The production company behind Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown series are releasing a web series called Food Crimes. Here’s their first episode.
Food Crimes – “The Hunt for Illegal Seafood”
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Monthly Archives: June 2015
Union’s Bruce Kalman: Why Chefs Should Also Be Owners – Eater LA
Bruce Kalman is the chef of Union, which opened over a year ago to critical acclaim and a steady stream of diners in Old Town Pasadena. Partner Marie Petulla offered to give Kalman some of the ownership, which has set the restaurant up for long term success. Here now, Kalman bring his perspective as a co-owner and chef of the bustling operation.
via Union’s Bruce Kalman: Why Chefs Should Also Be Owners – Eater LA.
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Jeni’s Ice Creams Shutters Shops Again Amid More Listeria Concerns – Eater
I guess the silver lining here is that it seems like this company is doing the right thing to prevent people from getting hurt.
CEO John Lowe broke the news today in a blog post to the Jeni’s website, which reads in part:
We have found Listeria in our production facility again. We discovered the Listeria through routine swabbing as part of our monitoring program. We stopped production earlier this week and have been investigating where and how it may have re-entered the facility. … Since resuming production in our kitchen on May 13, 2015, we have been testing every batch of ice cream we have made and holding it until we learned that the testing did not detect any Listeria. So it is with complete confidence that I can say all of the ice cream that has been served in our shops since reopening on May 22 has been safe and is 100% Listeria-free.
via Jeni’s Ice Creams Shutters Shops Again Amid More Listeria Concerns – Eater.
Every Cooking And Baking Substitution You Could Ever Need, In One Perfect Chart
I wish there was more of this in weights and precise measurements, but overall this is a nice tool for improvising when you’re out of pantry items.
There’s nothing worse than being in the middle of making biscuits only to realize that you’re fresh out of buttermilk. Or baking a cake, and finding out someone used up the eggs. Having to run out to the store when you’re in the middle of preparing something awesome to eat is the absolute worst. That ends right here, right now, with the mother of all substitution charts.
We’ve come across some great infographics before — like the one that explains how long foods can be frozen or the one the shares the secret for grilling picture-perfect steaks — but none have ever been so helpful as this chart below. (Did you know there’s a substitute for chocolate?)
Before you cook another meal, print this chart and post it to your fridge. It will save you more times you can count
via Every Cooking And Baking Substitution You Could Ever Need, In One Perfect Chart.
Here’s How Much Mouse Poop The FDA Allows In Your Food
You’ve probably eaten mouse poop — and the federal government is just fine with that. It’s also fine with mold, rat hairs and insect legs.
The Food and Drug Administration, you see, has detailed guidelines on how much filth can be found in many of the foods sold in America. The FDA enumerates these guidelines in a document known as the “Defect Levels Handbook.” The introduction to the handbook explains that “it is economically impractical to grow, harvest, or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects” — and that these so-called “defects” present no real risk to human health.
The FDA also says that many food companies take measures to ensure that their food actually contains far lower levels of these defects than their regulations require. If a food exceeds these levels, the FDA can label it “adulterated” and ask that it be taken off store shelves.
via Here’s How Much Mouse Poop The FDA Allows In Your Food.
Organic Farmers Object to Whole Foods Rating System – NYTimes.com
Like a whale and the myriad barnacles clinging to its sides, Whole Foods Market and organic farmers have long had a symbiotic relationship.
The grocer has helped stoke the American appetite for organic products, building stores that are essentially showcases for organic fruits, vegetables and flowers tagged with the names of the farmers who grow them.
But that mutually beneficial relationship is now fraying, as Whole Foods faces increasing competition from mainstream grocery chains and as organic farmers find more and more outlets for their produce.
Now, some organic farmers contend that Whole Foods is quietly using its formidable marketing skills and its credibility with consumers to convey that conventionally grown produce is just as good — or even better — than their organically grown products. Shoppers can choose from fruits and vegetables carrying the designation of “good,” “better” or “best.”
Continue reading the main story
RELATED COVERAGE
Whole Foods Market Reports a Rise in SalesFEB. 11, 2015
The longtime suppliers to Whole Foods are complaining that the program called Responsibly Grown can grant a farmer who does not meet the stringent requirements for federal organic certification the same rating as an organic farmer, or even a higher one. Conventional growers can receive higher rankings than organic farmers by doing things like establishing a garbage recycling program, relying more on alternative energy sources, eliminating some pesticides and setting aside a portion of fields as a conservation area.
via Organic Farmers Object to Whole Foods Rating System – NYTimes.com.
To the Phyllosphere and Beyond! | Lucky Peach
There’s a huge world out there… It’s just too small to see, but we feel it everyday!
The leaves and fruits of plants have long served as a source of food, but long before the rise of the animals, the plant kingdom was providing food for an invisible world of microbes. Termed the phyllosphere, the surfaces of plants are colonized by microbial metropolises that bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes call home. Often, these microbes are just along for the ride, sipping miniscule amounts of nutrients from the plant and minding their own business. But in some cases, what happens in the phyllosphere dramatically impacts the host plant—and, subsequently, what and how we eat. Here are a few of my favorite examples of microbial shenanigans in the phyllosphere.
via To the Phyllosphere and Beyond! | Lucky Peach.
Lobster Prices Surge Due To Cold Ocean Temperatures
Remember those halcyon days when lobster was so cheap that you could afford to put it on mac n’ cheese, french fries, tacos and grilled cheeses? You know, way back in 2013?
Those days are over.
Over the past year-and-change, lobster prices have risen sharply since record catches in Maine pushed them to historic lows in 2012 and 2013. In April, the Maine Department of Marine Resources reported that lobster prices rose 79 cents per pound between 2013 and 2014, the biggest rise in recorded history. That was great news for Maine lobstermen, who netted $456 million worth of shellfish in 2014, the most ever. But it’s disappointing to consumers who have grown used to relatively low prices for luxurious lobster meat.
The price surge has accelerated this year. Though reliable data on lobster prices is somewhat hard to come by, the spot price for wholesale live lobster in Boston reached as high as $5.25 a pound on June 9. And data provided to The Huffington Post by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicated that the average price of a pound of lobster at wholesale climbed as high as $7.90 this March. Though lobster prices usually peak in the spring, that’s 32 percent higher than the price in March 2014.
CNN Money attributed the recent spike in prices to this winter’s unusually cold weather in the Northeast. The North Atlantic remains colder than it usually is at this time of year, so lobsters have, by and large, stayed out of reach of fishermen.
Matt Jacobson, executive director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, said that prices should ease as water temperatures rise this summer, just in time for vacationers in Cape Cod and Kennebunkport to feast on lobster rolls. But it’s unlikely that they’ll dip back down to the lows they hit a couple years ago.
via Lobster Prices Surge Due To Cold Ocean Temperatures.
Katz’s Deli Still Considering Brooklyn Outpost [UPDATE] – Eater NY
Looks like we’re getting a new amazing neighbor. Will it last as long as the original?
Katz’s Deli Still Considering Brooklyn Outpost [UPDATE] – Eater NY.
The Century Plant and Its Many Grandfathers | Lucky Peach
On a hillside in the backlands of Oaxaca, where mezcal begins, I can hear the machete singing. Aniceto Garcia, maestro mezcalero, is ahead of me, treading up the mountain like generations of mezcaleros before him. At one point, I scramble up the wrong goat trail and find myself at a confrontation of shale, cactus, and a snarl of branches. After doubling back and crossing a rough tunnel hacked through the brush, I eventually find Aniceto cutting a maguey—an agave plant—down to its heart. He shaves away the pencas, the broad, fanged leaves of the tepextate, a wild variety that prefers to wind its roots into the cracks between stones in the Oaxacan desert. Each swipe of the machete reveals more of the plant’s white heart—about the size of a beach ball, and called a piña for its likeness to a pineapple.
via The Century Plant and Its Many Grandfathers | Lucky Peach.
