Just because I’m shooting Next Iron Chef doesn’t mean I’m falling behind on the news. Here are the most interesting stories of the weak, and no just because I’m reprinting them here doesn’t mean they reflect my views, opinions, general sensibilities or fashion sense.
Tired of Mowing Your Lawn? Try Foodscaping It Instead
Blake Farmer
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/06/02/154135796/tired-of-mowing-your-lawn-try-foodscaping-it-instead?ft=1&f=1053
June 1, 2012
When the economy began its steep decline in 2008, almost everything related to housing hit the skids, including the lawn and garden industry. But one sector escaped the pinch: food gardening. In fact, food gardening sales nationwide have spiked 20 percent since then and have stayed there. While many households started growing food to be more budget-conscious, some are deciding vegetables and fruits can be beautiful too. In the extreme, edible landscaping or foodscaping can even mean replacing grass with something edible. For Jeremy Lekich of Nashville Foodscapes, the world is already his salad bar. Lekich and his foodscaping company specialize in unconventional projects, like planting an entire yard in buckwheat, a nutrient-packed grain that’s experienced a renaissance. Edible landscaping isn’t for everyone, but close to a third of American households now do some kind of food gardening. Even nursing homes and hotels have been asking their landscapers to mix in more edible greens. For single-family homes, practical planting usually increases during a recession, but it is significant that the millions who’ve gotten into food gardening don’t appear to be getting out. Not only is it a budget conscious thing to do, it’s become trendy.
Farm Bill Clears First Hurdle in Senate
Jim Abrams
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/07/farm-bill-senate-legislation_n_1577794.html?ref=food&ir=Food
June 7, 2012
A five-year farm and food bill that would revamp the federal safety net for farmers and eliminate direct government payments for idle crop fields took its first step toward passage Thursday in the Senate. A 90-8 vote to officially begin debate opens the way for what could be several weeks of attempts to amend proposed legislation that spends some $100 billion a year on crop insurance, conservation and nutrition programs. The old direct farm subsidy program would be replaced by a new plan that places greater stress on subsidized crop insurance and a new program that compensates farmers when revenues from planted fields fall below levels as determined by a five-year average. The bill cuts or streamlines more than 100 programs, including combining four commodity protection plans into one and reducing conservation programs from 23 to 13. The farm bill, which differs from many bills in not splitting Congress among party lines, could become one of the few major measures to reach the president’s desk before the November elections. The House Agriculture Committee is expected to write a farm bill more sympathetic to southern growers, who want to keep aspects of the existing system where farmers are paid when prices dip below certain target levels. House Republicans also say that more savings can be squeezed out of the food stamp program. The current farm act expires at the end of September.
Disneyland Paris Is Building a Ratatouille Ride
http://eater.com/archives/2012/06/07/disneyland-paris-is-building-a-ratatouille-ride.php
June 7, 2012
Disneyland Paris is building a Ratatouille theme park ride. Schedule to open in 2014, it supposedly has a working title of Ratatouille: Kitchen Calamity,” and will likely have a restaurant attached. It will be what is known as a “dark ride,” in which riders take a train or other guided vehicle through a fully enclosed space and look at stuff.
Food Trucks in Paris? U.S. Cuisine Finds Open Minds, and Mouths
Julia Moskin
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/world/europe/food-trucks-add-american-flavor-to-paris.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
June 3, 2012
In France, there is still a widespread belief that the daily diet in the US consists of grossly large servings of fast food. But in Paris, American food is suddenly being seen as more than just restauration rapide. Among young Parisians, there is currently no greater praise for cuisine than “trés Brooklyn,” a term that signifies a particularly cool combination of informality, creativity and quality. All three of those traits come together in the American food trucks that have just opened here, including Cantine California, which sells tacos stuffed with organic meat (still a rarity in France), and a hugely popular burger truck called Le Camion Qui Fume (The Smoking Truck), owned by Kristin Frederick, a California native who graduated from culinary school here. People told Ms. Frederick, “The French will never eat on the street. The French will never eat with their hands. They will never pay good money for food from a truck. And you will never get permission from the authorities.” But Ms. Frederick did. Since the truck’s opening day, Ms. Frederick said it has sold every last burger on every shift and it has received the kind of publicity most chefs can only dream about. According to Jordan Feilders, who started Cantine California in March, “Younger Parisians are into the New York food scene and the California lifestyle. There’s a good trans-Atlantic food vibe going on Twitter and Facebook.” Unlike food trucks in the US, they are assigned to certain markets and days.
Starbucks and Coinstar to Blanket Country with Seattle’s Best Coffee Vending Machines
Paula Forbes
http://eater.com/archives/2012/06/07/starbucks-coinstar-join-to-sell-seattles-best-coffee-in-vending-machines.php
Seattle’s Best Coffee Vending Machines: Starbucks Partners with Coinstar for Thousands of Kiosks
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/07/seattles-best-coffee-vending-machine_n_1577652.html?ref=food
June 7, 2012
Seattle’s Best Coffee (owned by Starbucks) has teamed up with Coinstar to launch coffee kiosks in grocery, drug and mass merchant stores. The “Rubi” kiosk rollout begins this summer in the Northeast and on the West Coast, and Coinstar expects about 500 machines by the end of the year. In the next several years, there will be thousands. The launch follows a successful pilot test. The machines grind and brew whole beans on demand. Currently, the machines can serve a range of drinks such as coffee, mochas and lattes, but the company is experimenting with iced drinks as well. Drinks start at $1 for a cup of coffee.
Small-Scale Slaughterhouses Aim to Put the ‘Local’ Back in Local Meat
Beth Hoffman
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/06/04/153511889/small-scale-slaughterhouses-aim-to-put-the-local-back-in-local-meat?ft=1&f=1053
June 4, 2012
It’s hard to go a day without hearing people brag about how they eat local. But the dirty little secret is, while that steak those “locavores” just bought at the farmers’ market may have come from a cow that grazed in nearby pastures, it probably wasn’t processed anywhere nearby. In fact, many local meat products are sent to slaughterhouses hundreds of miles away, across state lines. Some small-scale cattle producers are taking matters into their own hands in an effort to keep money, jobs and something “local” on dinner plates. In Washington state for example, most grass-fed beef raised on the eastern plains journeys some 400 to 600 miles to Oregon or Idaho for processing before arriving back in Seattle. That means not only a larger carbon footprint for each hamburger served, but processing animals out of state also sucks money out of the state’s rural communities and makes locally produced beef more expensive. The Cattle Producers of Washington (CpoW), like several other innovative groups around the country, are breaking ground this summer on a new slaughterhouse in Odessa (Lincoln County) that will cater exclusively to small eastern Washington ranches. Over the past 20 years slaughterhouse consolidation has left small-scale producers scrambling. Just four corporations slaughter about 80 percent of the cattle in the US. Many facilities now only process large numbers of animals at a time, and will not allow ranches to bring in—and get back out—the same animals. The construction of a new slaughterhouse will provide new opportunities for ranchers wanting to raise and sell pasture-raised meat at more competitive prices. But for some ranchers, traveling to a regional processing plant is even too far. Walter Jeffries of Sugar Mountain Farm in Vermont is pioneering what he calls a “nano-scale” animal processing, an on-farm slaughterhouse and butchering facility built for a fraction of the cost. He is also planning to compost waste for use on their own farm. “It is the ultimate green burial,” says Jeffries. Mobile slaughterhouse units too are being used for very small scale processing of animals on-farm.
Survey: Two-thirds of Americans Oppose Bloomberg’s Super-Size Soda Crackdown
Elaine Watson
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/07/bloomberg-soda-ban-hunts-point_n_1575731.html?ref=food&ir=Food
June 5, 2012
In a national telephone survey of 1,000 US adults conducted by Rasmussen Reports, respondents were asked:
‘Do you favor or oppose a law that would ban the sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 ounces?’ 24% YES 65% NO 11% Undecided
‘Does the government have the constitutional authority to prevent people from buying sugary drinks?
9% YES 85% NO 6% Undecided
‘Should the government ban the sale of all sugary drinks?’
11% YES 85% NO 4% Undecided
Women, Democrats and younger adults were more in favor of intervention; while the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association) encouraged consumers to reduce their consumption, but stopped short of welcoming Bloomberg’s proposal.
Disney Rewinds Standards for Food Advertising to Kids
http://www.foodproductdesign.com/news/2012/06/disney-rewinds-standards-for-food-advertising-to.aspx
June 5, 2012
The Walt Disney today introduced new standards for food advertising on programming targeting kids and families. The new initiative builds on the company’s 2006 landmark nutrition guidelines that stipulated promotions aimed at children 12 years old and under—most notably for films—would feature only healthier food and beverage products. Under Disney’s new standards all food and beverage products advertised, sponsored or promoted on Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Junior, Radio Disney and Disney-owned online destinations oriented to families with younger children will be required by 2015 to meet Disney’s nutrition guidelines that are aligned to federal standards, promote fruit and vegetable consumption and call for limiting calorie and reducing saturated fat, sodium and sugar. Disney also unveiled its “Mickey Check” tool, an icon that calls out nutritious food and menu items sold in stores, online, and at restaurants and food venues at its US parks and resorts. By the end of 2012 the “Mickey Check” will appear on licensed food products, on qualified recipes on Disney.com and Family.com, and on menus and select products at Disney’s Parks and Resorts.
FDA Must Rethink Antibiotics in Animal Feed, Federal Judge Orders
P. J. Huffstutter
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/fda-antibiotics-animal-feed_n_1572041.html?ref=food&ir=Food
June 5
(Reuters) A Federal judge said the Food and Drug Administration had done “shockingly little” to address the human health risks of antibiotic use in animal feed and ordered the agency to reconsider two petitions seeking restrictions on the practice. The ruling, filed on Friday in a lawsuit brought by environmental and public-health groups, is the second recent setback for the FDA amid long-standing concern that overuse of antibiotics in animal feed is endangering human health by creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria. U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore Katz in New York questioned the federal agency’s arguments that it would be less costly and more efficient to ask the industry to voluntarily cut back on the use of such antibiotics, rather than go through the regulatory process of revoking the approval of such drug use on farms and at feedlots. In March, Katz ordered the FDA to complete proceedings to withdraw approval for the non-therapeutic use of penicillin and tetracycline in livestock production unless makers of the drugs can produce evidence that their use is safe. The agency started the process in 1977, but never completed it. The FDA declined on Tuesday to comment on the latest ruling. It filed a notice of appeal last month of the March order.
Ancient Fishing Traps Found On Bottom of Baltic Sea
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/05/ancient-fishing-traps_n_1570260.html?ref=food&ir=Food
STOCKHOLM—A group of Swedish marine archeologists say they have found what they believe could be the world’s oldest stationary fishing traps on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The remains of the seven basket traps, made out of hazel rods fastened together, have been found in a submerged ancient river valley off Sweden’s southern coast at a depth of 5-12 meters (16.5-40 feet). One of the baskets has been carbon dated and is estimated to be around 9,000 years old.
Many Food Workers Keep Working While Sick, Survey Finds
Eliza Barclay
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/06/06/154442191/many-food-workers-keep-working-while-sick-survey-finds?ft=1&f=1053
Just 13.5 Percent of Food Workers Make A Living Wage, Report
Alexander Eichler
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/food-workers-living-wage_n_1574099.html?ref=food&ir=Food
June 6, 2012
A report out today from Food Chain Workers Alliance says that more than half of all food workers come to work sick because they can’t afford to take a day off. In their survey of employees and employers, the Alliance found that only 13.5 percent of workers earn “livable wages.” The rest receive below minimum wage or low wages, and have little or no access to paid sick days and health benefits. Only 21 percent of the workers surveyed said they could take a paid sick day. That has serious consequences for consumers who are put at increased risk of foodborne illness when sick workers touch their food. According to the most recent data from the US CDC, every year, one out of six Americans gets sick from food, leading to 125,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. About 20 percent of foodborne illness outbreaks cases can be traced to an ill food worker.
Anthony Bourdain & Nigella Lawson to Host a Cooking Reality Show on ABC
Paula Forbes
http://eater.com/archives/2012/06/05/anthony-bourdain-nigella-lawson-to-host-a-cooking-reality-show-on-abc.php
Anthony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson to Host ABC Reality Cooking Show
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/anthony-bourdain-nigella-lawson-abc-reality-cooking-show_n_1573793.html?ref=food
June 5, 2012
Will Bourdain & Nigella’s New Show be Based on the Australian My Kitchen Rules? Answer: No
Raphael Brion
http://eater.com/archives/2012/06/06/will-bourdain-nigellas-new-show-be-based-on-the-australian-my-kitchen-rules.php
June 6, 2012
Anthony Bourdain, soon-to-be former host of Travel Channel’s “No Reservations” is slated to host a reality cooking show with British food personality Nigella Lawson. The two have teamed up with Producer Kinetic Content for a brand new cooking show for ABC that will “pit America’s most skilled cooks against one another in a show unlike any other.” It’s the second move of the sort for Bourdain, the acerbic writer and chef who recently signed a deal for a travel show with CNN. When asked if the show would possibly be the US launch of Australian hit My Kitchen Rules, Bourdain writes, “Answer: no. The show with Nigella will not be a US version of any other show.” Kinetic Content, which was founded in the Spring of 2010, did however, recently acquire the US rights to My Kitchen Rules from Australia’s number one network Seven.
Simon Cowell Launching a UK Food Competition Show
Paula Forbes
http://eater.com/archives/2012/06/07/simon-cowell-launching-a-uk-food-competition-show.php
June 7, 2012
Everybody’s getting into the food reality competition business these days, it seems. Professional British TV personality Simon Cowell is working with Optomen, the production company behind Gordon Ramsay’s shows, to do a new food series. Called Food, Glorious Food, the show will air on the UK’s ITV1 starting in February. The show will give home cooks a chance to impress a panel of “experts” (as yet unnamed) with one dish they can cook really, really well (a la Masterchef). The winner gets £20,000 cash (USD $31,154) and their prize dish will be sold at British retailer Marks & Spencer.
“Pink Slime” Rejected by Most of Nation’s Schools
Sarah B. Weir
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/8220-pink-slime-8221-rejected-most-nation-8217-173400056.html
June 6, 2012
All but three states have opted out of ordering the controversial beef product famously dubbed “pink slime” for their school lunch programs says the USDA. Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska will continue to buy ground beef with added lean finely textured beef (LFTB) ammonia-treated scraps that are used as filler. The USDA reports that by May 18, about 20 million pounds of beef without the filler and only about one million pounds of beef that may contain LFTB had been ordered by schools. Beef without “pink slime” costs schools about three percent more to buy.
Global Food Prices Down Sharply
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/08/global-food-prices-down_n_1580638.html?ref=food
June 7, 2012
ROME—In its monthly report, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says that world food prices dropped sharply in May, reaching their lowest level in eight months due to favorable supplies and currency fluctuations. Global prices of a basket of food commodities fell by 4 percent. The Rome-based agency keeps a close watch on prices because rises in the prices of staple food have led to violence in some countries in recent years.
The Peas that Smelled the Leaky Pipe
Peter Smith
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2012/06/the-peas-that-smelled-the-leaky-pipe/
June 1, 2012
Have you heard the one about putting the banana in the paper bag with the unripe avocado? Leave the bag on the counter for a couple of days and the avocado ripens. Those are fruits communicating. They are smelling each other. Fruits that ripen after being picked, called climacteric fruits, become softer and sweeter thanks to a plant hormone called ethylene. The gas produced by the fruits themselves and microorganisms on their skin, causes the release of pectinase, hydrolase and amylase. These enzymes ripen fruits and make them more appealing to eat. A plant can detect the volatile gas and convert its signal into a physiological response. A receptor for ethylene has been identified in plants, and it closely resembles receptors in the neural pathway we have for olfaction or smell. The gas was discovered in 1901 by a 17-year-old Russian scientist named Dimitry Neljubow of the Botanical Institute of St. Petersburg. Neljubow appears to have come to his revelation about ethylene through the careful study of germinating pea plants inside his lab. He planted peas in a pair of black boxes. Into one, he pumped air from the outside; the other he fed air form his lab. Those peas fed the lab air grew sideways and swelled up. He then isolated ethylene found in the “illuminating gases” burned by lamps in his lab. In the 1930s, Florida orange growers noticed something similar. Fruits kept warm with kerosene heaters ripened (and sometimes rotted) not from the heat, but from the ethylene in the kerosene. And that’s something we know because of a chance discovery hastened by some leaky pipes in Neljubow’s lab.
A Taste of Edible Feces
Peter Smith
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2012/06/ambergris-recipe/
Herman Melville devoted an entire chapter of Moby Dick to the substance. The Chinese believed it to be dragon spittle hardened by the sea. Ambergris (French for gray amber) is an opaque, hardened orb that floats for months or years at sea, until its waxy mass washes up ashore. It has sometimes been described, inaccurately, as sperm whale vomit. Ambergris comes out the other end—the cetacean approximation of a human gallbladder stone, formed in a whale stomach as a protective barrier around sharp indigestible squid beaks and then excreted. Of all the world’s feces, ambergris may be the only one prized as an ingredient in fragrances, cocktails and medicines. It’s eaten, too. Persian sherbets once included ambergris along with water and lemon. Casanova added it to his chocolate mousse as an aphrodisiac. Enigmatic, yes. Legal, no—at least not in the US, where the mere possession of ambergris is illegal under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, as is the eating of whale meat itself.
Why You Should Put Your Wine in the Blender
http://www.chow.com/food-news/116093/why-you-should-put-your-wine-in-the-blender/?tag=nl.e349
Maxime Bilet, coauthor of Modernist Cuisine, says that instead of waiting up to two hours to decant wine the traditional way, you can improve the taste of wine in seconds with what he calls “hyperdecanting.” Aerating wine this fast is great for bolder, younger wines, but Bilet notes that this technique probably shouldn’t be used on more delicate wines.