The folks behind social media site Twitter are expanding their empire to the wine business.
Beginning Thursday, Twitter is selling its own "Fledgling" wine, with the proceeds benefiting the nonprofit literacy group Room to Read, according to Jenna Sampson, a spokeswoman for Twitter.
San Francisco wine company Crushpad is helping Twitter make the vino. The company, which enables wine enthusiasts to make, sell and design their own wine, is providing everything from the grapes and equipment to expertise and advice for the social networking site.
"We gradually started meeting people [from Twitter]," and the idea of a outreach collaboration simply "kept growing and growing and growing," said Noah Dorrance, marketing director for Crushpad.
To celebrate the impending graduation of its 40,000th student, the Culinary Institute of America will hold a one-day trivia contest on Twitter on Nov. 4.
Throughout the day, the CIA will ask trivia questions on its @CIACulinary Twitter about everything from its textbook and history to basic cooking techniques. The CIA's Twitter followers who correctly answer the questions will be eligible to win autographed books by CIA graduates such as John Besh and high-end cookware.
Can't make it to this weekend's Food Network's New York City Wine & Food Festival? Convinced that Slashfood can get a better peek at Guy Fieri's frosted tips and potential Paula Deen pants mishaps than you can?
Follow our every nibble, sip and celeb chef sighting via the handy widget above -- starting with tonight's Chelsea Market After Dark all the way through the Grand Tasting and Burger Bash to Sunday night's Meatball Madness with Giada De Laurentiis, or just follow us on Twitter as @slashfood.
A struggling actor is all a-Twitter claiming his celebrity-sighting Tweets cost him his job.
Jon-Barrett Ingels, 31, says he worked at Barney Greengrass, the cafe on the fifth floor of Barneys New York in Beverly Hills, Calif., and documented his celebrity encounters under the Twitter username, PapaBarrett. Ingels had dished about his on-the-job celeb encounters to his followers, with comments like "Thurs: Tori Spelling eats salami eggs and onions. BTW when did Tori become hot? Also Emilio Estevez looks like his dad," or, "Watched Neil Strauss (The Game) pick up girls and Mindy Kaling talking at a hungover BJ Novak (The Office). My work is not reality!"
But he tells Slashfood that his Twitter of an encounter with actress Jane Adams put an end to that job.
With the advent of Facebook and Twitter, everyone's a critic. Both social-networking sites are littered with "Just ate this -- amazing!" and "Just drank that -- delicious!"
Spreading opinions across the globe is easier than ever nowadays. But those posting bold proclamations in status updates -- such as declaring Heineken "quite possibly the best-tasting beer ever" -- shouldn't be surprised if they draw the (to our minds, hilarious) ire of a raging foodie, as this poor Facebook user did.
Although entering a "best beer" battle with a Heineken in hand may be the culinary equivalent of attempting to slice up a sirloin steak with a plastic knife, social-networking sites certainly do offer up a great new forum to wage culinary warfare. Just be careful what you type: This ain't your grandmother's dinner table.
Nowadays, the whole world could be watching. What if that cute girl from the laundromat Googles you and finds your deepest, bubbliest, Heineken-filled thoughts? We shudder at the notion. Still, the debate is half the fun. What's the one beer you'd go to battle for? Comment if we missed it.
Farming may be an endless tale of drought, pests and blight, but North Carolina agriculture officials are encouraging their state's farmers to find more succinct ways to tell their stories.
The state recently held a social-media seminar for farmers, a group that's been notably reticent in the tweet department. While experts aren't sure whether to blame spotty network coverage in rural areas or the exhaustive pace of farming for farmers' near-invisibility in Twitterville, they're hoping to encourage growers to join chefs and restaurant owners in promoting their products via online networks.
This evening, Slashfood will be joining Meryl Streep and Amy Adams on the red carpet for the New York premiere of "Julie and Julia"! And naturally we'll be Tweeting, so follow along here or on Twitter.
But don't forget that you have a chance to see it before anyone else. You have until 2 p.m. Friday to enter to win passes to a screening on Aug. 3 in New York. Just click here to tell us what Julia Child meant to you.
There's a canning revolution going on and Kim O'Donnel -- former food writer for the James Beard Award-winning Washington Post -- has brought it to a boil.
Upon tremendous response to her re-Tweet of an Ethicurean post about a canning party in San Francisco and subsequent suggestion that Seattle and other cities follow suit, O'Donnel asked interested home canners to contact her. Thus Cans Across America was born. On the weekend of August 29-30, cities across the nation will host classes, can-a-thons, canning meet-ups and raise awareness of this retro-haute preservation method. More about the nation's can-do attitude after the jump.
One person's haul from Food Fête. Photo: craigemorsels/Flickr
If New York City's annual Fancy Food Show is a hurricane of food-related items, occupying three vast floors of the sprawling Javits Center, then the tiny, cramped Food Fête is its spin-off tornado.
Hosted in a smaller space and likewise designed to get food writers and editors interested in new and interesting culinary products, the Fête was an interesting and slightly chaotic affair. High-end eats were hawked right up alongside lower-end food, from a very tasty slice of grass-fed steak to a Kikkoman "umami" demonstration in which we were subjected to a taste-off between a regular chocolate and one containing soy sauce -- a rather palate-numbing experience, that.
Former Top Cheffer Stephanie Izard was there with Lucini, the spicy olive oil she endorses, which she had drizzled on a very tasty panzanella. She told us she hadn't had a chance to roam the halls yet. But we had, and our faves are after the jump.
Couldn't swing a trip to Food & Wine Magazine's Classic in Aspen this year? S'okay -- we've got you covered. Kick back with a glass of bubbly and some schmancy nibbles, bookmark this post and keep on checking back for real-time Twitter coverage from the event. Keep up with pictures from the red carpet and around the festival here.
Gorgeous culinary discovery ideal for springtime: pasta fiocchi that look like daffodils.
A writer's love of artichokes and her memories of ex-mother-in-laws.
And you thought Hemingway was brief -- a British Columbia native is tweeting nothing but recipes.
An interview with Paul Liebrandt, chef at Tribeca's Corton.
Randall Grahm on his Bonny Doon Vineyard and on the importance of paring back: "What matters is that we make wines of originality that have a reason for being."
230 Fifth, a lounge near Madison Square Park, transports a palm tree to and from Florida every year.
Reviews of theatrical new Japanese restaurant ResInakaya, the "steady, precise" cooking at La Fonda del Sol, and the Basque eats at Txikito (cheek-ee-toe).
"Twecipes¹" are the moment's micro-obsession and we ♥ the New York Times' Dining staff -- certainly active and useful Twitizens² themselves -- for flying into the eye of the storm in conjunction with today's profile of Twitter's marquee recipe condenser Maureen Evans, aka @cookbook. Still, must all prose now be condensed for optimal Tweetability³? Yup, it's been an addictively (though ADD) good time watching the 140-or-fewer-character Challenge responses stream into #nytrc⁴:
Perhaps it's terribly 2008 to think this way, but there's a near visceral joy in the reading of Melissa Clark's Stuffed Artichokes with Lemon Zest, Rosemary and Garlic recipe in its original form. The title alone (55 characters) vividly evokes the action and sensory experience of crafting, then savoring this dish in a way that spare, if technically correct Tweets can not. It makes for excellent editorial muscle flexing -- like a digital lipogram -- and it's an efficient way to circulate links, but we can't help but hope that Nigel Slater and his ilk of culinary poets never sign up for an @ handle.
1. Twecipe: 140 character recipe 2. Twitizen: Participant in the Twitter community 3. Tweetable: Expressible in a 140 character Tweet, or Twitter message 4. # : Hashtags are added in front of terms to make Tweets including them more easily searchable.
I've finally succumbed to the insanity: The Hungry Bride is now on Twitter. Follow me and get the latest updates about my final tastings with caterers, battles with in-laws (kidding, kidding) and general all-around wedding mania. I'll keep posting every Friday on Slashfood, too. This week: I'll need advice on the best starter cookbooks. Next week: Follow my step-by-step adventure as I have a final tasting with my caterer!
And hey, don't forget to follow Slashfood on Twitter for all food, all the time.
Are you on Twitter? Should I be following you? Please leave your Twitter names in the comment section or follow me on the site!
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