mike kostyo

I know food.

food news and articles for june 26 - july 2

But the work. Oh, the work! Not spending money is an incredible amount of work. I had considered -- sometimes seriously -- canning produce as a way to keep costs down. Canning is a common theme in Hayes' book. Just thinking about putting up a winter's worth of green beans and apricot jam, though, made me want to take a nap. Even baking all of my own bread sounded dreadful. For me, kneading dough was the physical manifestation of pushing and pressing all of life's ambitions into one yeasty ball of carbs.

I am a Radical Homemaker failure: A new movement of canning, baking moms find inspiration in frugality. Me? I just hate it

 

The Food and Drug Administration urged farmers on Monday to stop giving antibiotics to cattle, poultry, hogs and other animals to spur their growth, citing concern that drug overuse is helping to create dangerous bacteria that do not respond to medical treatment and endanger human lives.

FDA seeks less use of antibiotics in animals to keep them effective for humans

 

For wonky nutrition folks, there seems to be some seriously good news brewing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture: The first revamp of the nation's Dietary Guidelines in the Obama era may really care about good nutrition! And not just good nutrition, but good nutrition for everyone, even poor people.

Is the USDA adding justice to the basic food groups?

 

Sure, our 2009 Salary Survey confirmed some of what we already know—white executive chefs make the most per year—and some of what we suspected—women are still paid egregiously less than men—but it also taught us a few new things about the industry, from its unique fiscal geography (stay out of California, sous chefs) to its apparent neutrality towards culinary degrees (feel free to skip class, you can make as much without one).

So whether you’re a chef de cuisine looking for a change of scenery (head to a hotel or catering operation, preferably in Massachusetts) or a woman concerned about her comparative earning potential as a female executive chef (get ready to be 24% angrier at gender inequity), peruse the results of our 2009 Salary Survey—from almost 1400 respondents—and check the fiscal temperature of an industry that continues to surprise, frustrate, reward, and, as ever, moderately to severely overwork its employees.

2009 StarChefs.com Survey

 

New Health Minister Andrew Lansley said Oliver's hands-on approach in school kitchens was a recipe for disaster.

"Actually the number of children eating school meals in many of these places didn't go up, it went down," he said.

Food fight in Britain over celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's school plan

 

As the pastry chef at Coi, recently short-listed by Thomas Keller, the acknowledged master of American cooking, as one of the world’s best restaurants, Godby served a chocolate tart with smoked yogurt that, says Coi’s head chef, Daniel Patterson, made some diners so upset they wanted “to firebomb the place.” With Humphry Slocombe, Godby continued pressing food buttons, beginning with the name, which is aggressively obtuse. (Mr. Humphries and Mrs. Slocombe were characters on the bawdy old British sitcom “Are You Being Served?” Godby insists that if Alice Waters could name her Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse, after a highbrow French film, he could name his ice cream store after a lowbrow British farce.) Godby’s ice cream can be alienating, too. When I first took my kids, they ordered Salted Licorice, took three licks and then threw their cones on the sidewalk. This is a familiar San Francisco parents’ tale.

I'll Take a Scoop of Proscuitto, Please

 

In keeping with the school’s overall green ethos, students and faculty members will eat together in the expansive dining hall using washable, reusable plates and trays and metal cutlery. The school secured an industrial dishwasher, a rarity in the city school system. Harbor School students do not pay for their meals, in accordance with federal policy, since 70 percent or more of the student body qualifies for free lunch.

If the aquaponic system works to Mr. Malinowski’s expectations, the students will dine on tilapia and tomatoes they will have raised themselves. (The lab’s saltwater species will be raised strictly for educational and habitat-restoration purposes.)

At the New York Harbor School, Growing Oysters for Credit

 

Jennifer Baum, a publicist who represents Mr. White, Mr. Chodorow and other prominent New York restaurateurs, said the number of requests she gets for free meals has soared in the last few years.

“I really hope this starts an open conversation,” Ms. Baum said of the debate over the wedding.

Joey Campanaro, the chef and owner of the popular Little Owl in Greenwich Village, said he receives many demands for tables from people saying their Web site will be “the new Zagat or the new Michelin guide.”

“I’m not going to take that route, which is bribery," he said.

When Is a Free Meal Just Part of a Writer’s Job?