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The Food Stories We Couldn’t Put Down in 2024
Election. Eclipse. Eras Tour. As the new year approaches, the news moments of 2024 flash like the old ticker in Times Square. For readers of the New York Times Food section and New York Times Cooking, 2024 was a year of can’t-miss restaurant reviews …
Election. Eclipse. Eras Tour. As the new year approaches, the news moments of 2024 flash like the old ticker in Times Square.
For readers of the New York Times Food section and New York Times Cooking, 2024 was a year of can’t-miss restaurant reviews and lists, and must-cook recipes. But there was news to devour, too. Eric Asimov shared the story of Arjav Ezekiel, a restaurateur in Austin, Texas, who was for many years undocumented. Julia Moskin traveled to Utah to meet Hannah Neeleman, the social media star behind Ballerina Farm. Kim Severson sat down with Ina Garten to talk about that memoir, and Brett Anderson wrote about the business dealings of the vegan chef Matthew Kenney.
A no-photos-please restaurant opened and then closed faster than Kermit the Frog could find the Rainbow Connection. And remember that time in September when Whole Foods changed its Berry Chantilly cake? That, too, didn’t last long.
Our columnists and Cooking contributors dispensed valuable advice, like Eric Kim’s new way to turkey and Ali Slagle’s definitive guide to hot dogs.
It was also the year we lost the chefs David Bouley and Naomi Pomeroy.
And through it all, there were new guides to eating in some of the nation’s great restaurant cities. These are the most read stories of 2024.
14. I Reviewed Restaurants for 12 Years. They’ve Changed, and Not for the Better.
Credit…John Holcroft
After a dozen years on the job, Pete Wells stepped down as The Times’s restaurant critic this summer. In his last essay as the critic, he lamented how impersonal restaurants have become. “Many of the little routines of dining that we used to handle by talking to a person now happen on a screen,” he said.
13. Making a Cooking Resolution? These 9 Recipes Will Get You Started.
In January, Tanya Sichynsky urged readers to “consider a gentler approach to resolution-making: Try to become just a little bit better at something, rather than change your habits wholesale.” It resonated.
12. 57 Sandwiches That Define New York City
Can a definitive list of New York sandwiches be done? A thousand times, yes. Nikita Richardson had the vision for this list, which took readers throughout the five boroughs in search of superlative sandwiches.
11. The One Way to Roast Every Kind of Vegetable
Follow Ali Slagle’s advice (just three tips) and you’ll be roasting all kinds of vegetables, from cauliflower to kale.
10. This Sandwich Is So Corporate Chain, but So Good
The beauty of Houston’s French dip sandwich is matched only by Tejal Rao’s descriptions of it. “The slices aren’t squashed, but cling to each other so that when you dip the sandwich in a ramekin of light, slightly wine-dazed jus, the sandwich holds. It saturates neatly, going from crisp to soggy at exactly the pace you set.”
9. The Most Popular Recipes of 2024
New York Times Cooking published more than 1,000 recipes this year. Our top 25 recipes included Hetty Lui McKinnon’s dumpling and smashed cucumber salad and Samantha Seneviratne’s microwave chocolate pudding cake.
8. The Menu Trends That Define Dining Right Now
Priya Krishna, Tanya Sichynsky and Umi Syam pored over more than 100 menus from around the country to understand how people are dining today. It was a snapshot of a particular moment for restaurants, one defined by bright colors, smaller fonts and mission statements.
7. 100 Easy Dinners for Right Now
In her second annual list of easy dinners from New York Times Cooking, Emily Weinstein offered readers myriad ways to get a meal on the table with a minimum of fuss. (Did you know that this year she wrote “Easy Weeknight Dinners,” a book of some of our most beloved recipes?)
6. These 11 Tips Will Make You a Better Cook
Sohla El-Waylly shared her smart approach to cooking in “Cooking 101,” a new New York Times Cooking show that debuted in January. She shared advice for cooking eggs, rice, chicken and more. Watch the full series on YouTube.
5. How Costco Hacked the American Shopping Psyche
Those hot dogs. That bulk milk. The Kirkland merch. Costco has a hold on a large portion of American society, and this summer Ben Ryder Howe looked at why.
4. The Restaurant List 2024
Each year a team of reporters and editors travels around the country to pick 50 restaurants that are our favorite of the year. This year’s list had entries from Washington to Maine and everywhere in between.
3. The Best Recipes We’ve Ever Published, According to You
New York Times Cooking turned 10 this year, and to celebrate, we ranked our most beloved recipes and honored the readers whose notes and feedback have made the app such a wonderful ecosystem.
2. 22 of the Best Pizza Places in the United States
Want to start a fight? Start ranking pizza. In June, Brett Anderson wrote about how pizza has gotten exponentially better from coast to coast, and to prove his point he offered up this list of 22 pizza spots around the country. Nearly 2,000 readers commented; energized by this discourse, we decided to offer up our current favorites among New York’s pizzerias in October.
1. The 100 Best Restaurants in New York City in 2024
For his second annual list of Gotham’s best restaurants, Pete Wells revisited old favorites and added new gems. “The list is a tour,” he wrote. “If you take it, you’ll see all five boroughs and a wide array of cooking and serving styles.” Come for the tasting menus, stay for the lechon.
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