 |
|
| contactProducts Downloads home |
 MARCH 31--In a law enforcement first, Ohio cops this month arrested a man for drunk driving on a motorized bar stool. That's right, a motorized bar stool, which can be seen below in a police evidence photo. According to cops, Kile Wygle, 28, crashed his bar stool near his Newark home earlier this month and called 911 due to his injuries. When an officer arrived and asked Wygle what happened, he answered, "I wrecked my bar stool." According to a Newark Police Division report, a copy of which you'll find here, Wygle's homemade ride is powered by a Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine. More..  The Smoking Gun (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0331091stool1.html) Labels: Drink, Odds and Ends  The small fruit has the color of a cranberry, the shape of an almond and tastes like a flavorless gummy. But after chewing the fruit and rubbing the pulp against the tongue, the berry, known by a promising name -- "miracle fruit" or Synsepalum dulcificum -- releases a sweetening potency that alters the taste buds. For about 15 to 30 minutes, everything sour is sweet. Lemons lose their zing and taste like candy. Oranges become sickeningly sweet. Hot sauce that usually burns the tongue tastes like honey barbecue sauce that scorches as it trickles down the throat. Through word of mouth, these miracle fruits have inspired "taste tripping" parties, where foodies and curious eaters pay $10 to $35 to try the berries, which are native to West Africa. More... Labels: Health, Industry, Learn, Odds and Ends  FRESNO, Calif. – Federal food safety officials warned Monday that consumers should stop eating all foods containing pistachios while they figure out the source of a possible salmonella contamination. Still reeling from the national salmonella outbreak in peanuts, the Food and Drug Administration said central California-based Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc., the nation's second-largest pistachio processor, was voluntarily recalling a portion of the roasted nuts it has been shipping since last fall. A Setton spokeswoman said that amounts to more than 2 million pounds of nuts. "Our advice to consumers is that they avoid eating pistachio products, and that they hold onto those products," said Dr. David Acheson, assistant commissioner for food safety. "The number of products that are going to be recalled over the coming days will grow, simply because these pistachio nuts have then been repackaged into consumer-level containers." More... Labels: Eat, Health, Odds and Ends  A McDonald's drive-through was shot up early Sunday after a customer was angered that the restaurant had shifted from the lunch menu to the breakfast menu, police said. The driver of a white Dodge Intrepid pulled into the drive-through at about 2 a.m. at McDonald's at 210 W. 500 South in Salt Lake City and ordered food from the lunch and dinner menu, police said. When a clerk told her the restaurant was serving only items from the breakfast menu, the woman drove to the second window, police said. Two men got out of the car, and one pulled a sawed-off shotgun out of the trunk, police said. He fired once or twice into the drive-though window before the two men and the woman left on 500 South and turned north on 300 West, police said. More... Labels: Crime, Odds and Ends  Karen Jantzi hasn't had a vegetable garden since she lived with her parents. This year, she will join the 7 million Americans who plan to plant their first vegetable gardens. "I've had a few tomato plants in past years," Jantzi said. "But this year I want to go all out." Sixty-five years ago, the government urged Americans to "plant more in ‘44" as a patriotic gesture to support the troops during World War II. In 2009, vegetable gardening is experiencing a revival, as Americans struggle to make ends meet. A recent National Gardening Association poll projects a 20 percent rise in the number of households growing vegetables this year over last, including 7 million new gardens. Victory Gardens supplied 40 percent of the nation's fresh produce during World War II. Although vegetable gardens won't generate this type of supply today, garden suppliers brace for a busy year as many residents see gardens as a victory over high food prices. Even first lady Michelle Obama planted a vegetable garden on the White House's South Lawn, the first "first garden" since Eleanor Roosevelt installed hers. "There's something beneficial for the soul working outside and watching something grow," Jantzi said. More... Labels: Lifestyle, Odds and Ends  CHICAGO — Doctors are puzzling over what seems to be an increase in the number of children withkidney stones, a condition some blame on kids' love of cheeseburgers, fries and other salty foods. Kidney stones are usually an adult malady, one that is notorious for causing excruciating pain _ pain worse than childbirth. But while the number of affected children isn't huge, kids with kidney stones have been turning up in rising numbers at hospitals around the country. At Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the number of children treated for kidney stones since 2005 has climbed from about 10 a year to five patients a week now, said Dr. Pasquale Casale. Johns Hopkins Children Center in Baltimore, a referral center for children with stones, used to treat one or two youngsters a year 15 or so years ago. Now it gets calls about new cases every week, said kidney specialist Dr. Alicia Neu. In a 2007 study in the Journal of Urology, doctors at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Medical Center reported a nearly fivefold increase in children brought in with kidney stones between 1994 and 2005. In 2005, 61 youngsters were treated there for stones. More... Labels: Health, Odds and Ends  A chef banned from Gatwick after living at the airport for five years has been arrested for returning to his old haunt - even though he now has a place to live. Anthony Delaney, 44, was dubbed Terminal Man after he lost his job in 2004 and began sleeping, eating and showering at the airport’s South Terminal. Delaney was handed an antisocial behaviour order (Asbo) in 2004 but refused to stay away, breaching the order and getting arrested more than 30 times. He was jailed for 15 months in June last year and following his release moved into a rented home in Woking, Surrey. But after visiting friends in Crawley last week he went back to Gatwick - apparently unable to resist the lure of the airport. More... Labels: Crime, Notable Chefs, Odds and Ends  Twitter users have started to post entire recipes online in no more than 140 characters - but some instructions are confusing. We challenged leading chefs to boil down their own recipes Just how much can be said in 140 characters? Quite a lot, it seems. Philosophical musings, travel directions, internal monologues, reflections on the day's politics and the repercussions of a drunken night have all been squeezed into the short space available for a posting on Twitter. Many discuss food, including Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver who "tweet" suggestions, links to recipes and mini-appraisals of their latest meals. Now, however, users of the internet phenomenon have gone one step further - compressing instructions on how to create an entire meal into the tiny space. There is a growing trend for people, including some leading chefs, to create micro-recipes - a single paragraph that tells users how to make an entire starter, main course or dessert - then transmit them via Twitter. More... Labels: Culinary Diversions, Odds and Ends  Teachers are warning that children as young as four and five are using foul language picked up from the telly. Kids in reception class are not only repeating swear words from the likes of TV chefs Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay but copying scenes from shows. So concerned are members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers that they will lobby broadcasters at their annual meeting next month to cut swearing, violence and wild behaviour. Alison Sherratt, a reception class teacher at Riddlesden St Mary's Church of England school in Keighley, West Yorks, says children are using more bad language than ever and becoming more badly behaved and disobedient. More... Labels: Celebrities and Food, Learn, Lifestyle  Wait Four Minutes After Boiling, Doctor Says Drinking freshly boiled tea can increase the risk of cancer of the esophagus, according to a new study conducted in Iran. Researchers studied 300 people with the most common kind of throat cancer and compared them to 571 similar people. But an accompanying editorial says these findings are not cause for alarm and the general advice is to allow foods and beverages to cool a little before swallowing. Researchers found that people who drank tea between 65 and 70 degrees Celsius (149 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit) had twice the risk of throat cancer as those who drank cooler tea. Those who had it hotter than 70 degrees Celsius had eight times the risk. More... Labels: Drink, Health, Lifestyle  ShamWow and SlapChop pitchman Vince Shlomi was arrested on felony battery charges in Miami last month following a violent encounter with a prostitute. According to an arrest affidavit, Shlomi met Sasha Harris, 26, at a Miami Beach nightclub on February 7 and subsequently retired with her to his $750 room at the lavish Setai hotel. Shlomi told cops he paid Harris about $1000 in cash after she "propositioned him for straight sex." Shlomi said that when he kissed Harris, she suddenly "bit his tongue and would not let go." Shlomi then punched Harris several times until she released his tongue. More... Labels: Celebrities and Food, Crime  Yum Brands Inc. subsidiary KFC has offered to fill the potholes in its home city of Louisville, Ky., and in four other cities to be named later. Hiring a road crew for its “pilot infrastructure renewal program,” the restaurant chain has pledged to conduct street repairs, which would include the message “Re-Freshed by KFC” stenciled in temporary street chalk. As part of the marketing effort, KFC randomly will choose four other U.S. cities whose mayors describe to the company their cities’ needs for street repairs, according to a news release. “Budgets are tight for cities across the country, and finding funding for needed road repairs is a continuing challenge,” Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson said in the release. “It’s great to have a concerned corporation like KFC create innovative private/public partnerships like this pothole refresh program.” More... Labels: Industry, Odds and Ends  TAMPA, FL -- A Tampa woman was behind bars Thursday morning, accused of misusing the 911 system. Police say Evon Cavett called 911 three times to complain her roommate was stealing her beer.When police arrived at Cavett's house they found Cavett drinking from a 40 ounce Bud Light, said police spokeswoman Janelle McGregor.The police report goes on to say, "The defendant called 911 on 3 different occasions to complain about her roommate taking her beer and to complain that she didn't call 911. While yelling, she upset her neighbor and woke up her children. She then attempted to physically resist arrest." More...  Gordon Ramsey, of the Fox show "Hell's Kitchen," is known for his 16 Michelin stars and for being kind of crazy. He regularly curses at the contestants on his cooking show and calls them donkeys, or worse. More...Labels: Entertainment, Young Culinarians  A German frozen food company hopes to raise sales with a new product: Obama fingers. The tender, fried chicken bits come with a tasty curry sauce. The company says it was unaware of the possible racist overtones of the product. Selling products has, of course, become a bit more difficult than usual these days. No wonder then that companies everywhere are turning to optimistic marketing messages in an effort to counteract the steady drum beat of negativity coming from front page headlines around the globe. More... Labels: Celebrities and Food, Eat, Lifestyle, Odds and Ends  Owner Of Shawarma King Restaurant In Brooklyn Brandished Electric Knife To Fend Off Enraged Customers It was an all-out frankfurter frenzy this week at a popular Jewish restaurant in Brooklyn, as a certain hot dog caused a near-riot. It's not what you would expect: a worker in a NYC eatery caught on tape fending off a group of Jewish patrons with an electric knife. "I was petrified – stuff was going through my mind," a patron who didn't want his name used said. "I want to live. I don't want to get stabbed for a hot dog." The long-time patron says the chaos broke out when he and a rabbi noticed the frankfurters on the grill were non-Kosher, in a restaurant that's supposed to be dishing out the Kosher variety. More... Labels: Crime, Eat, Industry, Lifestyle, Odds and Ends  A chef has been cleared of raping a woman who claims she was too drunk to have consented to sex. Peter Bacon, 26, of Pilgrims Way, Canterbury, was found not guilty at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday. He had been accused of raping the solicitor, in her 40s, at her house after he was invited over for drinks by a friend in February 2008. The judge said the woman's claim that she could not give consent because she was drunk was "completely wrong". The court had been told the three of them drank about five bottles of wine over an evening before the friend left, leaving Mr Bacon and the woman alone. More... Labels: Crime, Lifestyle, Odds and Ends  Here it is! Your very first look at Padma Lakshmi's sexy new commercial for Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. Didn't I tell you it was hot? I mean, the way she digs in, licks and even hikes up her dress a bit. Fun! Fun! Fun! More... Labels: Celebrities and Food, Eat, Entertainment, Lifestyle  LAWRENCE, Mass. — A Massachusetts man had some misfortune when he allegedly tried to rob a Chinese restaurant. Four plainclothes police officers were enjoying their dinner at the time. The man was arraigned Thursday in Lawrence District Court on charges of unarmed robbery, larceny, assault and battery on a police officer, and resisting arrest. Authorities said he went into the Golden House Restaurant on Wednesday night and asked the cashier to change a quarter. When she opened the register, the man allegedly grabbed $150. More... Labels: Crime, Culinary Diversions, Odds and Ends  Cooking schools help teens build culinary skills and confidence. The current obsession of elevating chefs to rock-star status has made it easy for cooking schools to attract teenage students who want to learn to cook or who might be considering the field as a career. But to keep them focused for two or more hours requires savvy adult guidance. "Today's kids know what they want, and they go after it with determination," says Tina Krinsky of the Julian Krinsky School of Cooking. "The Food Network, recipe websites, magazines, and an array of innovative cookbooks all play an important role in their decision-making process." What teens seek from cooking school classes is the type of culinary knowledge and information that will help them realize their dream. Jill Prescott of Jill Prescott's Ecole de Cuisine sums this up simply as "experiencing the miracle of creating." Many students see cooking as providing a creative outlet, instant gratification, and, if done well, tasty food. More... Labels: Industry, Young Culinarians
DENVER – The manager of a Blackjack Pizza outlet in Denver got a start when he discovered a man's legs hanging from a vent above the restaurant's oven. Police said the dangling legs were accompanied by a voice yelling, "help me, help me" Friday morning. Police spokesman Sonny Jackson said the 5-foot-10, 170-pound man told officers and firefighters he'd been stuck in the duct for five or six hours.
Jackson said the man was arrested on suspicion of burglary. Police haven't identified the suspect or the manager. The store was closed later Friday. Jackson said the man could have been asphyxiated if the oven had turned on automatically or if the manager hadn't come in early. Link... Labels: Crime, Odds and Ends  The owner of a New York restaurant says he is offering free meals to victims of the Ponzi scheme masterminded by Bernard Madoff. Nino Selimaj, owner of Italian restaurant Nino's 208, said patrons who can show proof that they were victimized by Madoff, who pleaded guilty to running one of the largest Ponzi schemes on record, are welcome to order anything from his menu free of charge. "Whatever is on the menu is available to victims of Madoff's scandal ... because I have sympathy for these people," he said. More... Labels: Crime, Culinary Diversions, Eat  Food safety officers are investigating one of Gordon Ramsay's London restaurants after a reality television star claimed to have been left choking on a piece of cling film. Noelie Klineberg said that she pulled an inch-and-a-half long piece of plastic from her mouth while chewing on a lamb main course at the Michelin-starred eatery in Claridge's Hotel. Miss Klineberg, who was dining with her millionaire fiancé Robin Goforth, also claims to have felt unwell later that night. More... Labels: Celebrities and Food, Eat, Entertainment, Industry, Kitchen Catastrophes  Celebrity chef Cat Cora, the first and only female Iron Chef on Food Network's popular program "Iron Chef America," is bringing her culinary talent to the Boardwalk resort at Walt Disney World. Her restaurant, Kouzzina by Cat Cora, will feature what she calls "time-honored recipes passed down from my ancestors, as well as my favorite Greek and Mediterranean dishes that my family loves." More... Labels: Celebrities and Food, Entertainment, Industry, Notable Chefs  HOUSTON, March 23, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ ----Continental Airlines today announced the addition of Chef Bryan Caswell, owner of REEF and Little Bigs restaurants in Houston, to its Congress of Chefs. Caswell joins the 14-member congress, including top chefs Roy Yamaguchi of Roy's Restaurant; Michael Cordua of Americas, Churrascos, Artista and Amazon Grill in Houston; James Canora of the original Del Monico's in New York City; and Paul Minnillo of The Baricelli Inn in Cleveland. "Continental is pleased to welcome Bryan Caswell to our Congress of Chefs," said Sandra Pineau, Continental's staff vice president of food services. "We will draw on Bryan's extensive culinary knowledge and world travels to continue to provide the best possible dining experience for our passengers." More.. Labels: Celebrities and Food, Eat, Industry, Notable Chefs  Who needs old-fashioned khana-pakana when we can have food porn. In a Harper’sMagazine article titled “Debbie does Salad”, Frederick Kaufman charted the emergence of gastroporn, the reinvention of cooking as salacious spectacle, designed to titillate all our appetites, gustatory and otherwise. Kaufman’s piece focused on the Food Network channel shows, featuring dishy chefs creating just-as-gorgeous dishes, aimed not at stodgy little housewives but “that choice prime-time demographic, the 18-35-year-old male can’t-cook-won’t-cook crowd—the men who like to watch. As people cook less and less, they ogle cooking shows more and more”. Where there are foodie celebrities—chefs, hosts, food critics—there will be cookbooks, gastroporn’s equivalent of literary smut. More... Releated Link: Padma Lakshmi (http://www.lakshmifilms.com/) Labels: Celebrities and Food, Learn  As a marketer, I’ve bashed the competition. It’s never personal. It’s only to remind them that local television should be good television. If you don’t think that’s a good enough reason, you don’t know Jack. I can only dream of being as “bashingly” brilliant as the creative geniuses at Secret Weapon Marketing, the folks behind the new Jack in the Box commercial. More... Click here for - Office of Jack in the Box Video: Jack in the Box's "Jack" "If I'm Saying Something that is not true. Do something about it!" Labels: Celebrities and Food, Drink, Eat, Entertainment, Odds and Ends  JAMES LENZI, a chef who is opening a restaurant near Columbia University, recently posted an ad on Craigslist for an assistant. Salary: $25,000 a year with no benefits. “The résumés started pouring in,” he said. “Hundreds of them. Chefs, managers, people who’ve worked at the best restaurants in New York.” Nine of the 300 applicants had Ph.D.’s., he said. “I can’t stop thinking about what’s going to happen to them.” In New York City, chefs, owners and workers say they cannot remember a time when so many restaurants were closing or struggling, so many restaurant workers were looking for jobs and so few places were hiring. According to the New York State DepartmentricaLabor, after adding 50,000 jobs in less than seven years, the New York City restaurant business lost more than 10,000 jobs between October 2008 and January 2009. More... Labels: Industry  Here are some of the places President Obama eats when he's in Hawaii, along with some of the eateries he spent time in growing up. More... Raw Video: First Lady Breaks Ground for Garden Labels: Celebrities and Food, Drink, Eat  Rapper Leon Ivey Jr., better known after his stage name Coolio, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday on suspicion of possessing drugs, according to TMZ.com.The 45-year-old artist, who shot to fame with his 1995 “Gangsta's Paradise,” was found with illicit drugs at an LAX terminal. Officials gave no further details on the arrest, but according to celebrity website TMZ the rapper was found with crack cocaine while going through security before boarding a Southwest Airlines flight.It appears that the artist was released after posing $10,000 bail. He was arrested in June last year for riving with his license suspended. He was caught after officers noticed he had expired license plates on his gray 1996 Hummer. He had also an outstanding traffic warrant on his name. The artist has a family history of driving without a license. According to TMZ, Coolio’s dad, Artis Leon Ivey, Sr., a carpenter, was also caught driving on a suspended license in 2006.Coolio has appeared recently on several reality TV shows, including “Celebrity Fear Factor” and hosted the program “Cookin With Coolio.” The artist surnames himself as “the ghetto witchdoctor superstar chef," whose goal is “to make you forget about every cooking show you've ever heard.” Ivey became famous after he had released his 1995 song “Gangsta’s Paradise,” which reached the 1st position in three charts: US Hot 100, US Rap, UK Singles Chart. The same album went four times Platinum. More... Warning: Video below contains Inappropriate Language and may not be suitable for display at work or a educational environment were children may be present. Cookin' with Coolio Labels: Celebrities and Food, Crime  "Iron Chef America" star Cat Cora (l) and her wife Jennifer Cora (r) are both pregnant, she announced. Both are expecting boys, which will double their brood. They are already parents to older boys, Caje, 22 months and Zoran, 5, from the same donor as the two who are coming. More... Labels: Lifestyle, Notable Chefs   Ray took another PR hit when racy photos of her were printed in FHM magazine. Ray's mother was furious, but Ray said she was proud. "I think I was 35 at the time," she said. "And I thought about it for a while, and I said, 'You know what? This magazine has as young as 17-, 18-year-olds in hottie bikinis, and these are all actresses, models, pin-up girls. I don't belong to any even remote club of theirs.' "And I thought, 'If I'm gutsy enough to do this, this is a good thing for everybody. This is the everywoman, here she is,' she added. "And I did it, and it was the most scared I've ever been, and I wouldn't change a thing. I'd do it again tomorrow." Ray has faced plenty of public criticism, especially on the Web. "Television itself is an intimate medium," she said, explaining why it doesn't hurt her feelings. "It's in your house. You're visiting with these people. ... Not everybody's going to like it, just like not everybody likes everybody on the playground. I mean, that's life -- especially if your job is to just go out there and be yourself. "If you spend so much time thinking about the people who dislike what it is you're doing, you're doing a disservice to the people that employ you," she said. "I'm not employed by those people. I work for the people that want the type of food I write [about], the type of food we share with people." But Ray seems completely comfortable with her role in the kitchen -- funny, relaxed and even humble. She maintains that anyone could have done what she's done. Does she really believe that? "I absolutely 100 percent believe that," she said. "I'm a waitress from upstate New York. Anyone that likes chatting, that likes to cook, certainly. Could have happened to anybody." A waitress atop an empire. A syndicated daytime talk show, four hit food network shows, 16 bestselling cookbooks, a self-titled monthly magazine, and her own brands of dog food, olive oil, and even a line of pots and pans. Part of her success is making cooking as easy as possible -- with short-cuts, including using chicken stock from a can and pasta sauce from a jar. Labels: Celebrities and Food, Entertainment  The 42-year-old never played for the Glasgow Rangers soccer club, though he's long made the claim in his autobiography, on the radio and in a series of interviews, the News of the World reported. "He was never a signed player for us and certainly didn't play any first team games and wasn't offered any sort of contract — it's all complete and utter nonsense," the Scottish team's historian, Robert McElroy, told the British tabloid. Rangers coach Archie Knox, who Ramsay says cut him from the team, says that would've been impossible. "He must be a very confused individual," Knox said. "I was the manager of Dundee [a different team] at the time." Labels: Notable Chefs  WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is the place to be on Wednesdays. Since the presidency changed hands less than six weeks ago, a burst of entertaining has taken hold of the iconic, white-columned home of America's head of state. Much of it comes on Wednesdays. The stately East Room, where portraits of George and Martha Washington adorn the walls, was transformed into a concert hall as President Barack Obama presented Stevie Wonder with the nation's highest award for pop music on Wednesday. A week before that, the foot-stomping sounds of Sweet Honey in the Rock, a female a cappella group, filled the East Room for a Black History Month program first lady Michelle Obama held for nearly 200 sixth- and seventh-graders from around the city. Cocktails were sipped during at least three such receptions to date, all held on Wednesdays. Bookending the midweek activity were a Super Bowl party for select Democratic and Republican lawmakers and a dinner for governors, the new administration's first black-tie affair. It was capped with a performance by the 1970s pop group Earth, Wind and Fire. And a conga line. The flurry of entertaining is in keeping with the Obamas' promise to make the White House a more open place for everyone. The governors' dinner was "a great kickoff of what we hope will be an atmosphere here in the White House that is welcoming and that reminds everybody that this is the people's house," Obama told the state chief executives after they had dined on Maryland crab, Wagyu beef, Nantucket scallops and citrus salad. "We are just temporary occupants. This is a place that belongs to the American people and we want to make sure that everybody understands it's open," he said. Labels: Celebrities and Food, Entertainment, Lifestyle  The Associated Press A Las Vegas casino cafe is rewarding patrons who can put away a 2-foot, 6-pound burrito with a most logical prize — free unlimited rides on a roller coaster that runs in both forward and reverse. The offer comes with a caveat, though: Those who accept the challenge but can't finish "The Bomb" burrito have to take a picture with an extra small, pink T-shirt that says "Weenie." The NASCAR Cafe at the Sahara Hotel & Casino began selling the cheese-and-guacamole slathered burrito on Thursday for $19.95. Those who can finish the monstrous entree get it for free, along with two unlimited coaster passes and a T-shirt proclaiming they "Conquered the Bomb." Labels: Eat, Entertainment, Odds and Ends
Bright spark Donald Crabtree has hired waiters and waitresses to serve their customers naked from the waist up.
And so far his saucy venture in Vassalboro – population 4,500 – in Maine, in the US, has been a roaring success. While other firms have been struggling in the downturn, business has been booming at the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop. The owner's brother Paul said: "It's just been crowds mobbing in." At first Donald faced a battle to get the go-ahead for his plan – because some local residents were angry over the idea. But the entrepreneur won the right to go ahead with his recipe for success in a planning board meeting last week. "I know what people want," he said. "People like nudity, and coffee is profitable. "Sure, I'd start a coffee shop, but I'd be out of work in a week." Donald was swamped with 150 applications for 15 jobs on offer at the cafe. "We didn't hire '10s'," he said, referring to his staff's appearance. "We hired everyone from skinny to big-boned women." More... Labels: Drink, Industry, Odds and Ends
FORT PIERCE — Told McDonald’s was out of Chicken McNuggets after paying for a 10-piece meal, a local woman called 911.
Three times. “This is an emergency, If I would have known they didn’t have McNuggets, I wouldn’t have given my money, and now she wants to give me a McDouble, but I don’t want one,” Latreasa L. Goodman told police. “This is an emergency.” The McNugget meltdown happened last week at a McDonald’s in the 600 block of North U.S. 1 and ended with Goodman, 27, getting a notice to appear in court on a misuse of 911 charge, according to a recently released police report. Goodman told investigators she tried to get a refund for the 10-piece McNuggets, but the cashier told her all sales are final. “I called 911 because I couldn’t get a refund, and I wanted my McNuggets,” Goodman told police. More... Labels: Crime, Odds and Ends  Eastside High School's Institute of Culinary Arts brought home another state championship and $300,000 in scholarship money. This is the seventh top finish for the team in the past nine years at the Florida ProStart Invitational.
Twelve Eastside culinary students participated in four categories and each student earned a medal for their efforts during the competition in Orlando this week.
Among the judges' favorites was the gourmet meal prepared in 60 minutes by seniors Eric Wilson, Byron Boucias and Melissa Genosa along with junior Brent Garrison. They took first place for their three-course meal that included a spicy Florida shrimp appetizer, a pan-raost, stuff veal chop entrée followed by a pomegranate lemon cake. The four students will advance to the national ProStart Invitational in San Diego in April. Labels: Learn, Young Culinarians  “Victim's heroics rouse judge,” read a headline in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, but Nigel Haskett's heroics apparently didn't rouse his employer, McDonald's. The hamburger kingpin has denied Haskett's claim for workers compensation benefits. According to newspaper accounts and Haskett's lawyer, Philip M. Wilson, Haskett was working at the McDonald's at 10201 Rodney Parham Road last August when he interceded to stop a man who was beating a woman in the restaurant. The assailant, later identified as Perry Kennon, went outside. Haskett also stepped outside and stood at the door to keep Kennon from re-entering the restaurant. Kennon retrieved a gun from his car and shot Haskett – “multiple times,” according to Wilson. Haskett, now 22, underwent three abdominal surgeries and still carries part of a bullet in his back, according to Wilson. Haskett's medical bills exceed $300,000, Wilson said. Kennon was arrested a few days after the shooting and charged with first-degree battery. At his arraignment, where he pleaded innocent, District Judge Lee Munson lectured Kennon about his long criminal record, and lauded Haskett: “Here is this young man working for minimum wage, coming to the aid of a woman.” Munson passed the case on to Pulaski Circuit Court, and he and his court reporter each contributed $100 to a fund for Haskett that was set up by Twin City Bank. Kennon is in the Pulaski County Jail awaiting trial. Haskett filed a claim with the state Workers Compensation Commission. Misty Thompson, a claims specialist with McDonald's insurer, Ramsey, Krug, Farrell and Lensing, said in a letter to the Commission that “we have denied this claim in its entirety as it is our opinion that Mr. Haskett's injuries did not arise out of or within the course and scope of his employment.”  The guy who brought us the PBS cooking show “Made in Spain,” starring D.C. chef-ebrity Jose Andres, now has turned his eyes to Capitol Hill for his next venture. Phil Lerman wants to film members of Congress cooking “at home for their family/friends” — the show aims to tape each cooking politician while working, meeting with staff and then cooking. (John Podesta, are you listening? You’d love this.) The goal is to get one Republican and one Democrat, have them whip up something and then have a D.C. chef-ebrity judge which one is best. Lerman wouldn’t offer names, but we hear Laura Ingraham has agreed to do a show. But wait — do congresspeople even cook? “At first, we wondered if we were barking up the wrong tree, but a lot of them do cook,” especially the congressional parents, he says. “They run home, make the fastest meal possible and come back,” Lerman tells us. “Nobody’s busier than them. If they can cook dinner, I can cook dinner.” (He notes the Midwestern congressfolk seem up for it.) “Food is the ultimate communal experience,” he says, but right now he’s just focused on finding “A. who’s going to pay for it, and B. who’s going to air it.” Early stages. But be aware: They’re looking for authentic. “It can’t be someone like Hillary Clinton who doesn’t like to cook,” Lerman adds, though surely he’d never turn her down. “People will know.” More... Labels: Celebrities and Food, Entertainment, Odds and Ends |
Featured Products
Topic Menu
Previous Posts
Archives
|
Website and its contents are © Copyright 2008-2009 Culinary Performance Inc, All Rights Reserved
Website Design by Developmental Marketing, LLC
