1 . Maybe you grew up eating food made by your grandmothers, mouth-watering dishes that bring back sweet, unforgettable memories. Perhaps it was Italian noodles or even Chinese dumplings. Now, at Enoteca Maria, a unique restaurant in New York City, you can eat the dishes same to your grandmother’s cooking.

When Joe Scaravella opened his restaurant, he named it after his mother. Then, in order to remember his grandmother, Joe invited local grandmothers to cook Italian dishes in his kitchen. “I wanted to try to recreate that: the grandma cooking in the kitchen”, he said.

Enoteca Maria is an Italian restaurant where half of the menu changes daily. The fixed half is Italian; the changeable half includes cuisines from all over the world. And what makes the restaurant unique is not professional chefs calling the shots in the kitchen, but grandmothers! Each night, a grandmother from a different country designs a fresh menu, honoring her native cuisine and the food she loves best. Currently, the restaurant is only open three days a week: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Although it’s usually packed, the grandmothers arrange everything orderly.

When the restaurant first opened, several local Italian grandmothers from different Italian regions would cook their own special dishes on a regular schedule, sometimes launching friendly competitions of whose dish was better. When people from different cultures visited the restaurant to get a taste of original Italy, Scaravella decided to extend the competition to include women from across the globe, to make sense to celebrate every culture, and thus, in 2015, the “Grandmothers of the World” initiative was born.

Now, business is running at full speed with around 30 grandmothers from different nationalities cooking in the kitchen.

Robot Chef Learns to Twirl (旋转) Pizza Like a Pro

Pizza has a proud history of fueling late-night lab work, and scientists in Naples—an Italian city famous for its pizza—have easy access to some of the world’s tastiest take-out. But what inspires engineer Bruno Siciliano is not that first bite     1     much as how the dish is made.

“Preparing a pizza involves an extraordinary level of agility and dexterity (敏捷和灵巧),” says Siciliano, who directs a robotics research group at the University of Naples Federico Ⅱ. Stretching a deformable object like a lump of dough (面团) requires an accurate and gentle touch. It is one of the few things humans can handle, but robots cannot—yet.

Siciliano’s team     2     (develop) a robot able to make a pizza pie. RoDyMan (short for Robotic Dynamic Manipulation) is a five-year project     3     (support) by a €2.5-million grant from the European Research Council. Like a human chef, RoDyMan must throw the dough into the air to stretch it,     4     (follow) it as it spins and anticipating how it will change shape.

RoDyMan has been working this spring toward a milestone: stretching the dough     5     tearing it. To guide the robot, Siciliano’s team asked master pizza chef Enzo Coccia to wear a suit of movement-tracking sensors. “We learn [Coccia’s] motions, and we copy them with RoDyMan,” Sciliano says.

RoDyMan uses visual sensors in its head to track the dough in real time. Using software, it can train     6     to handle the pizza like a chef would. The robot     7     (map) the dough’s position and tracks how it moves. Through practice, the robot     8     get better—much like humans develop “muscle memory.” Researchers hope RoDyMan’s technology can lead to a new generation of robots that will perform tasks in ways     9     are accurate and responsive, if not more lifelike.

Yet Siciliano admits that     10     compares with a traditional chef. “I would never eat a pizza made by a robot,” he says. “It would not have the taste a real pizzaiolo, with his soul, would put in it.”

5 . Over the past ten months of pandemic life, cooking has become a shelter for me. New York Times food editor Sam Sifton referred to Korean fried rice and said it "improves moods, atmospheres and weeks alike".     1     I'd argue it improves physical health, finances and skills, and reduces stress. Really, cooking is a rewarding thing you should do these days.

Cooking food for yourself is beneficial to your physical health. When you cook your own food, you control exactly what goes into your body. It's the best possible way to “dial in” or clean up your diet.     2     A recent survey has found that twice as many Americans are cooking at home than a year ago, and that nearly a quarter are doing so in an effort to eat healthier.

    3       It's considerably cheaper than ordering from restaurants, or buying prepared food from supermarkets. It's found that ordering takeout is five times more expensive. The difference is more obvious if you’re cooking for a family.

In terms of improving cooking skill, you can't help but improve if you do it over and over again. With so many other outlets for hobbies shut down right now, why not view your kitchen as a mini universe to be explored? You've got the tools, not to mention the human requirement to eat. I can't think of another hobby where your body physically requires you to practice several times daily.     4    

How does cooking relieve stress, you might be wondering?     5     If you're organized enough to cook meals in advance, you end the weeknight dilemma of “what's for dinner?”. Furthermore, as you get better at cooking, you will spare the need to order food.

The “sour and spicy shredded (细丝) potato” is a typical home cooking dish in China which    1    (see) frequently at home and in restaurants because of the simple cooking method. Although it belongs to Sichuan cuisine, the dish now is    2    choice many diners can’t resist all over China. Its flavor can be flexibly adjusted by adding different    3    (amount) of peppers and vinegar. The only main ingredient (原料), potato, is    4    (reasonable) priced in all seasons. When cooked well, it    5    (look) bright and the potato shreds are clear and crisp with sour and spicy taste. It has won the love of the majority of people in China and been regarded    6    one of the best matches for rice. Here is the way of its cooking.

Wash the potatoes and remove the skin. Cut them into thin and similar shreds. Put in salt water for a few minutes    7    (remove) the starch (淀粉) and clean them well. Heat the oil in the pan. Add and fry green onion and dried peppers before adding the potato. Then add all the other ingredients    8    (include) white vinegar, peppers and salt. Fry the potato    9    it is well cooked. You should be    10    (care) that you do not overcook the potato.

As a vast country, China currently has eight major cuisine (烹饪) types. Climates, histories and dining customs differ greatly,     1     (lead) to differences in coking methods and flavor preferences.

For example, the Sichuan cuisine is famous     2     its spicy flavor and red color; the southern Guangdong kitchen, with is mild and fresh taste,     3     (keep) the food’s natural flavors; while the Shandong cuisine from the     4     (relative) northern part of China tastes salty.

Huaian is located on the north-south divide of China, with Yangzhou nearby. The geographical location provides the district with     5     combination of both northern and southern Chinese cooking. Thus the Huaiyang kitchen is a general term for dishes from Huaian and Yangzhou,     6     is also known as one of the four major     7     (tradition) Chinese cuisines.

The Huaiyang menu takes fish as its main feature, as both the cities are not far from the Yangtze River, the     8     (three) longest waterway in the world. Its cooking has a light and sweet flavor. As the cuisine drew     9     (inspire) from specialties (特色菜) across the country, it also spread to the more northern parts of China. According to historic records, emperors of the Qing Dynasty     10     (attract) to the place for its reputation as a delight and paid regular visits to have a bite.

10 . Whenever I’ve had a few stressful weeks, I typically schedule a “cooking day”. Working on recipes that I already know builds my confidence; trying out some new ones adds an element of surprise. In the end, I feel satisfied by the products of my work.     1     You can find your own relief in preparing food.

    2     This multisensory aspect of cooking is like a coping tool for stressful situation, the 5-4-3-2-1 technique. It allows you to quickly connect with the present moment by encouraging you to notice five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste.     3     You might feel a bit calmer at the end.

Another key feature of cooking is that it’s connected to and shaped by the past. What you choose to cook, and the way you prepare it, might issue in part from the preferences and techniques of your parents, grandparents, friends or partners.     4     This link is part of cooking’s psychological richness and its potential to restore.

Trying new recipes and new ingredients can help you with the creation of new memories.     5     And, if you are wise in your choice of healthy ingredients, the food itself could have subsequent benefits for your psychological wellbeing.

The next time you step into the kitchen and try your hand at a new dish, try to consciously take notice of what’s going on in your mind and in your body, of what sorts of feelings cooking brings out in you.