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The Dangers of Buying Commercial Ground Beef

All year, we have reported on the dangers of purchasing commercial ground beef. More than 70,000 Americans are sickened each year by E. Coli infections, and most are caused by contaminated hamburger. The latest E. coli outbreak linked to ground beef has killed two people — one from New Hampshire and another from upstate New [...]

Frank Bruni Removes His Critic’s Cap For Good

Frank Bruni, restaurant critic for The New York Times and author of Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater, has written his last article for the Times as food critic. Bruni will be replaced by Sam Sifton, but will continue as a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine.
I, for one, am [...]

Can a Restaurant with “Drugstore” in its name be considered Haute Cuisine?

Can a joint named Justus Drugstore in the little whistle stop town of Smithville, Missouri be considered haute cuisine?
You bet.
This two-year-old phenomenon, located twenty miles north of Kansas City, hit the jackpot when it comes to attracting diners who enjoy quality food prepared with care and served with precision and respect.
Just ask the New York [...]

Popchips – Coming to a Store Near You?

Have you seen (or tried) Popchips yet?  They’re supposedly the latest and greatest all natural, good-for-you, healthy potato chip-type snack food to hit the market. According to all reports, these tasty, popped, potato morsels are gathering a growing fan base that is slowly making its way eastward from the west coast, thanks to its viral [...]

Celebrity Chef Prepares Dinner For Obama

Award-winning chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, author of four cookbooks, whose restaurant achievements include venues in London, Paris and Shanghai, not to mention New York’s three-Michelin-starred Jean Georges restaurant, cooked halibut dinners at the United Nations yesterday evening for three past presidents, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, as well as the current commander-in-chief, Barack [...]

W.H.O. May Raise Alert Level To 6 – What You Should Eat To Guard Against Pandemic

According to The New York Times, the number of swine flu cases in Japan soared over the weekend, raising the likelihood that the World Health Organization will soon have to raise its pandemic alert level to 6, the highest level. Additionally, AP reports a school assistant principal has become the first New York City death [...]

Food Companies Leave “Kill Step” to Consumers

Corporations like ConAgra, Nestlé and the Blackstone Group, a New York firm that acquired the Swanson and Hungry-Man brands that produce processed foods from frozen vegetables to pizzas, confess that they are not capable of guarantying the safety of their ingredients. Some companies “do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if [...]

Domino’s Pizza Twitters Out of YouTube Scandal

Image via Wikipedia

I’m sure by now most everyone has heard of the Domino’s YouTube video posted on April 13. The video was a sophomore-style prank and featured Michael Setzer, 32, and Kristy Hammonds, 31, both from North Carolina. While Hammonds filmed and narrated the video shot inside a Domino’s Pizza, Setzer performs stunts like stuffing [...]

Cooking Shows: How “Real” Should they Be?

Food writer, critic and blogger Mark Bittman had an interesting column in the Dining & Wine section of April 14’s New York Times, where he complained about today’s on-screen chefs. In TV Cooking vs. Real Cooking, Bittman shares his opinions about the new breed of cooking shows, which he claims are “baffling, intimidating and a big [...]

Food and Music: Double Your Pleasure

“If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.”
~Duke Orsino, Twelfth Night
I was standing front row center at the Bruce Springsteen concert last week in San Jose, CA.  While trying to rap my mind around the awesome fact that the Boss was practically [...]

Green Thumbs Up for White House Garden

Image via Wikipedia

Who would have thought a little photo op would stir up so much dirt?
When First Lady Michelle Obama and fifth-grade students from a nearby elementary school broke ground on the White House lawn for a kitchen garden, it was one of those cute, end-of-the-evening-news “feel good” stories.  The 1,100 square foot garden will include, [...]

More on the Pistachios’ Recall

Is it Kraft or the FDA’s responsiblity to make our food safe?

As reported the second-largest pistachio processor in the United States has recalled one million pounds of pistachio products. The New York Times reports the pistachios were sent in 1,000 to 2,000-pound bags to about three dozen wholesalers who repackaged them and resold them to [...]