Food should not be comforting. “That’s the goal of an easy chair,” says food writer Gail Simmons, a judge on Top Chef, quoting her mentor, Jeffrey Steingarten. The culinary arts, like any other, should be challenging. Which breaks the heart of my mashed potatoes even as it raises another question: is cooking really an art? There’s a reason Shakespeare didn’t create Hamlet as a meatloaf. Plus music from Pete Rushefsky and Jake Shulman-Ment. Tasty!

• •  PERSON: Jeffrey Steingarten
  •  PLACE Table Mountain, Cape Town
  •  THING: a salt grinder
  •  RANDY’S PLACE: the Hershey chocolate factory