Today on Etsy.com, the world's largest online market for all things handmade, F&W's amazing style editor, Jessica Romm, picks out some great things to buy for a clambake, including nautical-themed items like this sailboat (left). Over the summer F&W editors will pick more of their favorite Etsy party items; what can we say, when it comes to entertaining, we like to shop as much as we like to cook. For more clambake recipes, click here.

Brooklyn-based designer Alyssa Ettinger has just introduced gorgeous lanterns made from translucent porcelain, which give off a firefly-like glow when a votive is added. The molds are hand-cast from antique mason jars; a thin wire handle makes them perfect for hanging at backyard barbecues. They're available on Etsy.

 

 

Hotel Missoni Edinburgh opens next week, the latest venture from the amazing Missoni family (check out their Wikipedia page — don't you wish you were a fashion-designing descendent of an Italian sea captain and a Friulian magistrate from then-Austrian-ruled Dalmatia? I do). The Italian designers have partnered with Rezidor Hotels to open properties across the globe (next stop: Kuwait) featuring the bold designs of the Missoni Home line, as well as rustic Italian cooking inspired by the family recipes of founder Rosita Missoni. Just to gild that lily, in Edinburgh Rosita has partnered with Giorgio Locatelli of the ridiculously good Locando Locatelli in London (the two are from the same region in Italy).

I want to go. Not just to try the scamorza, pomodoro e rucola (pan-fried scamorza cheese with tomato and arugula) at the hotel restaurant (pictured above) but for the pleasure of ordering the hamburger di manzo scozzese al formaggio—the Scottish beef hamburger with cheese—off the room service menu.

I've long been in awe of restaurant designer Stephanie Goto, who created the stunning, minimalist dining room at Manhattan's Corton. And now I'm envious of her industry connections, too: When she took me to see her latest NYC project, the Portuguese-inspired Aldea, she kept waving at big-deal chefs in restaurants along the way. Working with Aldea chef George Mendes, Goto transformed the narrow, deep space into a sleek dining room that subtly evokes Portugal’s coastline, with a large blue wall standing in for the water, gray-stained floors that look like stone and a chandelier made up of acrylic rods to represent the air. 

One of my favorite things to do when I travel is to wander through foreign grocery stores, seeing how people in other parts of the world (or the country, even) label, display and buy their food. That’s why I love the new book crEATe: Eating, Design, and Future Food. The writers, who are British trend analysts, scoured the earth to find the latest developments in everything from restaurant design to food packaging to fad diets. What makes me want to spend some quality time with the book, though, are the images—of cooking schools, kiosks and food innovators across the globe. Two ideas I fell for were the Illy Push Button House, which looks like a shipping container but turns into a gleaming white five-room house (complete with kitchen) at the push of a button, and a Japanese designer’s chocolate pencils, in a range of cocoa blends, that you sharpen over your dessert to get chocolate shavings.

Fuego, maker of high-end outdoor grills and kitchens, has just released a more affordable model, Element by Fuego (starting at $399). Chief designer Robert Brunner, a former design director at Apple, asked a twentysomething griller what he liked about the original Fuego 01 (“the design and the performance”) and what he didn’t like (“the $3,500 price tag”), he then asked what the man paid for his iPod. “$399,” he replied, and there was Brunner's starting point. The Element is a scaled-down version of the Fuego 01 that uses the same smart design approach and modern styling as its more sophisticated $3,500 sister. Like the original, it has a stainless steel body and cast iron grilling surface, but comes in a smaller package (27 inches vs. 45 inches) to go with the smaller price tag. Optional tops like a pizza stone or griddle make the grill incredibly versatile. The round cooktop has two cooking zones, similar to a French top stove, with the highest heat in the center. It’s available now in red, white, gray and stainless steel at many national retailers.

A Nintendo cooking utensil? Well, not quite, but today the company releases a new spring Cooking Bundle that might be perfect for Mom -- or a Dad or Kid who wants a DS-Lite (Nintendo's portable gaming console) under the guise of generous Mother's Day giving. The Bundle comes with one DS Lite, one fetching carrying case (pictured), and a copy of Nintendo's recent instructional program Personal Trainer: Cooking. As part of our food tech roundup in the March issue, Kristin Donnelly and I tried out the program. It held an impressive amount of information in a small machine: It walks you through over 245 recipes, with instructional videos and shopping lists. But I think my favorite part of the package might be the bag.

 Are restaurants the new runway? They are when the designers are AvroKO. The superhip restaurant design firm teamed up with sassy fashion label Mona & Holly to create a limited edition women’s clothing line inspired by old-school service uniforms from the past century (think '50s stewardesses gone glam). The smart, J.Crew-esque collection debuted this April in a few boutiques in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Chicago and Dallas. But throughout the month of May, the hostesses at AvroKO’s restaurants will be modeling the line. In New York City, hostesses at Double Crown will be showing off the Clement dress, and the Wembley dress will be the uniform of choice at Public.

 

Jean-Georges Vongerichten's reentry into the steak world,  his J&G Steakhouse quietly opened in Phoenix's Phoenician Hotel last Monday. We’ve been given a peek of the sleek Rockwell Group-designed interior by JGV’s right-hand man, Daniel Del Vecchio. J&G is no V— promising early reviews praise the low prices ($18 for prime hanger steak with frites!) and straight-forward, flavor-packed sauces.

We’re running three tenderloin recipes from Jean-Georges in our April 2009 Master Cook column, plus the J&G signature steak sauce. We’ve been testing them this week, and I have to say, they’re phenomenal. One has made me a late convert to beef cooked sous-vide. (Or, as I now prefer to think of it, slowly simmered in a Ziploc bag packed with flavorings. Somehow, that sounds more manageable—and more delicious—than the rather existential “under emptiness,” as the French can be literally translated.) Under JGV's careful instruction, the beef emerged tender, not spongy, as many sous-vide meats can. Recipes to come when the issue hits stands in early March; to tide you over, check out some of JGV's favorite steak condiments here. Two more photos of J&G after the jump.

 

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I have a cooking-pot fetish that sometimes veers into the problematic. Particularly when I live in a 300-square-foot Brooklyn studio that doesn't, at first blush, seem the ideal home for 20-odd pots and pans, and growing (what can I say—I'm trying to keep up with Paula Wolfert). I try to exercise restraint and keep myself to just one of everything. So it's always a thrill when a new line of pots comes out, giving me the excuse to make room for one more. This month BlueStar, the oven company formerly known as Garland, has released a new line of aluminum-lined stainless steel skillets and saucepans. They claim the cookware is designed to work on their restaurant-grade home stoves, i.e., to withstand 22,000 BTUs of heat. I don't have an oven that cranks out 22,000 BTUs, but I do like the even cooking of the thick-bottomed saucepan we informally tested here. I also liked its balanced heft and its smooth, rounded handle, which didn't heat up with the rest of the pan. The helper-handle seemed a little extraneous for such a small pot, but its extra-large dimensions do give your fingers plenty of clearance if you like to use them.