Food news antipasto

We learned this week that restaurant critic Grace Dent will replace Gregg Wallace as a judge for the next series of Celebrity MasterChef. She will front the show alongside longtime host John Torode. Wallace stepped aside following claims of misconduct. Dent is excited about her new role, saying “My whole family watches it. It’s all about uncovering and championing talent – and to have ended up in this position is more than a dream to me.”

Guinness has become so popular with Gen Z that there’s currently a shortage of the stout at pubs across the UK. Some have even started rationing the beverage, telling customers that they have to order two other drinks before they can get a Guinness. “People seem to have forgotten there’s anything else to drink,” says Oisín Rogers, landlord at The Devonshire in central London. While I don’t often drink Guinness, I do frequently make Guinness stout ginger cake (pictured above) from lauded pastry chef Claudia Fleming, so I usually keep some on hand.

After overindulging on a luxurious holiday meal, people sometimes say they are going to enter a ‘food coma’. Turns out that’s a real thing. Of course it’s not actually a coma, but eating can produce mild negative effects on our ability to concentrate and perform mental tasks for a short time afterward. Scientists are just beginning to explore what exactly happens during this postprandial period and learning what mechanisms are at play. Forget about the old rule of not swimming for an hour after you eat – instead wait on doing Connections and Spelling Bee until later.

Our US Members may have heard about the proposed sale between two supermarket giants, Kroger and Albertsons. The deal would have created the largest grocery chain in the US and the companies tried to convince regulators that the sale would not stifle competition. The Federal Trade Commission wasn’t convinced by the companies’ arguments, and after a court ruled that the merger would violate federal law, the deal was scuttled. The day after the ruling came down, Albertsons sued Kroger, alleging breach of contract for not doing enough to gain regulatory approval. The lawsuit seeks billions in damages. Meanwhile, shoppers continue to pay near-record prices for groceries.

Josh Barrie takes a look at some of the weird food trends of 2024. It’s a short list, and somehow I missed that putting pickle juice into Diet Coke was popular. I like both separately, but I’m not sure about combining them. The viral whole cucumber TikTok salad is also mentioned, although I would not say that cucumber salad is ‘weird’.