Catching up with NPR's 'Kitchen Sisters'

Food brings people together, just as much as a lack of it can tear them apart. What we cook, how we cook it and when we eat it says as much about ourselves as our body language and our choice of friends. How communities come together through food and the richness of the resulting culinary traditions is of particular interest to Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, better known as National Public Radio's "Kitchen Sisters."

Since 2004, the women have been searching for and chronicling cooking and eating rituals in unexpected, under-the-radar places across the country. The stories began airing in 2005 as "Hidden Kitchens" on NPR's "Morning Edition" and spawned an eponymous book. Now, with the winter holidays and their attendant family meals upon us, the women admit that, try as they might, they just can't get away from food. It informs nearly every project they touch.

Read the rest of Jessica Gelt's story about the "Kitchen Sisters."

Here come the trendy end-of-year lists: Epicurious makes its forecasts

Looking back and looking ahead. Must be December. The Epicurious website has come up with its predictions for 2010 trends. Fried chicken will be big, and burgers will move to the back burner, Epicurious says. Also ready to move to the spotlight: lamb, homemade beer and potluck dinners, as well as the profession of butchering. There's more.

In case you're keeping score, among the Epicurious predictions for 2009: the rise of Peruvian food, noodle bars and smoked food.

-- Mary MacVean

(Photo by Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Mom feeds family of six for $4 per week using coupon magic

This link is just too amazing to not highlight all on its own. The Huffington Post linked to it last week. It's a clip from "Good Morning America" that shows a Massachusetts mother named Kathy Spencer performing shopping magic with coupons.

I've watched it a couple of times now and I'm convinced that the woman is a genius, or at least patient to the point that she nears superhuman. From what I can gather (and believe me I'm a bit foggy on the details of how this actually works), Spencer spends a few hours a week combing weekly mailers and the newspaper for coupons and buys only what she can get free. So, to give an example from the video, if she has a coupon for $1 off scallops, and scallops go for $4 per pound, she buys only a quarter pound.

Granted, that's not too many scallops, but when she combines them with small portions of seafood she's purchased with other coupons, she'll have the makings of a nice casserole or soup. She also has a giant closet filled with food and kitchen supplies that she's gotten free and saves as backup. Bottles and bottles of ketchup, rolls and rolls of paper towels and boxes of cookies are stacked neatly from floor to ceiling (begging for a natural disaster to help them get used up).

The best part is watching Spencer check out. In the video she makes a bill that's over $200 shrink to a single penny. There's some math there, and a kind of crafty planning, that I am too lazy to even begin comprehending.

-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

The return of the Gorbals: 'Top Chef' Ilan Hall's restaurant to reopen Saturday

After opening at the end of August only to be shut down nearly a week later due to a citation for an equipment violation involving the boiler system, "Top Chef" Ilan Hall's downtown restaurant the Gorbals will reopen Saturday.

Here's the skinny from a Gorbals rep:

"Good news: After an arduous permit journey, the Gorbals finally has every single one signed, sealed, and  delivered -- double-checked this past Friday! The restaurant could feasibly open anytime this week (they are hosting private parties in the interim), however Ilan has to retrain the staff and will officially relaunch on Saturday, Nov. 7, and will begin taking reservations that day as well going forward."

Hall will also be offering 50% off to L.A. Department of Building and Safety employees who present ID, just to show that there are no hard feelings. Here's what he has to say:

"What a journey! We are thrilled to be relaunching 100% this Saturday and especially want to thank all of our guests for their continued support. There's some fun stuff planned i.e. artisanal Scotch pairing dinners, Hannukah dishes (guess what's going in the latkes!!), and great deals for Art Walk. I invite everyone to come in and have some Scotch with me!"

-- Jessica Gelt 

Photo: Stefano Paltera / For The Times

Government researchers want to peek in grocery carts

The government wants to know how you decide what to put in your grocery cart.

The idea, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says, is to help families get healthier.

"This ambitious five-year effort will fill in critical gaps in existing data on the food purchases of U.S. households and be invaluable in assessing and enhancing the effectiveness of USDA's food assistance programs for low-income families," Vilsack says.

He announced on Thursday that Princeton-based Mathematica Policy Research will conduct the survey, which will be called the National Household Food Purchase and Acquisition Study.

The information will be used to help researchers figure out how food assistance programs affect the decisions people make about buying food.

"For the first time, researchers will have data that captures key factors like food prices, where food is purchased, dietary knowledge and the interplay of food assistance programs and food choices," says Rajiv Shah, under-secretary for research, education and economics at USDA.

About 1 in 5 Americans participates in at least one of USDA's food assistance programs in a given year.

-- Mary MacVean

Photo: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

A call for applicants: Maybe this year the U.S. could win the Bocuse d'Or (or at least place in the top three)

Can Norway not win the Bocuse d'Or again, please? 

The Bocuse d'Or USA Foundation is seeking applicants from talented chefs for the opportunity to represent America at the Bocuse d'Or international culinary competition in Lyon, France, in 2011. Founded by legendary chef Paul Bocuse, it's the Olympics of the food world, and the U.S. has never placed higher than sixth -- in 2005 by Hartmut Handke of Ohio and last year by Timothy Hollingsworth of the French Laundry.

Last year's winner was Norway's Geir Skeie, pictured above, right. For more than a decade, chefs from Norway have been top contenders against longtime front-runners from France; chefs from both countries train for years. The winner gets the golden Bocuse trophy and 20,000 euros.

The Bocuse d'Or USA Foundation, led by Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller and Jerome Bocuse, will choose 16 applicants to compete in the U.S. semifinals and finals competition, which will be held Feb. 4-6 at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.

The deadline for applications is Nov. 30, and the application is available at www.bocusedorusa.org.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo credit: Associated Press

Hollywood market's Farmer's Kitchen has its grand opening

Seven years in the making, the Farmer's Kitchen is officially open -- with a ribbon-cutting and about 100 people, farmers and politicians among them, all on hand today to salute the idea of making the Hollywood Farmers' Market last all week long.

The cafe, at Selma Avenue and Morningside Court in the Sunset and Vine complex, opened quietly in the spring, an effort to use surplus food from the Sunday farmers' market, provide classes and job training

"People are demanding a closer connection to what we eat," L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti said at the ceremony. He represents Hollywood.

Supporters of the Farmer's Kitchen were honored, including Morton La Kretz, a developer whose projects include the nearby Crossroads of the World and who gave the cafe financial support. Others who helped fund the project include the Community Redevelopment Agency of L.A. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The cafe is a project of Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles, which runs the Hollywood market and several others. When the Hollywood market opened 18 years ago, a period of redevelopment had just begun, says Pompea Smith, head of SEE-LA. The Farmer's Kitchen is another effort to make a link between farmers and city dwellers, she said at today's ceremony.

As many as 10,000 people shop at the Sunday market, noted Michael Woo, of the College of Environmental Design at Cal Poly Pomona.

Set up around the cafe were bowls and baskets of produce from farmers, including Weiser Family Farms, Jim Van Foeken, McGrath Family Farm and Flora Bella Farm. After the ceremony, the cafe provided lunch using ingredients from the farms, including an arugula salad and shepherd's pie.

-- Mary MacVean

 Photo: Gill Boyd cooks at the Farmer's Kitchen. Photo by Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times

Ruth Reichl stunned by Gourmet's end

In his story on Conde Nast's decision to shut down the nation's oldest major food magazine, Russ Parsons quotes the magazine's editor (and former L.A. Times Food editor and restaurant critic) Ruth Reichl as saying she found out the news only this morning.

"I can't talk about it now, it's too raw. I've got to pack up my office," she said.

There had been some recent speculation about the magazine's difficulties, particularly given the fact that Conde Nast also owns Gourmet's chief competitor, Los Angeles-based Bon Appetit. Not only did Bon Appetit have more readers, according to recent statistics from the magazines' media kits, Gourmet had circulation of 950,000 copies while Bon Appetit had 1.3 million readers. Additionally, Gourmet had a reputation of being a very expensive magazine to run, featuring long articles by well-known writers while Bon Appetit was focused on much more economical, recipe-driven content.

But in retrospect, there were clear signs that all was not well when Reichl did a recent radio interview with Larry Mantle on KPCC-FM (89.3). "We're struggling just like everyone else," she said. "It's ironic because our circulation has never been higher. And yet advertising dollars are a challenge."

Still, she put on a hopeful front: "I have to say that in the last week it felt like the recession ended. I mean, suddenly, our advertising picture literally in the last week changed really dramatically and ads started flooding in. It's really very exciting."

But for most of its readers, the idea of a food world without Gourmet to describe it is almost unthinkable.

Gourmet magazine to end its run

 

Magazine empire Conde Nast, home of Vogue and the New Yorker, will announce the closure of Gourmet this morning, according to a report in the New York Times, which calls the move "startling."

Like many other media companies, Conde Nast is facing difficult times. In the not-so-distant past, it shuttered shopping magazine Domino and folded Men's Vogue into a twice-yearly supplement to Vogue. But so far, victims of its contractions have been newer titles.

With Gourmet apparently at the end of its run, that has changed.

Read more at The Times' Jacket Copy blog.

Photo: Gourmet magazine September 2009 issue/Conde Nast.

Fresh produce going to WIC recipients

There is rejoicing today at agencies that work with recipients of food vouchers through the Women, Infants and Children program. Read more here.

-- Mary MacVean

Photo by Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times