Cooking

Food has an undeniable way of breaking down barriers, whether it’s through learning about another culture’s culinary traditions or simply talking with others over a meal. 

How to Build Cross-Cultural Connections Over Food This Holiday Season

Supper clubs and immigrant-led cooking classes across the country bring people together, teaching diners to embrace their neighbors from around the world

The plant-based egg substitutes available today are less than perfect. Food scientists are working hard to improve them — and, maybe, make them better tasting and more nutritious than the real thing.

Scientists Are Trying to Crack the Recipe for the Perfect Plant-Based Eggs

With new ingredients and processes, the next generation of substitutes will be not just more egg-like, but potentially more nutritious

Smithsonian's picks for the best books about food of 2024 include McAtlas, A Call to Farms, Slow Noodles and more.

The Ten Best Books About Food of 2024

Travel to the American South, Vietnam and beyond with this year’s best cookbooks, memoirs and historic deep dives

Julia Child in her kitchen with husband Paul behind her

See the Tools and Gadgets From Julia Child’s Kitchen That Reveal How the Beloved Chef Cooked

From the microwave to the food processor, the book author and television personality tried many appliances and devices to figure out the best ways to use them for her audience

A Margherita pie from Una Pizza Napoletana

The World's Best Pizza Is in New York City, According to Italy-Based Rankings

Una Pizza Napoletana on the Lower East Side has claimed the top spot in an annual ranking of pizzerias around the globe

Pad thai is made by stir frying thin flat rice noodles in garlic, chai poh (Chinese sweet-salty preserved radish), dried shrimp and tofu, with a sauce made of ​fish sauce, tamarind paste and palm sugar.

The Surprising History of Pad Thai

The national dish of Thailand is actually a fusion of Thai and Chinese food cultures

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America’s Best New Restaurant Celebrates the Flavors of West Africa

The James Beard Award-winning Dakar NOLA is at the forefront of a generation of fine-dining establishments determined to educate foodies about the true origins of “Southern” cuisine

"Top Chef" contestant Eric Adjepong's scallop yassa

These Chefs Are Elevating African and Caribbean Cuisines From Carryouts to Fine Dining

More Americans are eating and learning about dishes such as fufu and curried goat in establishments recognized by the highest echelon of the culinary world

Cicada salad, roasted cicadas and cicada casseroles are among the insect-based dishes on offer at restaurants across the country.

From Dinner Parties to Restaurants, Cicadas Are Landing in the Kitchen

Professional and amateur chefs nationwide are preparing to serve cicada dishes as the rare double brooding begins

Not many home cooks are aware that pasta’s nutritional value is affected by its preparation.

Your Ten-Step Guide to Cooking the Perfect Pasta, Including How to Salt the Water

Following these pieces of advice from chefs will ensure tastier, more nutritional noodles for all

Plov is a dish made of rice, beef or lamb, oil or animal fat, carrots (usually cut into matchsticks), and onions, cooked with cumin and salt in a large pot.

Rich or Poor, Uzbeks Eat Plov

The beloved medley of rice and meat is the national dish of Uzbekistan

Smithsonian's picks for the best books about food of 2023 include Invitation to a Banquet, For the Culture: Black Women and Femmes in Food and More Than Cake.

The Ten Best Books About Food of 2023

Travel to Rome, Alaska, West Africa and beyond with this year’s best cookbooks, memoirs and historic deep dives

Idaho produces nearly a third of all potatoes grown in the United States on more than 300,000 acres.

Eat Your Way Through the Idaho Potato Trail

The new trail, which winds through Boise, celebrates the top spud-growing state in the nation

Kakadu peaches, like these harvested in Murdudjurl country in Kakadu National Park, are earthy with botanical notes.

The Next Superfoods May Come From Australia

But Indigenous people—who stand to benefit the most from the commercialization of “bush tucker”—represent only 1 percent of the industry

A Southern Barbecue, a wood engraving from a sketch by Horace Bradley, published in Harper’s Weekly, July 1887.

The Evolution of American Barbecue

How America's meaty tradition grew from Caribbean roots to the four distinct styles we know today

Losang Samten, a Tibetan American scholar and former Buddhist monk, will create, with the help of festivalgoers, a sand mandala.

The 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival Explores the Many Ways Americans Express Their Spirituality

Tibetan Buddhist monks, Yiddish musicians and many more creatives will share their cultural practices with visitors to the National Mall

Spam musubi, a Japanese-American dish created in Hawaii, is made of Spam, rice and seaweed.

How Spam Became a Staple of Asian Cuisine

When American G.I.s fought abroad in wars in the 20th century, they left behind an unlikely legacy: canned meat

Edna Lewis gathers ingredients in the garden behind Ellerslie Plantation west of Charlottesville, Virginia, 1975.

What Made Edna Lewis the Mother of Soul Food

The Virginia-born chef did more than anyone to elevate Southern food to haute cuisine

Between 300 and 500 pounds of uncooked pasta piled up near a creak in Old Bridge, New Jersey.

How Did 500 Pounds of Pasta End Up in the New Jersey Woods?

Since stumbling across the scene, residents of Old Bridge have been perplexed by the pasta puzzle

Ella Hawkins’ stunning biscuit art emulates book covers, scalloped-edged Tiffany lamps, pottery shards, mosaic tiles, medieval manuscripts, Elizabethan fabrics and more.

The Timeless Draw of Decorating Cookies

Intricate designs painted by biscuit artist Ella Hawkins are part of a lengthy baking tradition

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