I'll bet any one of you ten bucks that when you were 19, you were nowhere near as productive as Eléonor Picciotto.

I don't think it's ever been a big secret that Europe (in this case, Greece and Germany), sometimes blows us out of the culinary water. But here's further proof: whole grains, people, whole grains! Yes, quinoa is trendy (and mostly mispronounced), but I'm talking about the kind of whole grains that steal meals on their own. They are capable of subtly elevating a dish to stellar levels, and they have recently gotten the full star treatment from food-writer-turned-cookbook-author Maria Speck, in her new Mediterranean-inspired Ancient Grains for Modern Meals.