With the non-stop focus on food at SE World HQ, I need as many diet buddies as I can get. Although everybody is supportive at work, who would have thunk that our superb intern, Grace Kang, is my ace number one diet buddy at work. I may be the boss, but Grace always speaks her mind with my waistline in mind, even when I give her dagger looks. At home my wife and even my son are ever vigilant, but for me there is much more diet peril at work for reasons known to most serious eaters: the constant availability of potentially seriously delicious food. Grace usually sits at our conference table, amidst the sea of gathered and delivered food... More

Surprisingly, I actually like Valentine’s Day. Maybe it's not that big a surprise since I have someone I love, and against all odds, she actually loves me back (food obsessions and all). I know you can do nice things for people you care about “anytime you want,” but there’s something about Valentine’s Day that I like. Maybe it’s that you have an excuse to do something on a weeknight that you may not do otherwise. Last year my wife and I had the best Valentine’s Day—it involved a movie, some wine, and, of course, a pair of serious sandwiches. Fancy dinners and expensive flowers are nice, but I think hidden food snuck into a movie (with alcohol pairing of... More

It's almost the end of a bacon-ful year here at Serious Eats and even over at The Wandering Eater, where Tina Wong writes farewell to Bouchon Bakery and their bacon and cheddar chive scone.... More

I was wandering around the Time Warner Center in New York City recently and found myself at the Bouchon Bakery thinking I was going to order its terrific grilled cheese sandwich (that's the one served with a surprisingly mediocre tomato soup). That's what I was planning to order until my server said they had a Wagyu beef slider special that day. In the name of research I had to order them. Ten minutes later, she deposited a long thin plate in front of me: three sliders on house-made brioche buns with a pinch of sea salt on top. The burgers' condiments included ricotta cheese, a schmear of garlic aïoli, and tomato marmalade. So, basically, these were fancy-pants cheeseburger sliders... More