Reviewers, smaller cornettos, opium poppies as a food additive and other news and views

Trend that strikes at the heart of the restaurant business - Chefs who drop à la carte rebrand themselves as artist-performers whose work we pay to experience

A Conversation With Pete Wells - The New York Times’ restaurant critic on puncturing pretension in fine dining, the rise of foodie-ism, and why nothing tastes better than Oreos.

Q. Do you think you write too often about restaurants that are out of reach?

A. You know, I think about it. On the one hand, yes, a lot of these places we’re talking about are very small and not many people can get in, and some of them only do one seating a night or two seatings a night, or they’re open three or four days a week, and I do wonder about how many people they’re actually serving. On the other hand, the very places where the food is extremely creative and thought-out and a lot of care is taken, they do represent the higher end of refinement. There’s a little bit of tension there about wanting to write about places that regular people can actually go to and feel like I’m covering, for lack of a better word, advances in the field.

US fine wine sales to rise in 2016 as overall market shrinks – forecast

China finds restaurants using opium poppies in food - Thirty-five restaurants across China have been found illegally using opium poppies as a seasoning, officials have revealed. ... Poppy powder, which contains low amounts of opiates, is banned as a food additive in China. However, restaurants have previously been caught using it.

A Cooking Class Where New Immigrants Learn The Recipe For English - On a recent Wednesday afternoon, 20 recent immigrants and refugees to the United States streamed into a shiny commercial-size kitchen on the fourth floor of the Free Library of Philadelphia's central branch. They were here to partake in the library's take on teaching English as a second language. The program, dubbed Edible Alphabet, is run through the library and Nationalities Service Center, an organization that helps settle refugees when they arrive in Philadelphia. By offering English instruction in the form of a cooking lesson, organizers hope to provide a familiar setting for the students — who hail from over 10 different countries — to connect to each other.

Magnum and Cornetto ice creams to shrink - Unilever said the move was to help consumers "make healthier choices." From the spring, "single serving" portions will contain no more than 250 calories.

Eating for life: Live Well challenges restaurants, helps patrons - People say they want to eat better and live heathier, but how can they when restaurants are high-calorie dens of temptation? Fatty entrees, huge portions, endless drink refills — you know the gut-bulging feeling. The Live Well Restaurant program of the Allegheny County Health Department has an alternative — places where consumers are offered good-for-you meals, nutrition information and options that make for healthy choices. On Thursday the department rolled out the first five restaurants that will be able to display the Live Well sticker.

Investors toast Treasury Wine's earnings