Monday, February 29, 2016

Waiting in the street before eating the new fashion

Why the Hottest Restaurants Make Us Wait in the Cold - It's Thursday night in London's Soho and it's not looking good for the hungry. Outside Hoppers, a Sri Lankan café, diners are told there is a wait of as long as two hours for a table. A few doors along Frith Street, customers are standing in Barrafina until seats come free for tapas. A few streets away, people line up in the rain to get into Bao for Taiwanese snacks. Nearby, the casual Venetian bàcaro Polpo is full, too. All are no-reservations restaurants. How did we get to this situation, where many London diners accept (albeit with some grumbling) that they can't just phone up and book a table? And why do some restaurateurs reckon it's acceptable to make us wait? ...



Hoppers has now moved to a queue-management system called Qudini, that allows would-be diners to wander off while they wait for their table. They receive a text when it is ready. This helps eliminate lines outside restaurants and can take the frustration out of queuing.


The baffling reason many millennials don’t eat cereal - On Monday, the New York Times published a story about the breakfast favorite, and the most disconcerting part was this:
Almost 40 percent of the millennials surveyed by Mintel for its 2015 report said cereal was an inconvenient breakfast choice because they had to clean up after eating it.
Cereal isn't the only food suffering from a national trend toward laziness. Coffee has suffered a similar fate. Despite talk of a third wave of coffee, which values quality above all else, and basks in artisanal rather than effortless methods of preparation, Americans still covet convenience above all else. 

Republican lawmaker wants to ban welfare recipients from buying steak and lobster

When Beef Is Off Limits, Beaver And Muskrat Make It To Lenten Menu - Many Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays in observance of Lent, the season of penance between Ash Wednesday and Easter. The church has made exceptions — at times, in some places — for aquatic mammals such as beavers, muskrats and capybara. That's good enough for Brenton Brown. "A friend of ours said that the Catholic Church is fine with this for Lent," says Brown, co-owner of Bootleggin' BBQ in St. Louis, which is now serving "humanely trapped" smoked beaver on Fridays during Lent.


Cookbook Explores Recipes From India's Most Famous Slum - 

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Setting the French straight about croissants and other food and drink news

Editorial in London's Daily Telegraph

British Retailer’s Straight Croissants Leave Some Bent Out of Shape - LONDON — The croissant, the buttery breakfast pastry, means “crescent” in French. But don’t tell that to the British. Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket chain and a bellwether of sorts for popular tastes, is dispensing with the traditional curved pastry as of Friday and instead will sell only straight ones. The company offered a decidedly British rationale: It is easier to spread jam on the straight variety. The banishing of the crescent-shaped croissant spurred no shortage of dismay on both sides of the English Channel. “Is this a foretaste of Brexit?” an article in the French newspaper 20 Minutes asked, referring to the possibility that British voters might decide in a referendum to leave the European Union. The newspaper added that it appeared that Tesco’s move was not done “to antagonize the French (well, not solely).”

Tasmanian oyster crisis:Vital research into oyster disease threatening the industry in jeopardy

Chinese restaurants in Australia documented for posterity by historians

I dare you to read this and still feel good about tipping

An image that shows how polarized the salt debate has become.
The blotches of red and blue here represent instances where scientists cited  like-minded research; those in green show instances where scientists referred to research that challenges their results.
In a more perfect world, where scientists sought balance in the evidence they reviewed, you would see more green - signs that scientists were considering evidence that is contrary to their beliefs.
As you can see, the image is dominated by red and blue, a sign that scientists are more likely to cite the research that conforms to their outlook. Overall the papers they reviewed were 50 percent more likely to cite reports that drew a similar conclusion than  to cite papers drawing a different conclusion.

Scientists can’t agree whether salt is killing us. Here’s why.

Is Organic More Nutritious? New Study Adds To The Evidence

'No Place For Discontent': A History Of The Family Dinner In America


Holy Ravioli! Cookbook Reveals The Vatican's Favorite Recipes

The world's best bakers - and they aren't French - At the Coupe du Monde de Boulangerie - the baking world cup in plain English - the victory of a South Korean team of bakers is clearly a snub to the French. No doubt about it. After all, the competition describes itself as the planet's "most prestigious bakery contest", and is held in Paris - the capital of the baguette-eating world. President Hollande himself was there to witness his formerly great baking nation eat humble pie.

Is the American diet too salty? Scientists challenge the longstanding government warning - ... a review of hundreds of papers on the topic indicates that the inability to reach a consensus stems at least partially from the fact that the two groups of scientists operate, in essence, in parallel scientific universes. In one, the scientists write papers about the dangers of our salt consumption, and typically cite other papers that point to the same conclusion. In the other, the scientists write papers dismissing or minimizing the danger, and typically cite papers agreeing with their position. Each side, in other words, steers away from taking into account contrary results. “We found that the published literature bears little imprint of an ongoing controversy, but rather contains two almost distinct and disparate lines of scholarship,” according to the paper from researchers at Columbia University and Boston University, and published by the International Journal of Epidemiology.

What actual ‘caveman’ DNA says about the Paleo movement

Parmesan cheese is not what it seems


Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Protecting the good name of sushi worldwide - the Japanese government acts

Winemakers lobby pushes back on Senate committee's advice to abolish wine tax rebate - A new Senate report with 12 recommendations for reforming the wine industry has been panned by one of the senators on the committee that authored it, and met with disappointment by winemakers.

Australian grape and wine industry - Report of the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs
and Transport References Committee
List of recommendations
  • Recommendation 1
The committee recommends that the Government phase out the current
Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) rebate over five years, allocating the savings to a
structural adjustment assistance program for the industry including an annual
grant to genuine cellar door operators to support their continued operation.
  • Recommendation 2
The committee recommends that the Government amend labelling
requirements so that wine labels must declare whether wine is produced by an
entity owned or controlled by a major retailer.
  • Recommendation 3
The committee recommends that in responding to the Competition Policy
Review’s Final Report, the Government specifically consider commercial
agreements between growers and producers of wine and the major retailers.
  • Recommendation 4
The committee recommends Australia Post review its approach to wine
delivery in each Australian state and territory with a view to developing
harmonised agreements across Australia.
  • Recommendation 5
The committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government,
through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), work with states and
territories to establish mutual recognition arrangements for responsible service
of alcohol qualifications.
  • Recommendation 6
The committee recommends that Government continue to match the grape
research levy and wine grapes levy income collected by the Australian Grape and
Wine Authority.
  • Recommendation 7
The committee recommends that Government give further consideration
to the roles of the Australian Grape and Wine Authority and the Australian
Bureau of Statistics in wine industry data collection.
  • Recommendation 8
The committee recommends that funding be allocated so that the
production of the Vineyards Census is resumed on an annual basis.
  • Recommendation 9
The committee recommends that Government commit to increasing
export demand for Australian wine by considering whether current
opportunities for industry participants to increase exports through the
Australian Grape and Wine Authority and the Export Market Grants
Development Scheme are fully optimised or would benefit from redesign.
  • Recommendation 10
The committee recommends that the government significantly increase its
funding to wine export market development.
  • Recommendation 11
The committee recommends an independent review of the Australian
Wine Industry Code of Conduct, to report to Government before 30 June 2016.
  • Recommendation 12
The committee recommends that if targets for increase uptake of the
Australian Wine Industry Code of Conduct are not met, the Government, in
consultation with representative organisations for growers and winemakers,
reconsider the development of a mandatory code before the end of 2017.

Coles' Extra Reserve Cheddar judged as best overall at 2016 Sydney Royal Cheese Dairy Produce Show

Sorry, Sushi Burrito: Japanese Program Certifies Authentic Cuisine - A new program from the country's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will certify that Japanese restaurants operating outside the country uphold the values of traditional Japanese cuisine, known as washoku. That cuisine is more popular than ever: There are now more than 89,000 Japanese restaurants that operate outside of Japan, up from 55,000 just two years earlier, according to the ministry. ... The program, which will launch soon, doesn't have an official English name just yet. At the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., it's being referred to as "Japanese Cuisine Skills Certification Guidelines." The voluntary certification system aims to help eliminate mistakes commonly made by overseas chefs — from the mishandling of raw fish, to low hygiene standards, to the ceremonial way in which food should be presented to customers.

Hold Your Nose And Take A Bite: The Odd Appeal Of A South Korean Fish Dish - Most South Koreans shake their head at eating hongeo. This fermented skate dish has a sharp, pungent aroma ... After about a month of incubating in its own urine, the hongeo – smelling thoroughly of ammonia — is served as a platter of sashimi in a presentation known as samhap, which translates as "harmonious trinity." This combination consists of hongeo, bossam (boiled pork belly) and old kimchi, a combination known to counter the wretched odor — if not mask the flavor altogether.

Monday, February 8, 2016

Ranking the world's chefs and other food and drink news

'Chasing An Ideal,' World-Class Chefs Find Themselves Under Extreme Pressure

Is there such a thing as 'the world's best chef'? - Last week the death of chef Benoit Violier was widely reported - and in many headlines he was hailed as the "world's best chef", his restaurant as "the best in the world". But there is no agreement on how to rank chefs and restaurants and the award of "best" titles is a matter of hot dispute.
How the rankings work
World's 50 Best:
Poll of 972 experts: 1/3 food writers, 1/3 restaurateurs and 1/3 "well-travelled gourmets"
Each expert casts seven votes, for places they have visited within the past 18 months
At least three votes must be for restaurants outside their own geographical region
Michelin Guide:
Secret inspectors hired by Michelin, who usually have culinary school or a hotel college education, plus more than five years' experience in the restaurant industry as a manager or a chef
Separate guides are released for different countries or regions
Inspectors grade every restaurant they visit and award Michelin stars to a select few
La Liste:
Reviews are gathered from more than 200 publications and turned into scores
Top chefs rate the reliability of the reviews in each publication, allowing the scores to be weighted
Online customer reviews are integrated and an algorithm calculates a final score
Police Seize 9,000 Bottles of Fake Champagne - Italian police have seized 9,000 bottles of counterfeit Moët & Chandon Champagne, worth up to $392,000, in a workshop near Padova in Italy. The seizure, announced this week, happened at the end of last year when financial police were investigating a separate business and found a bottle of Moët & Chandon without a serial number on the label. Alongside the sparkling wine, police discovered a machine to wrap the bottles with Moët & Chandon packaging, and a further 40,000 fabricated Moët & Chandon labels.


What this scathing exchange between top scientists reveals about what nutritionists actually know - The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the federal government’s influential advice compendium, took more than a year to compile. It cites hundreds of scientific papers. It is built on the recommendations of an expert panel. The book shapes what millions of people eat. Yet ever since it was published last month, a very public, very caustic spat has been waged among experts over the quality of the science behind the recommendations and the extent to which any of the advice can be trusted.

Why a top food poisoning expert won’t ever eat these foods

America’s favorite coffee trend may be coming to an end - Several years ago, coffee pods seemed invincible. Sales of the single-serve cups were skyrocketing, more than tripling in the United States between 2011 and 2013. Sales of coffee pod machines were soaring, too, growing from 1.8 million units to 11.6 million between 2008 and 2013, according to data from market research firm Euromonitor. Today, however, things aren't looking quite so rosy for coffee in its most convenient form.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

So you think a kale salad is healthy? A note on a McDonald's version plus some other food and drink news


Healthy fast food? McDonald's kale salad has more calories than a Double Big Mac - In a quest to reinvent its image, McDonald's is on a health kick. But some of its nutrient-enhanced meals are actually comparable to junk food, say some health experts. One of McDonald's new kale salads has more calories, fat, and sodium than a Double Big Mac.

Battle of the burgers: how does Carl’s Jr stack up?

SA winemaker adds sparkling twist to mead - Local mead pioneer Maxwell Wines has just released a refreshing new twist on its fermented honey brews with ready-to-drink sparkling mead.

Degustation Laconic - The language of menus: This style – Degustation Laconic, we’ll call it – is a style embraced by many chefs serving adventurous food today: the menus at Australia’s most expensive restaurants are, for the most part, an aggressively preposition-free zone.

Chinese-American Chefs Start a Culinary Conversation With the Past - Most of these chefs have never been to China and have no Chinese culinary training, so they are learning as they go, synthesizing the values of the kitchens they know (organic, seasonal, soigné) with Chinese elements they do not.


'Forked' Rates Restaurants On How They Treat Their Workers - Saru Jayaraman may be restaurant obsessed, but don't call her a foodie. She's the founding director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, a national organization that advocates for better wages and working conditions for restaurant workers. She's also published several studies in legal and policy journals as director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California-Berkeley.

WTF Happened to Golden Rice? - The short answer is that the plant breeders have yet to concoct varieties of it that work as well in the field as existing rice strains. This is made all the more challenging in the face of debates over genetically modified crops and eternal disputes about how they should be regulated.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Getting them addicted to a Chinese hot pot and other food and drink news

Poppy seasoning scandals expose malpractice - A string of restaurants discovered using poppy capsules for seasoning have exposed a shocking practice in China’s food industry. On Wednesday, authorities busted a noodle restaurant for adding the potentially-addictive poppy capsule into mutton noodles in Yulin City, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, according to the local Huashang Newspaper. The latest case comes just one week after 35 restaurants and snack bars nationwide were investigated for adding poppy capsules or other illegal ingredients to food. ... It has been an “open secret” in the Chinese food industry that poppy-derived powder is used as a “secret ingredient” at some small restaurants in dishes or hotpots to improve the taste and lure customers to come back for more. China bans the use of the poppy capsules in food because long-term consumption of poppy capsules can lead to addiction.



Clockwise from top left: French copper pate mold circa 1870, potato steamer c. 1950, poacher for turbot fish c. 1960, Earthenware tripiere pot c. 1920, terracotta toupin for simmering stews and soups from c. 1940.Courtesy of The Culinary Institute of America

The Curious Cookware Of A Williams-Sonoma Founder Lands In A Museum - When Chuck Williams, the founder of Williams-Sonoma, died in December at the age of 100, he left behind a vast collection of culinary artifacts. It included everything from a copper pig mold (for serving suckling pig), terrines adorned with rabbit heads and pastry equipment from the early 1900s. Some of the items filled his San Francisco residence. Others were in storage. Now, Williams' estate has gifted the nearly 4,000 piece collection to the Culinary Institute of America. Many of the pieces will be permanently displayed at a new culinary arts museum named in Williams' honor in Napa Valley, Calif.
llustrated recipes for lomo saltado, a Peruvian beef and potato stir fry, that is typical in coastal Ecuador and northern Peru.

'Mi Comida Latina': A Hand-Drawn Guide To Latin Cuisines - Flip through the pages of Mi Comida Latina and you may quickly fall under its spell. The pages of this cookbook beckon with vibrant watercolor illustrations and recipes written in the kind of delicate hand lettering that make us mourn penmanship as a dying art. The end result combines the charm of a children's book, the promise of a tasty meal and the intimacy of a journal.


Can ‘Frankengrapes’ save California wine?  - The drought gets a lot of attention, but there’s a greater threat looming over California’s grapevines. Pierce’s Disease, caused by a single bacterium that’s carried by insects called sharpshooters, essentially forces a vine to desiccate itself by blocking its water-conducting tissue. Few diseases can kill a grapevine so swiftly.

La Tour d’Argent, Paris Dining Temple, to Auction Furnishings and More -  La Tour d’Argent, a Parisian shrine to the art of fine dining that traces its roots to the 16th century, is selling off tableware, furnishings and cooking implements as it seeks to reinvent itself for the 21st century.