Food for Thought

OK. Remember when Levain and Auriga and Five closed, Seth left Cosmos, and I announced I was out on the ledge, so to speak, over the local state of restaurant affairs? Well I am back on a ledge. Except this time, it’s the ledge of global food production, world hunger, and the threat to our international security.

I have been abroad for a while, and after coming home, I can tell you with utmost assurance, from both anecdotal and scholarly resources alike, that we are in for a sh*tstorm of problems related to the rice panic, the rise of Chinese and Russian food demand, and the falling strength of the dollar. I was in three European countries last week and spent a lot of time with farmers, fishermen, and restaurant employees. The situation in Europe is terrible, and you will read a lot about it in the coming weeks, I am sure.

The French housing market is about to crater, the average EU citizen is facing unprecedented economic uncertainty as food prices eclipse the reach of single earner families in the middle class and lower income families with two wage earners. The cover of the International Herald Tribune even ran with a story about this phenomenon. And watching Al Jazeera, BBC News, and China News for a few weeks would scare the crap out of the average American. Anti-Americanism, fear of economic uncertainty, rising Chinese nationalism of the type that burst into the news last year in Russia (remember the Putin youth stories!?), and a tidal wave of problems rumbling across the Middle and Near East (Pakistani political clashes, Muslim Brotherhood threatening Egypt’s Mubarak oligarchy, Iranian obstinateness, Iraqi everything . . .) are making traveling and news watching uncomfortable.

There seems to be a solution for our ailing image abroad in all this, and it’s food related. Why doesn’t the United States stand up tomorrow and announce a global hunger initiative aimed at getting food into the hands of the world’s hungriest? Why don’t we single-handedly take care of the UN World Food Programme’s money crunch? Why not stand up and show the rest of the world that in our country, we stand alongside the least fortunate in time of need? Well, probably because we can’t even do that in our own country.

A report out on Tuesday from the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production examined the impact of the growth and rampant use of factory facilities masquerading as farms where huge numbers of the cattle, swine, and poultry (some right here in Minnesota) are concentrated in such large numbers and in such close quarters for the sole purpose of speeding up both the growth process and the slaughtering timetables. The report’s conclusion was that we must end this practice or continue to create an ever-widening epidemic of environmental and health problems.  To quote, ”There is increasing urgency to chart a new course . . . (These facilities) often poses unacceptable risks to public health, the environment and the welfare of the animals themselves.” And the canard we have been sold for too long is that all of this is good for farmers. Wrong! As an AP story I caught so succinctly put it, “it is good only in that it has shifted rural Americas economic power from farmers to livestock processors.”

Remember, when only three companies control two-thirds of the beef processing in this country, something is wrong. It creates untenable health risks and an ad hoc food cartel, which will very soon have OPEC-like powers that will continue to marginalize the average consumer when it comes to choice and access to healthy, inexpensive quality food. Mark my words, this is happening right now. Eating well is becoming a class issue in this country and around the world.

And if that doesn’t piss you off and give you food for thought, check out these links:

Here is a link to a PDF of "CAFO's Uncovered". Do you know how much tax we pay to clean up after these sh*tholes—literally?

Here is a link to the new Pollan article in the NYT Magazine about the impending climate doom and why someone should plant a garden, or not.

How about going on a recession diet? Really!

Slate has an article on how food writers don't necessarily write about the cost of food. True enough, but that’s not every food writer’s job, is it? That being said, there is a cool idea or two in here. 

Has anyone seen the Vanity Fair green issue? This Monsanto article is amazing in its ability to show you the reach and power that companies like this one have in our world today.

Shipping food around the EU through the perspective of the humble kiwi. 

Truth in Labeling bugging anyone other than me? Chipotle's nutritional info just doesn't add up.

Conspiracy Theory

According to a WCCO piece I caught online by John Lauritsen, it is a weak economy to blame for Temple having to close its doors, rising food costs, a sluggish economy (let me tell you, this is a full-blown recession and could approach depression standards very shortly). I logged on to several local blogs and news sites and checked out the temper of the commentary, and several posters got it right. As they see it, and as I wrote four months ago, there will be a lot more closings across the region as the discretionary budgets of Minnesotans shrinks.

Temple was not a victim of the economy as much as it was a casualty of its own miscalculations of the marketplace. Restaurants close because customers don’t go. And Temple failed to create a compelling reason for being there. The food was poorly conceived and executed from the get-go, the chef was gone within the first year, and naked sushi is a more desperate attempt at wooing customers than half-price wine nights could ever be.  It’s an important distinction to make because restaurants still work, in good economies or bad, so long as they are resonant with customers and create a business model within their own four walls that allows them to quickly adjust their costs to stay in line with their weekly haul and customer counts. In rugged times, simply thinking (as I believe Pham did) that if you build it they will come is a mistake of the highest magnitude.

The reason I launched my BODY COUNTS in these pages last year was to illustrate the point that the amount of people in your restaurant on a given night is the single greatest indicator of long- and short-term success. We had to suspend our counts because travel schedules and the like in our office, but I would encourage readers to take some body counts as they make their way around town. You might see some interesting trends.

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Heidi’s restaurant, Heidi and Stewart Woodman’s restaurant, appears in this months Condé Nast Traveler’s annual “Hot List” guide to the “world’s most exciting new establishments.” Check out the May issue of Condé Nast Traveler or visit the website.

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IACP Awards were handed out not long ago and Lee Klein's November 22 article in the Miami New Times, "Eat Shit and Die,” won an award. Klein’s piece detailed the dirty little secret that food animals are fed feces in the American Ag system. Other secrets that I have heard and read about recently include, but are not limited to, male chicks thrown into trash cans as soon as they hatch in egg farms; male calves torn from their mothers at birth and slaughtered before they are one-day-old; pig farms slice off the toes, ears, and tails of live piglets using knives and no painkillers; meatpacking plants (slaughterhouses) keep it a secret that up to four out of ten animals are not properly stunned, and the list goes on.

For real conspiracy theory freaks, here are a few pieces of food for thought: Some think the USDA isn’t really interested in mad cow disease because finding it would be bad for business. The American Medical Association keeps it a secret that there is overwhelming evidence linking dairy products to cancer. The American Veterinary Medicine Association keeps it a secret that food animals are pumped with hormones and antibiotics, which are directly responsible for many antibiotic-resistant strains of disease. Anyone else care to chime in? In the light of the fact that industry spokespeople are now saying that the powers that be are willing to concede that downer cattle have no place in the food system, it might be time to start stirring the pot.

Well Awarded

We are in the midst of a global food crisis. Commodity prices have doubled and tripled, governments are in fear of being toppled by “hunger revolutions,” oil is at a record price, and starvation is becoming a rampant phenomenon on every continent. I fully concede this is not the best of times to be writing about fancy pants restaurants, but I am proud of the work that chefs around the planet are doing to diligently raise money—and awareness—for globally focused good works. Think about it: At every fundraiser, charity ball, and benefit, there is always food. And chefs and restaurants are always leading the charge to lend a hand, cook a meal, or donate a gift certificate in their own backyards or across a continent.

Last week in LA, I noted that Ripert, Flay, Puck, Torres, Ducasse et al. were all doing a dinner that put big money (100K) in the pockets of a local California charity, John Besh is forever raising dollars for Katrina victims and to promote the city of New Orleans, and JD Fratzke and Scott Pampuch were the first to start working the phones last year when the flooding disaster ripped apart the southern regions of our state. I think it is important to remember that cooking food in fancy restaurants is “steel juzt a shob Ahhndrew,” as Pierre Gagnaire told me the other day, and some would think it is crazy to indulge ourselves in this type of dining chat when starvation crisis is not an “if” or “when” but a “now” subject. But the restaurant industry is a huge part of the global economy, provides relief both spiritually and physically to millions of customers each year, and, most importantly, is one of the largest agents for change in a world that could use more of it.

Want to do something great for the world? Celebrate Earth Day today. Go to this link to learn about various activities happening around Minneapolis and St. Paul.

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A few months ago, I was asked to be a part of the S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards process for 2008. For years I had been an avid fan of the rankings and musings, but this year was special since I got to be a judge for the event. The number one restaurant in the world was, for the third year in a row, Ferran Adria’s El Bulli, and seeing as how I have been lucky enough to eat in many of the top fifty restaurants on the list, I can tell you that E. B. was my top restaurant experience of the last couple of years as well. The Fat Duck was second and Gagnaire was third. The highest ranked American restaurants on the list were my old boss Thomas Keller’s French Laundry and Per Se in New York. Grant Achatz’s Alinea came in at number twenty-one, and the full list can be seen here.

Fergus Henderson’s St. John won the 50 Best Chef’s fave restaurant award, and there was a regional judges’ poll of local hot spots this year that also that can viewed on the website. Anyone have any problems with the rankings this year? Anyone planning to use this list as a guide on where and what to eat when you travel? Lunch alone at Gagnaire will cost you $500 without even touching the wine list. Lunch at Le Bernardin or Jean George can be had for approximately $50. Is it worth it? Well, I had approximately fourteen courses there the other day, and perhaps it was because I got to eat in the kitchen with the master himself during the lunch rush, but it was a transcendent experience. More on that some other time.

Gagnaire and I

Gagnaire working with one of his cooks

The shrimp course in five components

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Speaking of congrats, a huge shout out to Adam Platt and the mspmag.com all-stars who are responsible for debuting Foodie File last week. FF is our new MSP communal food/restaurant blog. This is a great place to check out when you are online; you can catch up on local review gossip and original content, including material from MSP newcomer Stephanie March.

Stick Shift

Ironically, someone (thanks, Anne!) who works at Health Partners sent me this link to Serious Eats, a great web site and one I peruse regularly. I cannot wait to see if someone does this at the Great Minnesota Get-Together; you would be stupid not to try it. I can’t believe I have not run across this one yet, but I am already looking into where to find it when I land in Korea this summer. Here are my other faves for inclusion this year at the Fair. (And yes, I am thinking about the Fair the moment it becomes spring.)

Thanksgiving on a Stick: Stuffing, turkey, and cranberries on a stick, deep-fried and with a cup of gravy for dipping. Three different people throughout the last three years have mentioned to me that they will be making a serious run at this in 2008.

Banana Q: My fave. Fresh, ripe banana rolled in raw brown sugar and deep-fried briefly. It’s bananas Foster without the snooty server. Served with your choice of crushed nuts, chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream, etc.

Real Barbecue: I admire the Famous Dave’s fellas for doing a great job and coming out with new items each year, but what about real pit BBQ with huge slabs of beef, good beef, being sliced and piled high on fresh, crusty rolls? Or true pulled pork? Heaven.

Doner Kebap: The Turkish version of a hallmark of street food I see all over Europe. Like shashlik or gyro except that the traditional Iskender doner kebap has a range of salads, pickled vegetables, and sauces that are unrivaled in my opinion.

Navajo tacos, shark-and-bake sandwiches, roti sandwiches, California tri-tip sirloin sandwiches, true muffalettas, and southern fried chicken . . . I could keep going. What is the food you would love to see most at the State Fair?

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On May 16, I suggest you join us for the third annual CuisineArt 2008: The Aluminum Chef Cooking Challenge, a Wolfgang Puck fundraising event benefiting the Walker Art Center. There will be a version of the Iron Chef cooking challenge that Wolfgang Puck and I will be hosting and judging. Teams will compete to create the winning dish using the same secret ingredient revealed at the start of the competition. After the battle royale, guests will be treated to a three-course dinner prepared by Puck, after which guests will stroll down to the “Sweet Success Dessert Lounge” created by Sherry Yard, the award-winning executive pastry chef for most of Puck’s endeavors and the author of a brand new book that I love called Desserts By The Yard.

Even better, only 100 guests can be accommodated, so this will be a very special evening indeed. Reservations are $1,250 per person. Teams of ten receive a single ticket discount for a total table price of $11,250. Proceeds from this fundraiser benefit the multidisciplinary programs of the Walker Art Center. To make a reservation, please contact Cody Ward in Walker Development at 612-375-7642 or e-mail Cody Ward.


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Speaking of Iron Chef stuff, Alton Brown is coming to Mall of America on April 28. Brown is one if the few luminaries in the food universe that I would crawl across a desert of broken glass to see in person. He is a great talent, and he has had a pretty good year by anyone’s yardstick, garnering a Peabody Award for his show Good Eats, and his new series Feasting On Asphalt is in its second season on Food Network. Last year, he was in Minnesota for FOA shooting at the Russian Tea House, Mickey’s Dining Car in St. Paul, Olsen’s Fish Company, Bob’s Java Hut, and Uptown Tattoo in Minneapolis. Go check him out.

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Upwardly spiraling commodity prices; skyrocketing oil prices; out of control farming subsidies; and hundreds of millions of new Asian, Russian, and South American middle class consumers with disposable income coming ‘online’ have sent global food prices up more than 80 percent in the past few years, according to The World Bank. And who gets screwed? Why, the world's poorest nations of course. Here is a quote from last week’s WSJ:

Rioting in response to soaring food prices recently has broken out in Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Ethiopia. In Pakistan and Thailand, army troops have been deployed to deter food from fields and warehouses. World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned in a recent speech that 33 countries are at risk of social upheaval because of rising food prices. Those could include Indonesia, Yemen, Ghana, Uzbekistan and the Philippines. In countries where buying food requires half to three-quarters of a poor person's income, "there is no margin for survival," he said.... "Many policy makers at the weekend meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank agreed that the problem is severe. Among other targets, they singled out U.S. policies pushing corn-based ethanol and other biofuels as deepening the woes.

Now, I have seen angry mobs of thousands protesting food shortages in Morocco, Bolivia, and the Philippines in the last year, and it is scary. There is real anger out there, and it is not just directed at us but at all the ‘haves’ in the world regardless of citizenship. I have been pelted with rocks, chicken soup, peach pits, bottle caps, and rotten fruit—and that was just in Bolivia. I have walked in neighborhoods affected in part by our President’s ill-fated foreign policies (or lack thereof), and it is upsetting, to say the least. But what I really want to know is which of the candidates for Dubya’s job has a realistic solution for dealing with this issue, curbing our  misguided ethanol policy, remaking the absurd subsidy regulations in the USA, ending our insane reliance on foreign oil, and helping our nation regain its status as the country most likely to show up with food (not guns) when another nation needs help?

I Love LA: Part 17

I just got back from a trip to LA for the Discovery Network Upfront presentations and did a little noshing in LA in anticipation of a story I am working on for the July issue of the magazine. Let me fill you in on a few of the people I spotted in my short visit to the City of Angels and a few of the things that you might want to nibble on when you are out here next.

Kat from L.A. Ink is my newest big fan, and I am hers. I met her in Chicago last week, and she made a beeline for me Tuesday evening when she saw me across the floor at the event. In tow was her beau, the ageless paunchy rocker Nikki Sixx, who was unable to bring himself to chow down on the geoduck that she and I offered to him.

Jai Rodriguez (former Queer Eye style maven) was Trading Spaces stalwart Paige Davis’s date for the event, and he spent the whole time at the show drinking highballs and shouting at the screen, basically acting like a four-year-old. When super hunk Dave Salmoni from Animal Planet hit the stage with a six-month-old cub wrapped around his neck, Jai nearly passed out with desire, audibly moaning from his seat. When Salmoni turned and exited, Jai kicked it into high gear, shouting lecherous offers from his back-row perch. Ten minutes later, Dave sat down next to him, and Jai lost all his confidence, turning into a shrinking wallflower at the very moment he should have risen to the occasion. What a schlub. Paige, by the way, is a stone-cold fox in real life, and all her perky folksiness from the show is noticeably absent when she is out and about.

Dhani Jones, Sam Brown, Kirsten Gum from Cash and Treasures, and all the rest of my Travel Channel teammates were there. Annabelle Gurwich (formerly of Dinner and Movie, with a new show on Planet Green, the new network launching this spring) was there, but all eyes were on PG’s new star Adrian Grenier from Entourage, who has a new show about his home and his green lifestyle. He is a very nice guy, very earnest and genuine, and only out done by the superbly humble Bear Grylls. Bear, Man vs. Wild, has recovered from the flap over his show’s truth telling, and his show is a huge ratings giant for Discovery. He and I share the same diet on the road, although as he told me at one point in the evening that I get a choice, he has none since it is eat or perish.

The highlight of the evening was sitting in between Justin Timberlake and Ellen Degeneres and gal pal Portia Rossi at dinner after the show. Timberlake was cool as a cuke, noshing with pals (no Jessica Biel in sight) and kissing everyone in the room on his way out the door. I got a little chin nod when he stopped to see who was at our table, and he smiled, mimed a little chewing, and then laughed as he made his way to his car. That kid is a star, huge magnetism. I am channeling both Sid and Joe Franklin right now . . . get it? Anyway, Ellen and Portia were having dinner, chowing on steak (we were all at Puck’s CUT in the Beverly Wilshire), and kept looking over at our table, sending one of their pals over after twenty minutes of giggling to ask me what was the best tasting animal testicle I ever ate? Resisting all temptation to make a joke about their lack of experience with that body part, I told them all about the black chicken balls in Taiwan, the Prada of animal testes. Jet black and rarer than truffles.

Turns out, they are all huge fans of the show, and to be honest, what a thrill to have them all be so interested in what we do on Bizarre Foods.

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Tuesday I ate lunch at Spago, and mega chefs Lee Hefter and Wolfgang Puck were both in the kitchen, clearly the stars had aligned. Turns out Alain Ducasse, Jacques Torres, Eric Ripert, and Bobby Flay were all in town for the day to cook a meal with Puck at a charity event in Newport Beach. Dinner for eight cooked by these guys went for $100,000. Well, the chefs were all having lunch at the table next to ours, so I got to hang with them for a bit. Flay was charming and gracious, so for the first time in twenty years, he is off my s**t list. Since Rocco came off that same list after we kissed and made up in South Beach last month, that leaves only Tyler Florence to carry forth the banner of official putz of the food world. He is a pompous and arrogant man who has no-showed on me twice throughout the years as a show guest of mine and the second time with no call or apology.

Anyway, here is what we all ate: Some of the dishes were being worked on and finalized for the event later that night, see the pix below for some cool photos. We started with the tuna tartare in sesame miso cones, then spoons of hamachi sashimi with yuzu, then fava puree tarts with basil oil, then Iranian osetra (wow!) tarts, cured salmon on lemon blini, rhubarb sorbet on pickled Jerusalem artichoke with lemon grass Earl Grey tea, sweet pea agnolotti with marscapone, and those were just the first seven courses!

Above: rhubarb sorbet on pickled Jerusalem artichoke with lemon grass Earl Grey tea.

Above: (left) Sweet pea agnolotti with marscapone and (right) Iranian osetra tarts.

Say what you will about Spago, but Puck and Hefter are always there, and the food is still, decades later, superb. Craft LA, Katsu-Ya, Pinks, In-N-Out, Dan Tana’s, Bastide, Providence, Lucques, Mozza, Matsuhisa, and Crustacean are all on my list of musts, and since I have approximately forty restaurants on my hit list with only room to write twenty, well, I am in trouble to say the least. Best dish? Maybe the sea urchin amuse at Craft. Teeny cubes of pickled watermelon, small slivers of compressed watermelon, and sea urchin perched on top, and the doughnuts are still the best in the universe. Best main course, the awesome roasted lobster in truffle sabayon whipped with the lobster tomalley. Oh, Lordy.

Live Bodies and Corpse Flowers

LA Times writer Whitney Friedlander was a Minnesotan for awhile, and after she interviewed me for an upcoming story, she asked me if I had ever heard of Spaghetti In A Bucket drive-through eatery in Plymouth. She was a fan as a kid, and I told her it was before my time. Any ideas gang?

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While I was away, Paul Douglas was let go at WCCO. I read all the stuff on Lambert’s awesome new blog on our site, Jason DeRusha’s blog, and, of course, all the local stories online. I have some personal experience with this issue, and as a former local TV employee and current cable TV employee, I have a take on this to offer as well.

Everyone in this biz knows that the worm can turn at any minute, and any of the local anchors, weather folks, sports anchors, and other “job for life” types all know they can be out at any time. Don Shelby was quoted in Roxanne Battle’s MinnPost blog as telling her he was “shocked and never saw it coming.” I get what he meant, but he is feigning surprise.

Anytime there is an ownership, GM, or news director change or revenues fall, only the most entrenched employees, the most visible local symbols of the stations, have a shot at lasting. Everyone else endures the uncertain moments that precede the first confab with the new leadership or the next quarterly reports. Dave Dahl at 5, Sven at 11, and Ian at 9 are all simply the stewards of a grand tradition, the trusted, local weathercaster. We tune in to Belinda because she is a great talent, and we like her, we connect with her on a human level, not because she gets the snow totals any more accurate than the other guys. I think anyone in that job is safe, unless they make a big bucket of money and their stations ad sales are falling.

It’s simple. What keeps many of us in jobs is that if we work at one station, then we can’t work at another. Belinda, for example, is worth a fortune to 11 not only because the ad sales folks can sell around her on weekdays, weekends, daytime, nighttime, and with her special appearances but also because 9/5/4 would snap her up in a second and build plenty of equity around her if 11 let her go for some reason, which they won’t. Dahl is probably safe since 5 is family owned, and Sven or Ian are new and well-removed from Dahl’s salary range. Lambert is spot-on when he illuminates the move away from lifetime personality association on local news and a reliance on cheap marketing of “better, faster, news” with big sound effects and killer graphics.

The people scratching their heads on this one are those who are unaware that with 500 channels, online access points, editorial placement, and viral marketing campaigns, advertisers have more places to put their dough than ever before, and the broadcast networks are feeling the pinch the most. Consultants are telling GMs all the time to drop the high-priced talent unless they can quantifiably demonstrate that ad sales increase based on their show participation. Everyone will tell you that this is incorrect because they are news stations and don’t look at those numbers. They are lying. Anchors are a different story, but look at what 11 has done throughout the last year, bringing in cheaper younger talent to replace all the established superstar reporters. And Amy Hockert costs less contractually than Diana or Julie, and she is good at what she does. So do you tune in for Diana or Julie or for the Golden Glow brand that is KARE?

Now just to confuse you . . . On a personal-experience level, when I left FOX, they had offered me many incentives to stay. Weekend morning co-host stuff, etc., but the dollar offer was modest. Flattering but modest. They could only recoup so much in a competitive market. And the new news director was not drinking my Kool-Aid. No harm, no foul. They made the right decision, and so did I, but I guarantee you that the numbers on contracts will contract, not escalate, and we are seeing the same on national cable. Five years ago, I would have signed a larger deal for salary than I did last year with Travel Channel. These days in cable, you need to extend your brand many ways if you want to make a big score, but all in all, we still have the privilege of communicating in a medium that is exciting and offers great opportunities every day for us all. The milk and honey days are far behind us in commercial television, but look to your computer for the next wave of manna from heaven. Anyone can own a piece of the Web; it is the ultimate next frontier.

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An update from our pals at the Como Zoo and Marjorie McNeely Conservatory ”The Amorphophallus titanum, also known as the Corpse Flower from the smell it omits during bloom, has begun to send out it's signature scent.  Although not completely opened yet, the strong is very strong.  Nicknamed BOB, this endangered, rare Sumatran flower started to show signs a growth in early March but is a bit unusual. Experts around the world have being weighing in on BOB's characteristics.  The plant was one of the smallest known to bloom, as well as part of the spathe did not cover the entire spadix.  As of 2007, only 122 plants have known to bloom worldwide.The Corpse Flower is on display in the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory to see and smell. Como Park Zoo and Conservatory has a Gardener Blog, along with a web-cam with the help of the City of Saint Paul's Media Services. To follow along the growth and watch the progress, visit the Como Zoo website."

You should go today and check it out; this is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Hodgepodge

Am I the only one left unimpressed by Duff Goldman’s giant cupcake? I finally saw a picture of the treat, and based on the work I see every week on Ace of Cakes, I expected more from the bake master. The event, on the other hand, was a smash hit. Congrats to all involved.

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According to a press release that made its way to my inbox, “An endangered, rare Sumatran plant that has been patiently waiting to bloom for 15 years has started to show a flower bud and may soon send a perfume odor of rotting flesh. The Amorphophallus titanum, also known as the Corpse Flower from the smell it omits during bloom, will hopefully be in bloom in a about a week at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in Saint Paul, MN.”

The flower weighs approximately twenty-five pounds, and when it does bloom, it will stink of rotting flesh for roughly forty-eight hours. Why does this sound interesting to me? Well, given the fact that this has only happened a handful of times on our continent in the last 100 years, you might want to check it out. Go to the conservatory’s website for more info.

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The New Yorker's epic profiler, Larissa MacFarquhar, wrote a profile of David Chang last week. The Momofuku maven is up for a big Beard award this year, and his restaurants in NYC are packed. His food is fantastic, and Ed Levine chimed in here. Here is a take from Eater.

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Kim Severson is calling a tight group of food bloggers, journalists, and chefs the Fat Pack.

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The infallible vicar of God on earth, the new Pope, is making his first trip to New York, and who is his chef? Lidia Bastianich, of course. 

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Culinate has a great piece on eating insects. I I have to say that I have seen more on this subject in the last three months than in the last three years combined. Alternative foods are a big issue, and obviously I have a soft spot in my heart for this subject.

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Several weeks ago, I blogged about a new legal label, “Naturally Raised."  I am pretty sure it won't mean much more than "Certified Organic" and will cost farmers the same exorbitant amount of money to get cleared. That being said, the Des Moines Register has a pretty good take on the subject. 

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And in more meat news, here is one you should read, especially if you want to impress your foodie friends at the next dinner party. The notion that growth hormones are beneficial for farming economics is nothing new, but it is still sickening to read something so achingly detached from my reality.

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In more meat news . . . it just doesn’t stop!  This post comes from The Jew & the Carrot and covers quite a few interesting points about who owns the majority of the beef production system in our country. Three companies own 70 percent of the beef. Seriously!

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And yes, even more meat news! I'm sure you remember the story about the exploding meatpacking plant. Well, it’s time to call in the hazmat teams.

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And finally, here's a really good article by the great Molly O'Neill about the history of food journalism.

Television Stars and Goofballs

Dhani Jones is a star. The NFL stalwart (Cincy Bengals currently) has a new show on the Travel Channel called Tackling The World that begins airing soon; check out the Travel Channel website for details in your neck of the woods. But that’s not the whole story.

I met Jones last week at the Discovery Networks’ upfront presentations, where all the Discovery-owned or -affiliated networks present their existing and future programming to advertisers. Jones showed up at the Chicago event that I was at along with several hosts and stars from all the other channels. The LA Ink crew was there, the captains from Deadliest Catch, big cat guru Dave Simon from Animal Planet, and so on. Jones showed up, played a classical piece on a grand piano in front of a packed house of approximately 2,000 people, aired a clip of him kicking ass all over a professional rugby pitch, and showed me his killer bow tie that he designed himself. Check out his ties here.

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Last night, I would have thrown out both of the Top Chef goofballs who made the Vietnamese ‘summer rolls’ as Spike called them. I loved what Boulud had to say about technique defining a chef above all else and was shocked at how many of the chefs simply thought of knife skills when it came to choosing a technique to show off with.

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After seeing the new season premiere of one of my former fave shows (Hell’s Kitchen), I am convinced some exec producer made a decision that he or she will regret for the rest of his or her life. The idea that each year they should get contestants (I can’t even call them cooks or chefs anymore since many aren’t) with less and less experience and have them compete to win the job of executive chef in one of Ramsay’s flagship eateries is not just fantastical, it borders on ludicrous. In fact, it is a supreme piece of fakery since I can assure you that NO ONE ASSOCIATED WITH RAMSAY’S LA PROJECT would ever let one of those bumbling morons anywhere near the steering wheel of that restaurant. It would be suicide.

Furthermore, watching clueless non-talent cooking is boring in the extreme, especially in light of the fact that the Ramsay vitriol was fun for the first three seasons and is now stale beyond words. Making that staleness even less acceptable is that he is now abusive and disrespectful of people who he knows in his heart have no business being in the kitchen and have no hope of succeeding. It is like picking a knife fight with an armless man and then pulling out a gun when he starts shaking with fear.

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Speaking of TV talent, chef Chris Jacobson (chef “CJ”), who was featured in the third season of Bravo’s Top Chef, will join Asher Miller, 20.21 executive sous chef, to host a James Beard Foundation Celebrity Chef Tour dinner at 20.21 on Thursday, May 1. Tickets for this event, which benefits the James Beard Foundation, are open to the public. Tickets are available for $175. For more information, check out the event's website.