Editor’s Note: Every year, as we enter the holiday season, we pause to look back on the best books, music, shows, and other cultural expressions we encountered in 2025. It’s not a “best of 2025″ list, but a list of the best media the Chefs consumed during 2025 — they might be classics, a few years old, or brand new. Here’s the first in the 2025 series of Chefs’ Selections.

Rick Anderson

As is my usual practice (due to the truly pedestrian and uninteresting nature of my reading habits), I’m sharing three particularly noteworthy new releases that came across my desk this year in my capacity as a music critic.

Josquin des Prez et al. — Josquin in Poland

This album is provocatively titled. There’s no evidence that the great Franco-Flemish composer Josquin des Prez ever set foot in Poland — however, his music had begun finding its way into Poland’s musical environment before his death in 1521 (apparently in the form of miscellaneous music sheets used as binding paper) and then his works began appearing in complete versions in various Polish cathedral libraries by the middle of the century. One of those works was his parody Mass on Antoine Brumel’s motet Mater Patris, a work so stylistically odd that some doubt persists today as to whether he was the actual composer. The work became odder still when a Polish copyist took significant liberties with its content, turning what was originally intended as a faithful reproduction into a considerably different piece of music. This gorgeous and unique recording incorporates elements of both versions as well as selections from Josquin’s liturgical motets and Brumel’s original motet. The singing is very different from what one would normally expect for this repertoire — reedy and intense, with a distinctly Eastern Orthodox feeling.

Tim Reaper & Kloke – In Full Effect

Fully thirty years after its emergence as a dance music subgenre, there’s still nothing quite like a good dose of old-school jungle. The jittery, double-speed breakbeats, the descending bong-bong-bong basslines played at half speed to the drum parts, the dubwise vocals floating in and out of the mix, the cutting and chopping and crazy special production effects — jungle changed the world of pop music, and its reverberations haven’t died out yet. Just ask London’s Tim Reaper and Victoria, Australia’s Kloke, two producers who are dedicated to continuing the old-school tradition and do so beautifully on this thrilling release. From the album-opening “Continuities” (with its gut-shaking sub bass) to the frenetic bongos of “Blood Pressure,” to closing track “Wildstyle” (with its sci-fi synths and radically chopped-up breakbeat), this is more than just a celebration of a bygone genre — it’s a powerful demonstration of the fact that jungle is not actually bygone at all.

Hilary Hawke – Lift Up This Old World

Banjoist and songwriter Hilary Hawke really shines on this, her latest solo album, which features contributions from an A-list roster of fellow New York City folkies like guitarist Ross Martin, fiddler Camille Howes, and bassist Max Johnson. Hawke works in both bluegrass/three-finger and clawhammer modes, which is by no means unheard of, but pretty unusual for a banjo player — and even more unusually for a banjo player, she plays clarinet on one track. That stylistic range means that she’s comfortable both celebrating and pushing the boundaries of tradition: her own “New York City Waltz” sounds more like acoustic Americana than bluegrass or old-time, whereas “World Rests Its Head” opens up sounding like 1980s-style new acoustic music and then turns into Tin Pan Alley-worthy songcraft. Elsewhere, she repurposes “Auld Lang Syne” as “All I’ve Ever Known” and brings to light a delightful old-time obscurity in “4 Cent Cotton” (which may or may not be closely related to the more familiar “Greenback Dollar”). Everything here is a complete delight.

Roy Kaufman

Atmosphere (Novel)

In December 1984, Joan Goodwin is one of NASA’s first female astronauts, navigating her place in a world previously restricted to men. She is serving as the mission control communicator (CAPCOMM) when something goes very wrong on the shuttle containing some of her closest friends and rivals.

As Joan works to help the crew, we learn Joan’s story — how she became an astronaut and how she discovered herself through her relationships with her colleagues. Joan must navigate double standards for women as well as outright hostility towards gay people in a time seemingly not so long ago, but a full 10 years before “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Foremost, though, Atmosphere is an exciting page turner, combining Apollo 11-level excitement with realistic and complicated depictions of both NASA training and human relationships.

Dr B-Pang (Film)

Sometimes you just want art that is lighthearted and silly. The Korean film Dr B-Pang, which has not yet been theatrically released in the US (but shown in preview at New York’s Korean Cultural Center), is no doubt full of cultural references that went straight over my head. Nonetheless, it is a warm story about a young aspiring K-pop idol (Hosoo) whose career is failing after someone has done him wrong. Seeking a new career outside of the limelight, he opens a food stall in an unhip neighborhood making fish-shaped pastries. Through magical intervention, one such pastry (B-Pang) comes to life. B-Pang has a knack for recipes and with his help and that of his neighbors, Hosoo finds new success.

Korean street food, friendship and K-pop. What’s not to enjoy?

Alice Meadows

Reading is like therapy for me, so the higher my stress levels, the more I read. So it’s no surprise that this year I’ve blown it out of the park, which made choosing just one book even more challenging than usual! But in the end, I’ve settled on The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe (Europa Editions). He’s a British writer who I don’t think is as well known elsewhere as he should be. I love his books in part because he’s the same age as me and grew up in the Midlands as I did, so a lot of what he writes about is very familiar. He’s also a master of dark humor, which I have a definite soft spot for!