Welcome to Secret Breakfast / An exclusive newsletter, the best place to start your day with blind date cooking shows, Adam Sandler’s pickle, and five questions for your waiter

Hi there!

I don’t know about you, but Easter has left me with a strong desire for a detox season and less cooking.

You know… fresh products, raw vegetables, artichokes, maybe some fish.

We’ll talk about that in the coming issues. This one is more about ideas than recipes.

Piero

Picture: Eyecandies is a Shanghai hub for emerging artists, and is presenting work by three young female photography artists: Li Yushi, Yu Ruojie and Winnie Tse, a Goldsmiths London photography graduate (via The Guardian)

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THE BEST QUOTE

✦ Yotam Ottolenghi - Sami Tamimi, Jerusalem. Nothing new here, but those words always resonate here. If you want more Ottolenghi he just appeared in the Financial Times. Don’t miss it.

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THE MISSING INGREDIENT

YOU ARE WHAT YOU ASK YOUR WAITER

What’s the staff excited about right now? What’s the most popular dish on the menu? Is there anything you think our order is missing? Can you describe the [insert category of wine available you want to know more about]. Would it be possible for us to sit at that table instead?

These are the 5 Questions to Ask to Get a Better Restaurant Meal according to Eater’s Hillary Dixler Canavan.

First of all, 👏🏻 applause: this one is good content + pure engagement. Don’t believe me? Check some comments, especially about the question about sitting at a different table.

I do love question number 3: Is there anything you think our order is missing? Those are the words that can help me with my menu-FOMO, the fear of missing some signature dish in my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dine in a certain place.

This question is also perfect to predict if your waiter is good or not.

Do you have any restaurant questions that will make us pros? I’ll share the best in the coming issue if you reply to this.

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THE BOOK

We’ve all been there

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Failure can be entertaining. Take tv series like Inventing Anna, for instance. Here you’ll find about 40 recipes that cheered up people like Alice Waters, Gabrielle Hamilton, Sarah Silverman, and Raul Lopez. Samantha Irby's Rejection Chicken - cooked after a breakup - tells it all.

Recipe for Disaster by Alison Riley
→ Shortplot: 😖 🍗 🥗 🍪

❍ OnlyPans
This is where Secret Breakfast picks juicy content from food creators

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RANDOM ACTS OF HUNGER

This is the space where I share some food (un)related stuff of my week

🥚Is it too late for the Pedro Pascal as Easter Egg thread? ☕️A woman who had lost her senses of smell and taste due to long COVID got to taste coffee again for the first time in 2 years (video) 🥗20 Detox Salads To Help With Your Diet (★recipes) 🇮🇹Marginal Revolution’s (Pretty Good) How to visit Italy 🎙️Eurovision 2023: Every song ranked by BBC, from Albania to the UK 🇯🇵36 Hours in Tokyo (are not enough) 🍸Parmesan Espresso Martini: what a time to be alive 🥹Is tofu any good? ❤️Blind dating cooking shows are seeking love at first bite 🧀Make Fancy French Cheese Puffs At Home (★recipe) 🍖How to turn a leftover roast lamb into a classic Irish pie | Waste not (★recipe) 🤑9 Ways To Save Money When Dining Out (Without Compromising On Quality) according to British Vogue 👱🏻‍♀️Malibu Barbie Cafe Comes to New York and Chicago ⚡️I’m watching The Power, but I suggest you to read the original novel (maybe the best book I’ve ever read)💻This Issue was written using the Arc Browser, that is pretty sick and that is not paying me to say so

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FOOD FOR LATER

Behind the Bonkers Tale of a Cocaine-Fueled Night at Chez Panisse
Sam Stone / Bon Appétit

Secret Breakfast can do nothing against “Out of the Oven”, the newsletter by 81 years old chef Jeremiah Tower, the legend of Chez Panisse. Chapeau.

Out to Lunch
Paul Theroux / The London Review of Books

In the Seventies, instead of being paid serious money, writers were treated to rituals of gratitude: lunches. This story is about what happens when a poor (and married) writer takes a foodie lady to lunch.

➤ Last week's most clicked link was about The Best Foods For Unexpected Guests. And that's all for today.