Tausi Insider

Photo : Rawpixel.com ( Shutterstock ) Getting everyone together for holiday parties is a comforting practice as the weather gets chilly: Sharing meals and company can be the best part of the holiday rush, but finding a place for everyone to sit can be a challenge. Whether you’re fitting people around a table, or adding seats for evening cocktails, there are some simple solutions . 02:15 How to Steam an Egg Wednesday 11:19AM Before you run out to buy anything new, take a look around at what you already have. You might have an office chair you hardly ever use or a pair of stools pulled up to the counter that can be repurposed. You can use chair covers to dress up existing seats without adding too much clutter. If you get really creative, you can even use outdoor seating a cover . A picnic bench with a stretchy cover will add extra seating and no one will be the wiser. Add some stylish collapsible seating One staple for quick extra seating is the folding chair. These can be st...

The Federal Reserve building, in Washington, on Jan. 26. JOSHUA ROBERTS/Reuters Federal Reserve Bank of Boston leader Susan Collins said on Friday that with little evidence price pressures are waning, the Fed may need to deliver another 75-basis point rate hike as it seeks to get inflation under control. “We’re now in a phase where deliberate increments – all of the possible increments – should be on the table as we decide what is sufficiently tight,” Collins told CNBC. “Seventy-five still is on the table; I think it’s important to say that as well.” The Fed has lifted its policy rate more rapidly this year than any time since the 1980s, including four straight 75-basis-point increases that by early this month had brought short-term borrowing costs to a 3.75 per cent-4 per cent range, from near zero in March. Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other policy-makers have signalled that the central bank could shift to smaller rate hikes next month to avoid tightening more than necessary and sen...

Chef René Redzepi of Noma, who practices a style of cooking known as 'New Nordic,' works in the kitchen at the Copenhagen restaurant. ERIK REFNER/The New York Times News Service Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for Tausi Insider. Foodies around the globe are mourning the news from Copenhagen this week that Noma, consistently ranked the world’s best restaurant, is closing. The death of this pioneer of New Nordic cuisine is more than a blow to lovers of signature dishes such as reindeer tongue tartare. It is yet another sign that, along with human customer service reps and common courtesy, traditional fine dining is rising up the list of endangered species in our culture. The reason, according to Noma’s owner-chef René Redzepi, is that the high-end restaurant business model doesn’t work any more. Changing cultural habits, severe shortages of qualified labour and a tightening of consumers’ belts in an inflationary period are putting pressure on an industry that is notorious...