Balance of Food

CreateTV through PBS is a great way to get actual cooking shows on television

Valerie Bertinelli had a cooking show on the Food Network. You might not even have been aware. Bertinelli criticized her Food Network bosses for cancelling her TV show. She pointed out that the channel should bring back cooking shows to the Food Network.

The celebrity cooking shows weren't that great, whether Bertinelli or Tiffani Amber-Thiessen or Tia Mowry or Haylie Duff or others were the hosts. Still, they were better than Holiday Wars or Worst Cooks in America (which isn't really about cooking).

We wrote some time back (2015) about how the Cooking Channel should bring back actual cooking TV shows at the expense of celebrities and their cooking TV shows. We had no hope even 10 years ago that the Food Network would rethink their approach. The beauty of Cooking Channel is that "cooking" is literally in the name. Then again, TLC stood for The Learning Channel, a channel that hasn't been about learning in a long time.

Bertinelli cited cooking TV shows from cooks who are celebrities (a different breed): 30 Minute Meals (Rachael Ray), Barefoot Conetessa (Ina Garten), and Giada at Home (Giada De Laurentiis). Only 1 of those 3 shows involves a decent amount of actual cooking (Garten).

Cooking Channel needs to bring back Laura Calder, focus less on celebrities

Decided to try out The Pasta Queen aka Nadia Caterina Munno on Amazon Prime Video. I do love Italian food but had a difficult time putting up with her antics. Would rather learn cooking from the Acid Queen (Tommy) or even a pasta drag queen.

Wondered if Munno was trying to be unintentionally funny and then finally gave up wondering.

I do love Munno's obsession to get things correct, such as guanciale for amatriciana sauce. Most Americans can't find guanciale near them so they should know that pancetta will work in a pinch. Don't use bacon if you can help it.

Ellie Krieger back on TV with Ellie's Real Good Food

Your humble narrator is going through a cultural transition where I will (finally) cut off cable TV. There are options to pick up cable TV food programming — through a service such as FuboTV or Sling TV or YouTube TV or streaming through Max.

Right now, Cooking Channel isn't even carrying Good Eats with Alton Brown, one of the few Warner Bros. Discovery shows through Max where you could learn cooking. If I thought I could get French Food at Home with Laura Calder (3 seasons 78 episodes dating back to 2007), I might subscribe to Max.

Quite frankly, I might just get my cooking TV fix via CreateTV through PBS. You might be aware of the primary PBS channel: kids during the day and cultural and news programming at night. For example, WGBH/Boston at 2.1 or KQED/San Francisco at 9.1.

You can also access arts and crafts, travel, and other type programming via CreateTV but we are concentrating on the food part. You can punch in your coordinates (zip code) to find the CreateTV channel in your area or you can access this via the Web. PBS Passport, for a pledge at a specific rate, can also be a way to access the considerable library of PBS cooking TV shows.

WGBH has CreateTV on 2.3 and also likely available on cable TV in Boston. KQED doesn't have CreateTV over the air but WTTW/Chicago does have CreateTV on 11.3 and available on cable. Your mileage may vary.

One cooking TV show you will find on CreateTV is Ellie's Real Good Food with Ellie Krieger. You might remember Krieger as a former Food Network host with Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger, which ran on the Food Network from 2006-2011. Krieger also offers nutrition tips on her PBS show, a word that almost seems verboten on that cable TV channel.

America's Test Kitchen, Essential Pepin, Fit to Eat (out of Mississippi), Pati's Mexican Table, Sara's Weeknight Meals, My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas, Simply Ming: just some of the many actual cooking TV shows you can find on CreateTV. No pseudo celebrities (sorry Valerie) known for more than just their cooking.

Amy Schumer Learns to Cook but are we learning by watching the show?

How to succeed on the Food Network and Cooking Channel: Love every single food

Podcast: Guy Fieri and his new $80 million Food Network deal

How well do farmers markets do on Farmers' Market Flip?

Yes, PBS Passport will cost some money. Given the current regime, er, government, PBS could use help. Contrary to some narrow-minded perception, very few tax dollars actually go to PBS programming. You can get the episode you want if you suddenly have a craving for a particular dish, such as the savory mushrooms with red wine and rosemary. 

BalanceofFood.com television coverage

You might be fortunate to survive on cooking TV shows via Max and CreateTV via PBS, if that is your ideal option. The idea of waiting around for Food Network or Cooking Channel to realign their priorities will be a very lonely and quite long wait.

The PBS Passport can be cheaper than a month of cable, especially in my predicament. You have cooking TV dollars to spend. If you want real cooking in your cooking TV, CreateTV and PBS are diamonds in the rough.

photo credits: CreateTV/PBS; Ellie's Real Good Food
video credit: The Pasta Queen

Beef tallow vs. avocado oil for French fries: a contrast of frying approaches

Tallow Fries now in Ohio, Colorado, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma

By March 1 ALL locations. Fries will be RFK’d! pic.twitter.com/m3pVaulppW

— Steak 'n Shake (@SteaknShake) February 25, 2025

We are not on the horns of a dilemma in that the choice in front of us is not a situation in which one has to choose between things that are unpleasant or undesirable. On the surface, French fries cooked in beef tallow is pleasant or desirable.

Steak 'n Shake fries played into the new reign of the very dangerous Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This is where the dilemma resides.

The fast food chain announced switches from vegetable oil to beef tallow on the concept that beef tallow is better for you than vegetable oil. The influence of a very dangerous person.

Sweetgreen is offering a contrast: Ripple Fries air-fried in avocado oil and seasoned with a blend of salt and herbs.

My local Steak 'n Shake in my area had no signage about the beef tallow in the French fries. Then again, I am not in RFK Jr. territory.

I can contrast the current product with the previous version cooked in vegetable oil. The regular French fries are really good. Yes, the beef tallow did improve the taste. The quality of the beef tallow could be better but yes, there is a taste difference and a positive one.

We chased after McDonald's for years to convert to a fat free of trans fat. Reportedly, McDonald's used beef tallow at one point, which upset Hindus and vegans, among many groups. That fast food chain finally did come up with a fat that was trans fat free but the taste suffered as a result.

Your humble narrator adores Steak 'n Shake French fries even in vegetable oil as a contrast to the tasteless McDonald's fries. Always try a few fries without ketchup to see if the actual fries are tasty. Both versions of Steak 'n Shake blow away what comes out of McDonald's.

The beef tallow McDonald's fries would be a serious contender. The criticism of McDonald's was that they used it while hiding that information from vegans and Hindus, among others. Steak 'n Shake customers are entitled to that same transparency. Our dismal experience with a hipster place in San Francisco advertising "duck fat fries" that were not cooked in duck fat reminds us that transparency and ethics are important.

Cutting way back on major label fast food

Steak 'n Shake switching to trans fat free oils

Hipster vs. Classic: sincerity in ingredients

BalanceofFood.com fast food coverage

Steak 'n Shake is advertising the 100% beef tallow with the slogan: "America deserves the best." America clearly doesn't get the best, especially in fast food. The quality of beef tallow is likely a concern. You can buy better beef tallow and cook French fries in that at home and get a better product.

America's love of fast food, and not high-quality fast food, means the country gets what it deserves: not that much.

We know little of the history of Steak 'n Shake in terms of trans fat free oil options. We covered this story in 2007 and even then, details were vague.

I don't eat too many French fries these days so if I am torn, fries cooked even in cheap beef tallow could break a tie.

I live a lot closer to a Sweetgreen. Despite my love for healthy food, I rarely go to Sweetgreen. Too expensive and sometimes too healthy.

Their brand new Ripple Fries, air-fried in avocado oil and seasoned with a blend of salt and herbs, was opportune to measure its healthier approach. The advantages: Being air fried with very little oil and using avocado oil instead of a seed oil. Then again, less oil is used in air frying.

The location had plenty of obvious presence of the new Ripple Fries. The price point was $4.85 vs. $3.89 at Steak 'n Shake. I was worried that the portion would be too small but the portion size was decent.

ripple fries have entered the chat 🍟

let us introduce you to the good fry. made with five ingredients you can pronounce and air-fried in avocado oil.

pair it with pickle ketchup or garlic aioli. choose wisely. pic.twitter.com/Nl00l4z3vN

— sweetgreen (@sweetgreen) March 4, 2025

We used a local, sugar-based ketchup for the Steak 'n Shake fries while relying on Sweetgreen's choice of garlic aioli or pickle ketchup. The garlic aioli had more flavor than I thought it would. The pickle ketchup was okay, not tasting anything like pickles or ketchup.

The Sweetgreen fries are about what you would expect from an air fryer. Not really crispy but if you lower your standards, they would be fine. You think of that more as real potatoes instead of traditional French fries. A cross of chips, wedges, and fries.

They were better seasoned and felt more nutritious than the Steak 'n Shake. They can't live up to the Steak 'n Shake in consistency and taste yet a quality product on its own, especially with the garlic aioli.

One critique: I had to wait for the Steak 'n Shake fries but they came out hot. I got the Sweetgreen fries right away and they definitely weren't hot. Speed is fine but I can wait for hot fries — every single time.

Preserving the integrity of Belgian frites

Wendy's new natural fries delivers by major chain fast food standards

I don't have issues with vegetable oil, beef tallow, seed oils, and avocado oils. I can even deal with air fried as long as you don't accept that as actual fried. If I had a coupon for each one, I would get both of them. They each have good points and, with a hot fresh version of the Sweetgreen fries, would be a good snack choice.

I say this as a former French fry aficionado: enjoy fries. Eat quality fare. Not too much. Like Michael Pollan has said, cook them at home. Get quality beef tallow or duck fat. Air fry them with a bit of avocado oil. Just get them to be a bit more crisp.

Temptation of the Week: Size of the French fries

What's Tempting: 6 French fries

Temptation of the Week: French fries naked

Twitter captures: @SteaknShake; @sweetgreen
photos credit: me

The milk(person) would be ideal to get home delivery of high-quality dairy

Living in a colder climate, ideally you would go to the grocery store less often when the weather is frightful. I can handle shopping for almost any food I consume — except for milk.

Short of going back a few generations and drinking powdered milk, you have to go to the store for milk. I loathe the store where I buy my milk most often because of their asinine approaches to milk in the last few years.

They had the $2.49 (per gallon) pandemic priced milk. Not great tasting milk but tasty enough to drink. The high-end organic milk was an option but without significant financial help during the pandemic, that was too much of a luxury. There is a correlation between great tasting milk and cost.

My local store got rid of the low cost milk and raised the price of the low mark milk, which was not drinkable IMHO. So I switched to the organic milk. $6.99 per gallon but you could buy 2 gallons of milk for $12. This is great if you have a spouse and kids and more difficult for a single person.

The store recently got rid of the high-end organic milk so I was stuck buying the medium quality milk, a different milk at $4.49-$4.99/gallon.

I've only seen the milkman in old TV shows and as a punchline to a potential amour for lonely housewives of bygone eras. Imagine getting your milk delivered in glass bottles delivered right to your door and not in an Instacart-type transaction where they can't find half of what you want from the store.

People back then got top quality milk and cream products, full-fat buttermilk. Chocolate milk that was full fat and sweetened with sugar and not high-fructose corn syrup: milk you would feel proud to have your children drink.

You can make full-fat buttermilk substitute with lemon juice of vinegar with whole milk, but getting full-fat buttermilk requires a person with a truck making deliveries.

Carrying home a gallon of milk from the store is pretty easy for those with cars. Carrying a gallon of milk, even 2 gallons, is harder, especially as you get older. Even dragging a gallon of milk on a bus is more cumbersome. Going out to the store, mostly for milk, with icy conditions is a risk you may not want to take.

You wake up and find glass bottles of dairy products that taste good and you only have to lift them from your back stoop to your refrigerator. The creamy bit at the top of the bottle of milk; can't get that with modern milk in the plastic jug.

Milk people worked as a concept where people had houses with back stoops, where people felt safer than perhaps now. Glass bottles is nostalgic along the lines of drinking Mexican Coca-Cola in glass bottles. The idea of reusing glass bottles instead of throwing out the plastic jugs of the modern era sounds wonderful for the environment. Those plastic jugs also pile up in your kitchen if the weather is too frightful.

Nostalgia can be cute up to a point. The idea isn't practical in the modern times, however tempting the practice is. I would be willing to get high-quality dairy products delivered, even if not in glass bottles.

The current solution is a different grocery store along a bus line with a high-end milk that is mostly good and expensive. Food prices likely won't come down with the new administration, at least in the United States. Or I could stop drinking milk. This is a good source of protein and I am not doing well in getting protein otherwise.

photo credit: this Reddit page

Ranking food Super Bowl LIX ads

"Brilliant idea," someone shouted at some point. The fake orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally adapted to a Hellmann's mayonnaise Super Bowl ad. Just get Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan back at Katz's Delicatessen. This was likely the most anticipated food ad in Super Bowl LIX.

The ad seems clever and very basic but we have a few issues. Katz's deli is a rather famous Jewish deli in New York City. Mustard would be perfect for a Super Bowl ad set in a Jewish delicatessen. Mustard provides moisture, taste, and isn't restricted by some elements of Judaism.

Katz's specifically has on its online menu that you can order mayonnaise "if you must." I am not Jewish (likely blood on my father's side) yet I know mayo and a Jewish deli is as fake as the "orgasm" Meg Ryan has over putting Hellmann's on a turkey sandwich in a Jewish deli.

The brilliant move by Rob Reiner, director of the original movie, was to put his mother — Estelle Reiner — in that scene and say, "I'll have what she's having." Sydney Sweeney is young and well-known to young people. I have nothing personal against Sweeney but is there a specific reason she gets the line? I may be missing that point.

Kate McKinnon, who has done a previous Hellmann's Super Bowl ad, would have been a better fit. Tracy Reiner, who was in When Harry Met Sally, Rob Reiner's adopted daughter (parents Penny Marshall and Michael Henry), would have been a poetic choice. (Reiner adopted her when he was married to Marshall.)

Lay's had one of the best Super Bowl ads this year in any category, much less food. A young girl saves a young potato. Earnest efforts to grow the potato. Then she makes the ultimate sacrifice as she gives the potato to the truck holding the other potatoes going to make Lays potato chips.

A Super Bowl ad that explains what goes into a product is rather rare these days. This ad will have lasting power in the months that the ads run. The Hellmann's ad won't have that connection.

The Pringles ads features flying mustaches, only the second ad of the day featuring flying male facial hair. Good news for Pringles: not the worst food ad but pretty close to the worst. (Some of this content is from our sibling blog, CanadianCrossing.com.)

Little Caesar's had 2 Levys from Schitt's Creek — Eugene and Sarah — for its Crazy Puffs.

Eugene Levy has been in a myriad of Super Bowl ads before Little Caesar's went with highlighting his eyebrows. This was in a reaction to Crazy Puffs. We didn't learn anything about the food, except that some come with bacon.

The Detroit-based national chain was stealth to tease the ad but not show it over the last 2 weeks. There should be a business axiom that if you feature a male whose facial hair is running rogue, be the first ad to run with that theme. Pringles later had wayward mustaches.

We got the Super Bowl ad debut (as far as I can remember) of Sarah Levy. 3 members from her family were featured in Super Bowl ads this year. Dan Levy had a couple of Homes.com ads touting how the site is "the best" even as a lawyer tells them they can't say it.

Coffee Mate cold foam creamer had a Super Bowl ad with a Canadian. Shania Twain sings the song while the tongue is dancing on screen.

Funny fact: regular Coffee Mate in Canada is referred to as a "coffee whitener" while American lower standards allows for it to be described as "non-dairy creamer."

Seems like a regular milk, half and half, or alternative milk makes a lot more sense than a cold foam "creamer" with an artificial sweetener.

Didn't want to like the Ritz crackers Super Bowl ad, but I did. Aubrey Plaza and Michael Shannon did a great job promoting the salty part of Ritz crackers being salty.

People who don't smile was the theme. I never thought of Ritz crackers as being salty, so this was a bit of a surprise. Not sure salty is a good adjective for a cracker when corporate made food is usually very salty.

This was by far the most memorable Ritz crackers ad since Andy Griffith sold them with the tagline "good cracker," which could have referred to the cracker or a white person.

Ranking food Super Bowl LVIII ads

Ranking food Super Bowl LVII ads

Ranking food Super Bowl LVI ads

Ranking food and drink Super Bowl LV ads

Taco Bell had an overall good Super Bowl ad in featuring non-celebrities in the ad. Of course, we still need celebrities to try and get into the ads: Lebron James and Doja Cat served that role. Taco Bell is one of those places where emphasizing the product is to their detriment.

Pringles had Adam Brody and Nick Offerman in its Super Bowl ad featuring the flying mustaches. The potato chip company has definitely had better ads.

Haagen Dazs played on the Fast and Furious series of movies. The drawback was the target: ice cream bars. If I had a $25 gift card to spend on the high-quality ice cream catalog — free money — I would never spend them on ice cream bars.

Liquid Water had an ad that included iced tea. Might consider that over a cola option that involved water, also in the same ad. Dunkin Donuts had an ad for coffee that featured Ben Affleck. Odd to have a Super Bowl ad for a product that isn't a primary offering. They used to advertise the donuts.

Totino's Pizza Rolls had the worst Super Bowl ad in the food category. 2 words: dead alien. A waste of money on an ad you don't want to watch more than once. If there is quality control at Totino's, they were absent that day.

Previous Super Bowl ad analysis stories

2020   2019   2018   2017   2016   2015   2014   2013   2011

The Super Bowl ad phenomenon does not lend itself to advertising healthy food. Broccoli can't afford a 30-second or 60-second ad in the Super Bowl. If we missed your candy ad, we want to limit this to food that is actually food, up to a point.

video and photo credits: individual manufacturers

Yet another moratorium on American food policy advances

my taxes pay for wars all over the world, the least i can do is give a kid in my backyard a sandwich. https://t.co/AoTdhCv8la

— The Ginger Swindler (sixers apologist) (@lilydsmith) October 15, 2024

Not much happened with the quality of the mainstream food supply in the United States over the last 4 years. This doesn't mean that the last 4 years were bad. Not making things worse passes as growth and positivity for the United States.

The hope of that change, even small changes, will go into a box with no light or air for awhile. How long? 4 years, at least. Things will get worse. A lot worse. The last time, we had a policy of sending chickens to China to be processed and then sent back to the United States.

You can certainly argue that the Democratic Party hasn't campaigned on improving the food system. They don't get much of a chance to gain enough power to make effective change. Bill Clinton's first 2 years and Barack Obama's first 2 years in office: only time since the early days of 1981 that the Dems had control of the House of Representatives, Senate, and the White House.

Daily Show addresses increased junk food in school lunches

Meals on Wheels symbol of Trump attack on food supply

The Republican Party is not interested in any positive food reform. If you voted for that party in 2024 at those levels and thought they will reduce food prices at the grocery store, they won't.

The 2010 school lunch reform — the idea of a non-inflationary increase in school lunch funding — was watered down to 6¢ by a conservative Democratic senator.

We have a school lunch bill; President Obama should sign bill by the WH organic garden

There was talk last summer about a switch in where food safety is covered in the U.S. government. The new Federal Food Administration would take over food safety from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The new organization would ensure the safety of the country’s food supply and promote nutrition.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced such legislation last summer.

Using the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to combat the food woes hasn't gone well. There are lots of conflicts of interest. The potential FFA would be a really nice start.

Unfortunately, the potential legislation will have to be reintroduced several years into the future. Again, the last time, we had a policy of sending chickens to China to be processed and then sent back to the United States.

Tim Walz would be a step forward on food policy

This is what the United States could have had. A sitting vice president doesn't have that much power or control. Kamala Harris could have suggested food policy was something Walz could do and not just for the citizens of Minnesota.

Progress would have been slow but faster than what we will see for a few years to come.

BalanceofFood.com school lunch coverage

BalanceofFood.com politics coverage

BalanceofFood.com U.S. food policy coverage

BalanceofFood.com agency alphabet soup coverage

We have wonderful stories in our archives back in a time when forces were fighting for the improvement in the food supply in the United States.

Our neighbors to the north — Canada — had a rather good 2024. They had a grocery store boycott and a new federal school lunch program.

The necessity of a grocery store boycott

Canada (finally) introduces a national school lunch program

BalanceofFood.com Canada food policy coverage

However, that limited growth could be in stark danger. Turmoil, in part caused by the U.S. election, in Canada may start as early as next week as Parliament returns. There will be a federal election by October and possibly sooner.

The current opposition party leader has no interest in helping the school lunch program. He won't come out and say so but other talking points don't show any encouragement.

I think back to when Michael Moore was in France (Where to Invade Next), showing the U.S. audience what a school lunch looked like in France. Significant and remarkable. We are told to "think of the children" at selected points but they usually don't involve what they eat.

Twitter capture: @lilydsmith
photo credit: Lawrence Jackson/Official White House Photo; @timwalz
video credit: Where to Invade Next

One-dish recipes from TikTok videos: Do these qualify as cooking?

Your humble narrator has a few quirks in the world of food. I have had a fear of funerals for more than just death. Casseroles. "Here, honey. Here are 10 casseroles to get you by so you don't have to cook during grief." Ugh.

Yet I was fascinated by the single pot or slow cooker type meal. You may have seen them in TikTok videos. Easy. Convenient.

Meat is involved. Chicken broth. Often, there is a small, bite sized pasta involved. The only debate in a lot of these recipes are whether there will be a whole block of cream cheese dropped into the dish. The answer most of the time is definitely "yes."

The recipes are centered around the 1-pot dish. Lots of pre-shredded cheese and raw ground beef.

Recipes in motion make for interesting videos. Watching cooking shows such as America's Test Kitchen can seem slow between the PBS and television aesthetics. Why wait 12 minutes when you can get the essence of a recipe in 3 minutes?

The recipe trend reminded your humble narrator of Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman, from the Food Network show of the same name. Very easy, simple to make, ingredients likely on hand. Drummond has 5 children and her hard-working, hungry husband, Ladd.

Is this cooking? Does it matter if this isn't cooking?

Recipes in motion is a good way to get a better sense of what a recipe looks like. Your humble narrator likes to do searches for recipes, such as a white clam sauce using canned clams. The words tell you the basics yet video proof is easier at times and gives you a better sense of the dish at hand.

There is a single caveat of note. These recipes are designed to feed a family or a few friends. Single people can make these dishes but there will be lots of leftovers.

The beauty of recipes, even the 1-pot kind, is that you can adapt. Maybe you make your own spaghetti sauce instead of pouring in a version from the grocery store. You could use sour cream for the proverbial cream cheese. Impossible or Beyond works just as easily as ground beef. 

Perhaps you don't feel secure about "regular" cooking and these videos are a way to show your family or a prospective partner that you can do more than boil water.

We understand anxiety and how the effort behind cooking might be more difficult. The ease of dumping ingredients into a pot and having them cook together can save time and unneeded anxiety.

You might cook a fancier meal for Christmas Day but a 1-pot option for Boxing Day would be a time and energy saver.

If you are already "wasting" time scrolling on your phone, you might as well be looking for future dinner ideas.

While I am not a huge fan of casseroles, I could watch chicken pot pie recipes for 20-25 minutes at a time. Not all cooking has to be complicated.

video credit: What the Duck
photo credit: TikTik/easydinnerideas

Food documentaries to increase your knowledge of the food chain

We review films on a regular basis on our sibling blog — CanadianCrossing.com. We even write about film for this blog about food issues and documentaries.

We have run across some food documentaries of late so we have reviews about the merits of these food documentaries. You might think seeing a food documentary means you don't have to watch others. True in some cases and not the complete truth with other films.

Food and Country

Ruth Reichl has a documentary about the state of the food system over the last 5 years and beyond. You might recognize Reichl from her work as The New York Times restaurant critic. Reichl takes us through the perils of COVID-19 on farmers and restaurants. One farm had geared its efforts to restaurants and had to pivot since eating out became a problem during the pandemic.

The backstory is presented, going back to Earl Butz in the Department of Agriculture under Richard Nixon. The film showcases the limited control of major production with Tyson, Cargill, and 2 Brazilian owned companies.

Food and Country points out notable solutions to improve the situation, such as getting more Black people to become farmers and the efforts of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, GA with regenerative and organic farming.

Reichl throws in a bit of her story but is wise enough to limit that in the documentary. A good overview if you know little to nothing but a lot you may have seen before if you are clued into the food supply concerns.

AARP ran a free screening of Food and Country about a month ago. This should stream soon.

Common Ground

The primary focus of this food documentary is regenerative agriculture, the true opposite of monocultures. No-till policies help regenerate the soil. Using cattle to pollinate the grassland. This also puts carbon into the ground to help the climate crisis as well as improve the soil.

A number of celebrities are involved in the narration of Common Ground and are seen on-screen, including Laura Dern, Jason Momoa, Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover, Ian Somerhalder, and Rosario Dawson.

The tone is kind of "duh. of course we should be doing this." Normally, that can be annoying but this is obvious.

Common Ground is the follow-up film to Kiss the Ground. You can find out if there is a screening near you or to request one. Common Ground has run in select theatres and should be streaming in 2025.

Tea Creek

Jacob Beaton tells us that Indigenous food sovereignty used to be 100%. Beaton runs Tea Creek, an Indigenous food sovereignty training center in northern British Columbia in Canada. The documentary ties in with Indigenous populations having to move to less desirable farm land and the Indian Act restricting what Indigenous people could do in terms of farming.

The training center gives Indigenous people expertise and confidence to farm the land. Farm techniques also help the people take care of the land. The film talks about the importance of the 3 sisters: corn, beans, and squash. They also share the bounty with the Indigenous community, a trait of their people for hundreds of years.

The center does its best yet has run into financial difficulty.

These techniques and inspiration can also apply to non-Indigenous people so don't limit yourself in watching the documentary. This will be hard to find outside Canada yet is the most important documentary in this article.

Tea Creek is available in Canada in the Absolutely Canadian section of CBC Gem. Hopefully, there will be a U.S. deal.

The Michoacan File

On the surface, The Michoacan File is about the quest to get UNESCO certification for Mexican cuisine. That part of the documentary isn't that interesting. The telling of the story of Mexican food over centuries, the connection with the Philippines, the connection with France, the matriarchal angle of Mexican cooking, Baja California cuisine, Tex Mex, and so much more.

Milpas and the 3 sisters: corn, beans, and squash. The different names for chiles, depending on their state in the moment. This is a wonderful history of cooking that goes way beyond tacos and tostados.

The film centers on the Michoacan region as a gateway to get the UNESCO certification. They have to leave their comfort zone and cook in a foreign land where they are not wanted in the kitchen.

You can likely watch this film on demand at some point.

Crush: Message in a Bottle

We don't really cover wine, even if wine is made from food (grapes). People cook with wine so we should include this documentary. A nice overview of four seasons with the battles and challenges in the wine making process. This takes place in the Niagara region of southern Ontario, an up and coming wine-making area.

Crush: Message in a Bottle is ideal viewing while drinking a glass of wine. The film is available via TVO (TV Ontario) in Ontario in Canada.

Singing Back The Buffalo

Singing Back The Buffalo is a documentary about bringing back buffalo populations to Canada and the United States. The film reinforces the regenerative agriculture argument of buffalo pollinating the grasslands. Buffalo are falsely seen in some circles as a threat to cows. Of course, buffalo is a nice alternative to cows in terms of grass-fed meat production with more Omega 3s and lower in fat.

Tasia Hubbard is a very good filmmaker and makes the buffalo a subject worthy of contemplating.

BalanceofFood.com film coverage

40 Acres is a feature film about Black and Indigenous farmers defending their farmland in a post-apocalyptic world. There is a bit too much killing yet tells a good story about how important farming is, especially when food is scarce.

Seeds is actually about seeds: how an Indigenous influencer gets tricked into endorsing a company that wants to patent seeds and steal her grandmother's seeds. This film also mentions the 3 sisters (corn, beans, and squash). A bit violent toward the end of the film yet an important message.

Both these films are in the film festival stage. They are both Canadian, which means they could end up on Crave within the next year and eventually on demand in the United States.

We know a lot of this content deals with Canada. These films played at a film festival in Canada and Canada does a lot of documentaries. Plus, Canada is similar to the United States in some ways.

photo credits: Tea Creek; Crush: Message in a Bottle; Singing Back The Buffalo
video credits: Greenwich Entertainment; Common Ground Film; Windsor International Film Festival; Veneto International Film Festival

Food as art has a very small audience

Your humble narrator isn't the biggest fan of ultra fancy dining. A fancy meal every so often allows you to grow as a dining human being. Fancy is fine but ultra fancy is more theatre and art than food, especially at those prices.

My friend IRL Monica Eng covers the food industry for a long time in different formats. Eng recently wrote about Charlie Trotter tribute dinners run by Grant Achatz. 

In Chicago high dining circles. Charlie Trotter and Grant Achatz were and are well-known names. If you want to be seen as being cool, then you would dive into this opportunity. "Hey, look. I got into this exclusive experience. You didn't. I am better than you." 

Eng points out the cost for the tribute dinners (Trotter died in 2013) is $175-$235 per person. This does not count tax, tip, and drinks. From the article: "Wine pairings, starting with Champagne and ending with port, range from $135 to $345 for ultra reserve vintages. Non-alcoholic pairings cost $75." I suppose a Mexican Coca-Cola is out of the question.

Trotter and Achatz's restaurants (Achatz worked at Charlie Trotter's restaurant) are about pageantry and being seen more than the food itself. You pay through the nose for that luxury.

You get some fancy food, not much on any one plate:

"The meal starts with a ring of Osetra caviar, sea urchin, vodka créme fraiche and daikon that sings of the sea with a whisper of fruity sweetness. Other standout courses include:

• Summer-kissed heirloom tomato soup with crunchy dried tomato bits and an avocado coriander sorbet.
• A slice of rare venison over shredded oxtail infused with cherry juice and surrounded by a rich mole and cashew vinaigrette.
• Buttery Peruvian sea bass over chanterelles and a veal reduction.
• Puddingy banana bread, laced with warm chocolate ganache and topped with a coconut cookie, ripe bananas and malt ice cream that I still can't stop thinking about."

The article shows some pictures. Eng said in the article, "No, you will not still be hungry after this meal. If I was full, anyone would be full." She is likely correct, simply because there are a number of courses. The goal shouldn't be all you can eat at a family style restaurant. When you paying a lot for fancy food, the portions will be tiny. That is a key part of the panache.

One of the lures of the tribute dinners is to meet like-minded people who did Trotter's when that restaurant was still active. Perhaps you can't — or won't — put a price on that kind of experience.

The lure of eating at a restaurant with a celebrity chef

Don't fall for a restaurant that says it is 'approachable'

That isn't what food should really be. Art and performance can be in that realm. Food should be reasonably approachable. You can go to museums and see some of the greatest art in the world. Of course, museums are financially subsidized.

The costs are ridiculous yet the money is only part of the issue. You can go to Chez Panisse in Berkeley (lunch in the photo at the top of this column) and pay a lot for a very good meal. Lunches upstairs are cheaper than dinner downstairs. You could go to Swan Oyster Depot on Polk Street in San Francisco, pay a lot of money (cash only) for some amazing seafood. The ambiance is way more casual so bragging rights aren't a big deal.

You could find a quality place and spend $100-$125 (per person) for a very nice meal with wine. A nice quiet meal with no publicity.

Theoretically, one could participate new in this process, dish out the money. If they even think in their head that they didn't get value for the money, one can't say it was so-so. You have to praise what you consumed, regardless of the reality. That doesn't sound encouraging.

What's Tempting: Recreating spirit of Chez Panisse

What's Tempting: Chez Panisse for lunch

The design of the Charlie Trotter original and tribute experiences is to be exclusive, not inclusive, even more than just fancy dining. They are considered great chefs not because of the way they cook or how the dishes turn out but by charging large sums of money for that exclusive experience.

If I am ever in Cetara, Italy on the Amalfi Coast south of Naples, I am headed for Al Convento, Pasquale Torrente’s place featured with Anthony Bourdain on No Reservations. I wouldn't care how much the bill would be. All of the dishes Bourdain ordered looked so good. Cetara is known for local anchovies.

A memorable meal with a beautiful ocean view. I would take pictures and show them on social media. No one around me would be bragging that they were there because of the company, just the food. I want to dine out for the food and not some fancy exclusivity.

BalanceofFood.com travel coverage

"A two-hour meal of eight set courses introduced by servers explaining how the elements reflect Trotter's passion for jazz, Japanese cooking, game meat, seasonal produce and even Nancy Silverton's panna cotta."

Ultra fancy dining requires a level of trust of epic proportions. If you had a boatload of money AND a lot of trust in Charlie Trotter, you would likely salivate at the above description. You have to trust Achatz and the others who put together the tribute dinners maybe even more than Trotter.

I do struggle with trust, especially in food relationships. I trust Alice Waters now but there was a time when I didn't have that trust.

This is the difference between fancy dining and ultra fancy dining. I can trust fancy dining for an occasional treat. I struggle to trust ultra fancy dining, even if I had the money to justify an evening's meal. 

photo credits: me; No Reservations

Alcohol is useful in cooking but won't completely cook out

#CulinaryTruth Alcohol never completely cooks out of anything...ever.

— Alton Brown (@altonbrown) April 10, 2021

Cooking shows are supposed to be accurate. They usually are, except for the constantly repeated mantra: "The alcohol will cook out." You can say it 3 times in a mirror but that doesn't make it true.

Most of us don't have an issue as to whether the alcohol cooks out. The concern is for those where alcohol is a concern and they are being told a dangerous lie.

You likely enjoyed when McDonald's cooked your French fries in beef tallow a couple of decades ago. The Indians who don't consume anything from cows as well as other vegans were upset to find out they had consumed beef tallow unknowingly.

Say "virtually." Journalists use "allegedly" or "police said." Like when dietitians and many others on the mainstream side of food say that sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are virtually the same. There is a wide difference between them. At least they aren't saying they are the same.

The alcohol is the reason why you put that into dishes. Alton Brown has noted that tomatoes are rich in alcohol-soluble compounds.

The world is now filled with fake cocktails for those who want the taste of alcohol. Your humble narrator has tried a ton of them and rejected all that taste like the alcohol in question.

Here comes the nerdy part about what happens to the alcohol when you cook, courtesy of America's Test Kitchen.

Alcohol evaporates when it’s heated. So in theory, cooking will make it evaporate away. And, because the boiling point of ethanol (173 degrees) is lower than that of water (212 degrees), it seems like you should be able to cook off all the alcohol in a dish without cooking off all of its water.

In practice, it doesn’t work that way. When alcohol and water are combined, they dissolve into each other, forming a solution whose boiling point is neither 173° nor 212°, but variable, depending on the ratio of the ingredients.

The more you cook off alcohol from a dish, the lower the ratio of alcohol to water in the dish becomes, which means the alcohol cooks off more and more slowly. Finally, when the alcohol level reaches about 5 percent, it plateaus, and won't get any lower.

The story notes that a stew containing wine, simmered at 185° for 10 minutes, has as much as 60% of the initial alcohol while that same stew simmered at 185° for 2½ hours has about 6% of the initial alcohol.

This comes up for alcoholics as well as those on medicine where you aren't supposed to drink, such as antidepressants.

A trick I use is to buy small bottles of wine (as seen above) and use them for cooking. This can be helpful in situations where you are living with someone who might be tempted by a whole bottle. This example won't help every case but a great option where that is viable.

Your tomato dish or whatever you are cooking will be just fine without alcohol. Stock and white wine vinegar are good options but there isn't a limit on them. The America's Test Kitchen story notes that "fruit juice naturally contains alcohol" so keep that in mind.

Twitter capture: @altonbrown
photo credit: manufacturer (not an endorsement of a specific company)

Tim Walz would be a step forward on food policy

The stereotype is that a vice president has an important job yet usually doesn't do a whole lot. A U.S. vice president who spent time on food policy would be a great start.

Tim Walz is the governor of Minnesota and the vice presidential pick to run with Vice President Kamala Harris on the Democratic Party ticket. Walz has been praised for his work on getting school breakfasts and lunches to be free in Minnesota.

Eater.com pointed out Walz's understanding of the "connection between food and climate change."

Walz is from a Midwestern state where they understand food. Harris is from California, a state that understands about the growing of food.

One reason to love the #TimWalz pick is his love for #schoollunch funding. https://t.co/WuMqd1Atr0

— Chad Rubel (@balanceoffood) August 6, 2024

Reducing the stigma of lunch debt. Knowing first hand having been a school teacher that kids learn better when their stomachs are full.

We feel confident that the Minnesota governor knows that turkey is meat. Turkey is a big deal in Minnesota. The fact that Walz's daughter Hope is vegetarian means he has a resource to understand that approach to food.

Needing a radical 'New Deal' from the next Secretary of Agriculture

Michael Pollan for Ag Secretary?

The reality is that the status quo, of which Vilsack is a champion, feels like everything is fine with the U.S. food approach. The days of drafting Michael Pollan as secretary of agriculture is beyond a pipe dream.

If Americans voted based on food policy, the Democratic Party would win every time. Then again, if they voted on food policy, voters would want the Green Party or a left of center party such as the New Democratic Party in Canada.

Shopping for vegetables is a reality, not a political stunt

As we've seen in politics, the secretary of agriculture doesn't really tackle concerns over the food supply. When I covered U.S. politics, those who rooted for Tom Vilsack (former Iowa governor) were likely disappointed at his 8-year stint in that cabinet post. Those people were surprised that President Joe Biden brought back Vilsack for the same post. That said, Vilsack is miles ahead of Sonny Perdue in that capacity.

There is proposed legislation to establish the Federal Food Administration under the umbrella of food safety and promoting nutrition. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced the legislation.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA). United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Health and Human Services (HHS). All of these agencies sort of cover these topics yet the USDA is more about promoting food and the FDA is more about drugs.

Food safety would be helpful given e-coli spills from factory farms but we are concerned that "food safety" will be making sure we have more UHT milk. 

Unfortunately the Federal Food Administration won't see the light of day as long as the Dems don't control the House of Representatives. The presidential race is crucial yet the lower ballot races also matter a lot.

We know some of the right-wing side of government don't want another federal agency. They don't complain about the Transportation Security Authority (TSA). They might want a better run food system.

BalanceofFood.com school lunch coverage

BalanceofFood.com politics coverage

Reverse the monoculture mentality of Earl Butz. Diversify farm ownership so farms aren't "too big to fail." Have a smarter immigration policy so more crops aren't wasted on farms. Stop making front and back labels on food being a shell game approach. Make declaring one's self organic a hell of a lot easier. Treat chickens, cows, and pigs with more dignity.

Create a food system that feeds more Americans without relying on bragging as much about food banks. Just some of the many ideas I would incorporate as a secretary of food safety and nutrition.

BalanceofFood.com U.S. food policy coverage

BalanceofFood.com agency alphabet soup coverage

This may seem naive but I think there could be true bipartisan agreement on improving the food supply. Most Republicans aren't rich and many of them go to food banks. The corporate mentality toward the food system clouds people's thinking.

photo credit and video credits: I Am Grambling
Twitter capture: @balanceoffood