Meet The Team / Nanette Maxim

When chef Jonathan Waxman throws open the glass garage doors at his restaurant Barbuto (in Manhattan's West Village) on a warm spring afternoon on the far side of lunch hour, and you've just eaten a forkful of pillowy gnocchi with spinach and almonds, you'd be inhuman if you didn't turn to your mates and say, "Ah, life is good." Waxman's wood-fired oven is throwing flames, and the silver-haired chef (and former "Top Chef Masters" contestant) might himself be delivering one of his signature roast chickens with salsa verde to another bunch of customers, all of whom seem to be smiling. Barbuto just does that to you.

Jonathan Waxman has always done things his way at Barbuto -- simple, delicious, playful, and very Italian. That he isn't Italian doesn't mean a thing. He cooks like a Roman grandmother, says his business partner Fabrizio Ferri. And in his new cookbook, Italian, My Way, he shows us how to play with the classic dishes he loves (such as linguine with wild mushrooms or pizza with pancetta, tomatoes, burrata, and scallions), and amp up others, spun from a good forage or a good day at the fish market (warm dandelion greens with scrambled eggs and chives; strozzapreti with octopus, red wine, and onions).

We guess alliances like the Snack Food Association and the Council for Biotechnology Information (whose megacompany members include BASF, DuPont, Dow, and Monsanto) felt they just weren't big enough or strong enough to convince Congress and consumers that big ag is good ag. So now 55 of the big-boy alliances have bonded together to form what might be called a supersociety, the new Alliance to Feed the Future.

Telling "the real story of modern food production" and "balancing the public dialogue on modern agriculture" is the Alliance's mission, according to its debut press release. What is also very modern is that the alliance, which also includes members such CropLife America (whose website features stories such as "Benefits of Pesticides and Crop-Protection Chemicals") the National Frozen Pizza Institute, and the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers, has decided to locate in Washington, D.C. After all, Dave Schmidt, President and CEO at the International Food Information Council and coordinator of AFF told Sustainable Food News, its target audience is that of "opinion leaders, including those in the university sector, professional societies, journalists and government officials."

Starting April 1, you can catch Juno's Ellen Page trading in her Hard Candy routine to narrate Vanishing of the Bees. No, it's not a sequel to horror flick Black Swarm; it's an intriguing documentary about the disappearance of the insects that pollinate most of our crops. And it's one of six films collected and being shown as part of the Whole Foods Do Something Reel Film Festival, presented in 70 cities across the country to celebrate Earth Month. (Did we even know that April was Earth Month, in addition to Earth Day, on the 22nd?)

"Through our [ ...] Do Something Reel Film Festival we want to raise awareness of environmental and food issues, and support filmmakers who are creating films that inspire people to question the impact our choices have on our health, body and environment," said Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, in a company press release. Ticket proceeds from the fest are going towards a grant program for filmmakers who want to go green in their art.

Among the "Do Something" films is Mark MacInnis's Urban Roots, a close-up of Motor City residents trying to grow it for themselves in the concrete jungle. Suzan Beraza's Bag It! follows an anti-plastics crusader, and Shelley Lee Davis and Or Shlomi's PLANEAT takes a hard look at our love affair with meat and dairy, through the eyes of scientists, farmers, and chefs.

See what's playing and where to catch the Do Something Reel Film Festival.


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Sustainability has become the go-to word for every corporation in the U.S.and McDonald's is no exception. The burger giant recently announced what it's calling its Sustainable Land Management Commitment (SLMC). In a press release that sounds a bit like a "Spider-Man" script, the company states that "McDonald's ... accept[s] the responsibility that comes with our global presence," by requiring that over a period of time, all agricultural raw materials will be supplied only from sustainably managed land. (McDonald's also admits that since it "does not actually produce any of the food we ultimately serve our customers, it's essential that we work with suppliers who share our values.")

What does that mean, exactly? If "sustainability" gives you images of a family farm sending their free-range chickens to a McDonald's supplier, think again. What it does mean is that McDonald's sat down with the World Wildlife Fund, and "other stakeholders" (including fellow corporate megaliths such as Walmart, as well as suppliers) and came up with five products to concentrate on making better: beef, poultry, coffee, palm oil, and food packaging. It is also joining various Global Roundtables (on beef, and responsible palm oil production).

See the details on McDonald's Sustainable Land Management Commitment, after the jump:

Move over, NASCAR, unless Dale Earnhardt, Jr., has a plan for a fuel-injected sofa. The Guinness Book record for the world's fastest furniture (yes, there really is such a speed record, previously set by a 92-m.p.h. couch) was recently set with a nitrous-oxide-spewing dining table that can travel at 130 miles an hour around a race track, reports Popular Science.

Perry Watkins, a Brit inventor of the lowest, smallest street-legal cars, combined a dinner table table (complete with chairs, dishware, cutlery, and even fake food for six) with a two-seat Reliant Scimitar Sabre V8 convertible to create the speed demon he dubbed Fast Food. It's complete with teakettles powered by propane, teaspoons that conduct sparks, and a fake roasting chicken that serves to release the nitrous oxide from the contraption's injection system. "A six-foot plume of white smoke comes out of the chicken's backside," Watkins tells Pop Sci.

No one said fast had to be tasteful. And p.s., don't try this at home with the Toyota and the Wedgwood.

Click here to read the whole Pop Sci story, and watch a video of Fast Food in action.