Food News Feed

A father of three, Joe Sebastiani, 37, went back to the job he had before joining Viansa in 1996 - training elephants at Marine World in Vallejo. Instead of the $100,000 a year he made at Viansa, he now makes $10 an hour and yearns to return to the place he felt most at home, he said. "I can't imagine they're going to find anyone who has as much passion as I do for that place, and can do what I did for that company..."

I have very strong feelings about recipes. Except for the first-time preparation of simple recipes, I never cook directly from a book or magazine. Once I have prepared a recipe and have decided it is a “keeper,” I rewrite the recipe in my own format and save it in my database. Each recipe is written in my same, consistent style—not the style of the original source. Because each is organized and presented in the same way, it is easy for me to go from one recipe to the next.

"We are particularly excited about organic food, the fastest-growing category in all of food," Lee Scott, Wal-Mart's chief executive, said at a recent shareholder meeting. "It's a great example of how Wal-Mart can appeal to a wider range of customers."

With the federal government's ban on beluga caviar from the Black Sea basin taking effect just before the busy holiday season, all eyes are turning to -- Idaho? The state's burgeoning aquaculture industry is hoping its farm-raised white sturgeon caviar will help fill the gap left by beluga on upscale menus.

The hit of the night is "veal liver heaven and earth"- thickly sliced, pinkly cooked liver topped with sautéed apples and a slab of sweet, black, blood pudding. It's a great dish, taking gastropub flavours to an elegant level, with a pool of bacon-studded jus supporting a film of mash the texture of silk.

Starting with Manresa's Watercress Vichyssoise with Iranian Osetra Caviar...Highlights include Homemade Silken Tofu, Trout Roe, Soy Gelee, Shiso, Santa Barbara Uni, Yuzu Sorbet, Apple Foam from Bouley, and Lobster knuckles at Mary's Fish Camp.

1. Canola oil is "widely recognized as the healthiest salad and cooking oil available to consumers. 2. Canola oil is a poisonous substance, an industrial oil that does not belong in the body. You decide...

"Last night, we reveled in it. The smells coming out of the tops of the tanks were just great," Doug Shafer, president of Shafer Vineyards in Napa, said Thursday..."We're going to have some of the best wine we've ever had," said Greg Popovich, owner of Napa-based Castle Rock Winery...

"I want to be in a business where demand is greater than supply." The process of "transitioning" to organic farming methods takes three years, and requires that a farm cease using synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics. "There were two major stumbling blocks for us," said Corse. His farm did use antibiotics and he also used a petroluem-based chemical fertilizer on his fields. But, with the price of oil rising, this habit was easy enough to kick. He now spreads manure exclusively.