March 2011
25 posts
The War Against The Food Movement
Michael Pollan, who many consider to be a founding father of the food movement, has a few choice words for naysayers in the wake of a recent bout of negative press surrounding the movement. High-profile articles in The Economist and The Atlantic claiming that the move towards sustainable agriculture and the “rise of the foodies” are both economically unrealistic and inherently elitist. Pollan,...
The Cookbook: Modernist Cuisine
The prodigious Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking is rocking the food world in historic proportions as many within the food community call it the most important cookbook to be published in years, if not of all time. If nothing else, the galvanizing 6-volume, 2,438-page cookbook declares that the molecular gastronomy style of cooking to be a veritable cultural revolution. The...
2011 Great Neighborhood Restaurants & Resources
LTHForum, a go-to resource for Chicagoans looking to explore the vibrant maze of food options, has spoken. Their 2011 Great Neighborhood Restaurants & Resources list is composed of establishments that members feel most aptly “contribute to their neighborhoods’ and the region’s character by offering outstanding food, an authentic experience of their ethnic culture, and/or a...
Orthorexia
Ever heard of orthorexia? Neither had we, but it may very well be coming to a rehab near you in 2011. Orthorexia nervosa, defined as “an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy food” is on the rise as consumers become increasingly bombarded with an overwhelming variety of often conflicting health claims. For many it begins with a fad diet. Then they cut out meat. Then dairy. Then gluten. ...
Making It Work In School Cafeterias
Something miraculous is happening in the most unlikely of places, school cafeterias. Chef Paul Boundas has shocked the nation’s premier health and nutrition experts by providing about 4,500 Chicago private school students with nutrient-packed, made-from-scratch lunches all for under the $2.74 per meal federal reimbursement program. Boundas’s ability to bring school children to actually eat and...
Innovative Food Companies
What do Trader Joe’s, PepsiCo, and McDonald’s all have in common? According to Fast Company, innovation. The publication’s recently released list of “The 10 Most Innovative Companies In Food” includes some interesting choices, such as FoodHub for being “the Match.com for the locavore movement” and Bolthouse Farms because of “its ambitions to double the $1 billion baby-carrot business by using...
Magnolia Bakery Comes To Chicago
We know you’re sick of cupcakes. We are too. But this is different. This is the mother of all cupcake shops. This is - Magnolia Bakery. New York’s legendary cupcake destination is set to open at Block 37 in the Loop this June. Just like that, your summer got a whole lot sweeter. [Chicago Breaking Business]
Coconut Oil
From a reviled “artery-clogging, cholesterol-raising, heart-attack-causing” nutritional deviant to a reluctant health food enjoying double digit sales increases, coconut oil may just be your next cooking oil of choice if it isn’t already. Proponents claim that it possesses antimicrobial, antiviral, and antibacterial properties that could possibly rev up your metabolism, alleviate acne, and...
PepsiCo's Green Bottle
You know things are headed in the right direction when one of the world’s largest distributors of bottled beverages releases a container made entirely of plant-based materials. PepsiCo’s new bottle is made entirely of pine bark, cornhusks, switch grass, and other materials with a goal of eventually using potato scraps, orange peels, and oat hulls left over from their food business. We’re happy...
Aviary
As the highly anticipated opening of Grant Achatz’s Aviary looms closer, we are being treated to actual photos of a variety of his innovative cocktails and the museum-worthy vessels that will hold them. Food & Wine is so jazzed for the opening that they just named Aviary one of America’s Best New Bars. See photos of the cocktails. [Time Out Chicago] Read more about the cocktails. [Chicago...
A Move To Make Agricultural Filming Illegal
Industrialized agriculture is rushing to cover its tracks as unbridled disgust for its mistreatment of animals becomes increasingly mainstream. The Iowa House and Senate just approved a bill that would prohibit any video recordings of animal abuse. The bill comes in the wake of countless hidden-camera videos depicting chicks being ground up while they are still alive, pigs brutally beaten, and...
The Food Crisis In Japan
Japan’s food system has been deeply affected as the situation in Japan continues to deteriorate. Many supermarket shelves are barren as residents scramble to stock up on food as threats of radiation continue. Reports of a Japanese noodle shop offering free food warmed our hearts while stories of many being forced to subsist on instant noodles, powdered soup, and cookies are discouraging. ...
The Diner Is It
Will 2011 mark the resurgence of the diner? It’s quickly shaping up to be, with Stephanie Izard (Girl & the Goat) and Brendan Sodikoff (Gilt Bar, Maude’s Liquor Bar, Doughnut Vault) announcing in tandem that they each plan to open their own take on the American diner. This is the part of the story where one begins to wonder if Izard and Sodikoff are not somehow telepathically linked: both...
Foodies: The Web Series
Foodies: imitation has long been said to be the sincerest form of flattery, so consider the new web series Foodies, a weekly series of 5-7 minute spoofs on pontificating gastronomes, to be just that. The show follows the trials and tribulations of an exclusive dinner club run by a pompous food blogger, where members solemnly snap photos of dishes such as an amuse bouche of hot pasta water with...
Recycled Cardboard Not Good for You?
Could it be that recycling is not entirely beneficial to the planet? Government researchers in Switzerland are claiming that may very well be the case after raising health concerns over the recycled cardboard used to package many common foods including pasta, cereal, and rice. The study claims that toxic chemicals called mineral oils that are found in recycled cardboard have the “frightening...
A New Generation Of Farmers
Bearded, flannel-clad hipsters may at long last be living up to their intentionally ironic personas with the latest coveted hipster occupation of the moment: farming. With feisty critics of the industrialized food system such as Michael Pollan inspiring veritable rock star status amongst eco-minded, McDonald’s-shunning, twenty-somethings and the farmer’s market becoming the new Sunday brunch,...
UN Report On Farming Best Practices
The United Nations recently unveiled a new report echoing what many activists have been saying for years: small-scale, largely organic farms with a diverse mixture of crops could double the world’s food production in 10 years time, abate world hunger, and temper climate change. Release of this high-profile document from the U.N. comes in response to record-high global food prices that the World...
Family Farmed Expo 2011
Locavores, expect to get your fix at this year’s Family Farmed Expo taking place March 17 – 19 at University of Illinois at Chicago. Highlights include more than a dozen farms with Community Supported Agriculture programs (CSA’s) with their wares on display in an effort to entice attendees to sign up for a weekly box full of vibrant local produce and a “Localicious” Party that promises to...
Food Truck News
Chicago can soon expect to see another constituent added to in the city’s exploding population of food trucks; it’s called the Grahambulance. From chef Graham Elliot of the eponymous restaurant and recently opened sandwich shop, Grahamwich, comes a truck with a distinctly different function than its peers: to mainly service special events and make sandwich deliveries instead of being...
White House Honey Ale
Though the Obama’s have undoubtedly already made their fair share of history, they have now left an indelible mark on the culinary world as well by being the first presidential couple to direct the White House kitchen in a most sacred of acts: home brewing. At last month’s Super Bowl soiree, the Obama’s served homebrewed White House Honey Ale to their guests. In keeping with the Obama’s...
Province Opening in Phoenix
Province, Randy Zweiban’s West Loop LEED-certified sanctuary will be opening its second location in Phoenix, AZ. Set to open March 10 in the brand new Westin Phoenix Downtown, Zweiban says his local and seasonally minded cuisine will translate well from the Midwest to the Southwest, “The basic style of the menu will be the same. What will differ mostly is the seasonal changes. It’s more...
The Final Common Threads World Festival
This year’s Common Threads World Festival will be bittersweet. Founder Art Smith of Table Fifty-Two announced that this will be the festival’s final year but it’s the sensational list of participating chefs that will quickly help you to forget the bad news as you enjoy the finest global cuisine the city has to offer. Smith founded the annual event in 2003 to help children a with health and...
Chicago Public Schools' Healthy Food Challenge
Chicago Public Schools has introduced healthier options for their breakfast and lunch programs but are the students actually eating the new menus? Some seem to think the healthier food options are void of taste. In the wake of CPS nixing the appearance of nachos, Pop Tarts, and doughnuts on school menus the district has watched lunch sales plummet by 5%, or more than 20,000 lunches per day. ...
Last Chance To Vote: "The People's Best New Chef"
Here’s your chance to voice an impassioned stance on your favorite new Midwestern chef. Food & Wine, in partnership with Eatocracy, recently opened up balloting on their first-ever “The People’s Best New Chef” competition. This year’s “people’s choice award” will be in place of their annual “Best New Chef” honor, which the editors of the magazine have been bestowing upon rising chefs for...
Google's Recipe View
Google’s recently unveiled recipe search feature, Recipe View, may strike you as redundant, but the tech behemoth promises that the filter will transform the recipe searches you already perform on Google into more efficient, lucrative endeavors. The new filter is clearly in response to our rapidly increasing interest in cooking at home with approximately one percent of all daily searches...
