The Stacking Wood Edition

Dear Pros,

Hunter here.

Sourcing firewood is like playing a rigged game at the carnival. A wood guy will look you square in the eye, take a long pull off his cigarette, and swear on his mother's grave that the wood he is about to sell you is seasoned. But there's a high probability that you've bought freshly cut, unseasoned wood instead. With its high moisture content, green wood doesn't burn. It smokes. Green wood is a bummer.

I learned this years ago from a man named Willis. Every fall here in Birmingham, Willis and his brother Peewee would back a vintage Ford F-150 into my driveway and drop off a cord of wood. Willis was an imposing man with the gift of gab. Peewee was his foil, a wisp of a guy who didn't utter a word. The one time I complained that their wood wouldn't light, Willis gave me a jar of moonshine, patted me on the shoulder, and said the tree must have been struck by lightning. Turns out, their wood business was a tax shelter for the moonshine operation. The brothers kept the good wood to fuel their still, but it didn't make their mid-grade moonshine taste any better.

After a couple years of letting Willis pull the wool over my eyes, I finally smartened up and asked my buddy Rob McDaniel where he ordered the wood for his restaurant, Helen. He referred me to a small outfit that dried their white and red oak wood in a solar-powered kiln so it would burn hot and clean. Rob's guy became my guy, too. And when that guy died unexpectedly, another reputable guy took his place. Once you find a source like this, you refer him to your friends and give him as much business as he can handle. You tip him well.

When it comes to chopping, I use an 8-pound maul, like pitmaster Rodney Scott recommends, to split circular pieces of wood into smaller pieces. Then I use a kindling cracker to transform those large pieces into medium-size standard cuts about 16 inches in length, and smaller pieces (called kindling) that are so thin they can be snapped in half by hand. In the fireplace, I criss-cross the kindling on top of the grate first, level up to the standard cuts, and then add a few larger pieces on top of the structure that looks sort of like a Lincoln Log cabin. This yields a more efficient and attractive fire and lifts the mood of everyone in the room.

If sourcing wood requires discernment and chopping requires tools, techniques, and labor, then stacking it requires forethought and discipline. The Scandinavians and Swiss know how to stack wood like Olympic champions. You don't have to enter into a contest inspired by the book Norwegian Wood to create the most artistic stack, but please don't take shortcuts. The pile should be close to your home so you don't have to venture out too far during bad weather. The stack should sit up off the ground, and the wood should have enough air circulating in between the logs so they continue to dry through the winter. It should look tidy and not just because your neighbors will judge you by the quality of your stack. Cover it with a tarp or a piece of tin to keep it dry.

What am I getting at here? The journalism we practice here at Food & Wine reminds me of sourcing, chopping, and stacking good wood. We're not serving up flickering yule logs on the TV. We're igniting the genuine thing and stoking and feeding the fire regularly.

Herewith, a list of the stories, podcasts, people, and moments that built on our 47-year legacy at Food & Wine and generated the most heat this year. Cozy up.

"The City That Rice Built," Jeff Gordinier’s and George McCalman's James Beard Award-winning story about the history and legacy of rice in Charleston also earned Food & Wine its first National Magazine Award and launched an ongoing conversation at the Food & Wine Classic in Charleston about who gets credit for the region's canonical dishes like red rice.

My colleague Kat Kinsman's conversations with restaurateur and sommelier June Rodil and author and TV personality Padma Lakshmi generated the most downloads of our podcast Tinfoil Swans, while a heart-to-heart with Oscar-winning actress and newly-minted wine purveyor Regina King left listeners rapt. I was grateful to ride the Swan twice, to reveal the 2025 Best New Chefs, and to talk with my predecessor, longtime F&W Editor in Chief Dana Cowin about the history of the accolade.

Comfort food dominated our list of 20 most popular recipes of the year and gave yet another reason why you should be frying saltines for your relish tray this holiday season. Our rigorously tested and re-tested recipes are also the perfect counterargument to the AI slop that's ruined countless dinners this year.

Writer Kim Cross traveled to Alaska to track a wild salmon from Bristol Bay to her dinner plate back home in Idaho. It was an epic journey that pulled back the veil on a supply chain that delivers one of the healthiest proteins, and also needs a helping human hand to sustain its pleasures for future generations.

Chef and artist Roscoe Hall is one of the next great onscreen cooking stars. His videos in the F&W Test Kitchen, "Well Done, Chef," are not just an opportunity to smile from ear to ear, but to shout out the country's best chefs and empower deliciousness in your own kitchen as he demonstrates proper technique. You should also check out my colleagues Ray Isle and Lucy Simon as they demystify wine on camera, too.

This year we also added new dimensions to the Best New Chef accolade, including the BNC Restaurant Guide to help you decide where to go to dinner. We also caught up with 66 BNC alumni and Diane Moua, whose namesake Diane's Place in Minneapolis earned Restaurant of the Year, at the New York City party unveiling the 2025 class of BNCs.

Top Chef judge and F&W alum Gail Simmons guest edited a special digital issue "At Canada's Table" to share why we should all travel north this year. Writer and tastemaker Christine Muhlke profiled the singer, entertainer, and rum maven Ciara for our Holiday Entertaining issue, and Ciara lit up the stage with 2019 BNC Kwame Onwuachi at the Food & Wine Classic in Charleston.

Speaking of, Charleston chef and writer Amethyst Ganaway is a storyteller who should be on your radar, and her shrimp salad recipe should be in your repertoire. We partnered with the ascendant cookbook author and educator to co-produce the Welcome Party at the Food & Wine Classic in Charleston last month, a celebration of Gullah Geechee culture and foodways that featured chefs like BJ Dennis, and a propulsive nine-piece band the Gullah Collective.

While you're warming your hands by the fire this holiday season, consider curling up with a few of our favorite F&W stories from the past year, including writer John T. Edge's meditation on great hospitality, F&W Senior Photo Editor Doan Nguyen's essay on her family's escape from Saigon, and our full-team exploration of the most significant food and beverage trends of the past 25 years.

Thank you for reading, Pros. May your holidays burn bright.