Author
Damien Wilde
Some foods can perk you up a little bit, meaning that if you cannot fit a little siesta into your daily schedule and are wanting to stay away from heavily caffeinated pick-me-ups like supersized lattes and neat espressos, then these bites can give you a little boost of energy.
Author
Damien Wilde
With new legislation coming into effect for the new academic year, many schools still do not have adequate facilities to cater for children entitled to meals.
New figures, released over the past couple of days, suggest that nearly 3,000 primary still are not ready.
More than 1,700 institutions do not have a functioning kitchen either.
These schools will either have to employ external caterers, and get the meals delivered, or use neighbouring amenities and transport items in themselves.
Author
Damien Wilde
How long are you prepared to wait for your food after ordering?
Well, it appears that the average time customers are willing to linger in restaurants around making small talk clocks in at less than sixteen minutes
The analysis, of some 5,000 UK based consumers was conducted by Peach Factory and aimed to look into the impact that waiting times had on the hospitality industry.
Statistics thrown up in the data concluded that the people of Britain liked to be expediently served.
The figure of sixteen minutes decreases to twelve minutes and twenty-seven seconds for those waiting in pubs whilst it drops even further to a miniscule six minutes and eighteen seconds for those who order in fast food chains.
Author
Damien Wilde
The common consensus has been that eating five portions of fruit and vegetables is the healthy target hit per day, but new research shows that the figure should be increased to seven in order to prolong lives.
A study of over 65,000 people indicated that the more fresh fruit and vegetables consumed, the less likely they were to die – at any age. It is said that this new seven a day initiative would further cut the risk of people dying from cancers and heart disease.
Currently, the NHS recommended that everybody has five different servings of roughly 80g a day. This latest piece of research was carried out by people from University College London (UCL) used the National Healthy Survey, collecting their data through questionnaires and other methods, looking at individual diets and lifestyles.
Author
Damien Wilde
Some pupils from a Lincolnshire primary school swapped the classroom for the great outdoors as they headed out on a fact-finding mission to a local egg-farm in Beckingham.
The children were some of the first from the county to take part in an initiative that aims to inform people of school-going age about where the food on their plate comes from, and how it gets there.
During the day the kids were treated to a special behind the scenes lesson that was concerned about the lifestyle of the hens, what they do on a day to day basis, where they play and where they lay their eggs.
Author
Damien Wilde
How do you eat?
And for those who answered ‘with a knife and fork’ you may be right, in a literal sense, but for those that replied by saying ‘with your hands’ you are onto a winner.
The real question is how do you eat with your senses?
Taste is an obvious one, as is sight, but what about touch, smell and sound?
According to researchers at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, people have forgotten how to engage all their senses when consuming their food. By default, Shona Miller, a student at the institution claims, the majority of us rely too much on the visual aspects of a dish as we have become accustomed to being bombarded with colour and imagery through a continuous exposure to advertising.
Author
Damien Wilde
Paella is synonymous with Spanish cuisine, but after witnessing a rapid evolution of its composition in recent years, three chefs are aiming to reclaim one of Valencia’s most iconic dishes from being continually debased.
Wikipaella has been created to ‘police’ paella, so says co-founder Guillermo Navarro. “It’s a dish that’s really trendy;” he laments, “and there’s a lot of people taking advantage of it and selling what they call authentic, traditional or Spanish paella.”
Initially, Navarro thought it was a problem unique to foreign countries, but a visit to Madrid wielded equally unsavoury results. “In Madrid, 90% of the paellas that you eat can’t be compared to real paella.” [ Read More ]
Author
Damien Wilde
The UK Art Fund has just started a new fundraising initiative that will hopefully raise money for museums and galleries in the British Isles, but also get people into the kitchen!
With the rise of the ‘food porn’ trend – where people take pictures of their dishes – the Art Fund’s campaign goes one step further by aiming to replicate historical and iconic masterpieces from the ingredients in your fridge.
Who needs to look at a finely sculptured duck confit when you could gaze at a De Stijl inspired slice of Battenburg cake and ponder about the reduction of the world around us to its rawest and simplest of forms?
Author
Damien Wilde
Given that it takes only two ingredients to make a portion – those being potatoes and cooking oil – it can be incredibly hard to come up with a recipe for the perfect chip.
Actually, such a thing might not exist.
Even with just two elements, chips can vary: Chip shop chips are dissimilar in taste, appearance and texture to the French fry, and the current favourite, double, or even triple, cooked chips taste different too.
Spuds can be split down the middle with those falling on one side of the dividing line, like Maris Peer potatoes, being waxy, whilst the varieties in the other camp, such as King Edwards, have a more floury texture.
