Food news antipasto

Does chef Jose Andres ever sleep? As if he isn’t busy enough running restaurants, contributing to his nonprofit enterprise (World Central Kitchen), and giving talks around the world, he just announced a new partnership with George Washington University. They are forming The Global Food Institute, and its lofty aim is to “serve as a hub to develop evidence, partnerships, and innovative solutions intended to transform the way the world thinks about food systems.”

This past week was picnic week at Eater because they featured at least four different recipes around the theme. There was an article on how to have a picnic in your car, followed by another sharing tips and gear to have a great picnic without a car. If you needed a recipe for a giant Italian hoagie (sandwich) perfect to share at a picnic, Eater has you covered for that too. And if you packed a cake but forgot to bring a knife, no worries, because Bettina Makalintal explains how you can use wineglasses to cut and serve the cake.

A few weeks ago we discussed the potential of so-called artificial intelligence to take over for humans at some food writing sites. It’s officially happening at Buzzfeed, which has just launched “Botatouille, a personalized recipe generator powered by generative AI.” Botatouille will provide meal suggestions based on the contents of your refrigerator and an accompanying chatbot will answer your culinary questions as you cook. Buzzfeed’s CEO has pinned the company’s hopes on ‘fun and joyous’ entertainment such as Botatouille driving users to the site.

Have you heard about baking’s latest “it” ingredient? These days you can’t swing a stick without finding a baking recipe that calls for toasted milk powder. King Arthur Baking has a primer on how to toast powdered milk and use it in your baking to add flavor notes that are like brown butter on steroids. Says GBBO winner Edd Kimber, “Adding toasted milk powder to baked goods is like a secret flavor enhancer … I like to think of it almost as a seasoning.”

We’ll end the week’s recap with two stories of world records being broken. First up is the Guinness Book of World Record for most expensive ice cream. The new holder of this title belongs to the Japanese gelato company Cellato, for its Byakuya, “a combination of white truffles imported from Alba, Italy; Parmigiano Reggiano cheese; and sake lees, a byproduct of the sake production process.” It sells for $6,696 (US) for a single 130ml serving. The second world record is for Nigerian chef Hilda Baci’s impressive feat of cooking for 100 hours straight, smashing the previous record of 87 hours. She was only allowed to take one 5-minute break each hour or a one-hour break after each 12 hour stint.