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This cupcake costs $750. Repeat: this cupcake costs $750. Maybe you shouldn't get one for everyone in the third-grade class. Meet the $750 Decadence D'Or cupcake at Sweet Surrender inside the Palazzo. It's encased in a hand-blown sugar fleur-de-lis and crafted using chocolates that get more special attention during production than Rip Torn when the movie's shot in a whiskey bar. It's arguably better than the Hostess version. Here's how it breaks down: • The Cake: Made from Palmira Single Estate chocolate, which was developed by Valrhona, a French chocolatier who planted a series of Criollo bean trees to create...

Most pastry kitchens are tiny. A convection oven; a proofing rack; a giant Hobart mixer, looking like a squat, gunmetal-gray R2-D2; a long prep table (in marble for chocolate, if you're lucky) for tarts or laminated dough or maybe a few plated desserts; more speed racks, stacked high to make the most of any available space. Instead of imagining a French patisserie, think Das Boot. And that's if there's a pastry kitchen at all. Often there isn't: The space in any restaurant kitchen is at such a premium that the tables and ovens tend to be taken by the savory...

Out of all the restaurant chains out there, Buffalo Wild Wings takes the cake for selling the most beer in America, according to CNBC. After launching in 1982, the chain is now open in more than 900 different locations with a wide enough beer selection to keep wing lovers happy.

I discovered this website while looking to see what the bullies and haters are doing against me and my husband and I found this website and all the horrable things you all have been saying just because Gordon Ramsay lies about me. None of you have ever even been to my restarant before and never even tasted my food. YOU NEVER DID SO WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BULLY AND HATE? MY FOOD IS NOT FROZEN! GORDON NEVER EVEN TRIED MY CAKE! WHY AM I AN EVIL WITCH??? WHO ARE YOU TO THINK YOU CAN GO ON THE INTERNET AND...

Maggots found in Atlanta airport sandwich, food inspections enhanced ATLANTA — Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport officials tell Channel 2 Action News they are enhancing the way they inspect restaurants inside the airport after a man showed Channel 2 Action News a sandwich he purchased from an airport vendor had maggots. The passenger told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri he bought a sandwich at an airport restaurant Wednesday morning. When he opened it he said he was stunned to find maggots on it. Joel Woloshuk says he got out his phone and recorded video of the bugs crawling on his focaccia...

What a bunch of meatheads! New York pizza-lovers got a black eye from users of the travel megasite TripAdvisor, who rated the city’s slices a paltry fourth in the country behind outposts like San Diego and Las Vegas. Perhaps most offensive was the third-place choice of Boston, where reviewers gushed about pies with oddball toppings like shrimp scampi. “Get out of here, that’s crazy! Boston is No. 3?” said Jackson Heights resident Andrew Silverstein, 31, while enjoying lunch at famed Patsy Grimaldi’s new Brooklyn joint, Juliana’s. “I’ve had pizza in Boston, and it was a horrible experience.” Users of the...

New Yorkers would like to give the people behind these rankings a "pizza" their mind. The travel site TripAdvisor issued a list of the Top 10 cities for pizza - and New York came in fourth. The Big Apple's best pie makers - like Di Fara's, Totonno's and John's of Bleecker Street - apparently didn't stack up to the pizzas prepped in culinary destinations like San Diego, Las Vegas, and Boston, which represent the top three. Chicago didn't even make the list. But reached on the phone, the manager of Bronx Pizza in San Diego said there is no comparison.

About the Holiday Inspired by the "Submit an Entry" form in a copy of Chase's Calendar of Events, Roy and his wife, Ruth, have launched several creative holidays. A few suggestions from Tom Roy's "Top 20 List for successful sneaking of Zucchini or otherwise ridding yourself of unwanted surplus summer squash:" (Note: Allrecipes does not endorse any of these activities.) •Look for out-of-the-way places which have signs posted, "Clean Fill Wanted." •Under light of full moon, either stark naked or wearing full army camouflage, carrying a machete or any garden implement, run amuck in your zucchini patch, cutting and slashing....

The Italian American Social Club, once frequented by Chicago and New York crime families, is looking for new blood — as patrons, not targets.It was a Thursday night and the place was packed: the Italian American Social Club was saying goodbye to one of its own. Singer Mark Giovi was leaving town, and the dress-for-success crowd sipped martinis and watched him work the room with the verve of a Rat Pack member. Just like the old days. Over more than five decades, the venerable social club and restaurant on Sahara Avenue, a few miles east of The Strip, has seen...

a buzzer rings in an apartment of a three-story building in the Mission. A school-age boy with bedhead gets up from the living room couch to prop open the door.A minute later, Omar Mey, 32, who is from Ticul, Yucatan, walks in from the street. He passes the boy, who's back on the couch immersed in a Spanish soap opera, and sits at the kitchen table, where two other men are busy slurping soup and rolling tortillas. Dona Carmen (not her real name), a short, thin woman wearing a black apron, turns towards Mey. "What do you want to eat?"...

Mina Gatas, 20, was arrested for peddling cocaine and oxycodone along with sundaes and other sweet treats, Brooklyn prosecutors announced Tuesday.Mina Gatas allegedly sold cocaine and other drugs out of this ice cream truck in a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn park. A Brooklyn man was allegedly selling a whole different type of snow cone from his ice cream truck. Mina Gatas, 20, was arrested for peddling cocaine and oxycodone along with sundaes and other sweet treats, Brooklyn prosecutors announced Tuesday. He was caught on a surveillance video inside his ice cream truck selling an undercover cop a plastic bag with about...

Hillary gets healthy Hillary Clinton is meeting with diet guru Dr. Mark Hyman — who’s credited with turning around Bill Clinton’s health — as she prepares for a 2016 presidential run. She was spotted dining with Hyman at the West Street Grill in Litchfield, Conn., Sunday night. Sources say Hillary, who was accompanied by four Secret Service agents and two troopers, drove an hour from her home in Chappaqua for the three-hour dinner with Hyman and his girlfriend. Hyman runs the Ultra Wellness Center in Lenox, Mass., which helps promote healthy weight and metabolism. The center’s Web site home page...

Michelle Obama's Newest Initiative: Using Hip-Hop to Fight Obesity A nonprofit launched with the Let's Move! program plans to put hip-hop music videos in schools to get kids moving The full album, includes songs with names like "Veggie Luv," by Monifah and J Rome, "

Autopsies will be performed Tuesday on two young boys who were strangled in their sleep by a python that escaped from a pet store in Canada and slithered through a ventilation system into an upstairs apartment.

Eco-couple told to pull down their 'hobbit home' made entirely out of natural materials . . . but without planning permission Family of three is made homeless by planning inspector's decision They built their home from scratch, but have been ordered to tear it down The couple admit they built it without first getting planning permission Their labour of love was branded 'harmful' to the countryside A young couple have been left heartbroken after planners ordered their unique 'hobbit home' to be bulldozed, effectively leaving them homeless. Charlie Hague and Megan Williams, both 25, built the roundhouse from scratch with...

Add up all the time and money that you've spent this month on food — shopping for groceries, cooking, cleaning up, paying your grocery and restaurant bills — and you might be surprised at how much of your life is eaten by food. One San Francisco Bay-area man has decided it's just not worth it. For the past month, Rob Rhinehart, a 24-year-old software engineer, has avoided all solid food. Instead, he's subsisting exclusively on a chemical concoction he brews in his kitchen. The name of his potion? "Soylent."

Meal replacement drinks are nothing new. Jevity, Nutren are used primarily by hospitals and store shelves are full of supplemental drinks such as Ensure and MuscleMilk, but Soylent is something different in the sense that its creator, 24-year-old engineer Rob Rhinehart, wants it to test our perceptions of the sustainability of food. What are we truly putting into our bodies? To put it simply, bad stuff, that much is true. Soylent is full of good stuff. A vegan source of protein, and an assortment of carbohydrates, amino acids, proteins and dozens of other vitamins, Soylent is not exactly lacking in...

Francois Lenoir/Reuters Meet the new meat. Tiny pieces of muscle tissue grown in the lab will make up the patty of the first test-tube burger to be unveiled in London on Monday. If you take some scientists' word for it, the biggest agricultural revolution since the domestication of livestock is starting on Monday—in an arts center in London. At a carefully orchestrated media event, Dutch stem cell researcher Mark Post is planning to present the world's first test-tube hamburger. Its patty is made from meat that Post has laboriously grown from bovine stem cells in his lab at an estimated...

The deputy allegedly sprayed the pizza without the teen's knowledgeAn Orange County Sheriff’s deputy is facing jail time after being accused of pepper spraying a teen's pizza without his knowledge during a traffic stop last year, prosecutors said. Juan Tavera, a six-year veteran of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department at the time of the alleged crime, faces one year in jail if convicted of spraying the pizza and ultimately sickening five people who ate it, according to a release by the Orange County District Attorney's Office. Tavera, 30, allegedly pulled over a 19-year-old named as John Doe for a traffic...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A Colorado black bear with a taste for German food came up empty on its third night visit to a Colorado Springs restaurant. Surveillance video taken at the back of the Edelweiss Restaurant showed the bear pulling a dumpster full of restaurant garbage away from restaurant. In the second foraging incident, the bear deftly maneuvered the dumpster around another dumpster and out of the view of the camera. The bear rolls the dumpster away from the restaurant then tips it over, foraging for scraps. The dumpster weighs about 500 pounds. Edelweiss manager Dieter Schnakenberg said it...

Vivienne Harr has already been garnering headlines for selling lemonade for 365 consecutive days – including on Day 173 at New York City’s Times Square – and raising exactly $101,320 that she donated to a nonprofit dedicated to ending child slavery. But now, the 9-year-old girl from Marin County’s Fairfax, a 40-minute drive from San Francisco, is stepping up her game, again, if that’s even possible. Last month, she began rolling out her mother’s recipe for organic, Fair Trade, “tunnel pasteurized” lemonade, bottled in Michigan and shipped to 70 mostly locally owned, organic shops in California and Oregon. On Friday,...

In the 1970s, archaeologist Peter Bogucki was excavating a Stone Age site in the fertile plains of central Poland when he came across an assortment of odd artefacts. The people who had lived there around 7,000 years ago were among central Europe's first farmers, and they had left behind fragments of pottery dotted with tiny holes. It looked as though the coarse red clay had been baked while pierced with pieces of straw. Looking back through the archaeological literature, Bogucki found other examples of ancient perforated pottery. “They were so unusual — people would almost always include them in publications,”...

SPOILAGE IN CANNED FOOD PRODUCTS By: Stephanie Hoffman, CSU Food Science Graduate Student - Fall 2008 The safety of commercially canned foods is generally not of concern to consumers, but recent national recalls of canned chili products and institutional-size cans of vegetables due to potential contamination with Clostridium botulinum is a reminder that store-bought canned goods can be implicated in foodborne illness outbreaks. These were the first recalls of commercially canned foods in the U.S. linked to botulism in 33 years and improper processing that allowed the survival of C. botulinum spores appears to have been the cause. Home canners...

Whatever happened to loving thy neighbor? An unidentified Iowan woman — “Crazy rhubarb lady,” as the Internet hath dubbed her — has rocketed to online infamy this week when video appeared online of her shouting a long string of profanities at a homeowner who caught her removing rhubarbs from a patch that had found its way outside the limits of a fence. Apparently “Crazy Rhubarb Lady” has made a habit of plucking rhubarb from a neighbor’s patch, and has been confronted multiple times, but only when the cameras are rolling does the public get a glimpse into the hilarity of...

France’s top administrative court on Thursday threw out a government ban on US agro-chemicals giant Monsanto from growing a type of genetically modified corn. A moratorium on MON810 corn—one of just two types of genetically altered food crops whose cultivation is approved by the European Union—has been in place in France since March 2012. The Council of State court noted in a statement that the moratorium had little legal basis. …

Apparently, one of the local TV stations reported that Bea's Restaurant refused to serve President Obama when he was in Chattanooga today. The owner says the president's people did call and ask him to provide some catered food. But the restaurant is closed on Tuesday's, so he turned them down. Apparently, this has become a bit of a controversy, and they had people calling them racist on their Facebook page. The owner tried to explain that the same thing happened back when George H.W. Bush was president and they weren't making any political statement either time. He just thought his...

It was Winston Churchill, of all people, who predicted the ultimate culinary revolution. Way back in 1932, he stated that: “Fifty years hence, we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order eat the breast or the wing, by growing these parts separately in a suitable medium.” It has taken a few decades longer than Churchill imagined, but his prediction might just be coming true – and not before time. Humans now kill about 1,600 birds and mammals every second for food, and that number will grow hugely as the global population – currently 7.1 billion –...

PALABUHANRATU, INDONESIA – Japan is steeped in century-old rituals where people traditionally eat grilled freshwater eel on “doyo no ushi no hi,” the day customarily dedicated to eating eel. Eel day fell on July 22 this year, but concern over dwindling stocks in Japan is growing, with other countries in the region reporting a similar trend. Continued demand for juvenile eel has led to an increase in the smuggling of glass eel from Indonesia to Japan and China, prompting Jakarta to toughen regulations. In Japan, eel is commonly eaten in the summer but is also the main ingredient in several...

PARIS (AFP) – Indonesia and India on Tuesday were named as the world's biggest catchers of sharks in an EU-backed probe into implementing a new pact to protect seven threatened species of sharks and rays. Indonesia and India account for more than a fifth of global shark catches, according to the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. They head the list of 20 countries that together account for nearly 80 percent of total shark catch reported between 2002 and 2011. The others, in descending order, are Spain, Taiwan, Argentina, Mexico, the United States, Malaysia, Pakistan, Brazil, Japan, France, New Zealand, Thailand,...

A giant fungus the size of a tyre has been found by villagers in China's Jianshui County. The large clump of mushrooms, which weighed more than 15 kilograms and measured nearly a metre in diameter, was proudly put on display by the finder. It is not known what type of fungus it is or whether the mushrooms are safe to eat.

The argument that sugar is a toxin depends on some technical details about the different ways the human body gets energy from different types of sugar. Today, Americans eat most of their sugar in two main forms: table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. A molecule of table sugar, or sucrose, is a bond between one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule—two simple sugars with the same chemical formula, but slightly different atomic structures.

... Workers at the nation’s best known fast-food restaurants in seven cities across America are planning to walk off the job Monday to protest what they say are wages that are too low to live on. In a move orchestrated with the help of powerful labor unions and clergy groups, the workers plan to strike for a day to demand their wages be doubled. ... The workers are calling for wages of $15 per hour, more than double New York's current minimum wage of $7.25.

What is “the cheapest, most nutritious and bountiful food that has ever existed in human history” Hint: It has 390 calories. It contains 23g, or half a daily serving, of protein, plus 7% of daily fiber, 20% of daily calcium and so on. Also, you can get it in 14,000 locations in the US and it usually costs $1. Presenting one of the unsung wonders of modern life, the McDonald’s McDouble cheeseburger. The argument above was made by a commenter on the Freakonomics blog run by economics writer Stephen Dubner and professor Steven Leavitt, who co-wrote the million-selling books on...

Fast food is all about convenience and affordability. But there are ways you can make a trip to the local McDonald’s or Burger King feel like a VIP experience. Two Reddit forums revealed tips from fast food employees and savvy customers. We pulled out the best tricks that could enhance your next dining experience. From customizing your Taco Bell order to getting a cheaper “Big Mac,” these tips could change your fast food orders forever...

Does that last bit of mayonnaise or peanut butter at the bottom of a jar really bother you? I usually hand the jar over to my dog and let her take care of it, but for some reason not everyone has a dog. That’s why some entrepreneurs have harnessed the technology behind deodorant sticks to eliminate this problem.

<p>A new study indicates that Americans gained up to 15 IQ points after the addition of iodine to salt became mandatory.</p> <p>In an effort to prevent goiter related to iodine deficiency, authorities ruled that iodine be added to U.S. salt products in 1924.</p>

A man who was caught with a known prostitute in his car told police she was only there to show him where to buy tomatoes – and the cash he gave her was to pay for them. Muhammad Ikhlaq, 39, was arrested by police on suspicion of soliciting while driving through Walsall in his Nissan Micra. However, when he was pulled over after stopping at a cash machine to withdraw £20, which he had given to the woman in the passenger’s seat, he claimed he was simply driving around looking for fruit. PC Stacey Paterson, from Walsall police, said: ‘I’ve...

For all the Happy Meal and McArabia fans out there, there’s good news in store. Burger and McNuggets lovers can now savour yummy treats as McDonald’s, the all-time favourite fast food chain, has finally begun its home delivery service in Dubai. And while Dubai isn’t the first location in the world that McDonald’s has begun its home delivery service, it is indeed part of a handful of global cities where the fast food giant has decided to part with its no-delivery tradition. Indeed, McDonald’s fans across the world have been seeking to coax the fast food chain into delivering is...

Staff on one of the world's most luxurious cruise lines hid more than 15 trolleys of food in cabins to try to avoid it being seen by health protection officers, according to a report into a sudden inspection carried out on board Silversea's Silver Shadow in June. The damning report claimed staff had tried to hide cooked and raw food, including raw meat, cheeses and vegetables as well as kitchen equipment in over 10 cabins shared by two or three galley crew members. Health inspection officers working for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who'd boarded the ship...

Campers and preppers : I'm finding these chafing heaters at 99 cent stores. They will burn for 2 hours with enough heat to cook a small meal.

The following is a correspondence between Daniel Vaughn and John Shelton Reed. Reed lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and is the co-author, with his wife, Dale Volberg Reed, of Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue. Vaughn is the barbecue editor of Texas Monthly and the author of Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue. Daniel, So, we are to debate the relative merits of North Carolina and Texas barbecue. Let me begin by saluting a worthy opponent, defending a worthy, if mistaken, cause. This is a dispute worth having. I wouldnÂ’t waste my ammunition...

Korea is rapidly losing its “kimchi sovereignty” to China. The country's exports of kimchi to Japan have plunged this year, with China taking up the slack. More alarming is the fact that Beijing has “banned” the import of kimchi from Seoul by radically toughening regulations on imported food. No domestic kimchi maker has sold its product into the Chinese market so far this year, according to the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation (aT). Japan is the biggest buyer of Korean kimchi, followed by the United States and China. Last year alone, the neighboring country’s imports amounted to $84.58 million,...

It may be the last thing you are thinking about as you rush out of the door to work, but eating a good breakfast could really spice up your love life. As long as what is in your bowl is SexCereal, that is – or so its makers claim. The firm behind a new muesli say it is nothing less than ‘passion in a bowl’, full of exotic ingredients that increase sexual desire. In fact, they claim eating just three tablespoons could leave you full of vigour all day long. A spokesman for retailer Firebox.com added: ‘Please use it in...

(CNN) -- Some die-hard fans are getting all wrapped up in a campaign to defend Paula Deen. They're sending cleaned and origami-folded butter wrappers to Food Network and other companies that dropped the popular chef and cookbook author in the wake of allegations of racism and sexual harassment. Deen later admitted to "of course" using the n-word. The wrappers are intended as signs of protest -- physical declarations of "we're sticking with Paula." John Schmitt, a hotel night auditor in Indianapolis and the man behind the campaign, says he couldn't abide by the "betrayal" of Food Network, QVC and others....

Every summer weekend, grill masters and barbecue beginners alike will raise their tongs in pursuit of the perfect steak. But once grilling season is in full-swing, you may get tired of your go-to cut, or you may be on the hunt for more affordable options to feed the crowd. Choosing a new steak cut for your summer gathering doesn't have to be intimidating.

A family was surprised to find a pipe stuffed with marijuana inside a Kids Meal box that was purchased from the Burger King in Dundee Tuesday night, police said. The investigation led to charges being sought against an employee and two other young men all from the Dundee area. The marijuana was not intended to be sold in the children’s meal box, police said. Dundee Police Chief Dave Uhl said a 23-year-old employee admitted to placing the pipe inside a Kids Meal box in an apparent effort to hide the pot while he was working.

Diners don't usually expect to enjoy a meal in the bathroom. But at a new themed restaurant in Beijing, tucking in while on the toilet is exactly what's called for. Sitting on a toilet seat, tasting food from a toilet-shaped bowl, and admiring rows of urinals hanging on the wall. This first toilet-themed restaurant in Beijing may not be the best place to take a first date. But it does attract people of all ages, from teenagers to families. Some come for the unique decoration and environment, as long as they're not repelled by the thought of eating out of...

A new study says Europe's first farmers used far more sophisticated practices than was previously thought. A research team led by the University of Oxford has found that Neolithic farmers manured and watered their crops as early as 6,000 BC. It had always been assumed that manure wasn't used as a fertiliser until Iron Age and Roman times. However, this new research shows that enriched levels of nitrogen-15, a stable isotope abundant in manure, have been found in the charred cereal grains and pulse seeds taken from 13 Neolithic sites around Europe. The findings are published in the early edition...

Planning a last supper party on Dec. 21? To celebrate the Mayan way, you might need several clay balls. That's one way the Maya cooked their food, according to U.S. archaeologists who have unearthed dozens of rounded clay pieces from a site in Mexico. Conducted with the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) and Millsaps College's financial support, the excavation of a kitchen at Escalera al Cielo in Yucatán revealed 77 complete balls and 912 smaller fragments....

AVALON, Pa. — What's in a name? At Big Shot Bob's House of Wings in Avalon, apparently it's everything. Channel 11 News featured the restaurant in the Pittsburgh “Best Wing” contest, but it’s a name of one of the flavors that caught the attention of many WPXI viewers and Facebook followers."If I had any idea this would happen, it wouldn't have gotten on our menu," said Big Shot Bob's owner Matt Cercone. "We've been getting threatening phone calls here, and there are people saying we're going to go out of business." Big Shot Bob's is more popularly known for its...