Repealing a misguided California law that temporarily banned the use of gloveless hands to form sushi.

It’s Not a Health Hazard to Have Sushi Made With Bare Hands, It’s a Necessity - from The Smithsonian

A California food safety law that was put into effect at the beginning of the year effectively silenced the hands of sushi chefs by requiring food workers to wear gloves while handling “ready-to-eat” food. Pending approval by the California State Senate, this provision of the law will be repealed, eliciting a big sigh of relief from sushi chefs and sushi aficionados alike. The law, which was intended to prevent the spread of foodborne illnesses, caused great disruption in sushi chefs’ routines. It changed the way they held their knives, filleted their fish, and prepared each piece of fish. Many of the chefs at the Los Angeles sushi restaurants I used to frequent felt as if they had lost their voice, for it was through their hands that they communicated with their fish, and ultimately, their hungry and loyal customers. Even the sushi chefs in Tokyo, the city I now call my home, were saddened by this news.

Tea times are coming

Move over coffee. Tea is making a comeback.

Here are a few signs I've noticed over the last few days of the new cafe competition.

From The New York Times earlier this week:

According to Kimberly Orlic, 44, the owner of A New Leaf tea emporium in Garden City, which opened in September 2012, tea awareness is on the rise.
“I think the bubble of tea growth has yet to hit us,” she said. “Even in the supermarkets, the tea selections are growing. You don’t just see Red Rose and Lipton anymore.”

From today's Chicago Tribune

And from the BBC this month:

Hard to believe for a country supposedly devoted to the cult of coffee, but today French blends are the toast of tea cognoscenti from Nanjing to New York.
Backed by multi-million-euro advertising, the Paris-based Kusmi tea is a staple of airport duty-frees, and with its new flagship store on the Champs-Elysees has seen turnover multiply by six in the last few years.
Other historic brands like Mariage Freres and Dammann are also fast expanding, selling online and opening stores across the globe.
And inside France a sudden fashion for tea has swept the middle classes. Specialist tea salons are spreading, in Paris and beyond. People take classes to learn how to taste and to serve. Literally hundreds of varieties and blends are now available for sale.

Denmark wins the world's best restaurant title with Melbourne's Attica high up the list

Goodness knows how you can judge such a contest but for what it is worth the Danish restaurant Noma has regained its title as The S.Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurant. The judges declared that Noma chef-owner René Redzepi is recognised for his highly original, sometimes visceral version of new Nordic cuisine. Having been on the list for nine years Redzepi won the best restaurant award in 2010, 2011 and 2012 before Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca had its moment of glory last year.
The food of the restored champion is described as striving to reflect the Danish landscape and culture
with signature dishes such as ‘Blackcurrant Berries and Roses’.

Redzepi’s meticulous attention to detail, innovative approach to foraging and experimentation with fermentation – all driven by passion and a relentless curiosity - has once again brought his restaurant to the pinnacle. 

Attica in Melbourne takes the title of Best Restaurant in Australasia, sponsored by Acqua
Panna, for the second year running, coming in at No.32.

Led by Ben Shewry, the cuisine is unique, imaginative, innovative and nature-led in its execution. Believing a chef should express himself through his cooking, Shewry takes his own experiences and memories, often from childhood, and portrays them through several dishes on Attica’s tasting menu. The result is a playful yet humble reminder of all that Mother Nature has to offer. 

An Australian chef did finish higher up the list with The Ledbury in London's Notting Hill where chef Brett Graham presides advancing three places to finish tenth.

Sydney's Quay restaurant was ranked as the world's 60th best.

How the list is compiled 

The list is created from the votes of The Diners Club® World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, 

an influential group of over 900 international leaders in the restaurant industry. The 

Academy comprises 26 separate regions around the world, each of which has 36 members, 

including a chairperson, and each member can cast seven votes. Of those seven, at least 

three votes must recognise restaurants outside of the academy member’s own region. 

The panel in each region is made up of food writers and critics, chefs, restaurateurs and 

highly regarded ‘gastronomes’. Voters list their choices in order of preference, based on their 

best restaurant experiences of the previous 18 months. There is no pre-determined check-list 

of criteria. 

Another old wine scandal?

I am a drinker not a hoarder and have never been into the cellaring business. Thus it is I look with a little bemusement at stories about purchasers of old wine vintages feeling cheated. What's the point of having a hundred year old bottle that you paid thousands for? No one in their right mind would think it was going to be better to drink than something ten percent of the age. Not that the rich mugs with money ever intend to find out. To them old vintages are a trophy to be displayed not drunk. They might not deserve being conned but don't get much sympathy from me.
The latest potential scandal involves an Atlanta real estate developer Julian LeCraw who has sued the Antique Wine Company for selling him some very expensive bottles of what he he claims to be counterfeit wine. One of these, priced at $100,000 and said to be the world's most expensive white wine, was a 1787 vintage of Château d'Yquem. The Daily Meal website reports that LeCraw,a fine wine collector, claims to have bought numerous bottles of wine from the Antique Wine Company, a well-known international distributor of wine based in England, including this one. Each of the 13 wines LeCraw has purchased from Stephen Williams, CEO of the Antique Wine Company, has been analyzed in a wine report by expert Maureen Downey.

“The Downey Report explains why each bottle of fake wine is not what it purports to be," the complaint states. "For instance, on some of the bottles that are supposedly centuries old, the labels were printed by computer. Others show excess glue around the labels which could not have been used by the châteaux. Other indicia of counterfeiting relates to the corks, the capsules, the sediment inside the bottle, the shape and color of the bottle, and the color of the liquid in the bottle, among other things."
The Antique Wine Company has responded to these claims with evidence that allegedly proves that the wines are genuine. "This evidence includes extensive information provided at the time of the sales to show the authenticity of the wines and subsequent documents verifying the original information," a representative of the company told The Daily Meal. "The Antique Wine Company, since its inception in 1989, has supplied hundreds of bottles of highly valuable wine to customers around the world. Ensuring the authenticity of these wines is paramount and they maintain extensive records proving traceability from the suppliers to the company and beyond including documents from chateaux and producers."
The defendant is asking for $3 million in damages in the case, which was filed in Atlanta on April 17.

Those of you interested in such shenanigans will find fuller detail on the website of Jancis Robertson

Gin revives with some new flavours

Gin Craze Returns to London With Small, Domestic Batches - Bloomberg:

Craft distillers like Sipsmith, Hendrick’s, and Sacred Spirits -- produced in a north London living room -- are changing all of that, inspiring even mass-market brands like Diageo Plc (DGE)’s Gordon’s gin to tweak their formulas. The domestic production revival brings the drink full circle from the 1700s, when a rash of homemade brews made it the favorite tipple of the city’s poor and earned it the nickname “mother’s ruin.”

Gin is always created from a juniper berry base and then distilled with a mix of ingredients such as citrus peel and coriander; newbies have won notice by experimenting with other botanical hints. Hart uses frankincense and cardamom for Sacred, while Hendrick’s, in its trademark stout bottle, relies on cucumber and Bulgarian rose.

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Labelling of products with genetically modified organisms

Bracing For A Battle, Vermont Passes GMO Labeling Bill : The Salt : NPR:

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The Green Mountain State is poised to become the first to require food companies to label products containing genetically modified ingredients.

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin tweeted he will sign a bill state lawmakers passed Wednesday mandating that foods with GMOs be labeled as having been produced with "genetic engineering." The bill would also make it illegal for foods with GMOs to be labeled "all natural" or "natural."

While Maine and Connecticut have already passed GMO labeling bills, those bills contain clauses that keep them from going into effect until surrounding states pass similar rules. Vermont's bill would go into effect on July 1, 2016.

For the past few years, consumer advocates have been ratcheting up the pressure on states and the federal government to require labeling, arguing that information about GMOs is essential if we're to make informed decisions about what food to buy.

Meanwhile, the food industry has resisted the idea of labeling, arguing that GMOs are safe and that labeling costs would be passed onto consumers.

... Foods containing GMO ingredients are common in the U.S. Some 90 percent of America's corn and soybeans are genetically modified, and egg, milk and meat producers feed their animals with those crops. But they are not required to be labeled because the FDA says they do not raise safety issues.

Once a rather niche issue, there are signs now that concerns about GMOs have gone mainstream: Federal lawmakers are weighing in.

Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., recently introduced a bill that would create a federal voluntary GMO labeling plan, but it would also outlaw state rules like Vermont's that require GMO labels.

Foodies madness - know your steak's name and number

Time for a new section on this blog - a food writing equivalent to Private Eye's Pseuds Corner.

The opening offering is by Chris Johns writing in the Canadian Globe and Mail:

Jose Gordon approaches the 2,500-kilogram ox gently. The animal eyes him warily but without fear and eventually the famed Spanish chef gets right up beside the great beast and gives him a good scratch between the horns. For some time afterward the ox follows him around the pasture like a puppy.
Gordon has brought me here, to the village of Jimenez de Jamuz in Spain, to introduce me to the animals that will become what is widely considered to be the finest, most tenderly raised and carefully documented meat in the world.
The chef travels all over Spain looking for mature, working oxen that he brings back to his farm in the Castile-Leon region where they live out their final days in relative luxury. He doesn’t pick just any ox, however.
“The animal must have a good spirit,” Gordon explains through an interpreter. “The farmer who raised it must also have a kind personality. The animals need quiet and something nice to look at.”
When it comes time to slaughter, Gordon stays with the animals ensuring they remain calm until the very end. The heads of particularly impressive oxen are mounted above the entrance to the 100-year-old wine cave where he ages much of his meat for as much as 90 days. There probably isn’a chef in the world who knows more about the meat that he serves.
The desire to know more about what we consume isn’t just limited to eccentric chefs in remote corners of Spain, however, and the desire to understand the provenance of our food is now something of an obsession.
In a famous sketch from the satirical TV show, Portlandia, a couple of post-hipster diners in a restaurant gently grill the server on the finer points of the chicken on the menu. It is a “heritage breed, woodland-raised chicken that’s been fed a diet of sheep’s milk and hazelnuts,” she assures them, adding, “His name was Colin.”
While maybe not offering to name your meal, one Toronto chef would like to offer his guests a similar level of knowledge. Danny McCallum, a chef at Jacobs & Co. Steakhouse, is at work on a pilot project with the Ontario farm, Van Groningen Meats, that will give diners an unprecedented look at the life of their steak.
“Right now as a chef I can look up each individual tag number that Van Groningen sends me and I can see who a cow’s parents were,” McCallum explains. “I can see its phenotypic appearance, so I know its dad was Angus and its mom was Hereford. I can find out what characteristics that particular animal had, when it was born, did it look more like its mom or more like its dad. I know its birth date, I know its carcass weight, pretty much everything about the animal even as far down as its nose print and its hide colour.”
McCallum’s information is displayed on little more than an Excel spread sheet now, but he plans to make the information a little more appealing. “We’re working on QR codes that people can scan with their phones and pull up all of the information and an actual picture of the animal,” he says. “I picture it kind of like a hockey card.”
This chef will be able to trace the meat from pasture to plate, giving customers the confidence that they’re eating the highest quality, humanely raised beef.

It's sushi for a President - Barack Obama at Tokyo's most famous sushi restaurant

It has three Michelin stars, only 10 seats and Barack Obama was the guest there yesterday of Japanese Prime Minister Shinto Abe.
And the presidential verdict on Sukiyabashi Jiro? "That's some good sushi right there," he said. "It was terrific. Thank you so much."

David Gelb, who directed a film about Jiro Ono described for US National Public Radio what it's like to dine at such an iconic place.

For starters, the restaurant is hidden in the basement of an office building and offers only one item on its menu — the omakase course, which can cost between $300 and $400 per person. It consists of 20 pieces of sushi, prepared and served one at a time.
"There are no appetizers, no rolls of any kind," Gelb says. "It's purely his style of sushi, which is kind of the classic Tokyo style, which is basically just fish and rice and seasoning, maybe a soy sauce or a nikiri, which is a kind of sweetened soy sauce."

And if you're fortunate enough to be one of Ono's costumers, don't even think about ordering off the menu — even if you are the president of the United States. "The Jiro that I know would not change his sushi for anyone," Gelb says, adding that "he just gives you what he feels is the best of the day."

There are a few clues on the maestro's website to help us mere mortals improve our own sushi style.

• Get the temperature right

Sushi rice or vinegared rice (su-meshi or shari) is the first consideration for nigirizushi (literally, hand-formed sushi). And the most important point for shari is to keep its temperature around the human body temperature, otherwise the sushi will never satisfy the customer. Our practice is to cook the rice so that it is done about 30 minutes before we welcome customers, to meet their high expectationsIt takes about 60 minutes from starting to wash the rice until it is done (we only use cast iron gas rice cookers that cook the rice for sushi much better than an electric cooker). The vinegar mixture or dressing prepared for sushi is slowly poured over the cooked rice to blend with it. It is then cooled down to body temperature and placed in a covered wooden rice tub, which is in turn placed in a covered straw container to keep the temperature. The vinegar mixture is absorbed by the rice to make the hardness of each grain of rice perfect for sushi. Now the shari is done.

•  Choose the rice vinegar carefully

Jiro’s sushi rice or shari is prepared with a slight sourness for a better taste, and we increase the sourness in the height of summer. We use natural salt from salt evaporation pools containing much bittern (or nigari for culinary use in Japanese) to prepare our vinegar mixture for sushi.
Our shari with its mild taste and slight sourness, when topped with neta or sushi toppings, produces an outstanding balance, an exquisite combination of pure flavors between shari and neta, which is very important for sushi.

• Control the temperature of the toppings 

The flavor and taste of neta or sushi toppings, which are typically raw fish, greatly depend on the temperature at which each topping is kept before use. Some toppings must be kept slightly cool; others must be kept at room temperature or around human body temperature.About 20 different toppings are offered at Sukiyabashi Jiro. We very carefully control the temperature of these toppings until immediately before serving to ensure that each topping is served at the ideal temperature.

Against the Grain - interest in artisanal baking surges

Against the Grain - NYTimes.com:

"True artisanal baking — with a fierce emphasis on the best ingredients, natural leavening and radical freshness — has been a quiet ebb-and-flow force for decades in this country. But in recent years the practice has enjoyed a marked surge.

Small independent bakers in New York, California, Oregon, Virginia and North Carolina (and many points in between) are going to great lengths to approach an ideal of bread that is simultaneously cutting-edge and primordial. They’re hunting down heirloom grains, early forms of wheat like emmer and einkorn, and milling their own flour. Some are traveling to Washington State to meet Dr. Stephen Jones, a rogue wheat breeder who runs the Bread Lab, a Wonka-esque wonderland for crusty, airy-crumbed experimentation.

They’re using unusually wet dough and stretching out fermentation times. They’re trying to conjure up the baker’s version of terroir, creating sourdough starter in the classic manner: simply by letting it sit, welcoming the bacteria in the air so the bread presumably tastes like the place where it was made."



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Get ready for artisanal toast - the San Francisco phenomenon is surely on the way

Cut it thick and toast out the whiteness. San Francisco's new cafe eating phenomenon. Some call it the ultimate comfort food. For others its “$4 Toast: Why the Tech Industry Is Ruining San Francisco”. The phenomenon is spreading south and eastwards. Surely that bastion of all culinary things trendy, Melbourne, will soon enable us to judge for ourselves.
To adequately prepare for what is to come, discover the origins at Pacific Standard of this eating craze; the story of how Giulietta Carrelli, a blue-eyed, 34-year-old woman with freckles tattooed on her cheeks, who suffers from schizoaffective disorder, a condition that combines symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolarity, launched her coffee shop called Trouble. Whatever you think of toast it is a wonderful foodie's story.

As US National Public Radio reported this week, "leave it to San Francisco to turn one of the simplest — and cheapest — dishes into the trendy snack du jour."

We're talking about toast.
"Artisanal" toast is made from inch-thick, snow-white or grainy slices, lathered in butter and cinnamon or peanut butter and honey, then wrapped individually in wax paper.
And you think that latte is expensive. Each one of these slices will set you back at least $3.50.
The toast craze started at an unlikely location: a modest coffee shop, called Trouble, about four blocks from San Francisco's sleepy Ocean Beach.
There, Giulietta Carrelli started selling the thick slices seven years ago. Now the "$4 toast," as the critics label it, is a featured item in bakeries, cafes and restaurants in San Francisco and beyond. Some even have a toast menu that changes daily.
Aficionados say it's the truest comfort food. And made well, toast will bring out the ultimate crumbiness and caramel notes of bread.

A way of avoiding weekend penalty rates? Robot chefs take over Chinese restaurant

Robot chefs video

The BBC reports:

A restaurant in China has started serving food that's been prepared by robots.

The owner of the eatery in the Heilongjiang Province came up with the idea as a way of cutting costs.

Wine drinkers genuinely prefer the taste of cheaper wines rather than exclusive expensive vintages

When it comes to wine Brits like to sniff out bargain and most will not pay more than £6 for a bottle, research reveals | Mail Online: 

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I doubt that things are much different in Australia!

Most Britons refuse to pay more than £6 for a bottle of wine while only one in three can name a single grape variety, it is claimed.

The shift to cheap plonk has brought claims that Britain, which imports more wine than any other nation, is effectively dumbing down as a wine nation.

Some 80 per cent of all wine sold in the UK sells for less than £6, which leaves very little profit for the producers once tax – at 60 per cent - and shipping is taken out of the equation.

Today, just 7 per cent of us are prepared to part with more than £10 for a bottle of wine, according to research by drinks specialist Harpers.

The research found that a third cannot name a single grape type and only four per cent can name more than 10. Overall, women were far less knowledgeable than men.

It might be assumed that the reason most people opt for cheap wine is a result of a five year cost of living squeeze, coupled with confusion and ignorance about what tastes good.

However, there is some research to suggest that a nation raised on big brands like Jacobs Creek, Blue Nun and Piat D’Or genuinely prefer the taste of cheaper wines rather than exclusive expensive vintages.

A study found that eight in ten people in blind taste tests preferred a bottle of wine costing £4.99 over a £19.99 option which was made from the same grapes.

Six in ten thought the £4.99 version was just so delicious that it must be the more expensive of the two, according to research by the London Wine Academy.

Instant alcohol - just a dash of water with that

The US federal government approved this brand of powderized alcohol a few days ago, on April 8, 2014. It is one of seven approved labels.
The Palcohol website (since changed) used to say:

We’ve been talking about drinks so far. But we have found adding Palcohol to food is so much fun. Sprinkle Palcohol on almost any dish and give it an extra kick. Some of our favorites are the Kamikaze in guacamole, Rum on a BBQ sandwich, Cosmo on a salad and Vodka on eggs in the morning to start your day off right. Experiment. Palcohol is great on so many foods. Remember, you have to add Palcohol AFTER a dish is cooked as the alcohol will burn off if you cook with it…and that defeats the whole purpose.

Having caused  a little controversy with comments like that, the company is now taking a more measured approach to promoting its product.

Everything you need to know about Palcohol

1. Who created it? Mark Phillips. ...

2. Why? Mark is an active guy...hiking, biking, camping, kayaking, etc. After hours of an activity, he sometimes wanted to relax and enjoy a refreshing adult beverage. But those activities, and many others, don't lend themselves to lugging heavy bottles of wine, beer or spirits. The only liquid he wanted to carry was water.

So he thought? Wouldn't it be great to have alcohol in powder form so all one had to do is add water? Since powder is light and compact, it wouldn't be a burden to carry.

Mark searched for powdered alcohol and it wasn't available. So he began his quest to create it. After years of research, experimentation and consultation with scientists around the world, he finally came up with powdered alcohol and called it Palcohol. 

Now Palcohol is here. A great convenience for the person on the go. One package weighs about an ounce and is small enough to fit into any pocket. 

It's not just for the sportsperson. Palcohol can be transported in your luggage without the fear of bottles breaking. In any situation where weight and breakage is an issue, Palcohol provides the answer. That's why we say, "Take your Pal wherever you go!"

3. What is the alcoholic content when consuming it? Palcohol, when used as directed, by adding five ounces of liquid to it, is equal to a standard mixed drink. 

4. What's in it? It varies per version but basically, alcohol....and in the cocktail versions, natural flavorings and Sucralose as a sweetener. The ingredients of each version are listed on the front of the package. Palcohol is gluten free.

5. How is it made? If we told you, we'd have to shoot you. We are in the process of patenting it and it is currently patent pending. 

6. What flavors are there? We plan on releasing six versions sold in a pouch that is the equivalent to one shot of alcohol: 

• V which is powder made from premium vodka distilled four times.
• R which is powder made from premium Puerto Rican rum

V and R can be used two ways. One way is by adding five ounces of your favorite mixer to make a Rum and Coke, Vodka and Orange Juice, etc. Another option is adding five ounces of water to the powder and then adding a flavored drink powder to make it any flavor you want. The result is equivalent to one average mixed drink. 

The four cocktail versions are:

• Cosmopolitan
• Mojito
• Powderita - tastes just like a Margarita
• Lemon Drop

Just add water to these four flavors for an instant cocktail. 

7. Who owns Palcohol? Palcohol is owned by a privately held company called Lipsmark. There are no investment opportunities at this time nor do we plan on going public anytime soon. 

8. Are we looking for investors, distributors or employees? No, no and no but thanks for offering. For those people who want to sell it or buy packages of it, please subscribe to our mailing list to receive that information down the road. 

9. Where will it be sold? Think of Palcohol as liquor....just in powder form. It will be sold anywhere where liquor can be sold and a buyer must be of legal drinking age to buy it. It will be available both in the United States and abroad and it can also be bought online. 

10. Can Palcohol be added to food? Beer, wine and spirits are often added to dishes to enhance the flavor. When you add Palcohol to food, you're not really adding flavor to the dish, just alcohol. We've been experimenting with it like adding Powderita powder to guacamole, Cosmopolitan powder on a salad, V in a vodka sauce, etc. It gives the food a kick. 

As Palcohol is a new product, we have yet to understand its potential of being added to food. As always, please use it responsibly. Because it adds alcohol to the dish, do not serve the dish to minors.

11. Can I snort it? We have seen comments about goofballs wanting to snort it. Don't do it! It is not a responsible or smart way to use the product. To take precautions against this action, we've added volume to the powder so it would take more than a half of a cup of powder to get the equivalent of one drink up your nose. You would feel a lot of pain for very little gain. Just use it the right way.

12. When will it be available? We expect it to be for sale this fall. No samples will be released ahead of time.

14. What is the calorie content? Well, it depends on what liquid you add to it. The powder by itself is about 80 calories per bag. 

And lastly, we want to emphasize again, when Palcohol is available, to use it responsibly and legally.  

Americans’ thirst for cocktails is boosting US sales of the bitter red aperitif that defines the classic Negroni.

Campari toasts US cocktail’s renaissance - FT.com:



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The herb-infused cocktail is popping up everywhere from Manhattan’s Lincoln Ristorante, where customers can design their own mix of spirits, bitters and vermouths, to Jasper’s in San Francisco, which serves the cocktail on tap from a keg filled with Campari, gin and sweet vermouth – the original recipe.

The beer drinking decline continues in an Australia sobering up

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released this week show that on a per capita basis there were 9.9 litres of pure alcohol available for consumption per person in 2012-13, 1.6% less than the amount in 2011-12 (10.0 litres) and 8.2% less than 2007-08 (10.8 litres). As a standard drink consists of 12.5 mls of pure alcohol, this is equivalent to an average of 2.2 standard drinks per day per person aged 15 years and over.

The long term trend:

(a)includes rtds

The long term decline is he result of a dramatic fall in the consumption of beer. The volume of beer available for consumption decreased 1.8% between 2011-12 and 2012-13, from 1,762.4 million litres to 1,730.1 million litres. The volume of full strength beer decreased 2.4% while low strength beer decreased 9.4%. Mid strength beer recorded an increase (up 3.7%).

In terms of pure alcohol, consumption of beer has more than halved since the peak in the mid-1970s, and is now at the lowest level since 1945-46.

For wine, there has been a steady increase in people’s consumption over the long term but recently this trend appears to have plateaued, and in fact, per person consumption of wine has decreased slightly over the past three years.

Ready-to-drink beverages have also seen a drop over the past five years, while consumption of spirits has remained relatively steady,

(b) includes rtds

Bill Gates enters the fake meat market

Fake Meats, Finally, Taste Like Chicken - NYTimes.com:

"Demand for meat alternatives is growing, fueled by trends as varied as increased vegetarianism and concerns over the impact of industrial-scale animal husbandry on the environment. The trend has also attracted a host of unlikely investors, including Biz Stone and Evan Williams of Twitter, Bill Gates and, most recently, Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong magnate.

“I’ve tasted a few,” Mr. Gates wrote in a multimedia piece on the Beyond Meat investment that was posted to his blog, “and they’re very convincing.”"



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Do you take notice of on-line restaurant reviews? Then here's some advice

When you read a restaurant review on TripAdvisor or its equivalent, look carefully at the date it was written. And if you come across a negative review and try and remember what the weather was like at the time. Why? Because a study of nearly 1.1 million reviews of 840,000 restaurants over nearly a decade shows that if the weather was uncomfortable the comments were more likely to be cruel than kind.

The researchers, Saeideh Bakhshi, a doctoral student at the Georgia Institute of Technology; her husband, Partha Kanuparthy, who works for Yahoo Labs; and Eric Gilbert, an assistant professor at the university, found that the most negative reviews were written when it was colder than 4C degrees or warmer than 38C (40 and 100 degrees on the fahrenheit scale), or if it was raining or snowing.

Ms. Bakhshi will present her findings next week in Seoul, South Korea, at the International World Wide Web Conference and in an interview with the New York Times said that some regions of the United States were more prolific in their online reviewing habits than others. Restaurants in the Northeast and on the West Coast were reviewed more than those in the South or the Midwest. Predictably, urban areas with a higher level of education and income tended to participate in online review sites more often.

Among the other findings:

People who waited a long time for a table in busy cities were more forgiving than those who waited in smaller communities. And sushi restaurants were consistently rated higher than hamburger places, the researchers said, showing that ambience and a higher meal cost could produce better reviews.

“That speaks to the perception of price,” Ms. Bakhshi said. “Places that have nice ambience and are listed as romantic or trendy or more expensive, the rating is higher.”

… The team found that Seattle, as a whole, tended to offer lower reviews than many other cities. Sunny San Diego had the most five-star reviews.

To reach their conclusions the authors created analytic computer models based on data from several sites, including TripAdvisor, Foursquare and Citysearch.

Restaurants and bars - new clients for political consultants?

Want Guns With That? Chefs Find Politics Hotter Than Kitchen - From NY Times 

As the position restaurants hold in American culture grows, so too does the list of issues on which chefs are asked to make a stand. Refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding, requesting that a woman not breast-feed at the table or trying to prevent a diner from wearing a gun can have serious business implications. “It’s almost like restaurants have to have a political strategist on board now when they put together their marketing plan,” said Andrew Freeman, a San Francisco-based consultant to the restaurant and hotel industry.

What's in a name? Well the French men at Margaret River want one

Wine industry to endorse names - The West Australian:

Margaret River's wine industry is set to enter a new era based on harsh commercial realities after a crisis meeting sparked by a legal dispute over rights to the historic Wallcliffe name. 

The industry is set to ratify the names commonly used to describe sub-regions in Margaret River and to establish clear rules on branding and labelling for the first time. The issue of whether Wallcliffe survives as one of those sub-regions remains unresolved after the biggest gathering of producers in more than 10 years. 

Emotions ran high yesterday as more than 50 producers met behind closed doors over French-owned Cape Mentelle's pursuit of exclusive rights to the name Wallcliffe, which has been part of the State's history since the 1800s.