Shortly before the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the manager of a Whole Foods grocery store in the San Francisco Bay Area gathered his employees in a conference room for a chat about labor organizing. “This is not a union-bashing thing whatsoever,” the manager began, adding, however, that he’d called the meeting because Whole Foods believed Obama would sign the Employee ...

Some people think it isn't a major holiday unless turkey is served. For others, a special roast is on the menu. It's best to decide what your holiday entree will be and then special-order it. Beef, pork, and veal have individual qualities that should be considered when purchasing them. As you plan your holiday entrees, select the best product for the ...

OpenTable, the leading provider of free online reservations for diners and guest management systems for restaurants, today announced that its free application for BlackBerry smartphone users is available for download on BlackBerry App World. OpenTable for BlackBerry smartphones allows diners using BlackBerry OS 4.5 or higher to check the real-time availability of multiple restaurants in the area; view restaurant profiles and ...

SAN FRANCISCO-Everyone likes a wine with character. How about one with 140 of them? Yes, the people at Twitter _ the social media site on which users post messages no longer than 140 characters _ are getting into the wine business, putting together an ambitious project aimed at raising money for literacy. While others have used Twitter to raise money for ...

There are new labels showing up on some food items in grocery stores - and they're pretty cool. Literally. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) laws took effect in March, and the new labels will help consumers discover exactly where their food is coming from. The labels are being stuck on muscle cuts of beef, including veal, lamb, pork, goat and chicken, ...

GARNER, N.C. - Three people were missing and 20 taken to hospitals after an explosion at a Slim Jim meat products plant in North Carolina, officials said Tuesday. Jeffrey Hammerstein, district chief with Wake County Emergency Medical Services, said five injured people were tagged as priority patients with serious conditions. Hammerstein said officials were searching for three people missing from the ...

An Ohio couple has raised what could be the real Great Pumpkin, a monster weighing in at 1,725 pounds. Nick and Christy Harp of Jackson Township near Massillon learned their pumpkin was a world record-holder on Saturday at the Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers Weigh-In, WJW-TV, Cleveland, reported. Christy Harp told the television station this year's big pumpkin was her work. ...

WASHINGTON - Now is the time for all good capitalists to shop at Whole Foods. Not only will you get great produce, fresh meat, fish and healthy to-go meals, but you'll irritate those who think that President Obama's health care plan isn't quite progressive enough. It seems John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc. - green missionary and ...

A decade ago three friends mashed £500 worth of oranges, bananas and pineapples together on their kitchen table to make a giant smoothie. Yesterday they made what could be described as a giant killing – they sold a small stake in their company to Coca-Cola for £30 million. Innocent Drinks, now Britain’s leading smoothie maker, was valued at up to £300 ...

WASHINGTON - Poor Bill Yosses. He's the White House pastry chef. He makes desserts for a living. He works for Barack and Michelle Obama. They talk about healthy eating. All the time. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right? Not at all. Yosses' creations - especially his pies - have won over even the Obamas. The president calls him "The Crustmaster." ...

McDonald's, Starbucks Take Coffee War to National Ad Battlefield CHICAGO _ On Tuesday, McDonald's begins a massive advertising blitz to persuade customers to associate its famous "Mc" prefix with fancy coffee. Meanwhile, coffee king Starbucks has launched its own ad assault. McDonald's foray into specialty coffee _ caramel cappuccinos and the like _ is its biggest product launch since breakfast in ...

During the past 20 years, sushi restaurants have sprung up in cities across the U.S. Included in the mix are traditional corner sushi restaurants, hipster bars flaunting innovative fusion cuisine, and combinations of the two paired with flashy displays and a bustling night life. At Tengu in Santa Monica, California, Chef Shunji Nakao creates a colorful mikuno roll packed with fresh ...

Chefs shouldn't always be behind the scenes... There’s nothing sexier than a man (or woman for that matter) who knows how to cook. Fortunately, my future husband is an amazing chef. In fact, he wooed me with a four-course meal the night he proposed. These five sexy chefs could serve me cold slugs and I’d still be beggin’ for more. ...

Athens businessman Alex Sams plans to join the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce because of a tweet - a short message - he read through the online social networking service Twitter. During the summer, Athens Area Chamber of Commerce President Doc Eldridge used e-mail and Twitter to send out invitations to the chamber's annual midyear event. Sams, who is a partner ...

HURON - The distribution room reads like a Who's Who among famous chefs and restaurants - Charlie Trotter, Bobby Flay, Ritz Carltons across the map. Box after box of vegetables, perfectly packaged, thoughtfully selected, carefully grown, head across conveyor belts for shipping. Television chef Lee Anne Wong's cartons of brightly colored heirloom tomatoes await their packing box. Even the cold packs ...

One of the experts noted a whiff of mushrooms, a second thought he detected a hint of white truffles, while a third was struck by the flavour of honey and gingerbread. But on one thing they could all agree: it was an historic event as the world’s oldest bottle of champagne was opened — 184 years after it had been sealed ...

ROME - Colombian maritime authorities searched Sunday for an Italian chef believed to have gone overboard from a U.S. cruise ship off Colombia's Caribbean coast, officials and the man's family said. There were different accounts about when and where Angelo Faliva, 31, was last seen as the Princess Cruises "Coral Princess" sailed from Aruba to Cartagena, Colombia, between Nov. 24 and ...

AMMAN, Jordan-A Jordanian hotel owner preparing a lunch for the pope spent five weeks coming up with a choice of five menus for the upcoming visit and is still agonizing over what could go wrong _ just as he did when John Paul II visited nine years ago. Said Sawalha said the Vatican chose a light meal of beef medallions, vegetables ...

Earlier this year, Bravo TV producers invited Holly Smith, of Cafe Juanita in Kirkland, to compete on "Top Chef Masters," a dream for most chefs. For Smith? Nope. Not her thing, she said. A month later, the Food Network made the same call to try to land her for "The Next Iron Chef." They wouldn't take no for an answer. They ...

In his 2003 memoir, "The Apprentice," chef Jacques Pepin describes how he left his classmates and family at age 13 and became an unpaid kitchen intern. He worked his way up quickly. By his early 20s, Pepin had become chef to French President Charles de Gaulle. He has since become one of the world's best-known French chefs. At this point, it ...