Possibly the biggest story, this week, was Jamie Oliver's latest crusade, Jamie Saves Our Bacon, raising awareness of the dire state of the British pork industry and certain supermarkets' willingness to import pork reared in appalling conditions. Part of Channel 4's food season, it's the latest attempt by our erstwhile food crusaders (another prominent one being Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) ro improve standards.
So has this had any impact? Well, we're seeing reports that Tesco might finally be improving chicken welfare, while a crackdown on food labelling is in the offing. It's not all good news, however, as the Guardian raised doubts over the saintliness of the UK pig farming market (the Telegraph seems to agree) and also suggests that Jamie's battle is just the beginning.
Elsewhere, we've learned:
- Time Out's critics came up with their top 50 London restaurants
- Shoppers are abandoning luxury food as the credit crunch bites.
- Tom Aikens isn't good with money.
- Never choose Blowfish testicles if they're on the menu.
- Jamie's not just happy with improving our diets, he's now improving children's grades at school.
- Chef's tables have mellowed kitchen behaviour.
- Giles Coren sampled American food across California.
- It's now apparently OK to transport organic food by air.
- Marco Pierre White decided it was fine to charge £5 for a pint outside of London but the Dukedom group disagrees
- Wine reviewers are not to be trusted.
- Will Self realises that kebabs can contain an entire day's calorific intake, but he doesn't care.