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Amateur Gourmet has sold his soul to the Food Network. I like Adam a lot; the FN needs more guys like him.

I am not the only dude trying to open up the eyes of the Western world to the delightful taste treats, such as insects.

Here is a great piece on how sugar substitutes will make you fat. 

And in other health-related news: Here is some good data on what eating food from some chains will do to your weight.

For travel bugs: Here is a list of top chefs' favorite travel spots on Fodor's website. 

The Chicago Tribune picks the best movies with food this last year.

Frank Bruni would love the Minnesota model of eating based on this Diner’s Journal blog entry.

In the NYT, Bittman dispels six kitchen myths for those of you who need some deprogramming. 

I love drinking soda in foreign countries because they don’t use corn syrup the way we do in this country. That’s why Mexican Coke is so good. Well check out Pepsi Raw; will it be here soon?

And last but not least, I thought you might like this post on deadly foods: Have you tried any today? 

Miami Rhapsody

To whoever took my camera at the SoBe Food and Wine Festival on Saturday, please return it. There is a reward.

Everyone should make his or her plans now for next year’s SoBe FWF. It is an awesome event, and this was my first year working the fest. Michael Bloise (Wish Restaurant) and I took on Rocco DiSpirito and Clay Conley (Azul) in an Iron Chef contest live on the Target Stage, and we destroyed them. The Target folks did an amazing job down there, and those lime Popsicle bars are addictive in the extreme. Come down next year and hang with all of us, you will love it.

I think it is one of the top food fests in the country, and I got to hang with lots of old and new friends: Matt and Ted Lee are working on a new book proposal; Tim Love was taking his fans “to the mountain top” thanks to a never empty bottle of Patron; Michael Schwartz; Adam Perry Lang, who is the Daisy May BBQ honcho and the nicest man in the business; Emeril (he looks more exhausted than any human being I know; Rachel (cute dress); Paula (went through the motions); Geoff Zakarian from Town and Country in NYC (congrats on getting married and the new baby, my man); Jimmy Boyce, Giada, Jonathan Barnett (who reminded me of all the obnoxious crap I used to tell him back in NYC when we worked together); Jimmy Bradley from Red Cat and The Harrison, and loads of other great folks all cooked up a storm all weekend long.

My only regret is that I can’t post all my great behind the scenes pics because some a**hole lifted my camera along with my cool new shades.

The best thing I ate all weekend was the foie with black pepper marshmallow at Wish on Friday evening, second best was the carpaccio with white truffles and roasted coconut at Wish, third best thing was the cinnamon cured salmon that Bloise made during our demo. He is a talented young man.

I shot a commercial all night in the Everglades and got back in town hours late. I had planned on hitting the Bubble Q with Cat Cora but ended up missing it, and the folks at Wish blew me away with an awesome meal. South Beach also offers the best people watching in North America, not even close.

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To those of you who read the posts to this blog, here is some explanation to all the questions posed by readers on last Thursday’s blog:

NO, you do not have to advertise in the magazine to win awards at our Best Of event, especially not for Restaurateur of the Year.

YES, there were several other deserving candidates this year.

The Town Talk lads would have been a reasonable choice, and I was partial to the Solera/LBV crew simply because of all the accolades they earned this past year for their exceptional work. You also could have made a case for Alex Roberts and his two restaurants (Alma and Brasa), but because of the launch of Flame, the perseverance of Atlas, the re-energizing of Mission with the hiring of Doug Flicker, and the hugely successful opening of Via, the choice that the editors at the magazine made was Anoush, Hadi, and the folks at Hemisphere.

It is a group choice to suggest candidates for a pool that is ultimately decided on by our editor-in-chief, Brian Anderson. Some of us have Brian’s ear more than others, and lots of thought goes into the decision—and not every reader will agree on who is chosen. Of course, we are all aware of the ridiculousness of some of the choices over the years given the turn of events after the selections. Aqauvit wins and closes, and we gave them the award for changing the nature of dining in the city. Sam Ernst and his boys won for T of C and Red Fish Blue at a time when they seemed poised to do something big, and then they fizzled, and I could go on and on.

The confusion for our readers, I am thinking, is that there is no consistent criteria for picking winners from year to year, so some of the choices are made one year for food excellence (112 Eatery or Aquavit) and the next year for business acumen (Rick Webb), and some years there are some truly deserving candidates who are not selected. I do agree with several of the e-mailers and post-a-holics that the Solera/LBV team is sorely overdue an award from us, considering they have yet to win one, and they have twice created a restaurant that changes the culinary landscape in this town and have twice hit home runs.

I was also being somewhat rhetorical when I posited my ‘shock and outrage’ over the Readers Poll results. I get it, and I have said for years that to me, the Readers Poll is a conundrum, wrapped in a riddle, inside a puzzle . . . or is that Russia? Who cares about a Readers Poll? Any thoughts?

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Before it becomes an issue du jour, the critics’ picks list was divided among four of us. We picked fifty restaurants, and then Adam Platt divvied them up—otherwise, we would all have too much repetition with our selections.

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Zander is no more from what I gather. I returned from Thailand the other week, and several people told me the doors were shut. Is it true? If it is, I am not surprised in the least, despite the very nice meals I ate there throughout the years. The restaurant never recovered from the lunacy of the sale of the breakfast joint and the remodeling of the room next to the restaurant into a wine bar, all of which happened at the height of the popularity of the eatery—both created a confusion for the customer. It makes me sad that a restaurant that existed solely because of a talented man’s passion for good food (Alexander Dixon) failed to sustain a customer base, and passionless restaurants with mediocre food, such as Kincaid’s, keep winning our Reader’s Poll

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Speaking of mediocre, I have had several folks tell me that r.Norman’s is disappointing in the extreme. True or false?

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I had a delightful lunch last week at Red Stag with Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl. Our server seemed puzzled when two people ordered enough food for five. But hey, we were hungry. This place shows promise but lacks some attention to detail. As with many restaurants, with a little more effort and expertise, they could really be doing some cool stuff.

The room is comfy, and the map of the USA from the mid-eighteenth century is one that I have been looking to add to my collection for years; I was jealous. The chili was average, the food all needed salt, the lobster-studded mac and cheese was pretty good, the grits were good, the garlic-kissed Jo-Jo-style potato bats were killer, the egg-salad sandwich was fair and poorly constructed, and the bangers and mash could have been great had the sausages not been overcooked and made with too little fat to begin with. The red-velvet-style beetroot cake was inedible as was the grainy (frozen too slowly) ice cream that came with it. Someone needs to crack the whip in that place. How can you serve inedible cake that tastes like the fridge and ice cream that is made improperly? Crazy.

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I am dining at Porter & Frye this week, and all the early money says this will be a thrilling restaurant from a food standpoint; I am looking forward to it.

Seth, Lies, and Videotape

Seth Bixby Daugherty is making his national TV debut on Monday, March 3 on the Rachel Ray show all in support of his charitable efforts to change the way children eat in our school system. He’s a rock star.

Here is a nice segue: The following night, Season 2 of Bizarre Foods airs. And set your DVR for February 26 for another Bizarre Foods Best Of special with some previews of Season 2. A lot of folks have seen the new ad campaign for the show; if not, here is a sneak peek. These ads are hysterical and remind me of the SportsCenter ads from back in the day.

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Anyone see the NYT piece about the growing crop of "bloggers calling for fat acceptance" that is giving rise to "a virtual soapbox known as the fatosphere"?  Roni Caryn Rabin of The New York Times profiles these bloggers—who include both women and men— who "challenge just about everything conventional medical wisdom has to say about obesity” What a pack of lies!

According to Tim Manners’s Cool News, the message from the fatosphere is not just that big is beautiful.

Says the NYT article:

Many of the bloggers dismiss the “obesity epidemic” as hysteria. They argue that Americans are not that much larger than they used to be and that being fat in and of itself is not necessarily bad for you."

Kate Harding, whose blog is called Shapley Prose, starts by attacking the premise that being fat is a choice. "No fat acceptance advocate is saying you should sit around and wildly overeat," she acknowledges. "What we're saying is that exercise and a balanced diet do not make everyone thin." Others point to evidence that overweight people can be healthier than thin people. For example, "recent studies on heart patients and dialysis patients have also reported higher survival rates among heavier patients, suggesting that the link between body size and health may be more complex than generally acknowledged."

Others point to study of people over 60 that "found that being fit has more bearing on longevity than simply being thin." But the main argument "is that being fat is not a result of moral failure or a character flaw, or of gluttony, sloth or a lack of willpower," and that it may have more to do with genetics than anything else. "We accept that some people are short," says Rachel Richardson, whose blog is called The F-Word. "Yet we seem to think all people should be thin -- it just doesn't make sense." There's also a certain feminist streak at work, although at least one blogger, Red No. 3, specializes in the male perspective, and says: "See, I don't have a problem with fat ... My body is simply adorned, and I'll take that."

WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Being fat has physical, mental, and spiritual components to the disease. Obesity is a disease, and there is also a wellspring of available cures and treatments, and the people who think that being grossly and chronically overweight is in some way OK are in denial.

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The recent contretemps re the Humane Society videotape, its undercover work, the downer cattle going to slaughter, and the beef recall all bring to mind the shortsighted and ignorant citizens of our country who actually believe that the USDA and the other federal agencies charged with protecting our food pathways are doing a competent job. That idea would simply be crazy. The agencies, such as the USDA, FDA, and the like, are broken.

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The Mpls.St.Paul Magazine Best of the Best Party on Monday night was a rousing success. The Walker Art Center staff did an outstanding job! What a great place to have an event of any size, and 1,500 of you filled the rooms. The MSP people, most notably Adam Platt and his team, Natasha Freimark and her team, Deb Hopp, Stephanie Peterson, Kevin Dunn, Gary Johnson, Brian Anderson, and scores of other folks should be loudly applauded for creating such a compelling evening of food celebration. Also, congrats to Hadi and Anoush and all the folks at Hempisphere for winning our Restaurateur of the Year award.

Here are a couple of other observations:

Restaurants that are looking to impress 1,500 potential A-list customers should try to serve great food at an event like this, not mediocre food. Chopped sausage at a high-end tasting event is a cop-out. Saffron, Masa, Chambers, Solera, 20.21, and La Belle Vie did some great food that night as did the Puck catering people in the VIP room.

Speaking of La Belle Vie, that restaurant earned sixth place in our annual Readers Poll if I remember the presentation video correctly. WOW. How can you reconcile the Readers Poll with other accolades that LBV regularly acquires? Does LBV not resonate with your average Minnesotan? Gourmet magazine called them one of the fifty best restaurants in the country. I listed them on my judge’s ballots for Beard Awards and for the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants award (there is a mandatory section for local restaurants in a judges given geographic zone).

I believe LBV is pound for pound the best restaurant in our state for food quality/service/beverage, program/ambiance/innovation, etc. So anyone who thinks that there is not some lingering provincialism in our DNA when it comes to our ability to recognize culinary greatness should be pointed in the direction of the Readers Poll and the disparities it points out between who is eating where and why. I would understand if LBV is not everyone’s cup of tea, but sixth?! C’mon now, people. And for the record, the bar at LBV is a low-key and casual place to enjoy great food without sitting at a table for two hours if that is more your speed. If you love great dining experiences, sit in the dining room for the full-frontal effect.

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Porter and Frye is now open. I finally ate at Red Stag (are you writing that down, Jeremy!?), and Zander closed. More on all that on Monday.

Illegalities

On a local news site last week, there was a lot of poutine chat going around. Here in Minnesota, the idea of French fries with cheese and gravy—with or without the foie gras supplement—is an easy thing to say yes to. In other parts of the country, there are some foods that inspire heart attack paranoia and are considered illegal to serve. I don’t know about you, but this seems pretty frickin’ awesome to me!

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What foods and other related matters should be illegal in Minnesota? Here is a list:

—Anyone writing a menu with yet another Caesar salad on it?
—Restaurants who make waiters introduce themselves.
—A Japanese restaurant with the same menu as the other twenty that are already open here.
—Another Kincaids.
—Food billed as homemade that isn’t, such as bread and desserts that are brought in the back door and sold as house-made. Happens all the time.
—Tuna sold table-side by servers as “sashimi quality.” It’s a misnomer and often is used to push inferior quality fish on unsuspecting consumers.
—A second Zahtar.

Oh, wait, there is a second one opening. I opened up my latest copy of Foodservice News, and there it was. The restaurant in the Grand Hotel that Life Time Fitness owns will soon become Zahtar number two, and it will be open to the public. Zahtar number one is located in the Eden Prairie Life Time Fitness and is available only to members. So let me get this straight: The restaurant and concept is so perfect, so finely honed that the company is going to open another one?! Wow. I am speechless. I heard through the rumor mill that the Zahtar GM only lasted six weeks before he quit.

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Set your DVR for February 26. We have a “best of” special for Bizarre Foods airing, and the following Monday, I am on the Today Show to kick off premier week. First show airing is Beijing on Tuesday, March 4, our new night.

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Did you know they do naked sushi at Temple Restaurant and Bar? As in eating sushi off a naked person. And, according to what my boss Brian Anderson said on the radio last week, not just off naked women. I don't think eating sushi off a naked man has the same intrinsic sex appeal. Hey, that's not a caterpillar roll! And is this the 2008 version of closing for lunch and offering half-price wine? Are these the death throes of a restaurant—when they copy a ten-year-old dining cliché that didn’t work for anyone back in 1997 let alone now?

You, Me, and the USDA

I have been alerted that the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking comments on a proposed voluntary standard for a "naturally raised" marketing claim for meats. According to its Notice and Request for Comments for Docket AMS-LS-07-0131; LS-07-16, "the livestock and meat supply chain, along with consumers could benefit from a uniform standard for the marketing of this type of product." The definition for "naturally raised" proposed by USDA is:

"Livestock used for the production of meat and meat products have been raised entirely without growth promotants, antibiotics, and have never been fed mammalian or avian by-products. This information shall be contained on any label claim that an animal has been naturally raised."    

Jeff Swain, the head honcho at Niman Ranch, thinks this is bunk, and so do I. Like many of us who have been calling for more clear-cut definitions, we feel this stated policy lacks teeth and substance. Consumers purchase a product labeled "naturally raised," and their desire is to feed their families a wholesome, safe, clean, and responsibly raised product.  He says that"Naturally Raised," such as the term "Organic" before it, is about to get keelhauled. No one acknowledges what it means to consumers! "Naturally raised" must mean, as Swain put it in a recent e-mail:

"that the animals were raised in an environment that promotes sustainability. When consumers purchase natural meats they feel they are making a commitment to their environment. Thus, raising animals in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) should not be labeled as 'naturally raised' as these operations pose a documented threat to our air and water quality. Naturally raised meat must be a 'never-ever' product. This means that from birth to harvest, there must be no antibiotics, artificial growth hormones, steroids or other chemicals that could potentially pose a health risk to consumers. Although we do believe in humanely treating sick animals, we feel those treated must be sold through the conventional market. Animals raised with care in comfortable, bedded conditions, smaller sized herds, with minimal crowding and ample fresh air will more than likely be less stressed and healthier, reducing the need for antibiotics or other drugs."

Cathy Liss, president of the Animal Welfare Institute, asks consumers to urge the USDA to include animal welfare criteria in the standards:

"We are seeking a better result. The definition as proposed contains no stipulations concerning the animals' own welfare or how the animals live, but applies narrow criteria related only to feed or other substances administered to animals. While farmers who raise animals under high welfare conditions should be covered by this term, the industrial producers will seek a weak definition so they can profit by selling the products of cruelly raised animals labeled as 'naturally raised.'"

AMEN, SISTER!

As Swain and Liss suggested to me, let’s urge the USDA to write a definition for "naturally raised" that: "requires farm animals, including poultry, to be raised in a manner that is consistent with the biology and natural behavior of the species; disqualifies farms that use gestation crates, farrowing crates, battery cages, calf crates, slatted floors and liquefied manure, and other equipment or facilities typical of unnatural factory systems and requires that animals have free access to continuous range on fresh pasture or woodlands or, in inclement weather, be able to move freely in comfortable housing and clean bedding until outdoor conditions improve."

I’ll make it easy for you:

Comments may be submitted online, via regular mail, or by fax until March 3.

The AMS website:
There is a link under "United States Standards for Livestock and Meat Marketing Claims, Naturally Raised Claim for Livestock and the Meat and Meat Products Derived From Such Livestock" for you to "Send a Comment or Submission."

Regular Mail:
Naturally Raised Marketing Claim
Room 2607–S, AMS, USDA
1400 Independence Ave. SW
Washington, D.C. 20250–0254

Fax:
202-720–1112

Go for it, Minnesota.

Talent and Torts

Gael Green celebrates forty years in the biz this year. She is one of my food-writing idols.

On November 11, 1968, she went to print and delivered "Paley's Preserve: The Ground Floor” in which she wrote it was “the perfect room to end an affair in . . . "

Here is what she says in a recent e-mail to me:

“see how we ate in 1968, see BITE right now on my site and if you want to remember -- or discover -- what it was like in the days when ex-cashiers and waiters controlled where we would sit in the haughty French restaurants that counted...click on "Vintage Articles"...read about the Colony as Forest Lawn, Cruel Table Games at La Caravelle, No cookies for you at La Grenouille...and the arrival of winter at the Four Seasons. For me it is wonderful to wallow in memories of the days when we had to go to France once a year for cusinary epiphany...and then later when everything was new and thrilling and we didn't need to be ironic.”

Go to her site, and check it out. She rocks.

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Did anyone read “Mississipi’s Proposal To Stop Restaurants From Serving Obese People?”

I agree with the point in the piece made by the Yalie. It is a ridiculous bill, and it is discriminatory as well, but it does raise a valid issue in a sense. Why is it OK for us to say “please don’t smoke, or shoot dope, or drink until you’re passed out, etc., etc.,” but it is not OK to talk about the STAGGERING obesity rates in this country and the people who pathologically keep stuffing themselves with food? What is the solution?

People walk around on eggshells when it comes to publicly talking about this issue with morbidly fat people. And we all know there’s a problem: I stare at it every day in the mirror myself.

Check out this site for some erudite discussion on this topic.

Mind Numbing and Brain Blowing

Sometimes the news hits home, literally. Minnesota pork-processing workers are getting a strange nerve disease, especially the ones that work at the "head table" where they quite literally blow the brains out of pigs. Immigrant workers, making 11 to 12 bucks an hour in a dangerous, dirty industry should have the right to work in a safe environment, and this plant seems to not be so safe, does it?

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I like food that isn’t ordinary, but this trend is mundane, weird, and obsessive—no wonder Vince Gill is the evil leader of this bizarre cult. Chewable ice is apparently the big thing down South. Perhaps this would be a good way for us Minnesotans to make it through a long winter?

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Mark Bittman's new blog, Bitten, on the NY Times website is great. Say what you want, but in the grandest tradition of Pierre Franey, Bittman is one of the most reliable recipe mavens in the country—and he’s a great writer. 

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Alan Richman left Bloomberg or was fired, depending on whom you believe. I think his writing is superb, and his point of view on restaurants is generally spot-on. Just read his books and recent collection of essays, and you’ll see why. Recently, he has taken a pounding about his negative take on the rebuilding restaurant scene in NOLA and his slam job on Jean Georges’s empire in GQ several years ago. Some say he wanted out and left, others say he got canned because of his growing curmudgeondom. But one thing is for sure: There is now a great job opening at B-berg.

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The Vietnamese are eating more rats, according to the WSJ. I can personally confirm this is true having spent a few weeks there during the summer. Rats, snake, dogs, and cats are all a part of the local diet, always have been. I did not eat rat because of the health concerns and provenance of the rodents I was offered. I ate snake and dog and passed on the cat for the same reasons I declined the rat. Know your food source! Now the WSJ piece offers recipes; that’s right. So if you have some rodents in the freezer, it’s time to defrost them. 

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There's word that Hearst will be publishing a Food Network magazine in partnership with Scripps, which owns FNT. Here’s the catch: The networks personalities might not be on board.

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Having spent a lot of time throughout the last two years in the third world, I can tell you that disease is rampant, and children, as always, are the most innocent victims. Nutraceuticals are not normally something I get excited about, but if this works, then I am all for it. I have seen children die from parasitic infestation in Africa and Southeast Asia. Kraft is working on a de-wormer that would be added to foods sold in Latin America and Asia. 

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The South Koreans are ingenious food packagers, and the Col-Pop is a stroke of brilliance. Popcorn chicken stays hot while resting on your cold soda. 

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The Deep South is home to a lot of strange food trends (see ice eating above), but the Pickle Sickle is ridiculous; although, it would probably do well at the State Fair. 

Going Mobil

This Super Bowl lived up to the hype and not just because my team won. If the NYGs can win a Super Bowl, the Vikings sure can, too.

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What some folks consider to be Minnesota’s temple of fine dining, La Belle Vie, was just awarded four stars in the Mobil Travel Guide.  As far as I can tell, this is the first time that a Minnesota restaurant has been listed in that guide. For some perspective: There are 149 four-star restaurants and only seventeen five-star restaurants on the MTG list. This year’s Mobil Travel Guide is the fiftieth anniversary issue, and for the first time, it awarded five stars to hotel properties in Wyoming and Utah. The Four Seasons Resort in Jackson Hole and the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City were both added this year. Additionally, two other properties are appearing on Mobil's five-star list for the first time: the Boston Harbor Hotel and The Sanctuary on Kiawah Island in South Carolina. Three new restaurants earned five stars in the current guide: the Georgian Room in Sea Island, Georgia; The Inn at Dos Brisas in Brenham, Texas; and Le Bernardin in New York. That fact that Le Bernardin did not received five stars last year or the year before is a joke; but there is no time like the present.

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Raising Cane’s, which serves some killer chicken fingers, has opened a Stadium Village location. Thank God because I live about four minutes away, and the haul out to Apple Valley was getting tiring.

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According to Tim Manners’s Cool News:

Tim Hanni is a recovering alcoholic and former wine snob whose goal is to "get more Americans to drink wine," reports Katy McLaughin in The Wall Street Journal (1/19/08). Tim's idea is "that no one has a palate superior to anyone else's, and that there's nothing wrong with liking wines many experts consider tacky, like White Zinfandel. He also thinks traditional tasting notes comparing wine to berries or chocolate are useless in helping most consumers find wines they enjoy." Tim's perspective is unusual not only because he is a recovering alcoholic but also because "he was one of the first two Americans to hold the highest credential in the field, Master of Wine."

Getting that credential involves a "four-day exam and dissertation ... with challenges such as identifying the region, production method and alcohol levels for wines from a blind tasting." It's precisely because of this credential that Tim has the credibility to advance "two radical new ideas to the wine trade." The first idea is what he calls "the progressive wine list, a menu that arranges wines in order from the lightest to the heaviest." He's categorized some 80,000 wines, and his database is now in use by "30 percent of casual and upscale chains" and "about four-percent of fine dining restaurants, including Nobu in New York."

Tim's other idea is something he calls the "budometer," a questionnaire "which consists of a series of questions about a drinker's preference in coffee, beer, cocktails and soft drinks" purported to "predict what kind of wine the person will like." And if that doesn't work, he has yet another idea -- Tim claims that adding some salt and lemon to food will make it go well with just about any wine. Based on this, he's created a condiment called Vignon. Such innovations are most welcome by the $27.8 billion U.S. wine industry, where "only 17.8 percent of American adults drink wine once a week or more."

Who would of thunk it?