Features


Gordon Ramsay Wins Order to Search Father-in-Law’s Computer

bloomberg.com

Next time I have a row with my husband's father, I will definitely sequester his PC.

Gordon Ramsay, the Michelin-starred British chef, won a court order allowing him to search the computers of his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson. The order was needed because e-mails relating to an employment case may have been intercepted, Ramsay’s lawyer, Thomas Croxford, told a hearing today. Hutcheson, who was fired as chief executive of Gordon Ramsay Holdings in October, and Sara Stewart, the company’s former accountant, are suing the chef.

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Cocktail calories don’t count

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If they put calorie counts on drinks, there's a good chance I'd start avoiding food.

Wine, beer and spirits — and drinks made from them — are exempt from the FDA’s menu labeling proposal, even though a mud slide or margarita could easily send a meal’s calorie count off the rails. When I first inquire about the Gorilla, she tells me I won’t even taste the small shots of banana liqueur and creme de cacao in the drink. She’s so giddy about the creamy cocktail, she almost makes me excited to be sucking down an alcoholic shake at an Egyptian-theme chain restaurant inside a Rockville mall just steps from a nearly depleted Borders outlet where practically everything’s for sale short of the employees’ personal footwear. I try to mirror the bartender’s enthusiasm and ask about the other ingredients in the Flying Gorilla.

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English Candy Named and Shamed

Fork In The Road

The English just can’t name their candy bars, says writer from the country which gave us ‘Oh Henry!’.

Last weekend I reported on my visit to the London Candy Co., and described in superficial detail its confectionary offerings. You didn’t think I’d leave empty handed, did you? Rather, I picked out five candy bars with the stupidest names, intent on trying them and rendering a critical opinion. The store demonstrates how much more vital and competitive the English candy bar industry is, with chocolate companies constantly inventing new products, and giving them extreme names. Here are my tasting notes.

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Cauliflower: the export that just won’t leave

Image credit: Evelyn Simak

If you live in a hot, tropical climate, you are rarely short of ingredients. Audacious, bright, ridiculously named fruit and vegetables, dock-slapping fresh fish and sweet, fragrant herbs waft, swing and swim past you every day.

Yet while staying in a ‘nice’ hotel in St Lucia, every night my partner and I would be forced to play: guess when the cauliflower will inexplicably arrive. A game I haven’t taken seriously since I was five years old — an age when to eat cauliflower meant certain death (as with mushrooms, or anything not from the crisp family).

For four long nights, whether we were having seafood paella, red snapper or just steak and chips, there it was, waiting for us, bland, unseasoned and lurking in our order’s midst. Continue reading »

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Big Buzz Around Pollen

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Luckily London's latest restaurateur Jason Atherton says he "doesn't" want to sound like Bono

In 2010, former Maze executive chef Jason Atherton decided to run a pop-up in a disused Caffé Uno in Mayfair, to raise funds for homelessness charity Street Smart. The venue, which ran for just two days, was entirely funded by donations, and raised over £20k. Jason Atherton raised £20k for StreetSmart with his pop-up restaurant Location.

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Hanoi: no bragging rights included

tomeatsjencooks.com

Hacked off it's Monday? Enjoy the schadenfreude of an epic food fail in Vietnam.

People travel for a whole host of reasons but one of the most common and most miserable reasons is to have the bragging rights that come with having visited the unusual or far flung. I have to admit that sometimes I do the heinous “that’s good but it isn’t as good as the sashimi I had in Fukushima several years ago which really sadly you won’t ever be able to try” or that “that pho is nowhere nearly as good as the pho I had in a little village outside HCMC at the hands of a 90-year-old blind peasant woman“.

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Sweet Porn

Chow.com

Treats to rot your teeth and your brain. Urgh. I want a Snickles. You’ll need to read further on for that one.

24 recipes to top Peter Cottontail, from candy bars to popcorn balls

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Depressed looking ‘low-fat’ cheese sandwich

nutritioulicious

This ‘low fat spread and substitute bread’ excuse for a sandwich is not going to win hearts during National Grilled Cheese Month.

Did you know April is National Grilled Cheese Month? I love cheese, especially the ooey, gooey deliciousness of melted cheese between two slices of bread, so I am more than happy to celebrate this national “holiday” with some memories of grilled cheese from when I was a kid and a classic recipe with a healthy twist.

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Wheely Important New Invention

blog.makezine.com

Newfangled electricity is taking our jobs. Join the fight and buy a pedal-powered food processor.

Transfer power from an internal pedal-powered flywheel housed inside the R2B2 to slice, dice, and julian with this all-in-one kitchen appliance designed by Christoph Thetard. In addition to a built-in hand mixer, the unit has internal storage for accessories not in use

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The Only Map of Prague You’ll Ever Need

Čau Down - Prague Post Food Blog

If Carling made maps for tourists, they would probably look a little like this one.

The great thing about the intricate maps of hiking and cycling paths in this country is that the Czech Tourist Club maps, which are green, sold at most major bookshops and cost 95 Kč, is that they mark where the pubs are. A red outlined symbol of a handled pot tells you it’s a drinking establishment with only cold foods served, and a filled-in pot tells you they serve hot food. There’s nothing quite like the motivation to keep on with those kilometers of knowing that a hospoda is waiting just around the bend.

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