Inquiring Minds

Acing the appeal.

If you were to total the tonnage of a modest boutique hotel, the mass would be staggering. Hundreds of steel beams, acres of thin carpet, sheets of glass wall. So it is particularly impressive when a hotel is transparent.

Crisis? What crisis?

Remember the meltdown of 2008? You know—the one where America’s housing market fell down a deep, dark hole, the world’s banks teetered on the edge of insolvency, stock markets did a face plant, and stockbrokers from here to Timbuktu considered (however briefly) defenestration as their next career move? Sure you do.

The un-chef.

In today’s era of star chefs, David Tanis is definitely under the radar. The author of three cookbooks and the “City Kitchen” column for The New York Times, Tanis made his name working alongside Alice Waters as chef de cuisine at the California restaurant Chez Panisse.

Choosing favourites.

The artistic tastes of Miami, not dissimilar to the city’s thermometers, tend to run high. The city is home to some world-class private art collections, amassed by a few individuals and curated largely by personal taste.

Savouring St. Barths.

Call it a lust for the plate or culinary tourism or whatever you like, but when gourmands travel, they tend to plan by taste. An entire trip can be curated around one very dish—and if that is ever the case at Hôtel Le Toiny on St. Barths, it would surely be its most acclaimed plate.

A project by Ermenegildo Zegna.

Created by Italian textile and menswear company Ermenegildo Zegna, the ZegnArt Public art project was formed with an ambitious objective: to commission a series of public artworks in countries around the world.

The bizarre world of competitive eating.

There have been times when Meredith “Deep Fried Diva” Boxberger is shovelling down a monstrous 72-ounce steak and she thinks, “How’d I ever get to be doing this?” It’s a question often asked of the athletic, 28-year-old competitive eater from Barrie, Ontario.

Scenic glides.

Those European riverboats that slowly make their way down the continent’s beloved waterways are picking up speed. River cruising has become the fastest-growing segment of the cruise industry—and these vessels are not your grandparents’ riverboats.