There's too much to digest out there. Here's a taste of what happened in the food world this week. |
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Here's what you might have missed Nobody's drinking at restaurants anymore: Restaurants are now facing new challenges as diners cut down on drinking, seriously cutting into profit margins, the New York Times reported. Alcohol sales are down in every category of the restaurant industry, with 31 percent of operators reporting "severe declines" in sales last year. While the report points to possible shifts in how people think about drinking, it seems to largely come down to money: With cocktails increasingly costing upwards of $20, there's a limit to how much people will order. Thousands of workers at one of the country's largest meatpacking plants are on strike: On Monday, about 3,800 workers at a Colorado plant owned by leading beef producer JBS USA went on strike over unfair labor practices. Despite the dangerous nature of slaughterhouse work, the union says the company has failed to offer wage increases that keep up with inflation and has charged workers to offset its expenses for their protective equipment, according to the Associated Press. It's the first walkout at a beef slaughterhouse in the United States in four decades. As Kim Cordova, president of the union representing the workers, told the Guardian, "The industry hasn't had a labor dispute for a very long time and it's because they hire a very vulnerable workforce and the expectations are they keep their head down." A detailed report accuses civil rights leader and farmworker organizer Cesar Chavez of grooming and sexual abuse: A major New York Times investigation based on more than 60 interviews alleges that Cesar Chavez, the United Farm Workers co-founder who died in 1993, had a long pattern of grooming and sexual abuse. As the Times noted, Chavez's prominent status in the Latino civil rights movement kept many women from speaking up. Some of those accusations came from Chavez's former ally Dolores Huerta, who wrote in a statement: "I am nearly 96 years old, and for the last 60 years have kept a secret because I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for." Cinnabon cuts ties with a Mormon Wives star: The bakery chain ended its partnership with Taylor Frankie Paul of hit reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives after TMZ published new allegations of domestic violence between Paul and a former partner. Cinnabon said in a statement that these developments have shown Paul "no longer aligns with [its] brand values," but it's not the first time she's had legal trouble: In 2023, she was charged with assault, criminal mischief, and domestic violence in the presence of a child. (She pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.) The upcoming season of The Bachelorette starring Paul has now been canceled. Haidilao adopts dancing robots; what could go wrong? A video went viral this week showing a dancing robot knocking over dishes and being restrained by employees in a California location of the hot-pot chain Haidilao. (It's the same restaurant that seats solo diners with giant stuffed toys, as Carrie experienced in And Just Like That.) The restaurant told NBC News that the robot "was not malfunctioning or out of control"; it was just too close to the table. Margot Robbie's gin brand is changing its recipe after getting rejected by London bars over allergen concerns: Inspired by Robbie's Australian roots, Papa Salt uses oyster shells as a botanical. London bars aren't too eager about that due to the risks to those with shellfish allergies, the Guardian reports; now, the brand's reformulating. Midnight Diner is coming back after a seven-year hiatus: The beloved Japanese show, which follows a late-night diner in Tokyo, is filming a new series. It'll be the first since Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories aired on Netflix in 2019. The Dune 3 trailer dropped, so let's revisit this video of celebrity chef José Andrés dreaming about eating a shai hulud: Thank you, "worm girl" on X, for resurfacing this.
- Hilary Duff shared her ideal last meal with Mythical Kitchen: And it's perfect.
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What I'm consuming this weekend |
The Chef Assembly is this weekend, so it'll be a whirlwind tour of Philly for me. Most of my meals are already spoken for, but I'm hoping to sneak in some time to wait in line for Sao, though I imagine the demand — with all the food people in town — will be high. I snagged a reservation at its first restaurant, Mawn, a few years ago, and every dish still remains so memorable to me. My only regret? Not ordering the funnel cake with miso caramel. |
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