"the Guardian" news and stories

There's quite a bit of buzz about Heston Blumenthal's new cookbook, at least on the other side of the pond. One of the masters of molecular gastronomy and the owner of three Micheline star The Fat Duck, Mr. Blumenthal is renowned for his amazing, and amazingly complex food.

Now he's brought his molecular know-how to the masses...sort of. His new cookbook, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook, is a huge, 516 page, 12 pound, £100 ($200-though I found it for about $145) monster. I quite frankly have a hard time believing that many people are going to be rushing out to get it, especially at this economically uncertain time. It's pointed out in both of the articles in the Guardian this week, that not only is the book expensive, but it requires expensive and hard to find ingredients and equipment. Both of those aspects make it less likely that anyone would do anything more than drool over the reportedly exquisite photography.

Still, I'd love to be able to get a look at the Big Fat Duck Cookbook. I wonder if my local library will be getting this tome? If I could take pictures and see what recipes I could make, I'd definitely be one happy cook. Unfortunately, I think the library is the only way many people would be able to get a look at it.

That's right, cutting your meat consumption down to four portions per week, and cutting your milk/dairy intake down to 1 liter (about a quart), is a major step we all need to take to "avoid run-away climate change." At least that's according to a recent study released by the Food Climate Research Network, which operates at the University of Surrey in England.

The new study, reported in The Guardian this week, does touch on eating locally, avoiding waste, and cooking in larger batches as well as using a microwave. However, one of the main points is that the government should intervene and put everyone on meat and dairy rations. The argument is that awareness campaigns and trying to get people to voluntarily change their habits simply won't work: people won't make the tougher changes by themselves.

I know that people feel very strongly about the government telling them what they can or cannot do (or eat). Not only do I not want direct government interference, I don't think imposing rations would be very enforceable. However, I do think it would work if limits were put on how much meat could be produced. That would raise the price of meat and lower the demand for it dramatically.

Okay, I'm going to get something out in the open here: I am somewhat biased when it comes to Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Just in case the title of this post wasn't enough to make my feelings clear, I want you to know that, from where I stand, the famed ice cream makers share moral ground with Kim Philby, John Walker, and Robert Hanssen. In my house, we don't use the term "Benedict Arnold." For us, the gold standard of betrayal takes the form of two Vermont pseudo-hippies, and the phrase "You're a total...Ben and Jerry!" can be the prelude to a massive battle royale.

Even so, I'll try to be fair.

When I was a kid, long before Ben and Jerry's became a household term, I met the pair at a book show in Washington D.C. They were hawking their ice cream cookbook and, as a young cook and avid bibliophile, I eagerly snapped up the signed first edition of their tome. Although I left the DC convention center that day with several huge bags of books, Ben and Jerry's slim volume was in my lap, and I read it and reread it repeatedly over the next few days.

Although it was to be a long time before Ben and Jerry's came to our neck of the woods, I mixed up several of their recipes in my little ice cream maker. I loved them all. In Massachusetts, where my family spent our summers, B&J's was available in a few of the markets, so my sisters and I were able to try out a few of the famous flavors. We absolutely adored them.

According to an article that appeared yesterday in British newspaper, The Guardian, the newest frontier in food is in the area of nanofood development. With nanotechnology, food could be manipulated to taste great, be low-fat and last forever, because it alters the food on an atomic level. For all the potential good this science could do, researchers are hesitant to move too far forward this work. Their reservations are due, in large part, to the backlash that genetically modified foods have received in recent years.

It's a lengthy article, with far more detail that I can neatly summarize here. It's eye-opening, in part because the possibilities are appealing and frightening. I personally believe that we should leave food alone, as it seems that every time we start messing with our food, we make the situation worse not better. However, with the food supply uncertainties we may in the years to come, it makes me wonder how science could help feed the world.

[via The Morning News]

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