Designer, author, and AltSummit founder Gabrielle Blair created Design Mom in 2006; since then, she’s published thousands of posts on design and parenting, travel, food, and other topics (from the evergreen to the timely).

“Being a food writer is the most punk rock thing a person can do, and Jonathan Gold was the most punk rock of us all.” Javier Cabral pays homage to the legendary Los Angeles food writer, who was both his mentor and his role model.

David Chang’s Ugly Delicious explores some nuanced ideas around race and food while also reproducing some harmful cultural narratives. Media culture Ph.D. student Rachel Kuo identifies five ways she’d like the show to push further.

Anny Gaul, a scholar of North African and Middle Eastern culinary traditions, takes us on a deep dive through the centuries-long history of Bstila (or Pastilla), one of Morocco’s signature dishes (bonus: recipe included).

The creator of The Wire and Treme remembers his years of friendship and collaboration with the late Anthony Bourdain.

At Longreads, Paris-based pastry chef Frances Leech reflects on taste, memory, and literature’s most famous confection: the humble madeleine, immortalized in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time.

Liana Aghajanian on the food traditions of Armenian-Americans: “Having lost property, cultural heritage, and identity in addition to the millions who were killed, food became the most transportable cultural marker that could be made tangible with the right ingredients, as Armenians were forced to migrate across the world.”