As of this writing, I have just eaten my favorite focaccia: the shakshuka slice from Brooklyn’s Radio Bakery. It is a thick, bubbly, tomatoey hunk of slightly charred bread that asks the question, Is there really any difference between focaccia and a grandma slice? It is just on the borderline of slightly too much for breakfast, which is why I reserve it as an only bimonthly (or so) little treat.

What really sends this focaccia over the edge is the addition of an egg on each piece. How wholly unnecessary — I would have gotten the shakshuka vibe even without it, eggs being such a luxe ingredient now and all — and yet how delicious! What could be just a humble bread instead becomes a maximalist indulgence. Similarly extravagant is the bakery’s BEC focaccia, topped with bacon, egg, bechamel, and cheese — a combo that is, admittedly, a little too much for me.

Five years ago, the pandemic and its associated bread-baking brought in a record amount of interest in focaccia, a bread with a relatively low barrier to entry. Even I — who, at the time, resisted anything to do with yeast due to a history of failed bakes — learned to consistently churn out picture-perfect trays. I experimented with toppings: kimchi and sesame seeds; sungold tomatoes, ready to burst; caramelized onions and cheese. We saw the proliferation of the bubbly bread on various restaurant menus. And a slew of baby bakers showed off their “garden focaccias” somewhere between dalgona coffee and Emily Mariko salmon bowls.

Unlike those trends, focaccia hasn’t really died down. This makes sense, of course: Focaccia is so compelling because it’s hard to mess up and it’s easy to modify and these are the foundational elements of any TikTok-era food trend. Like many things in the food culture, it has taken a maximalist turn as bakers increasingly test focaccia’s limits. Creator and cookbook author Lacey Ostermann, known as @_lacebakes_, even has a series called Will It Focaccia? that seems to be responsible for at least some of these trends. She’s up to episode 27, aka carrot cake focaccia.

For baking inspiration — or to your horror, if you’re a traditionalist — these are five maximalist focaccias that recently made me do a double take:

1. From Erin Clarkson of Cloudy Kitchen, a cheeseburger focaccia covered in pickles and special sauce. “Probably one of my most delicious rage bakes to date,” she writes.

2. One of Ostermann’s most popular focaccias: a much-imitated jelly doughnut focaccia.

3. A Chicago hot dog focaccia with all the fixings from creator Alex Kelikian, also behind a Chicago Italian beef focaccia.

4. Cinnamon roll focaccia is having a moment.

5. The seasonal focaccias at Librae Bakery show off the best of the farmers market.

More for the table:

ICYMI: This snarky review of Molly Baz’s and Alison Roman’s books had me cackling out loud: “Maybe there’s a martini-stained Keens napkin in a butter-yellow drawer somewhere with a contract written in Essie Clambake dictating that Roman gets New York and Baz gets L.A. That Roman writes in adult English and Baz writes in adult baby.”
This New York Times feature on the polarizing nature of steak fries inspired some discourse in the Eater Slack. Personally, I’m for them, even when they’re a little floppy.
In Taste, the proliferation — and commercialization — of jerk.
I love a by-the-numbers story. Here’s the last night at the Brooklyn bar Leyenda, measured by limes.