Spring 2015
The Culinary Frontier
As the world gets hotter and drier, we have a unique opportunity: Start growing drought-friendly foods, and enjoy the ignored but luscious methods of cooking they inspire. Welcome to our examination of this sorely neglected frontier, along with explorations of several entirely different topics.
The Clay Conjurer
Felipe Ortega has devoted his life to creating the perfect pot of beans—and an unusually audacious way of looking at culture. Over the years, Ortega’s journey involved such an unusual combination of the traditional and the non-traditional that it puts a very old question into very new light: What’s the right way to look at cultural progress? Should we put a fence around our unique traditions? Or should we share them, welcoming the opportunity to mix with new ideas?
By DEBORAH BUSEMEYER
Photography by KITTY LEAKEN
Food Shift
In an era of chronic drought, could desert crops become the new sustainable dinner?
By CHRISTOPHER D. COOK
The Clay Mystique
A gastro-scientific investigation of why cooks believe food tastes better (note: much better) when it’s cooked in a ceramic pot. Tour guide: Paula Wolfert, the legendary queen of American clay-pot cooking.
By TODD OPPENHEIMER
Photography by CLAIRE BLOOMBERG
Food by the Gallon
You drink eight glasses of water a day. But you consume far more through the food you eat. A special report.
By JESSICA CAREW KRAFT
Other Topics In This Issue
The Soul of French Invention
An American woodworker’s love affair with “the best” (and perhaps least well-known) sculpture museum in Paris – and what the affair taught him.
By GARY ROGOWSKI
Parts & Recreation
What makes people devote hours to the frustrating task of gluing together pieces so small you have to pick them up with tweezers? And does this obsessive hobby even matter anymore? To find out, a devotee of the art dives into Revell’s world of plastic models.
By JEFF GREENWALD
The Hidden Wonders of the Musée des Arts et Métiers — Paris’ Museum of Art and Invention
A CRAFTSMANSHIP photo essay.
By GARY ROGOWSKI
Spoonism
How I stumbled upon the world’s most perfect eating utensil.
By OWEN EDWARDS
Photography by CLAIRE BLOOMBERG