This ancient craft is having a moment

Welcome to the latest edition of Food52 founder Amanda Hesser’s weekly newsletter. Hi, I’m Amanda.Packed with food, travel and shopping tips, Food52 activities, and other things that catch your attention. Get inspired: Sign up here for their emails.

It’s always good to have a talented baker at home. Nea is ours and she is a dynamo. Recent wins include this giant apple cinnamon pie and these crunchy cornflake delights. I got him to step away from his mixer to answer a few questions for us:

What was the first thing you baked and how old were you?

It’s hard for me to identify the first thing I ever baked, as I have so many different memories of being in the kitchen as a child. Still, there is a photo in my parents’ kitchen of my father and me baking Swedish gingerbread cookies (pepparkakor) when I was about four years old. Although I don’t remember the exact moment, I will count it as the first thing. 🙂

Tell us your two favorite baking recipes that are not yours.

I love this salted maple pie; It is easy to make and differs from the classics that we are all used to preparing during the holidays. This Cardamom Cake is another one of my favorites. The crunchy, caramelized almond layer on top along with the cardamom-infused cake batter is to die for.

What’s the one baking tool you can’t live without?

If I had to pick one baking tool I couldn’t live without, I’d probably say my spatula. It seems like an obvious tool to always have on hand, but it has many different uses when baking. I like to have my kitchen equipped with several spatulas at the same time and of different sizes. (Editor’s note: She likes these and these.)

What did you learn last year that made you a better baker?

One thing that has helped me become a better baker over the last year is learning to be more patient in the kitchen. I like to move on to the next recipe as quickly as I can, but it’s always worth going slower, taking more time to troubleshoot, and being patient with the research and development process.

Lucas Sin gave us a complete tour of the sauce and condiment aisles of the Hong Kong supermarket in New York’s Chinatown. If you’ve ever wondered which sesame oil to buy, or wondered what distinguishes light from dark soy sauce, their excellent manual will answer it all.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared some of the great products Jojo and I saw in Morocco, Paris, and Antwerp. What I didn’t share were all the products you can find everywhere. While browsing a home goods store in Paris, I was disheartened to discover the same candles and ceramics that can be found in many small American boutiques. At Maison & Objet, the trade show, there were booths after booths of flameless taper candles, sponge plates, matte black dinnerware, and monochrome linen linens.

As commerce has become more global, the world of furniture and home goods is flattening. If you were to feature the catalogs of major US home goods retailers and cover their brands, it would be difficult to tell the differences between their designs. The lines between Magnolia and West Elm and Maiden Home and RH are starting to blur. As a British fashion editor once told me, “American homes are boring.” I know what he meant: there is a conformist style and not much personal voice or eccentricity.

Here we fight against that. And all the similarity that we saw on our trip makes us even more determined to continue finding you products for your home that are not only useful but also original, well designed, in a word, special.

Here are a couple of new products we’ve gotten:

An oil can that doesn’t leak.

The best artificial flowers we have ever seen.

A cozy lamp for your countertop.

Handmade ceramics, only available here.

Peter Schlumbohm, the chemist who brought us Chemex with his wooden handkerchief, also made this kettle for the brand in 1949. I found the kettle at Found Object in Chelsea and didn’t buy it, so it could be yours!

I also saw this ceramic frying pan from Dansk. We didn’t know Dansk made ceramic pans! And it has a small hole to hang it on the wall.

Speaking of Dansk, here’s a sneak peek at some peppermill reissues coming soon to a Food52 near you.

A sentence I never thought I would write: basket weaving is having a moment. You can now buy basket weaving kits. Vogue called the Underwater Weaving Club the coolest new club in New York. And Deborah Needleman, former editor of T Magazine and Domino, is teaching basket weaving courses in Garrison, New York.

I spoke to Scott Norton, the founder of Sir Kensington’s, for his At Large podcast. We cover all the essentials: starting Food52, lessons learned, nut milks…and Dump-It Cake OFC chocolate!

I also spoke with Ruby Tandoh, a writer for The New Yorker, who interviewed me for her essay on AllRecipes, the Internet’s largest, quirky, and longest-running recipe site.

I went to see Jaws at Lincoln Center, where the film was projected on a giant screen while the New York Philharmonic played its inimitable, terrifying score. I hoped the experience would be a form of exposure therapy; I haven’t swam alone since I saw the movie when I was 8 years old. No! However, it’s a great movie and worth it for all the period details like giant floral wallpapers, bow-tied swimsuits, and Narragansett beer.

Yours, in irrational fears,

amanda