Week Commencing 3 July 2023
Restaurant - Humo
Went to Humo for my mum’s birthday this weekend. The concept is that the kitchen has no gas or electricity - just wood and fire. Run by Colombian Miller Prada, protégé of Endo Kazutoshi who was on display at the centre of the kitchen all night. We went for the tasting menu which was exceptional, but what made it even better was the service and being able to watch Miller Prada and his team cook the food in front of us and interact with us throughout the night. Highlights were the lamb and all the desserts. Could not recommend this place enough and I’m certain it will get a Michelin star in no time.
Article - How a Swedish start-up reignited the search for an Alzheimer’s drug (FT)
A great primer on the state of Alzheimer’s research.
Article - 19 thoughts on affirmative action (Slow Boring)
Last week’s All-In podcast also had some good discussion on this, particularly Friedberg’s take on the importance of separating equality of opportunity and equality of outcomes. I also think it’s worth reading Erik Torenberg’s piece which does a good job in articulating the arguments and rounding up the discussion. I’ve always been sceptical of most affirmative action initiatives I’ve heard about in the US which don’t really treat the underlying roots of discrimination. The most patronising of which is the NFL’s Rooney Rule which mandates that every team must interview at least two external minority candidates for open head coaching positions and at least one external minority candidate for a coordinator job. Turns out it doesn’t work, but importantly it achieves the noble goal of letting the NFL pat themselves on the back for ending racism. IMO that’s where most of these initiatives fail, they are more about virtue signalling and collecting badges in the form of DEI statistics rather than making actual progress towards meritocracy. I feel the same way about the largely superficial motivations behind putting a black tile on your Instagram or changing your logo during pride month, it’s signalling all the way down.
TV Show - The Bear Season 2
This show didn’t need a second season. The first was a perfect, self-contained run that had incredibly storytelling and a unique way of building suspense and chaos. I went into season 2 expecting to be let down but somehow they managed to pull off two back to back seasons of perfection. Season 2 takes a completely different strategy and almost feels like a different show, this time focusing more on the ensemble cast and building rich backstories and stepping away from the high-octane kitchen shenanigans. I said a similar thing about Succession in that you don’t feel like you’re watching characters in a TV show, it feels like we’re observing genuine people, which was no more evident than in Episode 6 which was an incredible and uncomfortable hour of brilliance. Even when the show takes long detours with side-characters like the adventures of Marcus in Copenhagen, it is still gripping and doesn’t ever feel like filler. My one criticism is that the entire Clare arc felt shallow and unnecessary all the way to its fairly obvious conclusion. It stood out as a low point in the otherwise exceptional writing of the show and amidst some great character building in this season, Clare just felt like a forgettable plot device. Overall, I could not recommend this show enough and while I left Season 1 feeling like it should end on a high, I leave Season 2 excited to see what comes next.
Article - Al-Idrisi and Roger’s Book
I could go down cartography rabbit holes forever…
Also: Tabula Rogeriana: The First Great Atlas
Also: A Wonder of the Multicultural Medieval World: The Tabula Rogeriana