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Your happy place

We spent more time in the kitchen this past year than we have in decades. And yes, it's getting a bit b-o-r-i-n-g.

It's time to rediscover your happy place with appliances that can bring some joy back to cooking—and help you flex those culinary muscles with an eye toward fun.

Clockwise from top left: Ferment to your heart's content; "sous vide" that steak; grow some herbage; and make all the tortillas.

Photographer: Ted + Chelsea Cavanaugh for Bloomberg Businessweek

Want a restaurant-quality steak? Try dry-aging beef.

Meat coolers such as Steak Locker's Smart Dry Aging refrigerators are becoming widely available. The $1,500 unit is like a supersized wine fridge and produces tender, flavorful rib-eyes and T-bones thanks to smart sensors that monitor the humidity and aging time.

A charcoal filter in the dry-aging fridge from Steak Locker neutralizes funky smells.Source:

Steak Locker

Bored with bread-baking?

Join the boom in homemade tortillas. Verve Culture's colorful and handsome, utilitarian presses are made in Mexico from recycled pieces of cast iron and Singer sewing machines.

In addition to being eco-friendly, mushrooms are high in micronutrients—all the more reason to grow them at home.

Source: Forest Origins

Whether you're looking to serve a homebrew beer at a socially distanced smoky barbecue this summer, sauté up some homegrown 'shrooms, infuse some cannabutter, pickle everything, or learn the art of the perfect wood-fired Neapolitan pizza from the comfort of your patio, click through. 

We got you.

The Dome outdoor pizza oven can reach 950F, delivering a blast of heat, and can char without overcooking.

Source: Gozney

12 Kitchen Appliances That Will Bring Some Joy Back to Cooking

Rediscover your happy place.

What's Better Than Japanese Wagyu Beef? Wagyu Beef Aged in Snow
There is only one producer of this pricey delicacy, and the competition for it is getting fierce.
Top Chef Judges Share Their Go-To Recipes for Pleasing Picky Eaters
Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, and Gail Simmons know a bit about people who complain about food.
Got Zoom Fatigue? These Interactive Cooking Demos Offer a Cure
Amid the rise in virtual test kitchens and tastings, the ability to entertain still rules the day.
The Right Meal Kit for You, Based on Your Ambition

Fifteen options, beyond the usual suspects, that'll take the pain out of coordinating dinner. 

You Don't Say

Customers on buying the $2 million Bentley Bacalar: "After all of this, life is going to get back to some kind of normal, and I'd rather be in the car than not in that car."

Source: Bentley

"Why not?" —Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark on relaying the rationale behind a pandemic-fueled 'postwar boom' in luxury auto sales

Danny Yip of The Chairman, the new No.1 restaurant in Asia.

Source: World's 50 Best Restaurants

"The bigger picture is to recognize that restaurants are massively important to all of us." —William Drew, director of content for 50 Best, on dubbing the new World's 50 Best Restaurants in Asia.

Skiers and snowboarders in Niseko, Japan, which has Epic Pass privileges.

Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi

"That means providing value ... real value, where people really feel like they are getting an unbelievable deal." —Vail Resorts Inc. CEO Rob Katz on releasing ski-all-you-want Epic passes 20% cheaper than last year. 

Jessica Walter in 2018.

Photographer: Rich Fury/Getty Images

"It's one banana, Michael. What could it cost, $10?" —Jessica Walters, who passed away at 80, as her iconic character Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development

A recipe from Jew-ish: A Cookbook: Recipes from a Modern Mensch.

Photographer: Matt Taylor-Gross

"Brisket is political. Gentiles may have family crests, but Jews have family brisket recipes." —Chef and cookbook author Jake Cohen on giving the Passover staple a French onion soup twist.

Various artwork by Beeple.

Source: beeple-crap.com

"I absolutely think it's a bubble." —Mike Winkelmann, aka the artist Beeple, on the $69.3 million sale of his digital art NFT.

Three versions of the 'CasiOak' GA-2100.

Source: Hodinkee

"To be honest, I'm relieved the watch is selling well." —Junichi Izumi, product manager at Casio Hanemura Technology Center, on how G-Shock broke its own rules to create a new hit watch.

 

Best of the Rest

Baie de Saint Jean in Saint Barthélemy.

Photographer: Walter Bibikow/Digital Vision

This is Your Best Chance to Get a Crazy Deal on Luxury Travel
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A Cruise Executive on What He Will—and Won't—Do for Customer Safety

Need a Good Book?

For whatever literary journey you prefer to take—or book club flex you care to make—Bloomberg Pursuits culture critic James Tarmy has pick for you.

Capsule reviews below, and a full spring reading list, here.

TRAVEL BACK IN TIME... 

Tomorrow They Won't Dare to Murder Us by Joseph Andras
In 1956, National Liberation Front member Fernand Iveton planted a bomb near Algiers. The hoped-for explosion was intended only to be a piece of symbolism, and as such, he put it in an unused shed. But its location was academic: He was arrested before it could go off and then mercilessly tortured, brought to trial, and swiftly guillotined. Andras's fictionalized retelling of Iveton's saga was published in French in 2016 to immediate acclaim, winning the prestigious Prix Goncourt. It's now been translated into English by Simon Leser. The book is just 137 pages long, but every one of them is taut and fraught, a nightmare of noble intentions gone horribly wrong. Available now

...OR SEE THE FUTURE

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
The author of now-classic titles such as The Remains of the Day, When We Were Orphans, and Never Let Me Go is a master at constructing narratives in which the plot is something very different from what the characters believe they understand. In Ishiguro's hands, gaps in a character's memory often are the plot. His latest takes those blind spots to their logical conclusion in the form of a robot named Klara, a so-called Artificial Friend designed to be a child's companion. Klara is intelligent but not all-knowing; what she doesn't know, unfortunately, is exactly what she needs to. Like many of Ishiguro's protagonists, Klara is a tragic figure, pure of heart and doomed to sorrow. Available now

ANYTHING OTHER THAN COVID

Letters to Camondo by Edmund de Waal
There are very few commercially successful ceramic artists working today, and even fewer ceramic artists with a side gig as a critically acclaimed author. Best-known for his large-scale installations of exquisitely crafted porcelain and his bestseller The Hare with Amber Eyes, de Waal's latest piece of fiction combines the two sides of his professional life. This book consists of imaginary letters to the real-life Moïse de Camondo, a fabulously rich Jewish banker who ran one of the most successful institutions in the Ottoman Empire and was also an art patron. His collection, now in the Musée Nissim de Camondo, is one of the jewels of Paris's museums. May 11

OR MORE ABOUT PLAGUES

The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis
It might seem odd to write the history of a pandemic while it's still going on, but Michael Lewis is something of a master at capturing complex events (Flash BoysMoneyballThe Big Short) in the very recent past. Here he turns the pandemic into a tale of good and evil: Evil, in this case, is the Trump administration; good is a motley crew of scientists, doctors, and public health experts. The narrative follows three central characters—a biochemist, a public health worker, and a U.S. federal employee. May 4

MAYBE JUST GET ANGRY

Citadels of Pride: Sexual Abuse, Accountability, and Reconciliation by Martha Nussbaum

A professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago, Nussbaum is uniquely qualified to tackle the moral and philosophical dimensions of sexual violence. In this careful, methodical book, she pinpoints three areas she dubs "citadels of pride"—the judiciary, the arts, and athletics. The Cosby and Weinstein cases are used as examples; her recommendation to completely rethink collegiate sports will surely be the most controversial passage. May 11

And if you read just one thing...

These Electric Motorcycles Are Set to Take Charge in 2021

After years of underpowered toys, the EV market for motorcycles is surging with exciting new possibilities. 

 

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