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01/11/2023 07:00 AMThis past year, people wanted to read about Jacques Pépin, invasive plants, a new restaurant in the Fair Haven neighborhood of New Haven, bird feeders, the secret of Chester’s success, and Madison Cinemas.
Here is a look at some of our most-read stories in the Living section from 2022.
“While Making the World a Better Place, Jacques Pépin Also Wants to Make Our Lives Easier”
The top Living article in 2022 was one from 2020 about one of our wonderful shoreline residents, Jacques Pépin, about how he works to make the world a better place. He was a hero during the pandemic, offering free cooking videos online, publishing a new cookbook, and working with his foundation.
“Jacques Pépin is also now working hard to promote the important work being done by the Jacques Pépin Foundation, which “supports free culinary and life skills training, through community based organizations, that helps individuals detached from the workforce gain confidence, skills, and employment in food service.” With its fundraising ability hampered by the pandemic, the foundation is now raising money by offering a video cookbook for a $40 membership, a perfect gift for the holidays that supports the good work of the foundation, at jp.foundation.”
In 2022, Pépin continued his work with the foundation, published another book, The Art of the Chicken, which is a best seller, and appeared at a variety of events, many of which sold out. He has an event coming up featuring his new book on Saturday, Jan 21 at 2 p.m. at the Sacred Heart University Community Theatre, 1420 Post Rd., Fairfield, in conjunction with R.J. Julia Booksellers. You can find out more about that here, www.rjjulia.com/events.
In the article, Pépin, who has cooked for kings and heads of state, said he increasingly appreciates simplicity of recipes that put a focus on good quality ingredients when it comes to cooking. This hearkens back to his childhood, when his family had to make the best of scarce food during World War II. “He abhors waste. He finds it rewarding when he can help people cook, making the most of their budget. He practices what he preaches and can often be found in the aisles of our local markets,” including Bishop’s in Guilford, Big Y, and Stop & Shop. “I don’t have a restaurant anymore. I want people to be able to do the food I show them so I will use only stuff I can get at a supermarket,” he said in the article. “In a regular supermarket.” You can read the full story here: www.zip06.com/features/20201216/while-making-the-world-a-better-place-jacques-pepin-also-wants-to-make-our-lives-easier
“Slow Down: It’s Time to Rethink Invasive Plants”
Our columnist Kathy Connolly, an expert on land care, landscape ecology, and horticulture who lives on the shoreline, provided us with a variety of stories this year about how best to take care of and nurture the land we live on. One of her most popular stories, and one of the top stories in the living section, urged us to reconsider invasive plants.
Rather than going after all of the invasive plants, she wrote, we should start with the “bullies” or the ones that are creating the most problems. “As someone who works in the land care business, I sometimes begin to feel as though I’m caught in an endless game of whack-a-mole. From spotted lantern flies to jumping worms, from knotweed to tree-of-heaven, landscape invasive species grabbed a lot of headlines in the past year and made my life in the landscape more challenging. Sometimes I think, who needs Halloween or a scary movie? I’d like to believe there are more systematic, less fatiguing ways to think about the problem of invasive plants,” she wrote.
She said Bernd Blossey, who has made a career investigating the phenomenon of invasive ecology, “is a leading proponent of the idea that we should step back and look at the bigger picture before reacting to invasive species.”
You can read more about that here, www.zip06.com/living/20221027/slow-down-its-time-to-rethink-invasive-plants.
Also in 2022, Connolly wrote about protecting pollinators at the local, state, and national level: (www.zip06.com/living/20220824/a-bad-day-for-a-frog-becomes-a-good-day-for-the-environment); and the Native Plant Trust, which has a mission of conserving New England’s native plants, (www.zip06.com/features/20220309/where-do-the-wild-things-grow).
“What Is The Secret To Chester’s Success?”
Why did an exhibit at the Chester Historical Society (CHS) draw visitors from Great Britain, Michigan, Texas, Canada, Massachusetts, along with many towns in Connecticut? The archivist at the Chester Historical Society (CHS), Skip Hubbard, says the exhibit, “Where We Ate, Where We Eat” held such broad appeal in part because it touched upon the secret to the small town’s success. What is it about this small town on the Connecticut River, a bit off the beaten path, that for decades has made it renowned for what you can eat when you go there? Hubbard says the seed for the town’s enduring success as a magnet for those who love food, particularly local food lovingly prepared, was likely planted several decades ago when Charlie Van Over and Priscilla Martel decided to open Restaurant du Village, Hull and Hubbard agree. You can read more about that here: www.zip06.com/living/20220921/what-is-the-secret-to-chesters-success.
“The Theater Belongs to the Community”
There was a time when movie lovers along the shoreline feared that Madison Cinemas might not make it through the pandemic intact. But then new owners Harold Blank and William Dougherty stepped up, bringing with them employees like Lizzy O’Gara and Ryan Fiorentino. Working with the former owner, Arnold Gorlick, they re-opened the doors in January of 2022 to the great relief of their fellow business owners in Madison and their customers, who come form all over Connecticut. Blank and Dougherty also own the Mystic Luxury Cinemas in Mystic, and they recently picked up the cinemas in Westbrook as well. While traffic at Madison Cinemas has not been all that they had hoped for, they are giving it their all and coming up with a variety of strategies to keep customers happy. Read the story about their re-opening here: www.zip06.com/features/20220126/the-theater-belongs-to-the-community, and our follow up here: www.zip06.com/living/20221207/at-madison-cinemas-the-shows-go-on.