#cooking

Time Out picks seven U.S. restaurants cooking over wood, embers and open flame, where the hearth often sits in full view of the dining room. Among them: Michelin-starred chef Eyal Shani's Malka in West Palm Beach (his first kosher restaurant, built around a custom wood grill); Hillary Sterling's Ci Siamo in Manhattan, known for whole fire-roasted trout; Ajax Downtown in Denver, where even the bread and cocktails touch the fire and steaks are dry-aged in-house; and Corkfire in Temecula, cooking produce from its own garden over flame. It's a trend roundup, not a list of new openings.

A look at student cooking found that some university students are making dishes far beyond the stereotypical pesto pasta and instant noodles—including crème brûlée, duck eggs and recipes requiring a blowtorch.

Why it matters

Young people's food habits are being reshaped by TikTok, YouTube, recipe creators and better access to global cooking knowledge.

The cultural shift

Cooking can now be both a budget strategy and a creative hobby. A student kitchen may be poorly equipped, but the cook using it may have watched hundreds of hours of professional technique online.