Food gnus is good gnus

Lots of decent food news in today's San Jose Mercury News.  You need to register to view anything, you decide if it's worth it.  A few tidbits:

• Another breakdown of the confusing and somewhat useless new food pyramid, with some recipes as examples of what to eat and how to do it.  I'm going to choose clean living and constant prayer over the pyramid.
• Santa Cruz Mountain Pinot Noirs are getting more well-deserved love from the masses.  That's good news to me, I'm a big fan of Byington, Kathryn Kennedy and Thomas Fogarty.
• Competitive cooking shows have exploded all over the networks:

1. "Cooking Under Fire", which features 12 contestants looking to become the next American Idol  New Top Model  get a job with Todd English in New York, it starts tonight at 8:00 on PBS (KQED)
2. "The Million Dollar Recipe" about the 2004 Pillsbury Bake-Off, Monday May 2, 8:00 on Bravo
3. "Food Network Challenge", which features the "best" chefs in various food specialties competing for the title of "best", the Merc says this starts May 22, but it's already on, so I don't know.
4. "Hells Kitchen" hosted by the scary Gordon Ramsay, tests chefs' skills while verbally abusing them.  Sounds good and you know it must be on Fox if someone is crying on a reality show, May 30, 9:00.

• Healthy Handfuls is a great company in Grass Valley that are making certified organic wholesome treats with none of the toxic poison (trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, preservatives).  And perfect for midgets (kids) cause they make cookies shaped like critters.
• Local chef David Cohen of Willow Street Pizzeria won the first ever Italian Chef Wars in Las Vegas this month.  He's not Italian so I'm skeptical about the title, and his stiffest competition was from Winnipeg, Manitoba. I guess it makes sense since it was sponsored by two industry magazines, Pizza Today from the U.S. and Canadian Pizza.  There's a whole magazine called "Canadian Pizza"?  Hmmm.....

Comments

[alice]

Japan is the land of cooking/food competitions. They have ramen experts who can sniff the soup and tell you what kind of pork was used to make the broth. Or they have sushi experts who can sniff the knife and tell you what fish was cut. They have fastest cooking competitions, cheapest cooking competitions, celebrity cooking matches, and all sorts of other wacky stuff. And don't forget the "food fighters" and their speed/quantity consumption competitions! I'm glad to hear this genre of entertainment is picking up in the US too. I love it!

[Fatemeh]

You'sa gonna get some grief for the midgets line, you know that, right?