as “living,” to emphasize that this is not a dusty old museum full of ancient cheese crumbs, but an exploration of the vibrant world of more than a than a thousand French cheeses...

In all great art, there is a place for classic masterpieces as well as contemporary innovations; this maxim applies perfectly to the Paris hot chocolate scene.
I have been lucky to visit Paris several times, but never in winter. I always wished I could partake in the warming ritual of steaming cups of chocolat chaud. French versions are often made directly from chocolate bars or cocoa beans and as far away from the powdered stuff I grew up on as our packaged bread is from a fresh baguette...

If, like me, you are an amateur de chèvre (goat cheese lover), spring and early summer are the times to head to France to satisfy your cravings with an array of classic and creative chèvres.
My guide for exploring goat cheese was Jennifer Greco (aka chezloulou) a French cheese expert who has lived in France for 21 years, teaches brilliant classes about a wide range of French fromage and is a Cheese Professor contributor. Greco explains what makes a good cheese shop,...

New York City is often referred to as a melting pot, but a closer look reveals a celebration of diversity in people, art, music, and more. One of the joys of New York City is enjoying flavors from a wide array of cultures. You may be thinking of iconic foods like pizza, fried chicken, Peking duck, and sushi, but chocolate also offers the perfect vehicle to impart delectable, culturally rich flavors. Here are five spots to taste some of the finest chocolates, infused with culture: Harlem Chocolate Factory, Stick with Me Sweets, Kee's Chocolates, Noé No Omise, Brigadeiro Brasileiro

Executive Chef Abigail Serbins is responsible for serving three meals a day to 600 diners who hail from 80 countries and live at UC Berkeley’s International House. Her goal is to make every student’s favorite dish from their homeland, like a United Nations culinary ambassador.

A vibrant bouquet of locally grown parsley, mint, dill, and green and purple basil holds a secret: The seeds for these herbs came all the way from Iran. The grower, Sama Mansouri, 26, started farming only last year, brimming with enthusiasm but without much practical experience. The learning curve was steep as she and two partners tilled the soil, laid compost, built an irrigation system, and planted their seeds...

Every Easter, a brood of volunteers in Bessières, a small town in southern France, collects 15,000 eggs — not to dye them pastel colors or even hide them for children to find. Early on Easter Monday morning, they will crack open the prodigious pile, add two pounds of salt, a pound of pepper and a bucket of herbs, then whip it all up in massive pots. Another team, sporting tall chef’s hats, plops a dozen gallons of duck fat into a 13-foot-wide frying pan that weighs more than a ton and, wielding huge wooden paddles, stirs up a humongous omelet...

Sitalbanat Muktari’s life made a turn on a vegan donut.
Born in Utah, Muktari lived for many years with her family in Northern Nigeria, steeped in the local Hausa culture. Sital—as she is known to many of her friends—returned to the United States after graduating high school, and on setting down roots in Richmond, California, she worked at various jobs and studied at various jobs and studied at local colleges throughout the next decade. By 2019, she was feeling ready for an adventure,...

The pale-yellow walls of Haleluya Ethiopian Gourmet in Fremont are festooned with traditional art, woven baskets, and a chart of the Ethiopian alphabet—familiar symbols to diners who may venture here from the Bay Area’s large Ethiopian communities in Oakland and San Jose. But many of the hands busily tearing off pieces of spongy injera to dip into mounds of spicy stews spicy stews are occupied with a less-expected aspect of their convivial gathering: conversation in American Sign Language (ASL).

In the Auvergne region of central France, 80 dormant volcanoes (which last erupted in 4000 BC) left behind a soil rich in phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium, where verdant meadows are now home to an abundance of wildflowers and grasses, and the lucky rust-colored Salers cows who graze there for at least 140 days a year. Their milk, plus skilled cheesemakers, produce one of France’s most popular cheeses, Saint-Nectaire AOP....

It is hard to believe that the shop with an imposing green and gold façade on rue du Faubourg Montmartre has been selling fine chocolates since 1761. À La Mère de Famille started as a family business and has been run for over 250 years by a succession of families. It is now in the very capable hands of four siblings, the Dolfis. Recently we spoke to the youngest sibling, Jonathan Dolfi to learn more about the business...

Last Sunday, Derby Street by the Berkeley Sports Basement was lined with dozens of food trucks dishing out a range of foodstuffs, from corn dogs, funnel cakes and ice cream, to Peruvian ceviche, Nigerian Hausa stew, and Cambodian pineapple shrimp and lok lak (shaking beef). The cordoned-off street was also packed with more than 3,000 attendees who were thrilled that every single dish was vegan...

Eating lunch at The Royal Egyptian Food Truck in Berkeley is like dining with a cherished uncle who can’t wait to share his homemade sausage, the fresh fish he just grilled, his spicy sauces, plus a side of sage advice.

“My joy in life is to feed people,” said Chef Elmy Kader, 71, who grew up in Alexandria, Egypt. “I’ve traveled the world, and the best food is street food. My philosophy is very simple. If I can’t pronounce it, I don’t use it...

When Thien Pham was 5 years old, he, his mother, father and brother made a perilous journey, leaving Vietnam in a rickety boat. The crowded vessel ran out of food and water, but the worst was yet to come as their boat was also beset by pirates. His mother instructed Pham to close his eyes, a harrowing memory that he vividly illustrates in his recently published graphic novel, Family Style. A dozen totally black pages are a visceral depiction of his terror, broken up a few times by his mother’s comforting whisper...