To celebrate the release of our best new cookbooks of spring roundup—we’ve been cooking and baking from the titles for months—I organized a potluck party in the Test Kitchen. I tasked staff with choosing a book from the list, making any recipe of their choosing, and coming to have lunch. Not a bad Monday, if you ask me!
As ever, my coworkers came prepared, toting their dishes on various subways to the World Trade Center. Senior commerce editor Noah Kaufman even brought homemade pizza dough from New Jersey. After unpacking containers, dressing salads, reheating biscuits, and plating everything up, they arranged 15 delightfully-mismatched dishes on top of the Test Kitchen pass.
What was enjoyed? So. Much. Salad. A spicy harissa Caesar with crisp chickpeas from Madaq. A burrata, beets, and citrus number from La Copine. A scallion coconut chicken salad from Ohana Style. And a tower of coconut cabbage slaw from Sunshine, Lemons and Sea Salt. Deputy food editor Hana Asbrink plated the aforementioned slaw so high it looked like it could be housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
