Table of contents for May 2025 in Bon Appetit

The camera eats first. Before my fork touches a plate, I always pause to photograph the artistry of a chef ’s plating, zooming in for a flush of microgreens or delicately tweezed flower petals. I snap photos of bowls of fries and bottles of wine before I return them to the center of the table. I’m in the line taking pictures of the flames hitting the bottom of a wok when I order fried rice. The DSLR in my kitchen clicks every few seconds, capturing the entire process as I make tea cakes and lemon tarts. Those images live in my camera roll and occasionally make it onto a social media feed, a photographic record of everything I’ve cooked, poured, or tasted. Whether it’s a video for the ’gram, or…

Our tastes are influenced by what we see. Close your eyes and think about the perfect croissant, burnished and golden brown. A juicy tomato, ready-to-eat, vibrantly red and practically screaming, “I’m ripe!” For those of us who can see, color is one of the most powerful influences that shape our perception of food, and in turn, how it tastes. From socialization to physiology, our relationship with food is partly governed by color, whether or not we are aware of it. The dark claret of blood is so crucial to our perception of red meat that when Impossible Burger hit shelves, the company touted its embrace of the ingredient heme to convince people of its parity with ground beef. There is even research that shows that color-blind men may be less…

PHILADELPHIA The Fitler Club. This private club, bar, and restaurant is known for its extensive art collection, artist residency, and community programming. The menu includes a rotating cast of pizzas and salads you can eat near an Untitled Anxious Audience by Rashid Johnson. LIMA, PERU Knotted sculptures called khipu adorn Central, the No. 1 ranked restaurant on the World’s 50 Best list in 2023. Artist-in-residence Alejandra Ortiz de Zevallos works with Inca communities practicing this ancient weaving technique, made with Andean grass. NEW YORK Frevo, a 24-seat contemporary restaurant with a Michelin star hidden behind the artwork of a small gallery. Portuguese owner Bernardo Silva and Brazilian chef Franco Sampogna collaborate with contemporary artists who inspire the 10-course tasting menu.…

The thing about an opulent clutch designed to resemble an heirloom tomato and an actual heirloom tomato is that both are objects of beauty. Resplendent in their forms, weighty in the hand (as things of quality often are), and even more mesmerizing when opened. This creation from Spanish luxury fashion house Loewe is exemplary of former creative director Jonathan Anderson’s penchant for infusing sophistication and whimsy into the brand’s designs. The mythology of this bag belongs to a tangled provenance only possible in the age of social media: Did it begin with a meme? Or did a meme perfectly align with the fashion house’s plans? When an image of a real, unblemished heirloom tomato with pronounced lobes and an opaque red hue was shared widely within the art and fashion…

In November 2024 I took a trip to coastal Basque Country with four of my closest friends. We’d met in New York more than a decade prior, weathering the late aughts with the reckless abandon only youth reasonably affords. Between the dance parties, bar crawls, and drunken high jinks, we’d indulged—beyond the means of our stomachs or wallets—in countless memorable meals: the 11-pound porchetta encrusted in rosemary crackling; 2 a.m. pillowy pierogies at Veselka; Christmas puddings ablaze in a brandy glaze. Our rowdier proclivities had now mostly subsided. Instead, life’s uncertainties, which once held untold possibilities, often left us shuddering with existential dread. They’d scattered to London, while I’d moved through five cities, chasing a “career in writing,” wherever those opportunities took me, from Oklahoma to South Carolina. Then, at…

As we step into the elevator of an Addis Ababa skyscraper en route to Marcus Samuelsson’s restaurant on top of the tallest building in East Africa, he’s reminded of a moment from a year earlier when the most personal project of his career opened to the world. Samuelsson’s relatives traveled from their remote village for the christening of Marcus Addis. But there was a hurdle: the elevator. The children among them were thrilled, even if they didn’t know what to expect stepping into a machine that cruises up 46 flights, opening to panoramic views that sprawl to the distant mountains of Ethiopia. “They were like, ‘Oh, we love it.’ But the older generation, they’ve never been in an elevator,” he said. “Going vertical is really something different.” It’s early January,…

It’s common to hear hungry Parisians ask, “On se fait un kebab?” How about a kebab? The iconic street food is served at hundreds of shops across the city and is prized for its reliable late-night availability. Paris’s kebab offerings encompass a swath of styles that reflect the city’s history of migration. Today Parisian life is fueled by endless combinations of firegrilled meat, crisp vegetables, and bright sauce folded into pliable bread. The word kebap or kebab, per its Turkish and Arabic origins, describes the dish and the means of preparing it—historically by grilling lamb or mutton with vegetables. The first kebabs reached Paris after World War II in the form of gyros brought by Anatolian Greeks who settled in the Latin Quarter south of the Seine. It wasn’t until…

Grab a stool and pull up to the counter. You’ll notice the latest haul of colorful produce from the farmers market before spotting the rippled beige backsplash and sleek silver appliances, and that’s the point. Borrowing from the inviting transparency of an open kitchen at one of his four restaurants—Kembara and Tía Carmen in Phoenix and Carmocha and Tía Carmen in Indian Wells, California—Angelo Sosa’s home kitchen was built with communal cooking and gathering in mind. The calming, earthy layout follows Sosa’s design ethos: A practical kitchen is a beautiful kitchen. That means an oven with a large capacity but a small footprint, a fridge with a glass panel to show what’s on hand for dinner, and intentionally spaced outlets to make the most of every countertop. Whether you’re in…

BIZZY IZZY HIGHBALL In 1917 legendary bartender Tom Bullock published an industry-defining cocktail recipe book, The Ideal Bartender, which embraced fresh fruit juices and complex flavors. Released just three years before Prohibition put a damper on America’s rollicking cocktail culture, Bullock’s tome was also the first known cocktail book published by an African American author. His recipes and techniques would go on to inspire and inform much of the experimental and wildly creative 2000s craft cocktail renaissance. One such drink is the Bizzy Izzy Highball, which languished in relative obscurity for decades. If there was ever a season to break out this fizzy, easy-drinking summery cocktail, it’s now. Peppery, punchy rye is smoothed out by nutty Amontillado sherry and sweetened with pineapple juice and simple syrup—a modern departure from Bullock’s…