Posted by chefmax on October 23rd, 2009
Lemon Thyme in my garden. Winter is slowly creeping in and the garden is still producing some good things. My peppers are still going strong and I am getting a tomatoe or two every other day. Nice. The rain has caused some of the tomatoes to burst but if I catch them early they are still very flavorful. The arugala is just starting to peak and the carrots are doing great. I will probably have to pull them all out within a week. It has been fun and the girls have liked seeing were food comes from. I highly recommend planting one next year.
Now on to todays food news.
From the LATIMES, By Jenn Garbee, Monkey Bread- The story. Nice history lesson.
The FDA may be stepping up on the front label Smart Choices “health washing” of products that have no nutritional value whatsoever. From FoodNav, By Caroline Scott-Thomas. It is about time that they do something about an industry program that is trying to use a marketing technique that may mislead the customer looking for healthy choices for their families. Nice to have the grownups back in charge instead of the profit driven forces.
The cookie diet, from the NYTIMES, By Abby Ellin. A questionable quick fix diet that is doing really well in profits. Eat 6 special cookies a day and one sensible meal and lose weight. Basically it keeps you around a 1,000 calarie a day consumption rate and therefore you lose weight. What is in the cookie you say? Who cares I can eat cookies and lose weight you say… B level Celebrities have lost weight on this plan and it really does not require any hard work on your part so it must be good for you.
My friend and mentor Catherine Brandel loved Buddha’s Hands. Here is a good article about them in todays LATIMES. By David Karp. Great citrus food.
Have a great weekend and talk to you next week.
Max 10-23-09
Tags: Buddha's Hands., cookie diet, Monkey Bread, Smart Choices "health washing"
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted by chefmax on October 13th, 2009
I am already starting to miss summer. This is what my chives looked like just two weks ago. They are not looking so good today. Oh well. Time to winter garden.
Here are some of todays food related news stories that I found interesting.
From the LATIMES, By Andrea Nguyen. A great article on the making of Bao. This is one of my favorite Chinese dishes and I have always wanted to make them at home. I have made them when I was at the CIA and I eat one every time I go by the Slanted Door in San Francisco (the Vietnamese version) This article has the whole lot of information and technique. It is a good one to keep in your library. Thanks Andrea.
In a question to the some local Chefs in Arizona the ARIZONA REPUBLIC, asked ” What menu item bores you to tears? and why? I think my answer would be the stagnate menu itself. If it is not changing daily I get bored. I love opening restaurants and getting new programs started but I do not like to do the same ting over and over again.
Christopher Kimball has an op-ed article in the NYTIME on the demise of Gourmet magazine. Mr Kimball does a good historic deconstruction of the beginning to the end of the iconic food magazine and seems to enjoy (with what I imagine is a sly smile on his face) the fact that his magazine, Cook’s Magazine, and website are still going strong and Gourmet has gone the way of the dodo. Cook’s was purchased in 1990 by Condé Nast, the publisher of Gourmet, and cannibalized for its subscribers. Mr. Kimball restarted the magazine again in 1993 from the bones discarded by Condé Nast and has had great successes since. The thesis that Mr. Kimball eludes to in this op-ed is that we need to charge for our intellectual property. Advertising dollars are not focused and free content is pushing several good businesses into bankruptcy. I am dealing with this myself with A Flash in the Pan . We would love to give away all of our great recipes and planning tools but then we will be around 6 months. For a small monthly fee all your dinners are planned and all the tools you need to save time and money are at your fingers. For me, the end of Gourmet is not surprising. I used to love the magazine until I got my monthly issue and there was a perfume ad in it. The last thing I want to smell as I am reading about foie gras is flowery perfume. I hated that so much I canceled my subscription and never went back.
GFF building a united front with food manufactures and marketers on gluten-free products. Great info on GFF from Foodnav, By Caroline Scott-Thomas.
From CNN, By Val Willingham. You are what you eat. Start eating healthy to give yourself a good chance a staying healthy this flu season.
I hope you have a great day.
Chef Max 10-13-09
Tags: Bored to tears, flu season., gluten-free products, Gourmet, making of Bao
Posted in Chef Max Blog, Food News | 1 Comment »
