Cheat Sheet
Looking to buy a liquor store? Lawmakers in states with tight control of alcohol sales—including Virginia, North Carolina, Washington, Vermont, and Mississippi—are considering privatizing state-run liquor stores to save money and raise state revenue. For now, liquor companies are not taking an active stance on the issue, though some government officials are making it part of their campaigns, saying the move would provide much-needed cash. The community reaction isn’t entirely supportive, however. “We oppose anything that we think would expand the sale and use of alcohol,” said Jack Knapp, executive director of the powerful Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists. And The Wall Street Journal reports that privatization is also facing opposition from labor unions and mom-and-pop shops.
Time to slim down: First lady Michelle Obama unveiled her anti-childhood obesity program, called “Let’s Move,” this week. Joining Obama are 40 executives of major food producers and agribusinesses, including the CEO of Kraft Foods and Sara Lee. “Too many of our children are seriously overweight, and our companies stand ready to work with you to address this health crisis,” the CEOs wrote in a press release. The president is also behind the plan: He signed a memo on childhood obesity providing “optimal coordination” among the relevant federal agencies to fight the obesity epidemic.
The Food and Drug Administration wants food manufacturers to adjust portion sizes to reflect the reality of the way America eats, as well as posting nutritional information on the front of all food packages. In combination with the more visible labeling, which would include calorie counts, the intended result is a greater public awareness of what people are really consuming. “If you put on a meaningful portion size, it would scare a lot of people,” said Barry Popkin, a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina. The standard serving size shown on a package determines all the other nutritional values on the label, and people usually eat much more than that amount. “If people don’t understand the serving, whatever number they get for fat or calories is misleading,” said William K. Hubbard, a former FDA official who consulted with the agency last year. Officials say the labeling will be voluntary, but the agency may set rules to prevent companies from highlighting the good things about their products while ignoring the bad, The New York Times reports.
The country crowned a new Miss America on Saturday. Caressa Cameron's first act as newly minted royalty? An announcement that she'll be the new spokeswoman for IHOP to support the pancake chain's fifth National Pancake Day celebration. The goal is to raise at least $1.7 million for children's hospitals, and Miss America couldn't be more proud to be a part of the fundraising. "Five million dollars over five years is an impressive fundraising feat, and I look forward to working closely with IHOP and Children's Miracle Network to turn that goal into a reality," she said.
Cocaine may be a hell of a drug, but apparently chocolate is better business. Or so it seems in Peru, where farmers who once grew coca are switching their crops to cacao, which is not only a safer, less political crop, but also makes Peruvian farmers eligible to receive U.S. support. Elena Rios, a former coca farmer and current secretary of Peru's Tocache Agroindustrial Cooperative, said, farmers in Peru "used to be known for making cocaine paste, but now we are known for chocolate. No one wants to grow coca in Tocache. Everyone is thinking about chocolate." Peru is the second-largest international producer of cocaine after Colombia, but it is not yet among the top 10 biggest cacao producers, though cacao exports have increased by more than 400 percent in the last decade. Blanca Panizo, of the Alternative Development Program, a U.S. Agency for International Development projects, said, "We are working to identify Peru with chocolate, the way Colombia is identified with coffee."
Food movies will be well-represented at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, where a handful of movies about food and the food industry are among the nominees. Meryl Streep was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of Julia Child in Julie & Julia. The documentary Food, Inc., which takes a stark look at the food industry in the United States, was nominated for Best Feature Documentary. And two food-related films were nominated for Animated Short Film: French Roast by Fabrice O. Joubert, about a man in a café who is unable to pay for his coffees and runs into trouble when he accepts help from a fellow diner, and A Matter of Loaf and Death by Nick Park, which features the animated characters Wallace and Gromit opening a bakery where the bakers mysteriously disappear.
Two high profile chefs this week joined the efforts to help relief efforts in Haiti: Iron Chef Cat Cora and Haitian-born Top Chef contestant Ron Duprat. Cora and her organization Chefs for Humanity have teamed up with the UN World Food Programme to raise $1 million in one month to bring much-needed food and fresh water to the Haitian people. Duprat has reunited with former fellow contestants Mattin Noblia, Hector Santiago, and Top Chef winner Michael Voltaggio for the effort, which will have all four chefs’ restaurants donating 10 percent of their Valentine’s Day profits to Hearts for Haiti: An American Dining Relief Benefit. The money will go to support the organizations Hollywood United for Haiti and Kinship Circle Disaster Relief. "Food always brings people together," says Duprat. “I hope chefs across the country will join us in this heartfelt effort for Haiti.”
Since 1989, haggis, Scotland’s most iconic dish, has been banned from import by the US government. This week, however, on the eve of Burns supper, the US Department of Agriculture announced that it will instate new regulations allowing imports of the Scottish offal, which contains ingredients such as sheep lungs. The original ban was instated due to concerns over the safety of meat from the UK, specifically regarding mad-cow disease. Said Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead, "I am greatly encouraged to hear that the US authorities are planning a review of the unfair ban on haggis imports. It's time for the US authorities to deliver a Burns Night boost and recognize that Scottish haggis is outstanding quality produce."
At a press conference in Madrid this week, superstar chef Ferran Adrià announced he would be shuttering his molecular gastronomy restaurant elBulli until 2014. Though he wouldn’t say what’s next for the fine dining establishment, which currently holds three Michelin stars, he did give one cryptic clue: “When we come back in 2014, it's not going to be the same," he said. One of the hardest reservations to obtain—out of 1 million requests, the restaurant grants only 8,000 reservations—Adrià said that in order to continue serving the best food possible, he will have to “find out if there's anything beyond what we've already done."
In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, restaurants across the U.S. and around the world are doing their part to raise money for the relief efforts. Aside from individual restaurants in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other major cities that are donating a portion of every meal to nonprofit groups, and bake sales in San Francisco and Connecticut, Philippe Massoud of Restaurant Ilili in New York is proposing that restaurants in the city join together and make Jan. 24 “Haiti Dine Out Night.” Massoud said he has approached “all the big players” with his idea, which would mark 10 percent of all restaurant sales for charities working in Haiti. “I’m trying to hit the social responsibility gene,” he added.
When Mariah Carey made headlines with her slurred speech at the 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival, she blamed “splashes of Champagne.” This week, it looks like it’s more than just splashes: The pop diva announced that she’s launching her own brand of bubbly. “ANGEL CHAMPAGNE (ROSE) by MC coming soon!” she tweeted. This isn’t MC’s first foray into the world of alcoholic beverages: In 2006, she invested in Mariah Vineyard Zinfandel, an established winery in Mendocino County, California.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a doctors’ group, has just released its list of the five best and worst—i.e., healthiest and unhealthiest—cookbooks of the decade. At the top of the “worst” list: Paula Deen, Bobby Flay… and Julia Child? Leading the pack of the “best” cookbooks is vegan author Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet, followed by Skinny Bitch in the Kitch: Kick-Ass Recipes for Hungry Girls Who Want to Stop Cooking Crap (and Start Looking Hot!). But the survey is already attracting complaints: The Center for Consumer Freedom calls the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine “essentially a vegetarian public-relations project” and say it has a “clear relationship with the animal-rights propagandists at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.”
Mistresses, unite! Sarah Symonds, Gordon Ramsay’s alleged former lover, is starting a movement based on her relationship with the celebrity chef, and is reaching out to one of Tiger Woods’ alleged mistresses, Jamie Jungers, for support. “I run a group called Mistresses Anonymous,” Symonds told the New York Post. “It’s the only support group for women who are in bad relationships with married men. I have been talking to Jamie about getting her involved.” Symonds, who appeared last May on the U.S. version of Ramsay’s TV show, Hell’s Kitchen, said she had a seven-year affair with the famously volatile chef, who has refused to comment on her claims. Jungers is one of a handful of young cocktail waitresses claiming to have had affairs with pro-golfer Woods. “Ideally what I’d like to do is a TV special with all of Tiger’s mistresses,” Symonds said, “where they could discuss the downside to being ‘the other woman,’ and whether he was good in bed.”
Alice Waters, watch your back. In this month’s Atlantic, writer Caitlin Flanagan attacks the Chez Panisse owner and her Edible Schoolyard project. Waters’ restaurant, she writes, is “an eatery where the right-on, ‘yes we can,’ ACORN-loving, public-option-supporting man or woman of the people can tuck into a nice table d’hôte menu of scallops, guinea hen, and tarte tatin for a modest 95 clams—wine, tax, and oppressively sanctimonious and relentlessly conversation-busting service not included.” Flanagan then takes on the Edible Schoolyard, calling the program “a way of bestowing field work and low expectations on a giant population of students who might become troublesome if they actually got an education.” In response, author and Slow Food USA board member Kurt Michael Friese takes to the blog Civil Eats to call Flanagan’s piece “wrong,” saying the problem with her argument is the writer’s “stubborn refusal to accept that a good idea may have sprouted from an ideology other than her own.” Expect more back in forth in the days ahead.
A team of researchers at the University of North Carolina has made a discovery that is sure to bring joy to carnivores everywhere: Choline, a nutrient found in pork, is essential to fetal brain development. “Our study in mice indicates that the diet of a pregnant mother, especially choline in that diet, can change the epigenetic switches that control brain development in the fetus,” said scientist Steven Zeisel, a senior member of the editorial board of the FASEB Journal, which published the study. By feeding two groups of pregnant mice different diets—one high in choline, one low in choline—the scientists found that the brains of the mice fetuses that received a high-choline diet were more highly developed. “We may never be able to call bacon a health food with a straight face,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., editor in chief of the FASEB Journal, “but the emerging field of epigenetics is already making us rethink those things that we consider healthful and unhealthful.”
The MTV reality show Jersey Shore has proved to be the guiltiest pleasure of the last few months and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino one of its most, er, compelling characters. Aside from tanning, fist-pumping, and chiseling his abs, The Situation also apparently loves to cook. During the show’s New Year’s Eve episode, The Situation and his housemates set out to cook an “unbelievable dinner.” “There’s going to be a feast on the dinner table,” he says, “but The Situation has got it under control.” After preparing lobster, steak, asparagus, grilled corn, and salad, however, The Situation declines to help with the cleanup, fueling a fight with Sammi Sweetheart. “From now on, you are excluded from dinner,” he tells her. “You are excluded from surf and turf night. You are excluded from ravioli night. You are excluded from chicken cutlet night.” Looks like she’ll have to make do with Ronnie.
Ever wanted to know more about Mario Batali’s great-great-grandparents? Now you’ll get a chance. The new PBS show Faces of America, hosted by Harvard scholar Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., will investigate the family histories of famous Americans using genealogy and genetics, and will feature Molto Mario in the upcoming season, which begins Feb. 10. “Looking to the wider immigrant experience, Professor Gates unravels the American tapestry, following the threads of his guests’ lives back to their origins around the globe,” PBS said in a press release. “Along the way, the many stories he uncovers—of displacement and homecoming, of material success and dispossession, of assimilation and discrimination—illuminate the American experience.” In addition to Batali, the show will feature Stephen Colbert, director Mike Nichols, actress Eva Longoria, actress Meryl Streep, and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi.
At midnight on Dec. 31, the ball dropped on Times Square—as well as on many East Coast television viewers. More than 3 million Cablevision subscribers lost access to the Food Network, after Scripps, which owns the channel, and cable provider Cablevision failed to reach a mutually satisfactory licensing agreement. Despite months of negotiations, Scripps finally cut off Cablevision’s access to both the Food Network and HGTV. The Wall Street Journal reports that Cablevision has “no expectation of carrying [Scripps’] programming again.” “Obviously we feel horrible about it,” said Food Network President Brooke Johnson. But, she added, “all of our other carriage operators recognized the huge increase in popularity we’ve seen for the Food Network… every other contract that was up either reached a successful conclusion or is nearly concluded.”
In October 2003, TV cooking celeb Rachael Ray posed for FHM magazine, licking chocolate off spatulas, eating strawberries, and wearing a tiny apron. “It was the most scared I've ever been and I wouldn't change a thing,” said Ray of the photo shoot. “I'd do it again tomorrow." This week, FHM released their list of the 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2009, and coming in just under the wire at No. 100 is Ms. Yum-O herself. It’s a long way to No. 1 (Megan Fox), but we’ve all got to start somewhere.
For years, Swiss food giant Nestlé has been operating in Zimbabwe, and buying milk from the country’s dairy farms. This week, the company suspended all operations in Zimbabwe and stopped buying milk from a farm taken over by President Robert Mugabe’s family. Complaining of harassment, Nestlé said that the company had been forced to buy milk from non-contracted suppliers. Additionally, two of the company’s managers were recently questioned by police without cause. Zimbabwe has been trying to persuade foreign investors that it is safe to do business in the country.
