Just when we were starting to put this season of Top Chef behind us: “A tipster caught quite the virtual tickle-fight between everyone’s local favorite Top Chef alums Stefan Richter and Fabio Viviani, and it seems that the Team Euro love that started on the television has now extended to the realm of Facebook. From what we gather, Stefan thinks Fabio — aka ‘prince of sandwiches and ice cream’ — has been lifting friends from his profile so he’s returned the favor in effort to win Top Facebook.” Whatever it is about social networking that makes us sad, reality TV stars exacerbate it. [via Eater]
A constructive use for that leftover box of matzah: “Send us at least three pictures of your stellar matzah creation to contest@jcarrot.org by Wednesday, April 22. In your email please include the title of your work, a description of the scene and tell us the materials you used in your art. And don’t forget to include information about who you are! We will publish the photos on the blog and prizes will be awarded will be awarded for the best pieces.” Or you could just like, eat it. [via The Jew and The Carrot]
Put down that free-range pork chop: A new study by the National Pork Board found “not only higher rates of salmonella in free-range pigs (54 percent versus 39 percent) but also greater levels of the pathogen toxoplasma (6.8 percent versus 1.1 percent) and, most alarming, two free-range pigs that carried the parasite trichina (as opposed to zero for confined pigs). For many years, the pork industry has been assuring cooks that a little pink in the pork is fine. Trichinosis, which can be deadly, was assumed to be history.” Goddamn hippies. [via NYT]
But, the outcome might be a little, ahem, skewed: “From Dr. Nestle I learned that the author isn’t quite interpreting the study — funded by the National Pork Board — correctly. She concludes: ‘My point, as always, is that sponsored studies are invariably designed in ways that produce results favorable to the sponsor. In this case, the sponsor represents industrial pork producers.'” That said, we’re still not ordering free-range pork anytime soon. [via Slow Food USA]
Cupcakes. Still. In this Economy.: “Fifteen bakeries — from Brooklyn’s Baked to Two Little Red Hens uptown — dropped off more than 75 cupcakes to New York Magazine headquarters. With milk shots to cleanse the palate, Olson graded their versions of chocolate, vanilla, and everything in between on a ten-point system for taste, five for presentation, and five awarded at her discretion.” What about cost people? [via NYmag]
Maybe cupcakes will replace money: “A Manhattan landlord with a sweet tooth has included a “free-cupcake” rider in a bakery’s lease. When drafting the document, landlord Jack Resnick & Sons requested cupcakes for its monthly sales meetings. Owner Jason Bauer says he got a chuckle out of it. Each month, Crumbs bakery gets a call or e-mail with the date of the sales meeting. It delivers a dozen, including one of its extra-special red velvet cupcakes.” [via 1010wins]
Finally, in case you were wondering: “The Decider talked to current literary it-boy Wells Tower (whose latest collection of short stories Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned earned a rave review from none other than brutal NY Times critic and possible Nazgûl Michiko Kakutani) about his fave meat product. The verdict? A grilled kielbasa from W-Nassau Meat Market in Greenpoint (not to be confused with the hot kielbasa from Sikorski Meat Market, also in Greenpoint).” We knew we liked this guy. [The Feedbag]