"MichelleObama" news and stories

British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver called Sarah Palin a "Froot Loop" during a panel at Food Network's South Beach Wine and Food Festival this weekend for criticizing the Obama administration's healthy eating initiatives, and said getting healthy foods to kids is a civil rights issue.

Continue reading: Jamie Oliver: Sarah Palin a 'Fruit Loop' for Criticizing Michelle Obama on HuffPost Food.

Heeding First Lady Michelle Obama's call to improve our country's access to better food and reduce childhood obesity, Wal-Mart today announced a five-year plan to reduce the price of fresh produce sold in its stores and to lower the salt, fat and sugar content in its Great Value house-brand food products, reports the New York Times.

Wal-Mart will also be urging its highest-selling suppliers, like Kraft, to follow suit. Similar initiatives have been made by the city of New York and major food corporation ConAgra, which set a goal to "reduce sodium content in its foods by 20 percent by 2015," notes the Times.

Michelle Obama will make a cameo appearance on an episode of "Iron Chef America" filmed at the White House, the Food Network announced Wednesday.

The first lady introduces the secret ingredient for the challenge, which pits White House Chef Cristeta Comerford and Iron Chef Bobby Flay against Iron Chef Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse.

The White House approached the Food Network about filming "Iron Chef America" at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as a way to reach those people who haven't heard yet about the first lady's efforts to curb childhood obesity through healthy eating and exercise, the New York Times reports.

• Trevor Corson, the author of "The Story of Sushi," says to step away from the chopsticks -- the proper way to eat sushi is with your fingers.
• Joaquin Baca of the Brooklyn Star only serves up food he likes to eat -- including the Americana classic green bean casserole, updated with homemade mushroom soup and onion rings.
• White House chef Sam Kass stirs pots and policy. When he's not preparing meals for the first family, he gathers with senior policy advisers to figure out how to improve the health of the country's children.
• First Lady Michelle Obama makes a cameo on the Jan. 3 episode of "Iron Chef America" to raise awareness for the Healthy Kids Initiative -- and revealing that the secret ingredient is anything from the White House garden.
• From Momofuku to Marco Canora, the roundup of this season's best new cookbooks is sure to take readers on an "edible adventure."
• Sam Sifton's latest reviews Le Relais de Venise L'Entrecôte, the Parisian import to Midtown that relies on "the simplicity of salad, steak and fries, heavy on the salt and butter, rich as a cardiologist," and waitresses in what resemble French maid outfits.
• The Minimalist, Mark Bittman, takes meatball madness to the Middle East with lamb, cumin, mint and bulgur.
• Nostalgic for wine from their Vienna upbringing, Carlo Huber and Paul Darcy made it their mission to bring Viennese wines and wine culture to the United States.
• Saltie, a tiny sandwich shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, serves up sandwiches "the Earl would approve."

During their trip to New York this weekend, the Obamas dined at Blue Hill. To gastronomes in the New York metropolitan area, Blue Hill has long been synonymous with all things local, organic, humane, refined and good in the dining world.

So it was little surprise that bloggers and commentators jumped all over the Obama's choice of venue, analyzing the meaning and the message of their meal. Frank Bruni opined on the New York Times' Diner's Journal blog that Blue Hill was "the proper ethical call, the proper message to send, the proper restaurant segue from the planting of the White House garden."

But Blue Hill, as Bruni also pointed out, happens to be one of New York's most critically lauded restaurants, so it's not as if the Obamas were exactly sacrificing pleasure for politics.

Still, out of the many, many high-end restaurants that the Obamas could have chosen to patronize, there are relatively few that are so closely associated with the kind of sustainable and progressive eating that the First Lady championed with the planting of the White House garden.

The pick appears to be further evidence of the research that the Obamas have seemingly put into their food choices -- and further evidence of the food world's willingness to analyze the President's every bite, be it of hamburger, chili, or, yes, an impeccably fresh and impeccably local carrot.