Slashfood

Starbucks To Help Pinkberry Achieve Global Frozen Yogurt Domination

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Apr 29th 2011 3:00PM

Pinkberry frozen yogurt Photo: 1derbread Media, Flickr

If you have plans to vacation in Britain, Turkey, Morocco, and the Philippines this year, you might just find a tart, cold reminder of home. By the end of 2011, Pinkberry is planning to to be in 17 different international markets, according to Nation's Restaurant News.

The chain currently has 122 outposts in eight countries, and hopes to gain 30 more international locations (this in addition to more U.S. outposts). Part of the success of Pinkberry's growth is attributed to Starbucks, as many of its international franchisees also operate Starbucks locations. Moreover, Starbucks' president and CEO Howard Schultz sits on Pinkberry's board.

"Consumer brands have to look at the landscape through a global lens, as opposed to the domestic lens that Starbucks started from 40 years ago," Schultz told Business Week. Although Pinkberry has plenty of competition in the U.S. market--Cold Stone Creamery is adding froyo to its line this spring and Red Mango has plans to nearly double its domestic stores--there is less competition in the worldwide arena, explains Business Week. In fact, Pinkberry's highest-volume store is in Kuwait.

Filed under: Business, Chain Stores / Restaurants

Behold: The Royal Wedding Cake [PHOTOS]

COMMENTS 4

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Apr 29th 2011 2:30PM

Royal Wedding Cake, Prince William and Kate Middleton Photo: John Stillwell, AFP / Getty Images

You've probably seen some breathtaking wedding cakes in your lifetime, but we doubt you've encountered anything like this.

The cake for Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, was an eight-tiered ivory showpiece decorated with 900 delicate sugar-paste flowers. The cake was showcased at this afternoon's Buckingham Palace reception, reports The Daily Mail.

How long does it take to make a cake like this? Think weeks, not days. Five weeks, to be exact.The palace contacted baker Fiona Cairns and her team in Febraury to request the cake, and it turns out the bride had some specific requests.

"Catherine did not want it to be seven feet tall, she didn't want it to be towering and thin, and I think we succeeded," says Cairns.

The bride also wanted elements from the Joseph Lambeth technique of cake decoration, so the cake features a lot of intricate piping work, as you can see from the photos.

A hidden treat for architecuture buffs? Cairns used some of the details of the reception room in the design. 'We reflected some of the architectural details in the room so the garlands on the walls were reproduced loosely on the fourth tier - we've used roses, acorns, ivy leaves, apple blossom and bridal rose," she says.

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Why Jewish Food Disappoints

COMMENTS 4

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Apr 29th 2011 2:00PM

Jewish food, kugel Photo: Alamy

We'd be too afraid to knock Grandma's matzoh ball soup (and, seriously, it is delicious), but Josh Ozersky has no such qualms. He argues in his TIME magazine piece that Eastern European Jewish food just isn't that tasty.

Dissing on kugel? He should probably watch out for all those bubbes out there--they're fierce when wielding wooden spoons.

Filed under: Magazines, Food News

Sugar Industry to Sue Over "Corn Sugar" Label

COMMENTS 23

by Jason Best, Posted Apr 29th 2011 1:00PM

corn commercial commercial Photo: YouTube

The battle over sweeteners just got a whole lot more bitter.

As the Associated Press reports, a group of sugar farmers and refiners, including big names like C&H Sugar, have filed suit against the makers of high-fructose corn syrup. Their beef? They want the corn industry to stop trying to hawk their souped-up sweetener as "corn sugar."

As the country has watched its collective waistline get bigger and a generation of kids turn into outsized roly-polys, perhaps no product has come to be as maligned as high-fructose corn syrup. Indeed, among certain members of the Bugaboo-stroller set, feeding your kids anything that contains the super sweetener might as well be the equivalent of letting them snack on crack.

Faced with an image crisis (American consumption of high-fructose corn syrup fell to a 20-year low last year), the corn industry went on the offense, running golden-hued ads of bucolic American farmscapes that essentially touted high-fructose corn syrup as nutritionally the same as sugar and asking the federal government for permission to market the stuff accordingly as "corn sugar."

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Which Food is Most Likely to Make You Sick?

COMMENTS 19

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Apr 29th 2011 12:00PM

grilled chicken Photo: Alamy

Anyone who has ever tangled with food poisoning knows it's nothing to fool around with. But it's often difficult to nail down what, exactly, made you sick.

A new report from the University of Florida Emerging Pathogens Institute points the finger in one clear direction: poultry. Birds contaminated with Campylobacter bacteria is the food-pathogen combination that causes the highest number of illnesses in the U.S. Just how many people fall victim? More than 600,000 people a year.

The top five illness-causing pathogens -- Campylobacter, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Toxoplasma gondii and norovirus -- cause $12.7 billion in economic losses each year, with the top 10 pathogen-food combinations accounting for more than $8 billion a year, according to the report. (Lost productivity, medical care and serious complications or chronic disabilities associated with the illness are all factored together to come up with these figures.)

So enjoy your grilled chicken this summer -- just invest in a meat thermometer and make sure you see 165 degrees on it before you begin your feast.

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Will Starbucks Kill the Cake Pop?

COMMENTS 12

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Apr 29th 2011 11:00AM

Starbucks cake pops Photo: Starbucks

Please say this isn't the beginning of the end for cake pops.

Starbucks, America's largest coffee retailer, has begun serving cake pops -- and it's got the baking community up in arms. The pops are made by crumbling fresh cake and mixing the crumbs with frosting, then forming them into a ball and placing them on a stick. To make them pretty (and keep them fresh), they're dipped into a colorful candy coating.

The little pops have caught on like wildfire. (Cake that's portable, adorable, and has fewer calories than a whole slice? Sweet!) They're quickly overtaking cupcakes as the "must-have" item for baby showers, weddings, and birthday celebrations. And that's what has the folks over at Honest Cooking are worried. They know that anything that shows up at Starbucks is likely to experience backlash (and the pops they're serving up are no great shakes), and they don't want their favorite treat to meet that fate.

In an attempt to keep the pops in good favor, they've posted a killer recipe for Lemon Cream Cheese Cake Pops.

Filed under: Coffee Shops, Chain Stores / Restaurants

Triple-Decker Avocado and Tomato Panini with Mozzerella and Pesto: Recipe of the Day

COMMENTS 0

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Apr 29th 2011 10:00AM

Triple-Decker Tomato and Avocado Panini with Mozzarella and Pesto recipe Photo: Ray Kachatorian

KitchenDaily expert Curtis Stone cooks up an out-of-this-world triple-decker sandwich on the grill, pressing buffalo mozzarella, tomato and avocado between three layers of ciabatta bread slathered in his homemade pesto.

Get Curtis' recipe for Triple-Decker Tomato and Avocado Panini with Mozzarella and Pesto.

Filed under: Recipes

Government Wants Companies to Limit Marketing to Kids

COMMENTS 4

by Jason Best, Posted Apr 28th 2011 4:00PM

Photo: Paul Sakuma / AP Photo

Is the federal government about to put Tony the Tiger out of a job?

In the face of a national epidemic of childhood obesity, a collection of federal agencies has been working for two years now to come up with a set of voluntary guidelines that would restrict what foods can be marketed to kids. Food companies and marketing groups rejected a set of proposed guidelines last year, and the government has repeatedly postponed releasing new ones.

But as the Associated Press reports, the feds may finally pull the trigger as soon as today. Apparently, the AP reporter got a sneak peek at the new guidelines and writes that "companies would be urged to only market foods to children ages 2 through 17 if they are low in fats, sugars and sodium and contain specified healthy ingredients."

Filed under: Business, Food News