Marilyn Monroe's Stuffing Recipe

Was Marilyn Monroe a competent home cook?  There is some evidence that she was, including a delightfully detailed, hand-written recipe for poultry stuffing published in yesterday's New York Times.  Sensuousness and cuisine--a natural pairing.

Fast Food Restaurants Dish Up Unhealthy Marketing to Youth

Can you believe it?  The U. S. fast food industry spent more than $4.2 billion on marketing and advertising in 2009, according to a new study from Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity.  Companies are stepping up their marketing to children, and it's working.
 

The full report and tools for consumers and researchers are available at www.fastfoodmarketing.org. Follow the conversation on Twitter at the hashtag #fastfoodfacts.

 

IACP Impacts Chefs Move to Schools

Yesterday IACP members Dan Traster, Judy Rusignuolo and I and a room full of Washington, D.C., culinary professionals attended a Chefs Move to Schools meeting sponsored by the National Restaurant Association DC chapter's educational foundation and Share Our Strength.  The first speaker was everyone's favorite, White House Assistant Chef Sam Kass.  He gave a pep talk and then asked for questions.

I brought up research that came out last week from the Edible Schoolyard.  It said that children who had been in the Edible Schoolyard program in elementary school did not eat more vegetables in middle school.  In fact, they ate less veggies than when they had been in the Edible Schoolyard program.  Kass said the results meant that children and youth need to be supported at every step as they develop. 

We can support young people in school all we like, I replied, but if we don't involve the families, the youth will experience cognitive dissonance when they are eating at home.  My suggestion:  Bring together the first two pillars of the Let's Move campaign against childhood obesity with youth/parent partner cooking classes.  

One pillar seeks to give parents the information they need to provide healthy meals for their families.  The second is to improve school food.  (The third pillar is a goal of sixty minutes a day of physical activity, and the fourth is to eliminate food deserts.)

Interestingly, of the twelve speakers who followed, three of them commented on the importance of family participation.  They mentioned ways they are helping families in their healthy eating programs.  For instance, Share Our Strength's Operation Frontline has a curriculum in use for youth/parent cooking classes.  Many chefs who are adopting a school are considering teaching cooking classes as a way to share their expertise.

Salmonella epidemic and food safety legislation

Recently 170 million infected eggs were recalled from 14 states after more than 1,200 people suffered from salmonella enteritidis in the United States.  New Food and Drug Administration monitoring and safety requirements ironically went into effect last month--too late to prevent the outbreak.

The enormous egg recall may have stimulated the Senate to act on comprehensive food safety legislation.  The bill would set up systems to trace food from farm to table, making it easier to identify infected products, and it would give the FDA power to mandate a recall.

Want to know whether your eggs have been recalled?  Check out http://www.foodsafety.gov/.

Duke University offers online survey for adult picky eaters

Are you a picky eater? Check out Duke University's online survey for adult cautious eaters. While the study population is self-selected rather than randomly chosen, and there is no control group, online access may attract a huge global group of participants and help develop an understanding of whether picky eating has a genetic or behavioral base.

Louisiana Seafood at the White House

To demonstrate the safety and deliciousness of Gulf Coast seafood at the White House, the Louisiana Seafood Board prepared a special shrimp and oyster po' boy lunch at the White House on August 9. Several D.C. chefs with ties to the Louisiana seafood industry helped to prepare it, including Jeff Tunks from Acadiana, Ann Cashion and John Fulchino from Johnny’s Half Shell, Jeff Buben from Vidalia, and David Guas, from the soon to open Bayou Bakery.

Culinary Tourism and the Media: Georgetown Cupcakes

Many tourists to Washington, D.C., add a visit to Georgetown Cupcakes to their to-do list after reading about it online and perhaps watching "D.C. Cupcakes," a reality show on the TLC cable channel about the two sisters who founded and run the bake shop. 

Is it worth a two-hour wait, standing in the hot sun?  It is, to visitors who believe the hype and want to add a cupcake story to their travel adventure.  To the owners it's worth at least $25,000 each weekend day--doubling  business since the reality show debuted.

One step at a time for better school meals

The Child Nutrition Reauthorization legislation did not pass before Congress went home for its recess. However, two nonprofits offer suggestions on how culinary professionals as well as others concerned can advocate to improve the quality of school meals.  Slow Food USA has a campaign to "Give Kids the School Food They Deserve."  Action for Healthy Kids offers step-by-step directions on how to influence policy making at the national level.

Chefs help make school lunches healthier

Here's a great story about Tony Gerasi, one example of a chef who adopted a school (district).

Chefs Move to Schools, but first to White House

On June 4, 700 chefs from over 37 states gathered on the South Lawn of the White House in support of the "Chefs Move to Schools" initiatiave, a part of the First Lady's Let's Move campaign to end the epidemic of childhood obesity.  Sixty IACP members were among them.

The day began with breakfast across the street from the White House at the J. W. Marriott hotel, sponsored by Share Our Strength.  A lineup of speakers explained the program concepts.
Chefs were asked to adopt a school, to nurture it in a variety of ways, with the goal of producing healthier school food and healthier young people. Many of the suggested activities listed in the breakfast printed program would involve a significant donation of time, funds and energy.

Following breakfast, IACP members joined the other chefs for a tour of Mrs. Obama’s kitchen garden. Non-vegetable gardeners were surprised to see fennel, broccoli and Swiss chard all ready to harvest in early June in Washington, D.C. (The arugula, however, looked too pockmarked by insects to serve to any but the most convinced organic foodies.)

Part of the fun was standing next to well-known, respected television cooking teachers and sometimes engaging them in conversation.

It was exciting!

And the photos, with the White House as a backdrop, what could be better?

Read the transcript of Mrs. Obama’s remarks or watch her speak.

Once home again, food bloggers posted a flurry of reports, many on the topic, “Me at the White House.”

Now the challenge for IACP members and their fellow supporters of Chefs Move to Schools is to keep their commitment and to help realize the worthy goals of the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign against childhood overweight and obesity.

Already IACP’s Kids in the Kitchen section has enlisted the support of several of the breakfast speakers, to participate in IACP teleforums in the months ahead and to discuss with IACP members the practical application of how to adopt a school. Included will be Janet Poppendieck, author of Free for All: Fixing School Food in America; innovative school volunteer Chef Bill Telepan of the eponymously named New York City restaurant; and Ellen Teller, lobbyist for the Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill.
 
In addition, incoming IACP Kids in the Kitchen Co-Chair Michelle Stern has established a free listserv for the purpose of continuing the conversation about the Chefs Move to Schools movement. A listserv archives messages but also stores related files, links, photos, and polls. To sign up, IACP members may contact IACPchefsmovetoschools@yahoo.com.

Kids Cook for a Cause

On the last day of the annual conference IACP’s Kids in the Kitchen professional interest section partnered with the Clackamas County 4-H club members to prepare a delicious hot lunch at the First Baptist Church for some young people who hang out on Portland streets.  The photo above and program planning leadership was by IACP member Michelle Stern.

Bayless Serves Mole to Mexican Prez at White House

IACP member and celebrity Chef Rick Bayless served as guest chef at the Obama White House’s second state dinner on May 19 honoring Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa and his wife, Margarita Zavala, as well as 200 other guests. Bayless created a menu of jicama with fruit, a green ceviche, wagyu beef with black mole, and a chocolate tart with goat cheese ice cream.


It was “the first time that real Mexican food will be served in the White House like this," said Bayless, author of several acclaimed cookbooks, host of the PBS TV show called “Mexico—One Plate at a Time,” and owner of Chicago’s fine dining Mexican restaurants, Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, that are favorites of the Obama family.

A Recipe from The Other Portland

IACP member and cookbook author Kathy Gunst filed a report about the Portland conference and offered a recipe in the web edition of Down East magazine.

Slow Food on Film

The topic of food has been a rich one in numerous films over the years.  Slow Food on Film has compiled a database with information about sixty-four films that focus on food-related issues.

Traditional Italian home meals for tourists

An Italian organization called Home Food strives to protect and increase the value of the Italian culinary legacy by arranging meals for visiting tourists with Italian families.