Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Second opinion: the cure's in Jamaica

The Telegraph

James Le Fanu speculates about the health benefits of a non-British diet.

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Cooks turn over new leaf with herbs

The Telegraph

By David Derbyshire, Consumer Affairs Editor

There was a time when the height of British culinary sophistication was a spoonful of mustard, a dash of Worcester sauce or a pinch of dusty "dried mixed herbs".
But now Britain is shedding its reputation for unadventurous flavouring and is in the middle of a herb revolution.

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Tables turned as health inspectors tell Ramsay: 'Clean that freezer now'

The Independent

By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

"... you might think that when local authority health inspectors called at Ramsay's kitchens they would have found them spotless. But you'd be wrong. Their inspections, obtained by The Independent under the Freedom of Information Act, are likely to embarrass the celebrity star of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares as well as some of London's other leading restaurateurs, whose reports have also been seen."

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The war of the chocolate orange

The Guardian

By Lucy Mangan

To many of us, it is more beautiful than Helen's visage, but it still comes as a shock to learn that Terry's Chocolate Orange has sparked a war. Admittedly, it's between foodies and non-foodies and therefore more likely to end in thrusts with a bread stick than in an epic bloodbath, but it's an unexpected clash all the same.

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Monday, January 30, 2006

Food giants accused of underhand tactics to target child customers

The Independent, Home

Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

"Food companies have hijacked new technology such as the internet and text messaging to promote sugary and fatty food to children, a report on junk food's "marketing tricks" claims today.
An investigation by the consumers' association Which? found sophisticated use of mobile phones and computers were among 40 "underhand" ways of advertising unhealthy snacks and meals to children."

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Are additives in dried fruit bad for you?

The Times, times2

By Jane Clarke

In an effort to eat more healthily I’ve made up my own snack mix of pumpkin and sunflower seeds, whole almonds, dried apricots and cranberries. But I’ve noticed that most dried fruit seem to contain hydrogenated vegetable oil and/or sulphur dioxide, both of which sound like something I should be avoiding. In the end I found some that had the oil but not the sulphur dioxide, nor any Es, and I’ve mixed this fruit sparingly. Dried fruit is always recommended as a snack, but should I be worried about the additives?

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And another thing...

The Times, times2

SpongeBob says you must eat your greens
Parents know that if you slap a cartoon character on a box of choco-doughnutgolden-honey-Os, or any brand of breakfast sugar “with added vitamins”, children will pester for that particular box of sweeties disguised as cereal.
Some well-meaning creatives have now turned the idea on its head, using cartoon characters to promote fruit and vegetables. There is, after all, a precedent — US spinach growers said that Popeye’s antics increased sales by 33 per cent (although who’s to say that children actually ate the stuff?)

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Migration bill could be threat to curry houses

The Guardian

By Alan Travis, home affairs editor

Hundreds of curry houses and Chinese takeaway restaurants will be forced to close if ministers press ahead with their new migration policy, which closes the door to low-skilled workers from outside Europe, community leaders have warned.
The government's immigration bill, now going through parliament, introduces a points-based system that will bar low-skilled workers from outside the EU from settling in this country and restrict the appeal rights of those refused visas.

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Sunday, January 29, 2006

Skye Gyngell - our new star chef

The Independent

By Terry Durack

She's the award-winning Australian cook the whole food world is talking about. And as of this week, Skye Gyngell's unique recipes will be appearing [in the Independent] fortnightly.

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Top crisp maker crunches fat levels

The Sunday Times

By Mark Kleinman and Jon Ungoed-Thomas

WALKERS, the manufacturer of Britain’s bestselling crisps, is to cut saturated fats in its products by more than 70% amid rising concerns about the health risks from snack foods high in salt and fat.
PepsiCo UK, owner of Walkers, says the reformulation is the biggest relaunch of the brand in its 58-year history. A £20m campaign to promote the new crisps will be headed by Gary Lineker, the former England footballer who is now a BBC sports presenter.

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Peace, love and profit - meet the world's richest organic grocer

The Observer

He made millions from selling organic food to well-heeled Americans. Now hippie entrepreneur John Mackey plans to bring his meat, veg and laid-back style to Britain's upmarket high streets. John Arlidge meets the founder of Whole Foods

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Saturday, January 28, 2006

Eat it now: Roast artichokes

The Guardian

By Nikki Duffy

Artichokes are a wonderful, deeply flavoured vegetable - or thistle flower, if you want to be accurate - but they are time-consuming to prepare. There's nothing wrong with that in itself but, in this country, it's also not always easy to find good fresh artichokes. Nevertheless, a person can get addicted to their unique, savoury flavour, further enhanced by caramelisation through roasting. I always have a jar of roast artichokes in the fridge: they are delicious, good for you and useful.

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Greece: Wining and dining

The Telegraph

There's more to Greek cuisine than moussaka, says Andrew Purvis, while Robert Joseph highlights the new wave of excellent local wines.

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Food Detective: Cream

The Times, Food&Drink

By Sheila Keating

The old-fashioned way of making cream was to leave milk in a bowl so that the fat, or cream, collected at the top and could be skimmed off. Today’s mass-produced creams are typically made using milk from different farms, which is then transported to centralised dairies where it is separated by massive centrifuges. It is pasteurised and mostly homogenised to a uniform thickness by being forced at high pressure through a small aperture to form tiny globules which are too small to float, and so are held in suspension.

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Learning to think small

The Times, Body&Soul

By Rosie Millard

Can you teach a mum who’s never seen raw garlic to cook healthy food for kids in just two hours?
There were six of us in the kitchen: five mums and a nanny. Between us, we had a total of 15 small children; 15 rapidly growing bodies, needing regular instalments of freshly cooked, nutritious food. Were they getting it? Er, sometimes.

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Why taste for dogs is changing in China

The Times

From Jane Macartney in Beijing

MY CHOPSTICKS hovered over the cold starter. It looked appetising if highly spiced. Sliced dark meat, perhaps a touch fatty, marinated in ginger, garlic and Sichuan pepper.
The dish was dog — signature cuisine of the Sour Fish Soup Household restaurant in one of Beijing’s fashionable developments. With tomorrow marking the start of the Year of the Dog, the 11th animal in the Chinese twelve-year Chinese zodiac cycle, it seemed a perfect moment to try to understand the paradox of the Chinese relationship with dogs.

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Friday, January 27, 2006

Are you a risky drinker?

The Independent

So you like a glass or two - sometimes a few too many. You could be on the brink of an alcohol problem. But changing your habits can be easier than it sounds, says Hugh Wilson.

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Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Greek salad and Turkish delight

The Times Magazine

By James Collard

A week-long cruise around the Anatolian coast with Real Greek culinary instruction was a foodie’s dream come true
"Is that Greece or Turkey?," we would wonder, as The Borina sailed along the Anatolian coast. Above us, blue sky; around us, the deeper blue of the Aegean and rocky chunks of sun-baked land dusted with little patches of green, olive trees perhaps, or gorse.

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New Forest skirmish over the chanterelle picker

The Telegraph

By Stewart Payne

A specialist in wild mushrooms took the Government to court yesterday to defend her right to pick them in an ancient forest

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Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Classic cases of food and drink

The Times, Student Law

Legal study requires good sustenance. If you spend your student shopping budget wisely, you will be well nourished and properly set to study cases such as these, GARY SLAPPER writes.

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Spotlight on lunchboxes

The Times

INTERVENTION is a serious business, usually deployed in an emergency rather than at mealtimes.
But the School Lunchbox Intervention Project is serious about making packed lunches healthier. The Food Standards agency is considering funding the Barnardo’s initiative, reports Third Sector (Jan 18), which will evaluate the nutritional contents of packed lunches before and after Barnardo’s staff give parents advice on healthy eating, “pester power” and food refusals.
A pilot at up to 20 schools will be aimed at parents of nine and ten-year-olds, with low income areas and ethnic minority groups targeted.

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Lemon aid

The Times, times2

By Bridget Harrison

A detox diet invented 60 years ago has a new generation of fans. But is it safe to live on lemon juice, maple syrup and water?

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Haggis hankering hampered

The Guardian

By Donald MacLeod

Scotland's national dish has been ranked alongside chicken nuggets and turkey twizzlers in the government's fight against childhood obesity, in guidelines published this week.
Praised by the poet Robert Burns as the "great chieftain o the puddin'-race", haggis has fallen foul of nutritionists, who say its "honest, sonsie face" hides a high fat and salt content unsuitable for small Scots. Haggis producers are outraged, insisting that its natural ingredients, such as lamb's liver and heart, onions and oatmeal, put it in a different category from mere burgers.

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A taste of Brazil

The Telegraph

What to eat in Brazil.

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Monday, January 23, 2006

Vive les rosbifs! And the Stilton and the scones...

The Times, s2

By Adam Preston

British cuisine? It's not an oxymoron in Paris
Mention English food at a Parisian dinner party and you suffer several rounds of knockabout humour in which the words “bread-and-butter pudding” constitute a fully formed gag. England’s growing reputation for culinary excellence is taking time to sink in across the Channel and it would take a brave soul to try to sell English food to the French.

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Sunday, January 22, 2006

BBC serves up Queen as prize in chef contest

The Sunday Times - Scotland

By Marc Horne

SOME of Britain’s top chefs are to compete in a television talent show with the winner getting to cook the Queen’s 80th-birthday dinner.

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High cost of cooking with a pinch of salt

The Sunday Times - Scotland

Top chef Nick Nairn believes that lowering our daily intake of salt is as important for our health as stopping smoking, so he’s calling for government action to make it happen, writes Gillian Bowditch.

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You were right, mother

The Sunday Times

Opinion by India Knight

One of the abiding memories of my childhood is of my mother banging on about the evils of processed foods, E numbers, additives, apples sprayed with chemicals, white plastic bread, intensively farmed meat and so on. This was roughly 30 years ago, and it used to drive me mad.

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Retailers feast on Britain’s foodie fad

The Sunday Times

Sainsbury and M&S are leading the drive to cash in on interest in better quality food. Report by Richard Fletcher

IN the coming weeks almost every member of staff at J Sainsbury will receive a pack containing tuna, coriander, chilli and soy sauce.
Chief executive Justin King hopes that the goodie bag will encourage his staff to try Jamie Oliver’s marinated tuna, a recipe that is part of a Sainsbury advertising campaign to encourage us all to “try something new today”.

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Saturday, January 21, 2006

Eat it now: Radicchio

The Guardian

By Nikki Duffy

Sometimes, a little bitterness is very welcome, especially alongside the rich, creamy foods of winter - and no more so than when it comes in the form of a beautiful, crisp leaf.
Radicchio, a type of red chicory, is a stunning vegetable, its robust, creased leaves striated with deep crimson and pure white. Its season is winter - it needs cold weather to bring out its deep red hue.

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Food detective: Spice of life

The Times, Food&Drink

By Sheila Keating

A spice is a spice, is a spice… well, not necessarily. Various factors can contribute to whether or not a particular spice imparts the full flavour hit. “Even with commonplace seasonings such as peppercorns or coriander seeds, the provenance is important because every spice has different grades, depending on the way it has been grown and the essential oils it contains,” says Mark Steene, who founded specialist spice company Seasoned Pioneers after returning from his world travels with a backpack full of spicy treasures.

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For goodness sake, embrace the turnip

The Times, Body&Soul

A diet of health scares about meat has made veg the main attraction at top restaurants, discovers Fiona Sims.

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Just say no to morning muffins

The Times, Body&Soul

Greed or hunger? Knowing which was which has made Sarah Vine slimmer, trimmer — and happier.

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Balti heaven

The Telegraph

Birmingham's gift to gastronomy is the Balti. Max Davidson would not have missed its birthplace for the world.

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Friday, January 20, 2006

Fairlie cooks up second Michelin star

The Scotsman, News

By Emma Cowing

"HE'S battled a brain tumour and risked the scorn of Jacques Chirac, but Scottish chef Andrew Fairlie proved yesterday that nothing would stand in the way of his cooking, when his eponymous restaurant became the only one in Scotland to gain a second Michelin star."

Insert: Menu Degustation
* Ballottine of Foie Gras; Fondant of Leek
* Veloute of Cepes; Fricasse of Wild Mushrooms
* Roast Skye Scallops; Ginger Butter
* Coral Roasted Langoustine; Saffron Risotto
* Roast Peppered Fillet of Wild Venison; Pommes Dauphine
* Citrus Panna Cotta; Fruit Consomme
* Coffee and Chocolates

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Sunday, January 15, 2006

Learn the trade secrets of Michelin-starred chefs

The Independent

By Isabel Best

Get tips from the top when you enrol in the world's most exclusive, and expensive, cookery school.

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Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Cornish pasties, the healthy fast food option, enjoy a twenty-first century renaissance

The Independent

By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

"For so long the Cornish pasty lurked in the glass cabinet of the baker's shop, an unloved mass-produced lump of pastry. [...] In the foodie 21st century, the pasty is enjoying a revival with dozens of outlets springing up dedicated to the sale of Cornwall's greatest culinary export."

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Monday, January 09, 2006

From big cheese to burnt crisp

The Guardian

The chips are down for Golden Wonder. Mark Tran charts the crisp maker's rise and fall.

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Saturday, January 07, 2006

The world turns up its nose at French cuisine

The Telegraph

By Sally Pook

French cooking? Mais non, merci. The anticipated de- lights of a goat's cheese salad and creme brulee in a smoky Parisian bistro can no longer, it seems, match reality.
In an international survey published in the Wall Street Journal of more than 20,000 people in 20 countries, French cuisine was shrugged off as the most overrated of all cuisines. Even the French agreed.

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Tasty morsels

The Telegraph

The Wall Street Journal survey found:
2 per cent of Russians drink spirits with their main meal
42 per cent of Italians say French food is overrated
13 per cent of Germans dieted in the past two years
92 per cent of French women drink water with their main meal
64 per cent of Austrians cook at home every day
14 per cent of Czechs say Chinese food is overrated
38 per cent of Turks say their own cuisine is the most fattening
50 per cent of Greeks who dieted in the past two years lost all the weight they wanted
53 per cent of Finns drink milk with their main meal

Read the original article

Friday, January 06, 2006

The baker who beat McDonald's

The Times, Europe

By Richard Owen in Rome

AFTER a five-year battle, the fast-food giant McDonald’s has retreated from a southern Italian town, defeated by the sheer wholesomeness of a local baker’s bread.
The closure of McDonald’s in Altamura, Apulia, was hailed yesterday as a victory for European cuisine against globalised fast food.

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Monday, January 02, 2006

Camembert with that, sir?

The Guardian

Move over, Ronald McDonald: gourmet burger joints - selling posh meat, in posh buns, and with posh extras - are the next big thing. Josh Lacey on fast food for an organic generation.

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Sunday, January 01, 2006

Blind waiters in a pitch-black restaurant: the toast of Paris diners comes to town

The Independent
By Danielle Gusmaroli

Does eating a meal in total darkness make your food taste better? London will soon be able to find out.
We have been treated to bacon-and-egg ice-cream and the £100 pizza, but the latest culinary experiment on offer to British diners will have them rubbing their eyes in disbelief. For it is a blind tasting like no other.
Despite a bizarre approach to haute cuisine, the restaurant Dans le Noir has won over Parisian diners, and next month it opens in London. Guests will be led to a pitch-black dining room and served food that they cannot see. Guiding them will be a team of 10 blind waiters.

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