Michelin announced its California stars for 2024 at a ceremony in Half Moon Bay on Monday evening, Aug. 5.A handful of restaurants received their first celestial honors, including Uka by chefs Yoshitaka Mitsue and Shingo Kato, Gilbert Cetina’s Holbox and Jordan Kahn’s Meteora. The Los Angeles eateries earned their first one-star status alongside another Southern California winner, Jordan Nakasone’s Rebel Omakase in Laguna Beach.Vespertine, which reopened in April after closing in 2020, received two stars after its spring rebirth. Noted for its contemporary architecture and its lauded fare (the late critic Jonathan Gold anointed it the best restaurant in Los…

After 70 years of aquaculture research, coastal preservation projects, and public oyster tours, Carlsbad Aquafarms is leaving its waterfront location by the end of August. After being linked to a norovirus outbreak in January, the facility ceased public tours in May and launched an online auction of items in July, but did not publicly announce plans for the future. Carlsbad Aquafarms CEO Thomas Grimm says that despite the move, it’s not the end. “We are not going out of business,” Grimm says. We’re going to continue our work, but not in that location, and so the public-facing parts of that…

Photography courtesy of Providence Tour Company Did you know that Rhode Island never actually ratified the Prohibition amendment? How about that Providence had hundreds of speakeasies? Or that the Narragansett Bay was the scene of more than thirty different shootouts between rumrunners and the US Coast Guard? These are the subjects that guests explore on the brand new Providence Prohibition Tour, a new downtown Providence food tour that highlights local beers and spirits, launched in July of this year. Photography courtesy of Providence Tour Company “We are really excited about adding the Prohibition Tour,” says Bradly VanDerStad, Executive Director of…

In fair Verona where we lay the scene, we find a young woman in an Aperol dream. Yes, reader, that young woman was me and I had fallen in love, not with an Italian named Romeo, but with a drink called Aperol spritz. How did Aperol go from a little-known Veneto drink which I enjoyed so much in the simple bars and osterias across the region during aperitvi hour, to one of the world’s most recognisable drinks brands? The “spritz” can be traced back to the 1800s when The Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom was crown land of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austrians found the…

A Centennial distillery is hoping to raise $5 million as it launches a less expensive bottle.Branch & Barrel Distillery created Colorado Gold Blended American Whiskey using second-use barrels as a solution for Colorado liquor stores’ decreased foot traffic and to appeal to whiskey lovers at a more reasonable price.“It’s hitting at the right time,” said Josh Hunt, vice president of sales and marketing. “We read the tea leaves for the market and recognized that people are not comfortable spending over $50 anymore. We want to take that and we want to make it even easier for them to choose us…

Imported food coming into the UK through Brexit border posts is being sent back to Europe to be tested due to a lack of laboratory capacity in Britain, food bodies have said.The SPS Certification Working Group, which represents 30 trade bodies covering £100bn worth of the UK’s food supply, has written to the government warning that members are being advised that some samples of imported foods are being sent to countries such as Germany to be tested before they can be released at the border.It has said the lack of lab facilities was causing extra costs, longer delays and a…

Amy Poon grew up in a Chinese culinary dynasty in London, the daughter of Bill Poon, a Hong Kong migrant who was the world’s first Chinese chef to win a Michelin star.She read Japanese at Oxford, lived all over the world and has just opened Poon’s London, a Chinese bistro and deli selling a range of signature Poon’s sauces, dumplings and ingredients such as lap cheong (Chinese sausage), in Bermondsey’s Spa Terminus food market.Did you feel you were always destined to work in restaurants?I swore, having grown up in a restaurant, I would never do it. It’s a bit like…

The National Eisteddfod is being held in Ynysangharad War Memorial Park in Pontypridd for 2024 – and there are plenty of brilliant food and drink options to enjoy. While you can take your own picnic if you want to, if you fancy buying food there, you are spoilt for choice.The Eisteddfod is Wales’ largest cultural festival attracting over 160,000 visitors annually. The Eisteddfod is based on almost 850 years of tradition and is the natural showcase for music, dance, visual arts, literature, original performances and much more.You can buy your tickets for the Eisteddfod online before going or you can…

On page 35, there is a recipe for hung yuen guy ding – almond boneless chicken. But the dish bears little resemblance to the crispy battered chicken on shredded lettuce Kung writes about, known today as “ABC”.Chinese-American chef Jon Kung, who has a recipe for almond boneless chicken in his cookbook Kung Food. Photo: Johnny MillerRecently, there has been a wave of cookbooks – from Betty Liu’s My Shanghai to The Woks Of Life by the Leung family behind the blog of the same name – by a new generation of Chinese diasporic food writers.Rather than merely telling the reader…