Culture and science writer
Clara writes about why food tastes the way it does and why we eat what we eat on holidays, from flavor chemistry to the stories behind festive tables.
Every story follows our editorial standards.
That glowing bowl with the pink swirl is not fantasy food. It is usually Tokyo-style shoyu ramen, and every topping on it has a name, a region, and a reason.
Clara Bennett · · 12 min read
The Feast of the Seven Fishes comes from a Catholic rule about meat, not from a rule about seven. Here is where the number came from, and what is actually on the table.
Clara Bennett · · 11 min read
The famous motor oil story is mostly a myth. The real trick is a waterproofed top pancake, thickened syrup that refuses to soak in, and a stack held up by cardboard.
Clara Bennett · · 11 min read
The recall count is roughly normal. The scale of a handful of 2026 outbreaks is not. Here is the honest read on the numbers, plus how to check whether food in your kitchen is affected.
Clara Bennett · · 8 min read
It's not pickiness. Cilantro and soap really do share aroma chemistry, and a specific stretch of DNA near a smell-receptor gene explains part of why some people notice it and some don't.
Clara Bennett · · 9 min read
The 1621 harvest meal probably featured venison and wild fowl, not a roast turkey. The bird got its seat at the table more than two centuries later.
Clara Bennett · · 10 min read
That flawless scoop under hot studio lights usually isn't ice cream at all. It's decades of styling tricks, from mashed potato to dyed shortening, and a modern pivot back toward the real thing.
Clara Bennett · · 10 min read
