Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia.

About 4 years ago 🫣 someone left a comment on my YouTube video: “The recipe takes 2 days?!… No thanks!”.

This one is for someone who is not this person.

Here’re the Best Recipes from the Best Cookbooks of 2023.

And here’re some recipes that I’ve played around with:

• Brussel Sprouts Salad

• Cherry Florentines

• Baked Gorgonzola Pears

Before we start, let’s get some compliments from the bread.

Top Stories:

• Jamie Oliver goes at it again

• The Best Restaurants in Latin America are announced

• Genius pasta assembly technique that you haven’t thought of before

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Water with flour! No oven No yeast. Super simple and delicious pan flatbread

• ON INSTAGRAM - Cake Machine

• ON TIKTOK - Magic Peanut Butter Cookies

• ON GOOGLE - Asian Plant Used In Cooking

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

🍽️ Best Restaurants in Latin America

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World’s 50 Best announced the Top restaurants in Latin America.

Here’s the 5 Best in 2023:

1. Maido in Lima

2. El Chato in Bogotá

3. Don Julio in Buenos Aires

4. A Casa do Porco in São Paulo

5. Fauna in Valle de Guadalupe

🎉 New Restaurant on the Block

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Jamie Oliver opens his new restaurant Jamie Oliver Catherine St.

This one is a totally new concept, celebrating rich British food culture.

COOKING TIP OF THE WEEK

🍝 Beautiful Pasta Assembly That You Haven’t Thought of Before

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RECIPE OF THE WEEK

🧀 Camembert Dip Bread

@awholelotofadventure

It’s not Christmas without camembert 🧀🎄 #christmas2023 #festiverecipes #christmasrecipes #camembertcheese #camembertbread #camembert

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia.

We’ve survived Thanksgiving y’all! 🫠 All the leftovers are well behind us, it’s time to get ready for Christmas 🤣

But before we really move on, here’s what I’ve cooked for my German family this Thanksgiving:

• Salt Crusted Whole Turkey (super fast, as turkey goes)

• Confit Turkey Legs (super delicious)

• Cranberry Whipped Feta Dip

Ok, enough for the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• E-nose to save us all

• Amazing food decoration ideas

• Culinary comics by Chef Jose Andres & co.

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - When a Vietnamese Goes to IKEA For The First Time

• ON INSTAGRAM - Cherry Florentine Wreath 🍒🎄

• ON TIKTOK - Potato Chip Cookies from 1976

• ON GOOGLE - Is Turkey Done At 165 Or 180?

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

📖 Culinary Comics

Chef Jose Andres publishes a graphic novel Feeding Dangerously, sharing stories of the people who will do anything to feed their communities.

📚 Noma in Kyoto

Magazine by the one and only Noma is released for ordering.

It’s also available in a limited edition bundle with a David Shrigley signature tote bag and Noma Projects Dashi RDX for just EUR 84.95.

👃 E-nose?

Israeli company Sensifi launched an e-nose that’s capable of detecting smells or volatile organic compounds (VOC) given off by bacteria, thus preventing food poisoning.

🧑‍🍳 Best New Chefs 2023

Food & Wine magazine realized their list of The Best New Chefs of 2023.

COOKING TIP OF THE WEEK

🍋 Food Deco Idea

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RECIPE OF THE WEEK

🍞 Herby Pillowy Buns

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia.

When I was still in culinary school, I asked my pasta class instructor: “what’s gonna happen if I deep fry pasta?”.

He replied: “why would you do that?” and never actually answered the question.

Maybe nothing… maybe something terrible, or maybe some cool things like these.

Moral of the story: stay curious, ask questions and experiment. And surround yourself with people and mentors who encourage your curiosity.

On another note, if you’re not into meat Turkey this Thanksgiving, try this instead 🤣

This week was pretty filled with culinary awards and ceremonies.

From The Best Chef Awards and Food Meets Science to new countries joining the Michelin Guide list.

We’ll chat more about all of that more in this week’s Weekly Snack.

Meanwhile, here’re some recipes that I’ve played around with:

• Greek Pastitsio (but veg version)

• Cheddar Biscuits

• Lemon Rolls

Ok, enough for the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• Latvia goes Michelin

• The new old Best Chef in the world

• Noma membership

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Savor Yunnan's Potato Extravaganza

• ON INSTAGRAM - Grilled Chicken Lollipops 🍗🔥

• ON TIKTOK - #Thanksgiving

• ON GOOGLE - Stuffed Turkey Cooking Time Calculator

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

⭐️ A Michelin Star in Shining Over Latvia

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Latvia joins the Michelin Guide this year with one 1 Michelin Star restaurant.

Other awards given:

• 1 new Green Star Restaurant

• 3 Bib Gourmand Restaurants

• 1 Young Chef Award

• 1 Sommelier Award

• 1 Service Award

🧑‍🍳 Nothing New Here

The Best Chef Awards Ceremony took place this week and the title of the best Chef in the world went to Dabiz Munos of DiverXO (Spain).

Overall the crowd is pretty much the same, except for the fact that there are way more female Chefs at the Top and in general on the list.

Here are some worth noting:

• #3 Ana Ros of Hisa Franko (Slovenia)

• #19 Manu Buffara of Aatma (Brazil)

• #21 Anne-Sophie Pic of Cristal Room (France)

• #29 Natsuko Shoji of ete (Japan)

• #37 Dominique Crenn of Golden Poppy (France)

• #45 Leonor Espinosa of Leo (Columbia)

🔬 Food Meets Science Conference

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Food Meets Science conference takes place on the 19th of November in Yucatan.

If you missed it check out the event program or even watch the recording here.

🎫 Taste Buds 2024

You can now become a member at Noma’s Taste Buds club.

An annual membership that offers a rare insight into 20 years of R&D at Noma, exclusive access to weird, wonderful flavours and behind-the-scenes content from the Noma test kitchen.

Here’s everything that’s included in the membership only for $645.

COOKING TIP OF THE WEEK

🌡️ The Effect of Temperature on Caramel’s Texture

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RECIPE OF THE WEEK

🥧 Apple-Pecan Bourbon-Caramel Pie

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Hand-Making 480 Desserts Each Night at a 2 Michelin Star Restaurant

Hello, hello! It’s me, Natalia, your favourite culinary instructor, writing you all the way from gloomy Germany.

Before I tell you how things’ve been, here’s a complimentary bread for you 🫶

It’s been only a few days since we are back to Europe, but boy, how I’m glad to be back.

Finally, there’s good access to bio products, tomatoes have flavour and eating romaine salad is not as scary.

If you’ve ever lived in North America, you know 😉

As I’m slowly adopting to the new country, I’m also getting back to cooking.

Here’re some recipes that I’ve played around with:

• Sweet & Sour Chicken

• Avgolemono Soup (Greek chicken, egg & lemon soup)

• Filo Camembert & Pear Pie

Ok, enough for the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• A “definitely complete” family

• Forget about the convenience of self-checkouts

• The best method to roast a turkey this Thanksgiving

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Cheesiest Pizza in Italy

• ON INSTAGRAM - Chocolate Nutella Cinnamon Rolls

• ON TIKTOK - #Cheese

• ON GOOGLE - Spatchcocked Turkey

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

🍼 3 Boys & 3 Girls

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New addition to the Gordon Ramsey family. Baby boy, Jesse James Ramsey. A family of 8 (including parents) is now definitely complete.

🛒 Backing Down on Self-Checkout

Just as we’ve all gotten used to fast check out at the store and not having to talk to people while shopping, the supermarkets decided to rock our world again.

Some major supermarket chains, like Costco and Walmart are thinking about backing down on self checkout, claiming that they are suffering losses due to increased shoplifting and misidentification of produce by customers.

Shops with self checkout lanes claim to have a loss rate of about 4%.

I don’t know how about you… but I personally think that removing the convenient self-checkout lanes and replacing them with human cashiers is a totally exaggerated reaction to the problem.

Supermarkets obviously won’t be able to replace each self-checkout machine with a cashier…

Otherwise losses will be even higher. As we all know, what big companies hate the most is paying people wages…

So that’s not going to happen.

What will happen, is customers standing in lines for hours to be checkout out by understaffed human cashiers.

I’m definitely not looking forward to go back in time to this.

COOKING METHID OF THE WEEK

🦃 Roasted Turkey by Julia Child Method

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RECIPE OF THE WEEK

🍊 Mandarin Cello

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK

🔪 Making a $2000 Damascus Chef's Knife (Full Build)

Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia, you favourite food geek, culinary guru 🙈 and just a friendly face that loves to talk about food & all things cooking.

Apologies for missing out on the last week.

Yes, you were not mistaken when you thought that the last week didn’t feel the same, and that something was missing…

TWS was not lost in your emails, I simple did not send it to you.

Last week was full of packing, travelling 🚗 and stress.

We finally said Au revoir, Adios, Auf Wiedersehen to Canada and we are now back to Europe.

So I obviously did not have a chance to cook much over these weeks, but I read plenty 🤓

Therefore, to cut the long story short, here are our

Top Stories:

• The Bear will be BACK!!!

• We said it before and we’ll say it again: Tips in North America are getting out of control

• Should the bread be refrigerated?

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Ratatouille

• ON INSTAGRAM - Cotton Candy Makes Blue Flowers

• ON TIKTOK - #ChristmasCountdown

• ON GOOGLE - Potato In Indian Cooking

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

🍿 It’s Official

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The Bear officially renews for Season 3.

🥣 A Promise Of 90s Nostalgia.

Twitter tweet

Mythical are launching their first direct to consumer food product.

Breakfast cereals that promise a 90s nostalgia and come in 2 flavours:

• Sweet Mac N’ Mello, which has macaroni-shaped puffed corn “noodles” with marshmallows; 

• Peanut Butter N’ Honey Sandwich, which is, well, probably exactly what you think.

Each will cost $20.

🤑 Pay Extra Or Don’t Order At All.

Doordash is testing a new feature where it warns its customers that their order might be delivered late and cold if they don’t tip.

Previously the delivery app was blamed for its controversial payout share system, where it was not transfering 100% of tips to its drivers.

Is pre-tipping or disclosing the amount of pre-tipping to the drivers ethical, remains open for debate.

READ THIS

🤖 AI Has a Future In Hospitality Industry.

The renowned restructure, owner of Union Square Hospitality Group and the best-selling author of Setting The Table (one of my personal favourite books on restaurant industry), Danny Meyer predicts that AI will positively impact the following three areas in any food service business:

• Labour

• Efficiency

• Customization

🍞 Fridge or No Fridge? That Is The Question!

If you’ve ever been debating whether it’s good for the bread to be refrigerated or not…

Here’s your answer.

In short NO.

Due to chemical structure of bread it’ll go stale in the fridge.

It’s better to freeze it instead!

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

🍪 Oreo Mascarpone Cheesecake

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK

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Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia.

Good news! The Academy is back 🥳 We’ve been working on a series of improvements for the Online Culinary Academy, and they are finally all implements and ready for you guys.

The new enrolments are officially re-opened now.

I guess a detailed update on all the changes within the OCA is due, and I promise it will come your way soon.

But for now, here’re just a few things worth noting:

• We’ve rebranded to Online Culinary Academy by The Weekly Snack. Remember the name 😉

• Several new classes have been released

• The Academy enrolment is Membership based with new classes releases every month and direct feedback from the instructor (i.e. me 🤓)

More on that later. For now let’s jump into our weekly news digest.

Here’re some recipes that I’ve played around with:

• Pumpkin Chocolate Brownies without Cocoa Powder

• Thai Coconut Cauliflower Soup

• Monte Cristo Crepes

Ok, enough for the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• 157-piece Le Creuset set for sale

• Another book, another NYT bestseller

• Like the seeds, eat your sunflower too

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Boba Pizza

• ON INSTAGRAM - Ghost Milk

• ON TIKTOK - #Wings

• ON GOOGLE - Does Cooking In Cast Iron Increase Iron?

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

🫕 Costco’s Massive 157-Piece Le Creuset Deal Is Breaking the Internet

Twitter tweet

Literally everyone is talking about it this week.

And no wonder. The deal is amazing, taking into account how expensive Le Creuset kitchen pots and pans usually are.

But is it really worth it?

Would you want all your kitchen items to be from one single brand?

📕 Another Bestseller

New Joshua Weissman’s cookbook Texture Over Taste becomes The NYT Bestseller.

📚 Sunee Side Up

Sarahs Day is also about to release her first cookbook Sunee Side Up containing healthy and easy home recipes.

It’s not out yet, but pre-orders are available.

WORTH YOUR ATTENTION

🌻 Grilled Sunflower

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RECIPE OF THE WEEK

🥧 Wallnut Pie

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia.

Oh boy, it was a busy week! If you’ve been following me on my IG, you’ve definitely noticed that 😅

I’ve shared with you some cooking tips & hacks, my typical day in life as pro Chef on home duty and the recipe and techniques of what I cook every day in my stories.

Is it time for me to get back to YouTube?🤔

Let’s get back though to the exciting world of culinary news that I’ve gathered for you this week.

Here’re some recipes that I’ve played around with:

• My Vegan Sticky Toffee Pudding

• Georgian Khatchapuri

• Roasted Garlic Cheddar Cauliflower Soup

Ok, enough for the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• Several major SM celebrities are releasing cookbooks all at the same time

• “Premium” chicken nuggets

• Lessons in chemistry

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Cooking Challenge vs Uncle Roger

• ON INSTAGRAM - Pretzel Bites

• ON TIKTOK - Dinner In A Pumpkin

• ON GOOGLE - Rose Petal Oil

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

📖 Mythical Kitchen released a cookbook.

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📚 More Cookbooks!

Joshua Weissman also releases his cookbook (2nd cookbook).

📕 OMG, you guessed it! Even more books.

Andrew Rea, a.k.a. Babish, also is releasing Basics With Babish cookbook.

It’s like releasing 3 blockbuster movies to the cinemas on the same weekend.

I wonder how they are going to compete for the best seller list places in the coming weeks.

Who do you think is going to win?

🍗 “Premium” Chicken Nuggets.

Now you can finally get chicken nuggets with “real” white chicken meat.

Taco Bell is testing new menu that includes “premium” chicken nuggets, marinated in jalapeño buttermilk and served with one of two new dipping sauces: Bell Sauce and Jalapeño Honey Mustard.

🎖️ Big Board.

Florida company creates “world’s largest charcuterie board”.

769 pounds later it becomes the largest charcuterie board ever, shattering the Guinness World Record.

🍿 Everyone Is Talking About It.

Everyone is talking about Lessons in Chemistry Apple TV+ series starring Brie Larson, not to be confused with Brie the cheese.

Unfortunately, I haven’t watched it yet.

But here’s a cooking website that the Apple TV marketing team launched, where you can find all the iconic recipes from the series.

☕️ Tiramisu World Cup Took Place Last Week.

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COOKING TIP OF THE WEEK

🍋 How To Correctly Zest Your Lemons

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RECIPE OF THE WEEK

🚫 No-Cook Caramel

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Will Robots Replace Fast Food Workers?

Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia.

I’ve officially entered my Day In Life era this week.

And I’m so happy that you guys loved this new format and my daily cooking Stories, because that’s what I’ve been dying to do for months already.

That’s to say, that there’ll be more coming! Watch out 🤪

Before we talk about what you came here for, here’re some recipes that I’ve played around with this week:

• Fondant Potatoes

• Cheese Onion Rolls (but with more cheese instead of onions)

• Paprika Breaded Beans on Romesco (but on roasted tomatoes hummus instead)

Ok, enough of the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• Soups are back on trend

• You can now get a tattoo of PSP at Starbucks

• Cedric Grolet collabs with Amaury Guichon

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Cooking A Whole Huge Ostrich

• ON INSTAGRAM - Miniature Pumpkin Loaves

• ON TIKTOK - #Soup

• ON GOOGLE - Multo Intelligent Cooking System

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

🐇 The White Rabbit Franchises.

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The legendary White Rabbit Family group of restaurants (cover in the The Chef’s Table Netfix series) has announced that it’s ready to franchise 3 of its flagship brands: She, Tehnikum, and Gorynich.

⭐️ A new Star Shines Over Vancouver.

The Michelin Guide ceremony took place in Vancouver last week.

The Van City had enquired 1 new 1-Star restaurant and 5 new Bib Gourmet restaurants this year.

☕️ Happy Birthday!

Starbucks celebrates 20 years birthday to Pumpkin Spice Latter!

Oh wow, I never thought PSL is that old…

@ashanti

#Sponsored Two icons just turned 20 – the Starbucks PSL and my Chapter II album. Happy 20th Birthday!

If you’re a fan, or know someone who is, Starbucks worked on a whole bunch of fun ways you can celebrate the PSL’s Birthday, e.g. get a temporary tattoo of it, or watch to Ashanti’s music video singing HP to the PSL, you pick your poison.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

🥗 Why Sweetgreen’s Beloved $15 Salads Still Aren’t Profitable.

🇰🇷 Why There Are Now So Many Korean Restaurants In The U.S.

🧁 How to Easily Make Bakery Style Muffin Liners At Home.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Smoked Fish Chowder

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK

@cedricgrolet

Panier de 🍓🫐 & 🍫 , un superbe projet créé avec mon ami @amauryguichon ! Que pensez-vous de ce travail d’équipe? #amauryguichon #cedricgrolet

Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia.

You give me 3 minutes of your time and I give you the world of food.

If you’ve been following me on my IG, you know that I’ve cooked quite a bit this week.

Here’re some recipes that I’ve played around with:

• Veg version of Pastitsio (Greek lazagna).

• Beyond Meat & Bean Chili

• Fluffy Cottage Cheese & Kefir Pancakes with Cherries*

*Substitute Buttermilk to Kefir, Sour Cream to Cottage Cheese and add some halved cherries.

Ok, enough for the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• Girl Dinner is still going strong

• José Andrés knows what’s up when it comes to wine

• A big change in Michelin Stars distribution in Toronto

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - 100 Food Hacks

• ON INSTAGRAM - Vietnamese Honeycomb Pandan Cake

• ON TIKTOK - #GirlDinner

• ON GOOGLE - Sean and Marley Cooking

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

🍷 José Andrés Knows What’s Up.

When it comes to Spanish wines, most of us probably think of reds. Specifically, Rioja.

I’m not here to blame anyone, since Rioja is one of my absolute favourites when it comes to red wines.

But after living in Barcelona for over 2 years and getting lost in local enotecas, I’d have to agree with Chef José Andrés here.

Spain definitely has much more to offer to the world of wine, than just reds.

If you can try just one white wine from Spain, try Verdejo.

This is the one that I like the most, and it pairs amazingly well with food.

🏆 Michelin Stars Remain in Toronto.

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2nd Michelin Guide ceremony took place in Toronto, Canada last week.

In 2023 there are:

• One 2 Michelin Star restaurant

• Fourteen 1 Micheline Star restaurants (spoiler alert, lot’s of Japanese restaurants here).

  My personal favourites are Alo (for the impeccable service) and Quetzal (for the cool ambience and food).

• Twenty One Bib Gourmand restaurants.

That’s a big change from the Michelin Stars awarded last year in Toronto.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

🫛 What makes our Beauregarde snow peas so special?

🍦 How Did Vanilla Become a Byword for Blandness?

🧁 The incredible signature desserts of the world’s best pastry chefs.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Honey, 🍋 & ricotta-stuffed HK french toast

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia. I can’t believe it’s already the end of September…

The whole month just disappeared.

But at least we’ve filmed a new video 🙂 Do you love Tiramisu?

And also added a new class on knife sharpening to the Culinary Academy!

Here’re some fall vibe dishes that you gonna love to cook:

• Pumpkin risotto

• Cookie dough brownies

• Mooncakes

Ok, enough for the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• Automated coffee is the future

• Long live Friends franchise

• Palm oil no more

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Sweetgreens

• ON INSTAGRAM - What’s gluten

• ON TIKTOK - Pumpkin spice cheesecake donuts

• ON GOOGLE - Japanese cooking wine

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

☕️ Starbucks is following suit. Just as last week we’ve covered the story on the new growing coffee empire.

The venture capitalist backed Blank Street Coffee that is populating the US market, offering professionally made coffee at a reduced cost, all thanks to a coffee machine that can make coffee much quicker and with less effort from the barista side.

Well, guess what?! Starbucks just filed a patent for a coffee machine that could quickly create highly personalized and super complex drinks that its barista’s are sick of making and customers are tired of waiting…

Coincidence?

☕️☕️ Talking about coffee. Here’s what Nespresso has to say about the importance of SM branding for their company.

☕️☕️☕️We are not done with coffee news yet.

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The famous Central Perk Coffee (from the Friends TV series) is opening its first real location in Boston.

🍔 Give me what you owe me. McDonald’s is raising its royalty fees for the franchises for the first time in 30 years.

🌴 Better than palm oil. We all know how bed palm oil is for our health and the environment.

Yet, its being used at scale in all kinds of the foods and cosmetics that we consume and there’s been just no way around it.

Well… not until recently.

Food experts at Queen Margaret University (QMU) in Edinburgh say their new 100% plant-based ingredient is 70% better for the environment.

And with 80% less saturated fat and 30% fewer calories, they are also hailing PALM-ALT as a significantly healthier option.

Special code for the extra special readers of The Weekly Snack: WEEKLYSNACKAGAIN50

Use this code to get 50% off the first month at Chef Rudakova Online Culinary Academy 🤩

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Kaiserschmarrn (Austrian Shredded Pancake).

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK

@jacksdiningroom

This is the most famous pastry shop in Paris, France 📍Cedric Grolet, Paris #paris #france #croissant #croissanttok #cedricgrolet #chocola... See more

Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia. Congratulate us, we’ve filmed things this week!🥳 

A new addition to the Culinary Academy, knife sharpening class, which is already live. And a collab with Hello Fresh.

Let me tell ya, I was VERY skeptical about whole meal-prep box industry. I always thought it’s just for lazy pp, who don’t want to learn how to cook and obviously can’t count.

But it turns out, it might not be so. I tried a week of meal prepping with Hello Fresh. It did free some of my time and lots of nerves. But most importantly, my family loved it!

So, we’re keeping the subscription going. If you are interested, here’s my promo code for up to 20 Free Meals: RUDAKOVAFRESH20.

Apart from using HF, I’ve cooked some other delish meals this week:

• Provence-style tomatoes with breadcrumbs

• Invisible apple cake

• Buttermilk pancakes (but I used Kefir instead)

Ok, enough for the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• Pumpkin Season Is ON!

• The Best Hotel In The World Revealed

• Michelin Guide Accepts Money

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Deep Fried Pork Cutlet from Cooking Mama

• ON INSTAGRAM - Croissant It!

• ON TIKTOK - #PumpkinSeason

• ON GOOGLE - Irish Mashed Potatoes With Cabbage

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

🏆 What’s #1 Best Hotel? If you are the OG Weekly Snack reader, or just someone who follows industry news, you already know that 50 Best (better known for its The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards) is launching this year 50 Best Hotels.

Well, be the first one to find out the #1 Best Hotel in the world!

Any guesses?

No, it’s not Aman. Although, I love Aman hotels and several of them had taken places on the list:

• #25 Aman New York

• #14 Aman Venice

• #5 Aman Tokyo

The World’s Best Hotel in 2023 award was given to the Italian Passalacqua in Moltrasio.

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🫣 Don’t Believe Dieticians on SM. Registered dietician influencers are being paid by the food industry to promote unhealthy food products like soda and sugar.

📈 Instacart’s IPO. Grocery delivery company, Instacart, debuts IPO on Nasdaq.

IPO priced at $31 per share, it ends the day priced $33.7 per share. Good result, making it valued over $10B.

Not so good, if you think Instacart was valued $39B in 2021.

🍣 3D Printed Salmon.

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Cringe?

☕️ “Tiny” local coffee shop that’s in every neighbourhood? Blank Street Coffee may seem just like a local-run coffee shop.

In reality it’s backed up by venture capitalists, potentially revolutionary coffee shop business that’s not afraid to use tech advances to improve its profitability, while simultaneously making it’s very affordable and one of the best paying employers in the coffee shop world.

And now Blank Street Coffee is taking over the US.

🥇 It’s all about money. Think Michelin Guide is most unbiased guide in the restaurant industry? Think again.

Have you noticed that recently Michelin Guide had been expending to many new regions? Moscow, Vancouver, Vietnam, Malaysia… Maybe way more regions than in earlier years?

Someone’s got to pay the bill for such expansion.

And someone does. Local tourism boards do pay indeed.

So, if your local tourism board isn’t willing to pay, don’t put your hopes up too high for the Michelin Guide to ever come to your region.

Special code for the extra special readers of The Weekly Snack: WEEKLYSNACKAGAIN50

Use this code to get 50% off the first month at Chef Rudakova Online Culinary Academy 🤩

SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS DIGEST

🧭 Clips insights. Ever wondered if someone had been clipping your YouTube content?

Well, now you’ll be able to know that and more.

YouTube ads new clips insights.

👀 Quote this! Threads now let you quote web posts.

👆 Share that! And finally, you can now share IG post or Reel to Threads.

📝 IG notes, what? Instagram is testing new features for Notes.

Soon you’ll be able to make your Notes in:

• voice messages

• location

• live events.

💰 Ready to pay the bill. TikTok is spending $1.3B to dodge bans in Europe.

🌟 Glow up. YouTube is testing a feature where your “subscribe” button glows when you ask your viewers to subscribe.

Now this is fun!

🤑 Feel seen. Finally, TikTok Creativity Fund expands to more creators, now outside the US.

Now it’s available to:

• Brazil

• France

• Germany

• Japan

• Korea

• UK

RESOURCES FOR CREATORS

🍽️ Influencer marketing for restaurants: 

• Nibble App 

• Inplace 

📏 Guide to SM video specs.

COOKING HACK OF THE WEEK

RESTAURANT POACHED EGGS.

@foodnetwork

Replying to @Chastity making poached eggs in bulk like THIS is absolutely mind blowing 🤯 (amazing, @Mei Lin!)

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia. Last week was CRAZY!

We’ve worked on several collabs that are upcoming soon, testing new video gear, followed up on old friends who are pretty busy themselves launching new awesome cooking tools and products, and that’s not even nearly all.

Before we dive into this week’s top stories, here’re some recipes that inspired me this week:

• Skillet baked brie

• Korean corn cheese

• Not a recipe, but a photo story of how snow is used in Japanese cooking.

Ok, enough for the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• Noma’s Kyoto Magazine

• Cedric Grolet is setting up the trends again

• TikTok is serious about taking over Amazon

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Epic Sandwich That’s Breaking The Internet

• ON INSTAGRAM - Jungle Audio - Cake Deco Vibes

• ON TIKTOK - #PickleTokTikTok

• ON GOOGLE - Pumpkin Cooking Pot

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

🛢️ Oil Changer. I said it before and I’ll say it again - I HATE filtering oil!

It’s dangerous and it’s waisting precious people’s time.

This oil filtering machine is literally a game changer. It would be 1st on my list of equipment to purchase for a restaurant that offers fried foods.

… maybe even before the frier itself 🤪

📚 Book Worm. If you’re into collecting physical cookbooks and food magazines (like me 🤓), you won’t want to miss on Noma’s limited edition Kyoto Magazine.

🎂 Thing that excites me the most.

Instagram post

Cedric Grolet is the OG, the GOAT 🐐 when it comes to industry Chefs totally embracing the world of digital marketing without compromising on the craft.

He’s social media strategy is the absolute guide to what a good digital media presence looks like for a food related business.

And the results speak for itself. Never ending lines of people queuing up in front of his bakery every day.

So why bring it up now, you may ask?

Well, it’s obvious that Cedric Grolet’s SM team knows what they are doing, and what they are doing now is collaborations with global celebrities.

Pay attention to this move and take notes.

If global celebrities are out of reach for your food business, think local, think digital.

🧼 Easy spherification. The Spherification Gods had listened.

Check out this WonderBubbles machine in collab with amazing Tora Olsson.

Spherification had never been easier before.

🏨 Remember, remember, the 19th of September. Tune in live for the 1st ever World’s 50 Best Hotels ceremony.

Special code for the extra special readers of The Weekly Snack: WEEKLYSNACKAGAIN50

Use this code to get 50% off the first month at Chef Rudakova Online Culinary Academy 🤩

SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS DIGEST

🧭 All ON community. Patreon introduces several new community features.

🛠️ Engaging tool. Instagram talks about 4 cool tools that will help you better engage with your audience, like creating ads that start a chat and preload FAQs in your DMs.

👯‍♀️ Close friends only. Instagram rolls out an option to share your feed posts with “close friends” only.

🧵 Unignorable. Meta added shortcuts to Threads both on Facebook and Instagram now.

🛍️ More personal. TikTok seems to be pushing more into messaging, while also testing its Amazon-style marketplace in the US.

RESOURCES FOR CREATORS

📏 How to audit your SM + free audit template

🤕 Why 99% of digital creators fail.

👩‍🍳 BuzzFeed Tasty Talent Residency Program.

🎶 Commercial music library for TikTok ads and sponsored content.

FOOD INSPO OF THE WEEK

Croissant monkey bread tin style 😌🥐

Instagram post

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Inspo story of how the private chef from Hamptons became The Private Chef from Hampton.

@wishbonekitchen

Reply to @evecilione #greenscreen it was the best decision.. follow your dreams y’all!!!!! 😊

Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia. It’s officially fall and I don’t know how about you, but I am ready!

Pumpkin spice latte, candles, fresh chilly moody weather vibes… through it all at me 🤪

What I also can’t wait for is to finally start filming new online courses for the Culinary Academy 🤩 If you have any suggestions for me for the new topics to teach, I am hungry for your feedback (just reply to this email with your ideas).

Here’re some videos / posts that inspired me this week:

• Focaccia buns

• Blueberries and curd pastries

• How the private chef in Hamptons became The Private Chef in Hamptons

Ok, enough for the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• Is it ok to eat dolphins?

• Link in and link out on YouTube

• 21 non-traditional food careers to check out

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Lots of ASMR fried food (that fried orange though…💣)

• ON INSTAGRAM - Unknown Asian dish (I don’t know what it is… but I want to eat it 🤤)

• ON TIKTOK - #Coffee (it’ll be trending all September in preparation for the International Coffee Day in October)

• ON GOOGLE - Nymble cooking robot (another attempt at a robot that can cook “just like a Chef”)

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

🍬 Vegan vitamin gummies. Yummygums, a startup turned boring vitamins into fun gummies, secures €1.46M in a shareholding campaign.

🥦 Vegging out. Talking about veg news, apparently according to the latest data veganism and vegetarianism are going down and vegan food brands are loosing billions of dollars after their IPOs.

Meanwhile, interest in occasional veganism, a.k.a. flexitarianism is skyrocketing.

And… 30% of American current or former vegetarians thinks it’s ok for other people to eat dolphins under normal circumstances 🫨

🍜 Noodle talk.

Instagram post

Momofuku drops a new restaurant-level flavor of packaged noodles on the market.

👩‍🌾 Bankrupt. EU vertical farms are going bankrupt more often than not.

🥄 My precious. Kenji Lopez thinks this is the ultimate kitchen spatula everyone needs.

Special code for the extra special readers of The Weekly Snack: WEEKLYSNACKAGAIN50

Use this code to get 50% off the first month at Chef Rudakova Online Culinary Academy 🤩

SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS DIGEST

🔗 No more external links on Shorts. As of this week, YouTube will no longer allow to post external links on Shorts to combat potential scam.

🔗🔗 Fear not! Meanwhile, linking from Shorts to your existing long-format, live or other Short video is now available to ALL on YouTube.

🎥 Thumbnail A/B testing.

Twitter tweet

We are so close to YouTube thumbnail A/B testing. Here’s what it looks like for lucky creators to get it in Beta.

🤑 Marketers still prefer Instagram. Despite that users spend more time on TikTok and 61% of audience have purchased a product after seeing it on TikTok, marketers still prefer to spend their budgets on Instagram campaigns in 2023.

• $2.23 billion on influencer marketing on Instagram

• $948 million on Google’s YouTube

• $774.8 million on TikTok

🛍️ Have you heard of Amazon Inspire? Apparently, it’s another feature / platform that I’ve missed this year.

Amazon had launched Amazon Inspire in Dec 2022, an app that’s modeled after (you guessed it) TikTok.

And it already fails to “inspire” creators with its low payouts.

RESOURCES FOR CREATORS

👩‍💻 21 non-traditional food careers.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

WATERMELON WITH PICKLED ROSES

Instagram post

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia. Before we start, I’ve got something for you, a cookie 😊 Cute isn’t it?

Yes, we’ve taken a week off last week, and we do not regret it!

Now, all refreshed and reenergized, we are ready for the new season. Also this week the Online Culinary Academy by Chef Rudakova is celebrating 1 year! 🥳 

What’s coming to the OCA you may ask? New, Bigger, Better classes - is your answer!

Here’re some recipes that inspired me this week to cook up the storm at home:

• Tomato and Smoked Feta tart

• Tarte Tatin

• Cottage Cheese Pancakes

Ok, enough for the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• Who won the Food Streamy Awards 2023?

• Another celebrity that can’t cook

• Golden Poppy

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Japanese Cooking 101 - Pan Fried Onions

• ON INSTAGRAM - Giant fruit / berry cakes

• ON TIKTOK - #Pumpkin

• ON GOOGLE - Dua Lipa cooking shrimp

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

🥤 100% reusable. It seems like Starbucks is serious about levelling up its sustainability systems. Now at some store locations every coffee cup is reusable.

👩‍🍳 Dominique Crenn is at it again. And we love it! Dominique Crenn launched a new restaurant, Golden Poppy in Paris, a “perfect & delicious blend of California soul and Parisian sophistication”.

Instagram post

I’ve said it before and I say it again, Dominique Crenn is the absolute icon!

If I get to visit at least one of her restaurants before I die, I die happy.

If I get to interview her, I’ll die of happiness right after posting the said interview. 😂 #lifegoals

🌹 Noma Projects new EARLY RELEASE. Wild Rose vinegar is out for sale, but not for too long.

All the Noma Projects products are wildly popular and get sold out almost immediately, so hurry up!

🧇 Boozy Waffles. How old will Eleven be in the new Stranger Things movie?…

Well… she must be of age, since Eggo just dropped the “Brunch in a Jar”, a collab product with Tennessee's Sugarlands Distilling Company.

Special code for the extra special readers of The Weekly Snack: WEEKLYSNACKAGAIN50

Use this code to get 50% off the first month at Chef Rudakova Online Culinary Academy 🤩

SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS DIGEST

🏆 Streamy Award Winners 2023. MrBeast wins the Creator Of The Year award again… nothing new here.

But who wins the award in the food category?

• Alexis Nikole

• Chef Reactions

• Cooking With Lynja

• Nick DiGiovanni

• Nigel Ng

What’s interesting about this year selection and something that fellow food content creators should pay attention to, is that 3 out of 5 nominees are solely Shorts content creators.

Now that you had time to check out all the nominees, and maybe discover new YouTubers to follow (I certainly did), 🥁🥁🥁 here’s the winner of 2023 Food Category Streamy Awards:

🩳 Talking about Shorts. YouTube explains the best practices around Shorts.

To sum up, don’t overthink algorithm, hashtags and hacks like re-uploading the videos to boost engagement. Think viewers first!

🎃 TikTok keeps on giving. TikTok officially surpasses Instagram in daily time spent on the app and releases a new holiday guide for those of us who don’t create in chaos and prefer to plan ahead.

🙊 Reply with a video. Have you been dying to finally be able to share your IG post/Reel comments in Stories?

Well, now you can with this new Instagram feature.

RESOURCES FOR CREATORS

🎧 Social Creature, podcast to check out for SM creators.
📈 YouTube shares Shorts Trends video series to guide your content creation.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Greek Pastitsio / Pastichio

Instagram post

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Hey, guys! This is me, Natalia. Isn’t August a beautiful time for our cooking endeavours?

I don’t know how about you, but I can’t get enough of all the veggies and berries that are in season right now!

I dare to say, but I think it’s been one of my best weeks when it comes to home cooking!

Here’re some recipes that inspired me this week to cook up the storm at home:

• Patates Lemonates

• Vegan Lemon Bakewell Bars

• Frittata With Bacon, Corn, and Gruyère Recipe

Ok, enough for the intro. Let’s get to it already.

Top Stories:

• Chlorine gas by AI

• AI generated label is now a reality

• Best Podcasts in 2023

TRENDING

• ON YOUTUBE - Chef It Up

• ON INSTAGRAM - Bear Sando Toaster cake

• ON TIKTOK - #GirlDinner

• ON GOOGLE - Gourmet cooking box toy 

INDUSTRY NEWS DIGEST

🍔 Got sued. While MrBeast is suing his MrBeast Burger partner, the partner itself is suing MrBeast for $100M. Circle of life?

🦾 AI went wrong. AI app that was supposed to create meal plan recipes, started to suggest recipes that would create chlorine gas. Well, at least AI won’t take our jobs like that, right?

Instagram post

👨‍🍳 New Restaurant in town. Chef José Andrés is opening The Bazaar in Washington.

Special code for the extra special readers of The Weekly Snack: WEEKLYSNACKAGAIN50

Use this code to get 50% off the first month at Chef Rudakova Online Culinary Academy 🤩

SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS DIGEST

🧭 It’s time. X, formerly known as Twitter was published its brand toolkit.

📲 Not For You. TikTok will soon allow European users to opt-out of personalized For You page.

🎶 New IG feature alert. You can now post songs as soundtracks to your image carousel posts.

🤖 AI generated. TikTok now allows you to label content generated by AI.

Twitter tweet

🔗 No more Shorts spam. YouTube is deactivating links in Shorts to combat spam.

🖇️ More links. But now YouTube will allow to add more links to your Channel.

🛍️ Fulfilled by TikTok. UK-based fulfillment is now available in TikTok Shop.

🛑 Comment care mode. You can now protect yourself from online bullying with this new TikTok feature.

🧵 New features. Threads launches new features.

💰 New week, new changes. X / Twitter once again changes its monetization requirements, now significantly lowering them.

🎥 New video metrics. YouTube ads a new report type to analyze channel performance by video type.

RESOURCES FOR CREATORS

📏 SM image size for all platforms.

🎧 Best podcasts to listen to in 2023 for food bloggers.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

LEMON & BLUEBERRY SOUFRA.

Instagram post

VIDEO OF THE WEEK