Todays Food News-Anti-Cancer eating rules, What the freek is freekeh, Discount healthier foods, School lunches, Xan chocolateshttp://ping.fm/6oyuz

Todays Food News-Anti-Cancer eating rules, What the freek is freekeh, Discounts for healthier foods, School lunches, and Xan chocolates

Raining here today so I am thinking about Spring. Want to get back out in the garden,

Hi everyone. Took a little time off and now I am back. I have a new day job as the Auction Director for the V Foundation for cancer resurch along with continuing to build my online company A Flash in the Pan. Everything is moving forward and 2010 is going to be a better year. I will post a more detailed internet post on stuff but here we go back to the daily food news:

New Anti-Cancer eating rules. From  Dr. David Servan-Schreiber A cool list of things to eat and not eat, along with exercise and making life a better experience. Keep this one close.

Alice Waters in the WSJ by Ben Worthen. Some really good questions for Alice. Mixing it up a bit on the multiple restaurant Chefs, “They’ve been seduced by money to do this”-Alice Waters . Cool!

From the Village Voice by By Rebecca Marx.  Is Freekeh the next big grain? What the freek is freekeh? Short and sweet blog post of the grain. It is fun to cook too. Hippy mac an Cheese…

Discounts for healthier foods may help produce better consumption. You think? With our current agbiz farm bill subsidies as an example, i think we have this one figured out We need to pivot the focus of subsidies to healthier foods. From Reuters, By Lynne Peeples. Money drives decisions. Change the incentives and we will change the behavior.

From the NYDAILYTIMES, by Elizabeth Hays. School lunches still failing. There is at least one of these types of articles a month. Just an update for you.

Xan chocolates. From OrangeCounty, By Cathy Thomas. They offer gluten free, dairy free, diebetic friendly chocolates. Great article for your sweet tooth. Or visit their website at Xan Chocolates. Yum…

Talk to you later,

Have a great Weekend,

Chef Max 2-5-2010

Food News-Monkey Bread, Smart Choices “health washing”, cookie diet, Buddha’s Hands.

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

Todays Food News-Gourmet, making of Bao, Bored to tears, gluten-free products, flu season.

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

Friday Food News-Judith Jones, Avant-garde, market watch, culinary schools, advertise junk-food in schools, Sustainable Innovation.

There are still a few tickets for the up coming SUNDAY SUPPER on October 4, 2009 . It is 30 of the top bay area Chefs cooking family style with local farmers. Great event. Go to CUESA for information and tickets.

Todays Food news;

From the NYTIMES, By Christine Muhlke. Great article on editor Judith Jones.

Avant-garde or contemporary art? From the Washington Post, By Black Gopnik.

This weeks market watch from the LATIMES, By David Karp. Habanero peppers, Lychees, Peaches, and apples.

The uptick in culinary schools. The economy is helping with job training programs within the bay area culinary non credential classes. From SFGATE, By Carey Sweet. When I worked for the CIA at Greystone, I saw allot of job changers in the backing and pastry classes. The common thought with several of these students was that they wanted to do something easy like cooking. 10 hours on their feet later and…

Food industry is fighting to advertise junk-food in schools. From CSPI. Go figure.

Proctor and Gamble on the other hand has tabbed a billion dollars to Sustainable Innovation Products. From Progressive Grocer. By Meg Major.

I hope you have a great weekend and thanks for reading.

Chef Max 9-25-09

Tuesday Food News-Coconut Rice, food and health, ouch review, Fast food at home, USDA local food programs.

This is a heirloom strawberry pop corn from my garden. Very small bright red kernels and the cob is about 4 inches long. Cute. I have not popped them yet so I will let you know how it taste.

A great article on food and health insurance by Michael Pollan in the New York Times.

From the NYTIMES, By Melissa Clark, a good article on Coconut Rice. I love coconut rice and this is a example of it.

I enjoy a good review as much as the next Chef but the ones that cover a restaurants flop are timeless. I do not take pleasure in other chefs problems and I am the first to want all Chefs to succeed but when you read a bad review there is just something in it that triggers a deep response. First it is probably ” Thank God that is not my review”! Then I usually re-read to see if the critic is being too harsh. This one has some ouch moments-From NYTIMES, By Pete Wells.

From the WashingtonPost, By Sally Sampson. An article on making fast food at home and the cost being cheaper. Sally does a good job here breaking down the cost and portions of the fast food equivalent of home cooked meals. I like her idea and she is correct in the assumption that it just taste better made at home. The biggest problem is people have forgot how to cook.

The USDA program to promote local foods. From SFGATE, By Miriam Morgan.

Have a great day.

Chef Max 9-22-09

Shaved Vegetable Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

Shaved Vegetable Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

This is a great recipe to use up your vegetables from the garden. I got this recipe from my friend Catherine Brandel while I was at the CIA. This is an easy to prepare dish and captures the flavors of the raw vegetables really nicely. I use a mandolin or a food processor with a cutting tool if I am in a hurry or don’t feel like slicing. It is wort the time and a great salad to practice your mad knife skills. Have fun.

Shaved Summer Garden Vegetable Salad

Yield: 4 Portions

Dressing

Ingredients                                            Amounts

Lemon juice, fresh                                1  Tbsp.

Garlic clove, minced                             1  ea.

Champagne vinegar                              1 tsp.

Salt                                                          1/4 tsp.

Italian Parsley, chopped                   1  Tbsp.

Extra virgin olive oil                           3  Tbsp.

Salad

Fennel bulbs, medium, stalks removed        1 ea.

split in half from top to bottom

Lemon juice, fresh                             1 tsp.

Cucumber, English, seeded             1 ea.

Celery stalks, trimmed                      3   ea.

Carrots, peeled                                   1   ea

Radishes, trimmed                           3  ea.

Summer squash, trimmed              1 ea.

(any variety)

Method

1. To make the dressing, in a small bowl combine the lemon juice, garlic vinegar and salt.  Let sit for 1/2 hour at room temperature.  Whisk in oil and check the seasoning.

2. No more than 1 hour before serving, slice the vegetables 1/16-inch thick with a sharp knife, a mandolin or the 1mm slicing disc on a food processor.  Toss the shaved fennel with lemon juice and seal in a plastic bag.  Wrap the other shaved vegetables in a damp dishtowel or napkin.  Refrigerate all the vegetables until needed.

3. To serve, toss all the shaved vegetables with the dressing, arrange on serving plates, sprinkle with a little salt.

Have a great day and come visit us at A Flash in the Pan for great recipes and menus.

Chef Max

9-8-09

Friday Food News-Improving School Lunches, Monsanto (again), LA’s farmers markets, and acylamide.

The picture above is a look at my tomatoes. I have 15 plants with 4 varietals. They are producing some very yummy fruit tis year and I think I am going to make a sauce tonight for dinner out of some of them. Yum…

A look at the opening of Chef Rick Bayless new restaurant. From the Chicago Trib. If you want to see pictures of the trip to Mexico I took as an assistant for Chef Bayless just check out my Flicker account under Mexico. It was a very cool trip.

Monsanto and their image. From  the Gaurdian, By Fred Pearce, an article on the green washing and water usage of the company Monsanto.

Improving School Lunches By Alice Waters. From Huffington Post. A very good read. What are we waiting for????

LA’s farmers markets map. Cool.

Do you want to know the timeline for acylamide? From Food Nav. By Caroline Scott-Thomas.

Have a great weekend.

Chef Max 9-4-09

Thursday Food News-State of the Culinary Worlds Future, White House Farmers Market, turnover in restaurants, hidden toxins, and brownies.

Above is a picture of Thai Basil from my garden. I love it in curries, pastas, salad rolls, and with garden tomatoes.

From Grubstreet NY, By Ben Leventhal, A great question and answer article on the State of the Culinary Worlds Future. This is a cool article asking questions of some great minds in the culinary world.

9 hidden toxins lurking in food. From Mercola.

Obama and his White House Farmers Market. I am sure there will be a death panel involved some how. Maybe they will sell Soylent Green. Alert Glenn Beck!!! From OCA, A serious article on the FDA and President Obama’s promotion for local foods.

The turnover in restaurants in New York. From the NYTIMES, By Florence Fabricant. The restaurant business is one of the hardest adventures that one can undertake. It is soooo volatile and back breaking and has a very small profit margin. You can do everything perfect and have a great following but if a new spot opens up down the street, you could lose a big percentage of your cliental over a period of weeks maybe months. The margin is so thin that if something like that happens, you could lose staff, not be able to pay purveyors on time and start cutting corners. The quality then goes down, you get a bad review and welcome to the death spiral. Been there. Not pretty.

Boudin Bakery’s brownies. From LATIMES, By Noelle Carter. I liked the picture and it made me hungry for a brownie. Here is their recipe for their brownies. Time to go preheat the oven.

Have a great day,

Chef Max

9-3-09

Tuesday Food News-Australians Truffles, rice, Mediterranean Diet, climate change and the impact on US crop yields, and Twitter food.

Please vote for me for Startup Nations home based business of the year award. Vote here–STARTUP NATION COTEST. Thank you!

Australians Truffles, from LATIMES By Krista Simmons. A nicely written article on hunting the Périgord truffle in the southern forest of Manjimp Australia. I wish I was there.

From the Chicagotrib, By Judy Hevrdej a brief overview of rice and rice related terms. Kind of introductory but if you have any questions about rice this is not a bad place to start.

The Mediterranean Diet may be the best option to help out type 2 Diabetes. From Healthday, By Serena Gordon. Eating healthier under this type of structure has been shown to reduce the need for some of the medications and also is associated with lower heart diseases and cancer rates. Very hopeful.

Will climate change hurt the US crop yields? From foodnav, A study by two economist on the effect of the rising temperatures in the US and a reduction of 30-46 percent of current yield because of this weather. Instead of fighting about whether it is real, man made, or just natural accruing cycles in the earths history, could we just plan for this to happen and take steps to prevent or reduce the impact now? If you have ever been to LA in the summer time and your lungs hurt so bad it is hard to breath, then you understand that humans do have an impact on the earth.

Twitter food. Do you have a favorite twitter Chef you are following? What would you like to see more of from a food blog? I am @chefmax on twitter and would love to be more informative and helpful to my friends and followers. I have a recipe website A Flash in the Pan and you are reading my blog so you know about that. Is there anything that you really want ot know about  food, wine, Napa Valley, cooking schools, ect…Thank you for you feed back.

Have a great day,

Chef Max 9-1-09