The Wall Street Journal ran a fascinating article yesterday on how Lufthansa has been testing fluctuations in the taste of food when diners are up, up, up in the air. Chefs from the airline’s LSG Sky Chefs, the largest in-flight catering company in the world, descended upon the tubular laboratory of the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics in Germany to test how salty, sweet, spicy, bitter, and sour flavors change during flights.
Utilizing a wingless portion of an Airbus 310, the technicians at the Institute were able to simulate a standard …

Numerous outlets reported last week that popular chef Mario Batali and his business partner, Joseph Bastianich, were being sued over wage violations. According to the Wall Street Journal, two current employees of the pair’s Babbo location in New York’s West Village allege that the restaurant has been illegally withholding tips and overtime from staff members.
Attorneys D. Maimon Kirschenbaum and Denise A. Schulman, both of whom have lead previous lawsuits regarding wage and labor violation disputes, hope to develop a class-action lawsuit that would affect 50 to 100 of the Babbo’s …

This week on Daily Blender, you might notice that things are a little quiet. Surprisingly, I’m taking a few days off from posting to, dare I say, enjoy my summer (even with this poor Portland weather) particularly before events start to roll in.
Starting in August, Daily Blender will have a whole host of great content coming your way. You can expect an exclusive interview with award-winning chef Ryan Hardy of Aspen’s Little Nell as well as coverage of the Best of Oregon Food and Wine Festival and the Beaver Creek …

In an attempt to reduce their food costs long-term, Darden Restaurants, owners of Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and Bahama Breeze, are moving into the lobster farming business – if they can make it work.
Darden has started preliminary work on an offshore lobster farm, with a subsidiary, Darden Aquafarm, signing an agreement recently with the government of Brunei to research farming in the area, with hopes of developing a “commercial lobster grow-out project.” According to the Orlando Sentinel, the company faces a bit of an uphill battle, with lobsters grown in …

Travel companies from sea to shore continue to up the ante when it comes to culinary offerings these days. According to a recent press release, Royal Caribbean’s newest ship, the Allure of the Seas, will feature a rising star Chef de Cuisine when it launches this December.
Graduates from the Culinary Institute of America were invited to enter the company’s recent Allure of the Seas Culinary Challenge to compete for a one-year contract spot as Chef de Cuisine of the ship’s signature restaurant, 150 Central Park. Entrants were required to create …

Back when I was running the catering business, my favorite, and most rewarding of our contracts, was with a private elementary school here in the Portland area. Tired of poor lunch choices, we were contacted by a parent who was interested in finding healthier school food options for her children. As a small operation, we hadn’t even considered developing a school lunch program, but parents were so eager to provide better food options for their children that we created a program specific to the school’s needs.
Surprisingly, we found that the …

Reason #429 why I’ll never critique your restaurant in print: You just never know who’s a little off kilter.
Thanks to my fine friend, restaurant critic Patrick Coleman of the Portland Mercury, I’ve come across the trailer for a recently released independent horror film titled Bitter Feast, which made its debut at the Los Angeles Film Festival last month. As shown in this slightly frightening clip, the freaky film focuses on revenge when a popular chef (and television personality) takes aim at a food blogger who pens a negative review about …

After all was said and done in Aspen, there was still one more event on the docket for many – the Grand Cochon. Featuring heritage breed pigs and top chefs from around the country, the Grand Cochon was the final culmination of weeks of national Cochon 555 competitions. The ten winning chefs, who were each crowned the ‘Prince of Porc’ in their respective cities, were invited to compete for the final crown and the title of ‘King of Porc’.
Hosted by the always lovely Gail Simmons of Food & Wine and …

Over the last year or so, I’ve been following the saga of the famed Tavern on the Green – mainly because it’s been such a landmark eatery in New York for so long but also out of curiosity on the evolution of its location from a business standpoint. After an ugly battle over the facilitation of restaurant, it has now landed in the hands of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department as they try to determine what to do with the space.
There was much discussion last month about what to …

This year’s Best New Chefs dinner was certainly the big event of the weekend at the 2010 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. Last year’s evening of culinary stars was one of my favorite experiences, so I made sure to arrive early this year for plenty of photos and pre-mob food tasting. I also made sure to wear my comfortable shoes.
The showcase of Food & Wine’s 2010 Best New Chefs was held at the regal Aspen Meadows Resort, the same venue as last year’s event. As the sun set against …

Chef Tim Love admitted to being nervous when he took the stage on day two of the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. Despite his initial confession, the gregarious chef, a former contestant on Top Chef Masters, seemed at ease during his High Steaks Grilling demo under the festival’s main Cooking Tent. It was a packed house, with Love wowing the crowd with his knowledge of meat, spices, and all things BBQ.
The Texas chef, fresh from celebrating the ten-year anniversary of his Lonesome Dove Bistro – “If you know the …

The official first day of the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen started a bit different for me than many of the other food and wine festivals I’ve attended. Uniquely, Aspen offers opportunities for restaurateurs, chefs, managers, and owners to attend sessions dedicated to furthering business operations through their American Express Restaurant Trade Program. Now in its 21st year, I sat in on the program’s first session of the weekend, ‘Meet The Masters’, featuring chefs and restaurateurs Tom Colicchio, Jose Andres, Barbara Lynch, and Rick Bayless discussing everything from food …