Steak Meister Marc Bourg
The butcher's trade.
Marc Bourg is pacing around my kitchen like an expectant father. “Is the cast iron skillet ready? Is the oven preheated?”
Spring 2015
Blake Mycoskie
The TOMS manifesto.
With TOMS shoes, social entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie pioneered a for-profit business model known as “one-for-one”. The nine-year-old company now sells eyewear, handbags, and coffee—but its bona fide product is the power of giving.
Germany’s C. Bechstein Pianos
Keys to the kingdom.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: The sound emanating from within C. Bechstein’s piano factory in the sleepy German town of Seifhennersdorf, Saxony, is a cacophony of keys being tested, the guttural sawing of wood, and, at one workbench, a radio softly playing American pop music.
Mastery of Technique
Jaeger-LeCoultre.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: How Jaeger-LeCoultre helped restore the luxury status of mechanical timekeeping.
Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way
A natural wander.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: Pat Sweeney is drawn to places where many fear to tread. Hanging over the edge of the Cliffs of Moher with his arms balanced and neck craned at 90 degrees, the farmer-turned-trailblazer from County Clare on Ireland’s far west coast calls to a crowd to overcome their vertigo.
Joseph Walsh
A couture craftsman.
Joseph Walsh is a self-taught woodworker who combines art and craftsmanship to create functional sculpture with sweeping curvilinear forms.
Three Roads of Green
Hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and full electrics.
In a world full of gas-electric hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fully electric luxury cars, even the most extensively refined internal combustion engines cannot match the smooth and silent push from an electric motor.
Atelier Courbet in New York
Collect and gather.
In the landmarked Brewster Carriage House, a 19th-century coach makers’ building in Manhattan, the hush of exclusivity surrounds tabletop and art objects, furniture, textiles, carpets, and lighting culled from workshops the world over, some with pedigrees reaching back to the 17th century.
Rivers of Wine
Rías Baixas and its albariño.
It’s a cliché that the wines and food from a particular region go well together. So the high-acid reds of northern Italy complement the many tomato-based dishes common there, while pinot noir from Bourgogne pairs nicely with coq au vin. Yet the principle doesn’t always work. Marlborough sauvignon blanc with New Zealand lamb? English sparkling wine with roast beef? But if you need a poster region for this wine and food matching principle, it might well be Rías Baixas.