A salute to our wondrous National Managing Editor. More

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This year's winners of the James Beard Foundation Awards—some surprising, others not—were a worthy and deserving crew. Check out Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese Food, the Del Posto team, and more winners showing off their medals, as well as more party photos. More

Our beloved and invaluable managing editor Carey Jones, who started here as our first intern in the summer of 2006—before there even was a Serious Eats—is leaving us today to pursue her writing career full-time. We're happy for her but will miss her greatly at SEHQ. More

As someone who has over the last three years spent hours talking about food and the creative process with Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone, I thought it would be interesting to talk to them one on one (or should I say one on two) about Carbone, their latest restaurant that focuses on Italian American fine dining. Their answers were always thoughtful, often surprising, and showed just how intellectually curious they are. So here goes. More

We've been tasting lots of matzo lately at SEHQ, and after trying ten different matzos of all kinds, including a box of $27 Gluten-Free "Matzo" made with oat flour, I find myself contemplating the following question: Is the bread of affliction supposed to taste good? And even if it's not supposed to, does it? More

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Center Bar, a small plates cocktail lounge—complete with a piano player—on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center screams, "Don't go there. It's meant for exhausted shoppers and tourists, not serious eaters."

But that assumption would be wrong. Way wrong. In fact, Center Bar turns out to serve a limited menu of some of the finest small plates I've had in a long time. They're certainly not cheap, the menu is certainly not consistent, and the overpriced cocktails don't help. But the kitchen, under the watchful eye of Porter House New York's Michael Lomonaco, is turning out food that at its best (about half the time) could easily be served at the front room at Gramercy Tavern. It's not Le Bernardin Lounge good, but it's also not Le Bernardin Lounge expensive. And if you skip the decent but mostly overpriced cocktails you can have three excellent courses (if you choose wisely) for about $40 before tax and tip.

I have been eating Patsy Grimaldi's pizza for a long, long time. How long? Long enough to have thoroughly enjoyed his pizza before the added emotional spice of pizza lawsuits. Long enough to have eaten the pies that he himself made in the original incarnation of Grimaldi's, back in 1990 when it was still called Patsy's. Long enough to have engaged in lengthy conversations with Patsy and his wife Carol at the Corona Heights Pork Store, where they used to buy their mozzarella and sausage from Frankie Capezza in the '90s. Long enough to know that Patsy started to learn his craft in 1941 at his uncle's East Harlem pizzeria, the truly original Patsy's. So you can imagine how excited I was when I heard that Patsy and Carol were coming out of retirement and embarking on yet another comeback, returning to run the show at his original location under yet another name: Juliana's, after his late mother. More

Today at Grub Street (New York Magazine), Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite drop a huge list of "101 Awesome American Pies (and Slices)". Unsurprisingly, Slice'rs will find many of these pies familiar. But there are some serious omissions in this list, and plenty that don't quite seem worthy of inclusion. More

In Slice's nearly ten year history, it has been edited by only three super-talented people: its founding editor, Adam Kuban; Maggie Hoffman, now killing it as our Drinks editor; and the current editor, Boston's own Meredith Smith. With these three esteemed editors in mind, we started searching for Meredith's successor (don't worry, Slice'rs, both Adam and Meredith are going to stay involved). And we found her in our own proverbial back yard. More

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I never need an excuse to go to New Orleans, so when my wife suggested we go there at the end of 2012 to get out of NYC to visit some friends, I was all for it. And now, with the Super Bowl coming up there shortly, what better time to share my favorite bites. More

Ahh, yes, it's Super Bowl time, and for serious eaters that means that the first contest between the 49ers and Ravens is of course a food tussle. Which city's food is better? San Francisco is a clear favorite, but Baltimore has enough hidden gems to make it interesting at the very least. We divided the game into four quarters: pizza, sandwiches, shellfish, and ice cream. Let's see who wins our Super Bowl of Food. More

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Until Mighty Quinn's opened its doors, here are the words I would use to describe the better barbecue joints in town: sincere, well-meaning, tasty, digitally derived from copious sampling across the country, deferential, and stylistically derivative. Most people would come out any one of a half-dozen cue joints in town and say, "Hey, that was good barbecue, for New York." It'd be the culinary equivalent of damning with faint praise.

But the the arrival of pitmaster Hugh Mangum's East Village restaurant creates a new standard for barbecue in New York City. Smoked meat that is good—not just for New York—but for barbecue fans everywhere.

Happy New Year, serious eaters. May your 2013 be filled with lots of seriously delicious food with people whose company you enjoy. That's in fact what we strive to do every day on Serious Eats, and to the extent that we succeed, it's largely because of the warm embrace we receive from the ever-growing community of serious eaters all over the world. Here's to a happy, healthy new year! And if you're throwing a party tonight, here are 60+ easy, tasty nibbles to prepare in a jiffy and tips for affordable bubbly to pop. More

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As usual I experienced so much serious deliciousness this year, so when Max asked me to come up with a list of my favorite must-eats, I found it excruciatingly difficult to limit myself to the usual ten, so I didn't. More

That's right. We're looking for a Chicago-based Serious Eats sales rep. We need someone who loves Serious Eats and is passionate about selling a product he or she really believes in. So if you live in the Windy City, are an experienced online media salesperson (a minimum of 3 years experience), and have strong connections in the great city of Chicago and the Midwest, send us a resume and cover letter telling us why you're the one to jobs@seriouseats.com. More

Serious Eats turned six this month. How cool is that? Who would have thunk it? Happy birthday to all of you, Serious Eats community, staffers and contributors alike. You've played a huge role in getting us to six. More

When I heard the news that Soutine, my favorite postage stamp-size bakery in the whole world, had closed its doors late last week, the news hit me like a pound of frozen French butter. From the day owner Madge Rosenberg and her late husband Barry opened the doors more than thirty years ago, I have been an all-too-steady-for-my-waistline's-good customer. Let me count the ways and the things that I will miss about my beloved Soutine. More

The New York Times notes a gap in the stories we've seen on Hurricane Sandy: its impact on some of the city's most iconic and vital institutions, like Totonno's in Coney Island, that are in danger of being snuffed out. More

The Grom on my corner (76th and Broadway) scooped its last gelato last night, November 25th. More

Yup, it's THAT time of the year again, our favorite holiday, the one that gives us license to eat copious amounts of food cooked with fat of every variety. More

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Adam Kuban and I first encountered Williamsburg Pizza pizzaiolo Nino Coniglio at his first owned and occupied place, Pizzeria del Corso. Since then, he has gone from being on the cusp of great to producing some top-five-in-NYC quality pies at the new Williamsburg Pizza. More

When I realized Lay's Stax All-American Cheeseburger potato crisps tasted exactly like a regular single McDonald's cheeseburger, I had to go to the nearest McDonald's for a taste test. More

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I first fell in love with Eric Kayser's breads and pastries in Paris more than twenty years ago, when I believe he had only a single jewel box of a shop. Kayser at the time was the boy wonder combination bread baker and pastry maker, an unusual double even to this day. My most vivid taste memories from my daily visits that week were the staggeringly good baguettes and the moist, light, and vividly flavored financiers.

Now, twenty years later, Kayser has built a bread and pastry empire, with twenty locations in Paris and 80 around the world. After a false start in Los Angeles a few years ago (the wrong partners Kayser says—it's always the wrong partners, isn't it?), he has come to America with a vengeance. His new large, bright, and cheery initial location on the Upper East Side is open morning, noon and night, and two more locations are set to open next year in the Flatiron District and midtown. We've decided to eat our way systematically through the breakfast, lunch/dinner, and pastry menus. Up today: breakfast.

The late, seriously great Julia Child, who would have been 100 today (she died eight years ago, in 2004), must be considered a hero to serious eaters everywhere. I say that not as someone who has cooked his way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, as Julie Powell did. In fact, I've probably cooked less than half a dozen of Child's recipes. Rather, I say it as someone who admired her from near and far, as someone who followed her passion and fearlessly blazed her own path in the world of food. More

My favorite way to eat ice cream must not be shared with my wife, who would be truly appalled if she read this. So mum's the word, but listen up. More