Organize your kitchen like a professional chef — and more.
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Organize Your Kitchen Like a Professional Chef |
 | | The contents of Ellen Bennett’s fridge are categorized by flavor profile.Julia Stotz |
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In kitchens the world over, the French culinary phrase “mise en place,” the literal translation of which is “set up,” has come to mean “everything in its place.” In practice, it’s a codified philosophy among chefs that dictates that every mixing bowl, every spice and every tool always be returned to its designated shelf space. For Ellen Bennett, the Los Angeles-based founder and C.E.O. of the culinary and lifestyle brand Hedley & Bennett, that system is a way of life. As a line cook at restaurants like Los Angeles’s Bäco Mercat and the two-Michelin-starred Providence, she learned that an exacting standard of organization is what keeps fast-paced kitchens running smoothly. “When you have a place for everything, you don’t have to think twice,” she says, because there’s no searching for what you need. “It’s about not having to do the extra work.” Last year, Bennett walked T through the cabinets, pantry and drawers of her kitchen, passing on the methodologies she’s learned from master chefs — because, as she puts it, “just throwing things in a drawer is selling yourself short.” Read Bennett’s organizing tips at tmagazine.com. And for a shoppable list of the products she recommends, visit our friends at wirecutter.com. |
Four Aluminum-Free Ways to Handle Sweat |
Natural deodorants are a booming category in the wellness industry: Made without the pore-blocking aluminum and parabens found in most antiperspirants, they allow for the excretion of toxins through sweat. But the body can take up to a month to adjust to a clean deodorant, a period during which odor can be more noticeable. (Fortunately, staying at home presents an opportunity to experiment.) The Brooklyn-based beauty brand PiperWai’s Natural Deodorant Stick contains a blend of 11 essential oils — including peppermint, tangerine and clary sage — and uses activated charcoal to absorb moisture, while Necessaire’s The Deodorant has a subtler eucalyptus scent and relies on kaolin clay, zinc and silica to keep skin dry. Among the liquid formulas available (newcomers to solid natural deodorant sometimes find the texture pasty) is the Deodorant Spray from the female-founded brand Curie, which soothes the skin with witch hazel and also contains a probiotic designed to help combat odor. The product’s three scent options — white tea, grapefruit cassis and orange neroli — are all light enough to complement, and not overpower, other fragrances. Lastly, consider the Anti-Odorant Pads from the alpha-hydroxy-acid-focused beauty brand Surface Deep, which were created by the dermatologist Alicia Zalka after she forgot her deodorant while traveling. The individually packaged wipes, made with a glycolic-acid exfoliant, are ideal for carrying on the go, once it’s safe to be out and about. |
Enrique Olvera’s Satisfying, Adaptable Vegetable Soup |
 | | “For me, and for all Mexicans, a hearty vegetable soup is synonymous with home,” says the chef Enrique Olvera. He refers to his own version, illustrated here, as “comforting and heartwarming.”Sofía Probert |
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In high school, the Mexican chef Enrique Olvera was known to his friends as Pozole. The word, which means “hominy” in Spanish, derived from the Nahuatl pozolli, is also the name of a traditional Mexican soup or stew made from shelled kernels of corn, pork and garlic. When Olvera opened his first restaurant in Mexico City in 2000, he called it Pujol, a slurring of the childhood nickname. And in many ways, soup has been a through line in Olvera’s culinary life. Somewhere between the more formal pozole, traditionally served on special occasions, and Olvera’s standard weeknight meal of black beans cooked down with onion, garlic and herbs is the vegetable soup the chef recently discussed with T. The tomato-based broth, bolstered with potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower and flavored with ancho chile, is based loosely on the version his grandmother used to prepare. To make it heartier — into what Olvera calls “a perfect one-course meal” — he added ayocote beans. “It’s almost like a Mexican version of minestrone,” he says. For the recipe, visit tmagazine.com. And read about how Olvera and his disciples have not only reconceived Mexico’s cuisine but have gone on to change how and what we want to eat in T’s Culture issue. |
A Trip to the Japanese Island Where Astier de Villatte Incense Is Made |
 | | A still from the short film “Awaji, L’île de l’Encens.”Courtesy of North Sea Air |
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By Katherine Cusumano T Contributor |
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According to Shinto beliefs, Awaji Island, a densely forested landmass nestled in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, was the first of eight islands in the archipelago to be created upon the coupling of two gods. These days, it’s known for its generations-old tradition of incense-making. For the past decade, the Parisian home brand Astier de Villatte has sourced its incense from Awaji, and in 2017, it debuted a scent named for the island, which is a simple, subtle interpretation of traditional Japanese incense, explained Benoît Astier de Villatte, one of the label’s founders. But as of late, Astier de Villatte and his co-founder, Ivan Pericoli, have observed a decline in the number of workshops on the island — incense, like many handicrafts, has been threatened by encroaching modernity — so they created a new short film with the creative agency North Sea Air, “Awaji, L’île de l’Encens.” It depicts a trip the pair made last fall to Awaji, where they observed craftspeople creating fine spindles of incense from sandalwood and other materials, and is both an entrancing tribute to and a record of a vanishing art. “We wanted to communicate what is happening in Awaji,” Pericoli told me, “which seems, to us, rare and precious.” $50, johnderian.com. Watch the short film on Vimeo. |
Spring-Ready Bags and Scarves Based on a Work of Art — and a Museum |
 | | Courtesy of Max Mara |
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Five years ago, to celebrate the opening of the Whitney Museum’s new downtown space, its architect, Renzo Piano, and the Italian fashion house Max Mara partnered on a handbag appropriately called the Whitney. Inspired by the building’s design, the rectangular, top-handled purse features raised vertical slits that mimic the steel tie beams spanning the museum’s facade. Max Mara has revisited the bag annually, releasing it in new colors, fabrications and sizes, including a miniature version crafted from jewel-toned velvet and a pastel variation with canvas panels. The latest iteration, which launched last week, draws color inspiration from “Sun,” a 1931 oil painting by the American artist Florine Stettheimer that depicts a floral bouquet she made for her 60th birthday, and that is part of the Whitney’s permanent collection. Available in five new colors — purple, orange, yellow, light pink and magenta — each bag comes with a detachable shoulder strap and a floral-printed lining. That pattern also appears on a light, spring-ready silk scarf, which will go on sale next month. Special Edition Whitney bag, $1,220; scarf, $130, maxmara.com. |
Dominican Models on the Rise |
 | | Gautier Billotte |
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Lineisy Montero, 24, arguably the best-known of the generation of Dominican and Dominican-American models changing the face of fashion, became an industry favorite in 2015, when she debuted on the Prada runway wearing a short, immaculately trimmed Afro. “Normally my hair is not called ‘good hair.’ When you turn, like, 15, they change your hair and you put it straight,” Montero says in this video, in which she and Sandro Guzman, the founder of Ossygeno Models in Santo Domingo, talk about her success in the fashion world and in redefining notions of beauty in the Dominican Republic — partly thanks to celebrating her natural hair. Watch the full video, made for #TCultureIssue, and follow us on Instagram. |
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