Pasta Design; 'Freshman 15' Debunked; Slow Food Under Fire

Guest Interview

Market Report ()

John Jackson sells blueberries for Whitney Ranch, a blueberry farm in Carpinteria, California. They grow eight varieties of blueberries and right now at the market he sells the Emerald, Star and Jewel varieties. The Emeralds are large and tart while the other varieties tend to be sweeter.

Elliot Rubin is the co-owner of The Curious Palate. The restaurant has one location in Mar Vista and another at Santa Monica Place. A recipe for The Curious Palate's Blueberry Muffin is on the Good Food blog. The restaurant serves the muffin with rum butter. They also sell homemade blueberry jam.

Guest Interview

A Beautiful Menu and the Best Fried Rice ()

Jonathan Gold visits Shanghai No. 1 Seafood Village in the San Gabriel Valley. He says this is the most interesting restaurant to open in the SGV in years and gushes about the exquisite menu which is the size of "the September issue of Vogue." His favorite dishes are the Old Alley Pork, Stone Pot Fried Rice, Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings), and the Smoked Fish.

Shanghai No. 1 Seafood Village
250 W Valley Blvd
San Gabriel, CA 91776
626-282-1777

All of Jonathan Gold's restaurant suggestions are on the Good Food Restaurant Map.

Guest Interview

50 Most Powerful People in Food ()

Colman Andrews is the Editorial Director at The Daily Meal. He's also a prolific author. His latest cookbook is The Country Cooking of Italy. You can see his complete list of America's 50 Most Powerful People in Food for 2012 here.

Guest Interview

Slow Food Under Fire ()

Josh Viertel is the President of Slow Food USA. His organization recently came under fire from a group of prominent long time members because of their political agenda.

Poppy Tooker, an early member of Slow Food and the host of Louisiana Eats on WWNO in New Orleans, dissolved her Slow Food Chapter due to disagreements in how the organization was run.

The tipping point for Tooker and other long-time Slow Food members was Slow Food USA's $5 Challenge, a campaign that asked eaters to "take back the value meal." Tooker and others felt that this challenge devalued the work of farmers by asking members not to pay fair prices for their food. Viertel believes the challenge was misunderstood.

Guest Interview

Homemade Pasta with Kids ()

Amy Scattergood is a writer and the editor of LA Weekly's food blog, Squid Ink. She has two daughters who have become very adept in the kitchen. She says that homemade pasta's "forgiving nature" makes it a great way to get children involved in the kitchen. Scattergood is currently writing a cookbook about cooking with kids. It's due out in 2013.

Guest Interview

Pasta by Design ()

George Legendere is an architect by trade and the author of Pasta by Design. The book uses math to catalogue 90 shapes of pasta. Each pasta shape is paired with a mathematical formula and an architectural drawing.

Guest Interview

Is the 'Freshman 15' a Myth? ()

Jay Zagorsky is a research scientist at Ohio State University. He co-authored a study that found that the Freshman 15 is a myth.