Illustration: Clockwise from left: Eliana Rodgers, Ryan Inzana, Maanvi Kapur, Margalit Cutler, Lindsay Mound, Ryan Inzana
In case you needed any more evidence that itâs been a truly bizarre year, look no further than 2021âs collection of Grub Street Diets, which managed to offer a look inside one star journalistâs life on deadline, detail a star podcast hostâs post-booster bender, capture a star musicianâs wild anniversary trip to Las Vegas, and provide a star actorâs love letter to the city that she misses so much. Our subjects tired of pandemic cooking, celebrated the return of restaurants, and â like many of us â drank far too many martinis. Here is a very strange year, summed up in our favorite lines from this past yearâs Grub Street Diets.
Comedian Steven Phillips-Horst on January 6:
âThe real coup is getting a table at Pastis at 8 p.m. on a Saturday in the middle of a pandemic â and guess what, honey? It works.â
Sarah Jessica Parker really missed the subway:
âTo me, being on the subway with a book, heading toward a meal, I honestly canât think of anything better, with the exception of sitting in the theater or watching the New York City Ballet.â
Journalist Leon Neyfakh chased his booster shot with too many drinks:
âFour martinis is fucking insane, and before long it was after midnight, and somehow I was still seeing straight and saying âyesâ when Chase asked if I wanted a Fernet Branca before we left.â
Journalist Ronan Farrow on what our food choices say about us:
âLate in the afternoon, I ate âsous vide egg bitesâ from Starbucks, which are these sad low-carb food-like egg disks that say, âIâm not eating bread, but in every other way I have given up.ââ
Author Laurie Woolever on the pleasures of a tofu press:
âTo slowly crank down on the tofu like Iâm operating an extremely gentle torture device is the kind of soft kink that I think we can all enjoy in these COVID times.â
Jacolby Satterwhite.
Illustration: Maanvi Kapur
Artist Jacolby Satterwhite doesnât like to choose the restaurant:
âGiving up control is my favorite. Itâs my aphrodisiac.â
SJP on husband Matthew Broderickâs No. 1 obsession in the kitchen:
âItâs like heâs looking for the holy grail in Bolognese.â
Writer Elizabeth Bruenig has her limits:
âUsed to be that when people found out I have epilepsy, theyâd ask if Iâd ever tried weed â the industry has done a great job evangelizing on that count â but nowadays people just ask me if Iâve tried keto. I havenât, and I wouldnât, not even if it worked.â
Actor Tim Blake Nelson has a tip for pasta night:
âThe actress Frances McDormand taught me to cook pasta not in water but in chicken stock, and Lisa keeps us with fresh stock constantly, saving bones from every chicken we consume.â
Comedian Rajat Suresh used a sausage, egg, and cheese to prepare for the Biden administration:
âI needed something to center myself at the beginning of the day, and get ready for the return to normalcy, the return to unity.â
Steak Diane defines her personality:
âI would say first and foremost I am an Odeon girl.â
Steak Diane.
Illustration: Margalit Cutler
Comedian Jeremy Levick has turned out just like his parents:
âIâve become the tyrannical mommy that Iâve escaped, and now I set all these rules for myself.â
Steven Phillips-Horst is Americaâs foremost wine critic:
âHe opens a super-cloudy bottle of natty Chilean white. It tastes like piss on a beach and Iâm obsessed.â
Writer Lauren Oyler once wore an oatmeal face mask:
âWhen I recounted this to a friend, he replied in his great Liverpool accent, âYou put porridge on your face?â It remains a mantra.â
Cookbook author Klancy Miller was feeling the kitchen fatigue too:
âItâs so funny to me that cooking used to be an actual joy for me.â
Musician Kevin Morby on his biggest weakness:
âIf you put me in a room with doughnuts, I could ruin my life.â
Chef Chintan Pandya is traditional:
âIâm not a big guy who believes in those chicken samosas. Iâm not that guy.â
Musician Lucy Dacus knows there are upsides to other peopleâs bad taste:
âI was so confused about other people not liking the cabbage, but I wasnât going to question it because it was to my benefit.â
Rax King.
Illustration: Margalit Cutler
Author Rax King on rewarding yourself for good behavior:
âI felt so virtuous every time I didnât accept someoneâs invitation to do blow in the bathroom that I drank and ate much more.â
Podcaster Jason Concepcion knows that celebrities are just like us:
âI once saw Philip Seymour Hoffman tucking into a double cheeseburger at the Madison Square Park Shake Shack as a Kaiju-size squirrel stood on the chair next to him waiting for a chance to strike.â
Cookbook author Bryant Terry learned to cook with his grandma:
âIâm sure it was her exploiting my labor for that moment, but itâs one of those things where I felt included, and it built the foundation for me to continue in the kitchen.â
Comedian Naomi Ekperigin follows hard and fast rules:
âThe nuoc cham sauce was a little bland, and being a condiment queen, I couldnât get past this!â
Artist Rob Pruitt on what he looks for in CBD gummies:
âI know it may not be cutting edge in that world, but the way itâs been Martha Stewartâized really gets me.â
T-Pain does not want your avocado toast:
âYou ever mistakenly ate an avocado slice you didnât know was avocado? Like, what the fuck did I just eat, a goddamn slug?â
Rax King on the âGwyneth Paltrowâapproved Sex Dust,â a so-called aphrodisiac:
âIt tasted like a fungal variety of Swiss Miss and sent choppy waves roiling all over my stomach.â
Elizabeth Bruenig on how she deals with the Sunday Scaries:
âAnother Monday, another day I woke up not totally sure who or where I was, in part because I had consumed an eighth of mushrooms the night before.â
Actor and director Natalie Morales loves sushi, not so much how she feels after:
âSometimes I have dreams of fish swimming around in my stomach after I eat sushi, which is why I donât eat it often.â
Grace Kuhlenschmidt.
Illustration: Lindsay Mound
Comedian Grace Kuhlenschmidt doesnât mince words about her hometownâs cuisine:
âThereâs only one thing L.A. does right and itâs Chinese chicken salads.â
Ballet dancer James Whiteside knows he is what he eats:
âAt this point, instead of veins, I probably have noodles.â
Rax King on how weed affects her appetite:
âWith it, Iâm a grease goblin, horny beyond belief for cholesterol.â
Musician Aaron Frazer on the best use for ranch dressing:
âYou dip the pizza right in that motherfucker. I donât see too many people do it here, but in the Midwest they donât give a shit and it tastes great.â
Aaron Frazer.
Illustration: Margalit Cutler
New York State Senator Jabari Brisport explains what he likes most about Oreos:
âI get a kind of sick joy out of telling people theyâre vegan and watching them say, like, âWait â whatâs the cream made out of?ââ
Actor Darrell Britt-Gibson on his âunmatchedâ breakfast tacos:
âAt first, I didnât want to buy into the hype of my own scrambled eggs, but itâs just my reality now.â
Rajat Suresh doesnât want to hear about other fries:
âI get very mad if someone brings up a curly or a shoestring. If youâre around me, you donât bring up that kind of divisive talk.â
Cartoonist Emily Flake loves nutritional yeast:
âI like to do the thing where I dump enough of it on a salad that it sort of makes this disgusting slurry.â
Jeremy Levick on unforeseen consequences of eating veggie burgers:
âIâve been recently trying to find patties that are soy-free so that MAGA people donât call me a soy boy.â
Gallerist Myriam Ben Salah on the East Villageâs SOS Chefs:
âWe call Atef the Embassy of Tunisia, every Tunisian in the U.S. goes to her, and thatâs where we get our fixes of homemade harissa, brick dough, olive oil.â
Actor Casey Wilson only wants Splenda, thank you very much:
âIâm not saying Iâm proud of it, but I am saying if you even think about suggesting Stevia, prepare to see murderous rage.â
Even Alice Waters says thereâs more to life than California produce:
âWhen I think about corn and tomatoes in New Jersey, nothing Iâve ever had in California is better.â
Matt Sweeney.
Illustration: Lindsay Mound
Guitarist Matt Sweeney on coming to terms with getting older:
â⌠I remember looking at Billy Gibbons, all hung-over, and being like, I never want to be one of these guys who talks about my morning coffee ritual âŚÂ and here I am talking about how my shit is together and I love my coffee ritual, so I officially fucking suck.â
Journalist Bim Adewunmi knows sometimes a gross word is the right word:
âMouthfeel is a terrible word, but itâs just the facts: It feels good in your mouth.â
Publisher Lisa Lucas will admit that the Filet-O-Fish is perfect:
âI am but one human palate that has been experimented on for decades â and it worked.âÂ
Chef Kia Damon on menu planning:
âDinnertime is when my girlfriend, Stasia, kinda steps in, and sheâs like, âUhh ⌠what the hell are we eating?ââ
Kia Damon.
Illustration: Ryan Inzana
Grace Kuhlenschmidt shares what makes her such a catch:
âOne thing thatâs really sexy about me is that Iâm a good barista and I never usually buy coffee out and thatâs what makes me an incredible bachelor, besides the fact that Iâm in a committed relationship.â
Writer Haley Nahman doesnât want a yogurt tower:
âI am very anti-parfait. I donât think yogurt should be vertical.â
Laurie Woolever with some packaging criticism:
âI tried Daveâs Killer Bread, but I found it too sweet, and the whole âripped guy with big guitarâ logo is too overtly about dick-size anxiety for my tastes.â
Editor Silvia Killingsworth likes a tiny can of Coke:Â
âItâs like a shot, the espresso version of a Coke â not in strength, but in size and spirit.â
Aaron Frazer has a system for eating on tour:Â
âThe gas-station banana is the move.â
Chef Carolyn Bane is frank about how vitamin powder makes her feel:
âI took an Uber home and had hot water with half a teaspoon of Calm, a vitamin powder with 2,000 five-star Amazon reviews. Questionable move that feels like a total walk of shame to admit, but weâre among friends.â
Gentefied co-creator Marvin Lemus on setting the tone with huevos con weenies:
âI just really wanted to start this fancy food journal with some busted-ass broke-kid breakfast to let you all know Iâm grounded and humble.â
Marvin Lemus and Linda Yvette ChĂĄvez.
Illustration: Ryan Inzana
Author Mateo Askaripour is sure of at least one talent:
âListen, I donât claim to be skilled at too much in this life, but when it comes to timing a food delivery, I have a 98 percent hit rate.â
New York City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera knows how to order right:
âI also got a Henny Colada because, you know, cognac is queen.â
Matt Sweeney puts his dexterity to use:
âCertainly since the time I learned how to use chopsticks, Iâve been eating Japanese food like a motherfucker.â
Emily Flake on the importance of weekend rituals:
âSaturday Bustelo Time is my favorite Bustelo Time, because thatâs when I read fun sections of the Sunday New York Times, by which I mean hate-read the âReal Estateâ section.â
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