gourmet dining

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Sara Netanyahu Accused of $100K Fraud Over Meals

Leader's wife accused of ordering pricey food, falsely claiming no cook was on premises

(Newser) - Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a corruption scandal , and now his wife is officially in hot water of her own. It's all about her apparent fondness for expensive meals. Authorities on Thursday indicted Sara Netanyahu on fraud charges over $100,000 in gourmet meals she and a staffer ordered to...

Gourmet Dinner Party for 25 on Mount Everest? No Problem

Well, there actually were problems, but chef James Sharman and his team still pulled it off

(Newser) - For a chef who's filleted and flambéd in some of Europe's top restaurants, planning a dinner party for two dozen people shouldn't present an issue—unless that dinner party happens to be nearly 18,000 feet in the air. Outside magazine outlines the challenges faced by...

Groom Gets Cold Feet, Homeless Get to Eat

Jilted family opens hotel doors to the unfortunate

(Newser) - What do you do when the groom gets cold feet and bails on a $35,000 wedding? If you're the Duanes—whose daughter nearly became the bride—you open the doors of a fancy hotel and invite the homeless to eat all of your wedding food, 14 News reports....

Tokyo Is World's Gourmet Capital: Michelin

...for the 6th year in a row

(Newser) - Want a fancypants meal—or 15? Head to Tokyo, which has more three-Michelin-star restaurants than any city in the world ... again. The top honor goes to Tokyo for the sixth year running (it overtook Paris in 2007 ), reports Reuters , with 15 restaurants claiming the maximum number of stars. Bloomberg...

Forget Kibble: Today's Pets Eat Gourmet

Lobster consommé, salmon soufflé: dogs, cats are the new foodies

(Newser) - At least one demographic isn't feeling the burn of a tough economy: pets. Instead of cutting back, dogs and cats are living large—at least when it comes to fine dining. Pet food companies are offering meals fit for a king, such as egg soufflé for cats; a lobster...

11 Toughest Restaurants to Get Into

And how you can at least attempt to get a reservation

(Newser) - If you fancy yourself a gastronome, you have surely heard of these celebrated restaurants where masters engage in the high art of cooking. But getting into them is another thing entirely. Eater.com has compiled a list of 11 restaurants around the world where it is virtually impossible to snag...

Hipster Foodies Turn to Food Stamps

Stimulus package makes more young people eligible for benefits

(Newser) - Food stamps are for the poor, no matter if you’re a single mother or a destitute hipster. Salon checks in on the growing number of young, unemployed, college-educated foodies who qualify for stamps and use them for organic delicacies along with staples. One UChicago grad says he “used...

Chefs Fly High With Gourmet Pot
 Chefs Fly High 
 With Gourmet Pot 
GANJA CHEESECAKE, ANYONE?

Chefs Fly High With Gourmet Pot

Munchies meet pot in tasty marriage

(Newser) - Potheads no longer have to inhale their drug or gobble pot brownies—they can eat it oh-so-properly with a fork and knife, thanks to the growing number of marijuana-laced gourmet goodies. Ganja Gourmet serves cannabis-infused specialties such as pizza, hummus, and lasagna in one medical marijuana dispensary in Denver, and...

Trend Alert: Gourmet Pizza Heats Up

Pies in new 'stratosphere of respect'

(Newser) - In recent years, a new culture has developed around pizza: “It’s scrutinized and fetishized, with a Palin-esque power to polarize,” writes Frank Bruni in the New York Times. That means debates over oven types, varieties of flour, the virtues of buffalo mozzarella. The new “stratosphere of...

Haute Cuisine Hides Out in Uruguay

Celebrity chef launches ritzy restaurant in the middle of nowhere

(Newser) - Nine hours in a plane from Miami, 125 miles through the Uruguay countryside, and 15 minutes down dirt roads will bring you to the ritzy restaurant Garzón, where a plate of ravioli will set you back $48. Garzón, in the village of the same name, is Argentinian celebrity...

Sagging Economy Is Bitter Dish for Restaurateurs

With 12-15% slump forecast in fine dining for '09, some close down, others plug deals

(Newser) - Lean times are perhaps leanest in the restaurant business, and fine-dining establishments are bracing for a particularly tough year while improvising strategies to remain afloat, the Wall Street Journal reports. Sales, $7 billion last year, are expected to plummet 12-15%; the industry could shed 12,000-18,000 restaurants, a 2-3%...

20 Best New Places to Dine
 20 Best New Places to Dine 
GLOSSIES

20 Best New Places to Dine

Esquire 's picks from all over the US

(Newser) - After surveying restaurants across the US, Esquire gave the country props for its chops, proclaiming "the emergence of American cooking as the most diverse and most innovative in the world." It highlighted 20 favorite new restaurants of the year:
  1. L20 (Chicago): Overlook its Midwest locale; this place serves
...

Snail Prices Shell-Shock French

Booming Eastern Europe having to pay harvesters better

(Newser) - The French may soon be shelling out big bucks for the 14,000 tons of snails it consumes annually. Most actually originate in Eastern Europe, where growing economic development means rural families aren’t as willing to take up the demanding task of snail-gathering without better wages. And that, reports...

The Perils of Opening an Indian Restaurant—in India

Pan-Indian cuisine struggles to curry favor with regional tastes

(Newser) - Modern Indian restaurants bent on messing with millennia-old recipes must "coax Indians into accepting the changes they make with beloved dishes," or continue to face the wrath of the "Authenticity Police," writes Shoba Narayan in Gourmet after an evening spent analyzing the paneer at Bangalore's upscale...

Hard to Swallow: 8 Taboo Delicacies

Death-defying gourmet dishes can be tough to find

(Newser) - The return of foie gras to Chicago's menus inspires Newsweek to list dishes still considered too dicey to serve:
  1. Maggot cheese: Injected with larvae that pose health risks
  2. Puffer fish: Incorrectly prepared fugu can be fatal

Save a Food From Extinction: Eat It for Dinner

'Food coalitions' aim to keep ingredients, recipes key to US heritage in circulation

(Newser) - Vanishing culinary breeds are getting a new lease on life, thanks to the efforts of an ethnobotanist with an interest in America's foodie past, the New York Times reports. While Makah ozette potato sounds like a "Final Jeopardy" answer, the once-endangered vegetable is one of the many culinary artifacts...

Civet-Digested Beans Yield $99 Espresso

Rarest cup of coffee blends Jamaican, Indonesian products

(Newser) - You might look for a $99 espresso shot in a crowded Italian café before the second floor of a London department store. Yet it's the latter where you'll find the cup brewed from two of the world’s rarest coffee beans, one of which is sniffed out and,...

Now Taking Reservations for Sometime Next Year

The country's hardest-to-get dinner reservation is in ... Pennsylvania?

(Newser) - Move over, French Laundry. The US' most in-demand dinner seat is in "flyspeck" Kennett Square, Pa., 35 miles from Philadelphia, Portfolio writes. Talula's Table takes reservations for its single, 12-seat table one year in advance. "My parents paid me $30 to stand out here," says one teen...

America's Best Regional Brews
America's Best Regional Brews

America's Best Regional Brews

Beer gets interesting with a surge of flavors from unexpected locals

(Newser) - Beer isn't alcohol's second-class citizen any longer. To California chef and beer expert Sang Yoon, it's worthy of as much respect-—and connoisseurship—as any of its grape-based cousins. Food & Wine asked the "beer provocateur" for her five favorite regional brews:
  1. Alaskan Brewing Company Alaskan Amber (Juneau, AK)
...

Best Restaurant in U.S. Closes
Best Restaurant in U.S. Closes

Best Restaurant in U.S. Closes

(Newser) - The restaurant that inspired some of America's leading chefs has closed. Located in the decidedly downscale Chicago suburb of Wheeling, Le Francais was once named the best restaurant in America by Bon Appetit magazine.

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