Just desserts with Michel Richard

In the kitchen with Michel Richard, famous chef and entrepreneur, making dessert.

Video: Los Angeles Times

L.A. County Fair starts today in Pomona

The Los Angeles County Fair starts an 18-day run today at the Fairplex in Pomona with all the mainstays: stomach-churning rides, artery-clogging fried foods and concerts by "where-are-they-now?" artists.

And today you can get into the L.A. County Fair for just $1 (until 5 p.m.). Come on. It's the end of summer. You don't need to fit into your bathing suit anymore.

Deep-fried offerings include: avocados, frog legs and Spam with pineapples. Not all together, of course. That would be gross. (Read more at the Hot Blog on a Stick.)

This year's oh-so-trendy "Going Green" theme focuses on recycling and alternative energy and features a walk-through rain forest complete with a sloth, parrots and a 200-pound python.

There's no Charlie Daniels Band this year at the L.A. Fair, but there is Charlie Wilson & the Gap Band. Poor Gavin Rossdale of Bush fame has been reduced to opening for Lifehouse. Man, that hurts. (Depending on the act, reserved seats range from $18.50 to $150 – I kid you not).

The Los Angeles County Fair 2008 concert lineup:
* WAR - Friday, Sept. 5
* Sugarland - Saturday, Sept. 6
* The Doobie Brothers and Grand Funk Railroad - Sunday, Sept. 7
* Smokey Robinson - Friday, Sept. 12
* KC & The Sunshine Band and The Village People - Saturday, Sept. 13
* Jaguares - Sunday, Sept. 14
* The Bangles, Berlin and The Motels - Friday, Sept. 19
* Jessica Simpson - Saturday, Sept. 20
* Mariachi USA - Sunday, Sept. 21
* Charlie Wilson & the Gap Band, Rose Royce and Lakeside - Friday, Sept. 26
* Lifehouse and Gavin Rossdale - Sunday, Sept. 28

Admission
Weekdays: $12, $9 (60 and over), $7 (ages 6 to 12).
Weekends: $17, $14 (60 and over), $12 (ages 6 to 12).

The fair will be open Wednesdays through Sundays until Sept. 28 (map and schedule).

— Brady MacDonald

Cookbook politics -- the kitchen in blue and red

The partisan pantry?  It's nothing new, says our own Betty Hallock, who knows a thing or two about how campaigns cook. There's "The Democrats' Cookbook", "How to Eat Like a Republican," "The Watergate Cookbook"  and  "The Axis of Evil Cookbook," and don't forget about all those cookie recipes:

In recent years the cookie recipe has become some kind of litmus test for domestic bliss for political candidates. Hence, the McCain oatmeal cookies and Michelle Obama's shortbread, one of a cadre of recipes in the "Obama Campaign Family Cookbook" posted on Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's website. (In 2004, Laura Bush's oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies took on Teresa Heinz Kerry's pumpkin spice cookies.)

Are the recipes beside the point? Answers, and fun political facts, in Betty's full story here.

-- Veronique de Turenne

Photo: Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times

Doctors want hot dogs off LAUSD menu

A Washington, D.C., organization is calling on school districts to get hot dogs, pepperoni and other processed meats out of school cafeterias. Physicians for Responsible Medicine and its affiliate the Cancer Project ran broadcast ads last week in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago and other cities to make its point.

Among the districts that the group says get an F for serving too much processed meat is Los Angeles Unified. Of the LAUSD menus it studied, the group said 60% of elementary school breakfasts and 80% of middle and high school breakfasts contained processed meats.

Last year, the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund offered 10 recommendations for cancer prevention that included avoiding processed meats.

"If we don't protect our kids by removing hot dogs, sausages, deli slices, and pepperoni from our schools, we're stacking the cards against them," Neal Barnard, a doctor and president of the Cancer Project, said in a statement.

There's some value in the effort to reduce processed meats in school lunches, said David Binkle, L.A. Unified's assistant director of food services. but it's complicated. LAUSD, for example, doesn't serve ordinary hot dogs, but it does serve low-fat turkey corn dogs, Binkle said. Also turkey and other deli meats are on some menus.

The district already has been looking at the meat it serves, Binkle said. No changes are in store for 2008-09, but some are possible the following year.

Sometimes, it's a question not of eliminating an item such as ham but rather changing the specifications, Binkle said. That kind of effort has helped reduce the fat and sodium in school food, he said. "This is the new thing ... as we continue to make healthier meals."

"In general, the philosophy is to move away from processed food and toward scratch cooking. But how do you do that?" Binkle said, adding that the kitchens and cafeterias are not all staffed and set up for cooking from scratch.

The Cancer Project, which surveyed menus in 28 school districts, is campaigning to reform the federal Child Nutrition Act, which helps determine school food and is up for renewal next year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture now includes processed meats in the commodity foods available to schools.

-- Mary MacVean

Photo: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times

For more school and education news, go to The Homeroom blog.

A Washington, D.C., organization is calling on school districts to get hot dogs, pepperoni and other processed meats out of school cafeterias. Physicians for Responsible Medicine and its affiliate the Cancer Project ran broadcast ads last week in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago and other cities to make its point.

Among the districts that the group says get an F for serving too much processed meat is Los Angeles Unified. Of the LAUSD menus it studied, the group said 60% of elementary school breakfasts and 80% of middle and high school breakfasts contained processed meats.

Last year, the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund offered 10 recommendations for cancer prevention that included avoiding processed meats.

"If we don't protect our kids by removing hot dogs, sausages, deli slices, and pepperoni from our schools, we're stacking the cards against them," Neal Barnard, a doctor and president of the Cancer Project, said in a statement.

There's some value in the effort to reduce processed meats in school lunches, said David Binkle, L.A. Unified's assistant director of food services. but it's complicated. LAUSD, for example, doesn't serve ordinary hot dogs, but it does serve low-fat turkey corn dogs, Binkle said. Also turkey and other deli meats are on some menus.

The district already has been looking at the meat it serves, Binkle said. No changes are in store for 2008-09, but some are possible the following year.

Sometimes, it's a question not of eliminating an item such as ham but rather changing the specifications, Binkle said. That kind of effort has helped reduce the fat and sodium in school food, he said. "This is the new thing ... as we continue to make healthier meals."

"In general, the philosophy is to move away from processed food and toward scratch cooking. But how do you do that?" Binkle said, adding that the kitchens and cafeterias are not all staffed and set up for cooking from scratch.

The Cancer Project, which surveyed menus in 28 school districts, is campaigning to reform the federal Child Nutrition Act, which helps determine school food and is up for renewal next year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture now includes processed meats in the commodity foods available to schools.

-- Mary MacVean

Photo: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times

For more school and education news, go to The Homeroom blog.

Food police, reporting for duty

Chef Jeremy Tummel traded in his job at the Wine Cask in Santa Barbara to become the executive chef at downtown L.A.’s Latin fusion restaurant Ciudad to elevate his game.

He had no idea Google searches would be part of his new job duties. In a summer that seems to bring one food warning after another, chefs like Tummel say that awareness is job No. 1.

“I can’t ever remember a time in my career when you took [food safety] for granted,” he said. “But now it’s everything.”

Read more about what chefs are doing to protect their clientele against tainted foods.

--Rene Lynch

Good news for orange growers

After a slow start, the Valencia orange harvest has picked up.

The California Farm Bureau says demand for the summer orange variety has increased in the domestic market, now that the California navel orange harvest has ended. A government report says most Valencias harvested earlier in the season were sold to export markets.

The report forecasts that California farms will produce 32 million cartons of Valencia oranges this season, up 39% from a year ago.

California Valencias are hot for two reasons.

The low value of the dollar compared with other currencies has juiced exports of California fruit. Additionally, hurricanes and citrus diseases in Florida have slashed that state's orange production in recent years. California agricultural officials are worried that one of those problems, citrus greening disease, could strike California's citrus groves because the Asian citrus psyllid, a tiny insect that spreads the disease, was discovered in residential orange trees recently just blocks south of the border in Tijuana.

--Jerry Hirsch

photo by Anne Cusack / LA Times