What’s Up at The Paper Palate and The Well Fed Network

It has been a busy couple of weeks at The Paper Palate; in addition to the usual amount of writing and editing that is going on there, we have had some very newsworthy events occur which led to a great deal of extra writing.

But that is no matter: what matters is that we did our best to cover the happenings in the land of food as captured on the pages of newspapers and magazines.

Before I tell you what all I wote about, let me introduce you to our newest blogger at the Paper Palate, Cate O’Malley, who assigned herself the difficult task of covering the recent Cheese Sammich Massacree in a post entitled, “Food & Wine Article Cheeses Off Some Food Bloggers.”

Now we come to what I was writing.

First up, I noted that Cuisine, a lovely food magazine from New Zealand, won a gold medal at the 2006 Gourmet Voice Gourmet Media World Festival in Cannes, France. This is great news, because it might mean that those of us in the US might get a glimpse of that mag at our newstands soon.

A few days later a bit of controversy erupted when I posted about the fact that Relish, a food magazine which boasts to having the largest circulation of any food magazine that accepts advertising in the US on its debut issue, is offering advertisers editorial mention for money. Not only is that unethical, but it turns out that those very high circulation figures are somewhat misleading–Relish is not a newstand magazine; it is a monthly newspaper magazine insert along the lines of Parade. It is essentially piggybacking on the circulations of the newspapers who carry it. The controversy came about when a reader made an unsubstantiated claim in his comments that all magazines sell editorial space to advertisers.

The next day, I posted about the unexpected findings that low-fat diets do not seem to help protect women from breast cancer or heart disease, and pointed out several questions that the reporters at the big daily newspapers didn’t ask, but probably should have.

The news that a worker-owned cooperatively run fine dining restaurant has opened in New York City made headlines in Washington DC, in part because it is a novel concept to fine dining, and in part because the workers in question were formerly employed at Windows on the World, the restaurant that perished in the flames of 9/11. It is a really uplifting, heart-warming story, and it shows that the concept of worker-owned restaurants does not just belong to the granola-chewing Birkenstock-wearing crowd.

I already posted this here, but offer it again, in case any readers missed that Southern cookbook author Edna Lewis died.

Finally, on Wednesday, I wrote about NY Times food critic, Frank Bruni opening his own blog, “Diner’s Journal.”

Here’s what our other great writers at the Palate were tasting and writing about:

Christina Nevin presents a new twist on Caesar Salad from the UK food mag, Fresh.

Kate Hopkins tells us about Bon Appetit ducking the foie gras issue.

Beth F. just came back from Argentina, so she presented a recipe from the San Francisco Chronicle for picadillo, which she paired with the newly popular Argentinian wine, Malbec.

And, around the rest of the Well Fed Network:

Rosanne from The Spirit World tells us about the Japanese distilled liquor, Shochu.

Derrick at Growers and Grocers points us to a NY Times article on the future of GMO’s.

And finally, Helen Yee treats us to “Psychology in a Chocolate Box” at Sugar Saavy.

1 Comment

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1. Hi Barbara: Love your site. Had to tell you that I love the story your blog title is based on, and it pretty well sums up my attitude about living well is dangerous times. Who knows when it will all come crashing down on our heads, but in the meantime, we’ve got to love and celebrate what’s in front of our noses.

   I’m new to this massive virtual community called the blogosphere but have been having a ball writing rants, raves, and recipes for my blog, Savoring the Moment (http://mindycooks.blogspot.com). I write vegetarian and sometimes vegan cookbooks and write occasionally for Veggie Life magazine.

   Care to link up?

   Blessings and bon appetit!

   Comment by mindy toomay — February 28, 2006 #

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