This Popular Cookware Material Is Back—& Better Than Ever

Nostalgia is having a moment—or rather, *has* been having a moment. In fashion, vibes from previous eras, like indie sleaze and summer camp cool, are reemerging as Gen Z uniforms. And in home decor, vintage-inspired pieces are breathing new life …

Nostalgia is having a moment—or rather, *has* been having a moment. In fashion, vibes from previous eras, like indie sleaze and summer camp cool, are reemerging as Gen Z uniforms. And in home decor, vintage-inspired pieces are breathing new life into interior spaces. In fact, TikTok and Airbnb teamed up to forecast this year’s home decor trends and eclectic nostalgia topped their list. 

So, why has the past become so… present? 

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A Guide to Feng Shui in the Kitchen, Courtesy of TikTok’s Favorite Architect

“How do you furnish a 7 sq-ft room?”

In a 30-second TikTok video, architect Cliff Tan, also known as @dearmodern, uses tiny furniture figurines to propose a solution. With over 35.4 million views, it’s safe to assume that many were grappling with a si…

“How do you furnish a 7 sq-ft room?"

In a 30-second TikTok video, architect Cliff Tan, also known as @dearmodern, uses tiny furniture figurines to propose a solution. With over 35.4 million views, it’s safe to assume that many were grappling with a similar question—or just curious to see his response.

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15 Terrazzo Decor Pieces That Prove the Material Is Here To Stay

My affair with terrazzo began in a tile store in Paris last November. In search of flooring that had the elegance of marble but a little less cold (and generally, less expensive), a large, creamy slab of terrazzo with bright chips in sage, gold, charco…

My affair with terrazzo began in a tile store in Paris last November. In search of flooring that had the elegance of marble but a little less cold (and generally, less expensive), a large, creamy slab of terrazzo with bright chips in sage, gold, charcoal, and terracotta caught my eye. So elementary-school chic! Color me a millennial, but I was instantly hooked.

From the Italian word for “terrace,” terrazzo is a composite material made with irregular-shaped pieces of marble, quartz, granite, or glass, all combined together with a neutral binder. A sustainable option from the outset, it was created by 16th-century Venetian artisans to repurpose marble pieces leftover from the production of marble slabs.

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Embracing My Family’s Quirky Holiday Traditions From Far Away

Christmas at my mom’s begins with the tree. I wouldn’t call it a tradition so much as her obsession with erecting the perfect hulking evergreen—so tall that its tippy top brushes against our living room ceiling—and decorating it just so with white ligh…

Christmas at my mom’s begins with the tree. I wouldn’t call it a tradition so much as her obsession with erecting the perfect hulking evergreen—so tall that its tippy top brushes against our living room ceiling—and decorating it just so with white lights and ornaments, some as old as her adult children, others new additions to replace the broken bulbs of years past. Like the accumulated Christmases under our belts, each ornament has its own story to tell.

Behind the tree there is a sliding glass door, and just outside, a deck that hangs over the open woods, which serves as an annual Christmas tree graveyard. There, the beloved trees will inevitably find themselves on the 27th of December, tossed out just as fast as they were dragged into our home, before their needles even have the chance to turn brown and descend on my mom’s spotless wooden floor.

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What Are Marrons Glaces from ‘The French Dispatch’?

In Wes Anderson’s new movie The French Dispatch, slippery art dealer Julian Cadazio (played by Adrien Brody) bribes a prison guard with a marron glacé, or candied chestnut. The stone-faced guard unwraps the bite-sized confection and pops it into his mo…

In Wes Anderson’s new movie The French Dispatch, slippery art dealer Julian Cadazio (played by Adrien Brody) bribes a prison guard with a marron glacé, or candied chestnut. The stone-faced guard unwraps the bite-sized confection and pops it into his mouth. Watching the film in a theatre near the Palais Garnier, I found the casting choice of marron glacé highly satisfying. Like the aperitif trays and old world locales, it was one of many rich details of French life that Anderson wove into his tableaux.

Marrons glacés are a fixture of the holidays in France. Marrons, a special chestnut from the Ardèche region, are harvested in early fall and their delicate candied form proliferates in sweets shops around the country in mid-November. With their stylish packaging and Willy Wonka-esque colorful wrappers, they’re a lovely and timeless gift idea. Take it from Proust, who mentions them as a New Year’s gift in his great masterpiece Swann’s Way (which I am yet to read but I do know that the crumby madeleines made a greater impression).

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Rediscovering the Joy of Visiting Other People’s Homes

“It’s called an Airplane Bungalow,” explained my sister Mary Alice, as she led me up the dark wood stairs. She had been living in her new East Dallas home for at least a year but it was my first time visiting. On the second floor, there were two bedroo…

“It’s called an Airplane Bungalow,” explained my sister Mary Alice, as she led me up the dark wood stairs. She had been living in her new East Dallas home for at least a year but it was my first time visiting. On the second floor, there were two bedrooms surrounded by windows, calling to mind the cockpit of an airplane. As I set my bags on the floor of my niece’s teenage lair and took in the all-around views, I got the idea.

It was well past sunset when I arrived, the sky inky-purple, but the following day, the airplane design shined through, leaving the upper rooms drenched in sunlight, despite the black tapestry that my niece plastered over several of the windows (you know, teens).

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The Timeless Allure of Poterie Renault’s Handmade Kitchen Goods

In the sleepy commune of Argent-Sur-Sauldre in the Loire Valley of France, population just a shade over 2,000, there’s a centuries-old factory located on the grounds of a French chateau. Straight out of a Tim Burton film, the factory has been sitting m…

In the sleepy commune of Argent-Sur-Sauldre in the Loire Valley of France, population just a shade over 2,000, there’s a centuries-old factory located on the grounds of a French chateau. Straight out of a Tim Burton film, the factory has been sitting motionless for years and contains rooms brimming with the handcrafted wares it once produced: timeless culinary pottery pieces. They were untouched, some unfinished, and mostly gathering dust. All bore the name of Poterie Renault.

It was on a research trip to France in 2018 that Food52’s buyers first stumbled upon Poterie Renault cookware while sifting through antique stores. They managed to secure a limited-edition lot to share with the Food52 community—it sold out in less than 48 hours. Given the popularity, they decided to return to France to see for themselves what was hidden inside the fabled factory. That plan eventually manifested three years later, in the fall of 2021.

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How TikTok Got Me Out of My Pandemic Cooking Rut

Like many geriatric millennials, I was slow to come around to TikTok. As Joan Didion once wrote about New York, it struck me as a place for the very young. But last summer I began freelance recipe development for a French food media company, a gig that…

Like many geriatric millennials, I was slow to come around to TikTok. As Joan Didion once wrote about New York, it struck me as a place for the very young. But last summer I began freelance recipe development for a French food media company, a gig that required keeping tabs on the latest cooking hacks and trends bubbling up on social media. Hand forced, I finally downloaded the app, but strictly, I told myself, on a lurking basis.

To wade through the ocean of content on TikTok, an app with more than 1 billion monthly users, I began with the hashtag pages, where you’ll find the most popular videos relevant to a particular topic. It was near the top of the #waffle page that I stumbled upon creator @peachyslime.

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The Swirly, Brain-Freezing Origins of the Frozen Margarita Machine

From the outset, Mariano Martinez’s restaurant, the place that put frozen margaritas on the map, was an experience. Then called Mariano’s Mexican Cuisine, the original was located in Dallas’ Old Town shopping center, a 5-minute ride from Southern Metho…

From the outset, Mariano Martinez’s restaurant, the place that put frozen margaritas on the map, was an experience. Then called Mariano’s Mexican Cuisine, the original was located in Dallas’ Old Town shopping center, a 5-minute ride from Southern Methodist University. Inside, Mexican music piped through the dining room and blue lighting simulated moonlight. Sorority sisters wearing skirts and gaucho hats worked as greeters. The floor was covered with inexpensive shag carpeting, and at the end of service, employees used yard rakes to clean up fallen tortilla chips. The house specialty was the margarita.

It was 1971—the same year that a coffeehouse called Starbucks opened its doors in Seattle and just a year after Texas passed a constitutional amendment making liquor by the drink legal. Prior to that, it was a “brown bag state,” meaning customers could bring a bottle of alcohol to a restaurant as long as they kept it in the bag, off the table. As Mariano explains on a recent phone call, people would order a “setup,” like Coke over ice with a lime, and pour their liquor of choice—usually whiskey or rum—into the mix.

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Lessons From Renovating Our Homes During a Pandemic

March 2020 in Paris was disturbingly warm, a detail I know not from memory but from the pictures on my phone. There we are on our wedge of a balcony, splayed out on green metal chairs, my husband, Guillaume, squinting into the late-day sunlight with my…

March 2020 in Paris was disturbingly warm, a detail I know not from memory but from the pictures on my phone. There we are on our wedge of a balcony, splayed out on green metal chairs, my husband, Guillaume, squinting into the late-day sunlight with my daughter, Mimi, rosy-cheeked and just shy of her first birthday. A few photos later, there’s Mimi in front of our tall living room windows, her hands as plump as balloon animals and pressed against the glass, gazing outside. There are just a few pictures from quick walks around our tumbleweed-quiet neighborhood, the sky cobalt blue over the buildings with their charcoal mansard roofs.