Not officially, of course.  But servers at restaurants often labor under more rules than a slaughterhouse worker. Well, definitely more than a slaughterhouse worker actually follows. I mention this because of Bruce Buschel's latest post on his delightful Start-Up Chronicle blog for The New York Times. (If you haven't read his posts yet on starting [...]

I mean no disrespect to the Lager Heads, who had great coverage today of a beer vs. wine competition — I've levied plenty of jokes at wine myself. But NYT's Eric Asimov wrote a wonderful call to sanity today on his blog The Pour, "A Plea for Peaceful Coexistence" (likely in response to the same [...]

Well, sort of. At about the 1:56 mark in this segment on restaurant critics and anonymity, CNN captures a screen shot of your beloved Young & Hungry blog. I'm still trying to figure out whether CNN used Young & Hungry because we are a marvel of search-engine optimization or because they were trying to suggest [...]

Controversy over Esquire's selection for Chef of the Year. The passing of Ben Ali. The New York Times' investigation into commercial ground beef. All of these have been major subjects on the blog this week. And yet: The most-read item this week beat out Select 55 by a mere five clicks. Barton Seaver to Be [...]

If you ever doubted the fame of Ben Ali and the tiny chili stand he started in 1958, all you have to do is look at the news coverage detailing his death yesterday. News outlets across the country either ran the AP story or wrote short, tribute-oriented pieces of their own. Here are a few [...]

The New York Times' investigation of the commercial beef industry has consumed much of Y&H's attention this week. First, I solicited a couple of burger men to give their opinions on the differences between commercial ground beef and gourmet ground beef. Then, I asked those with a less-vested interest in the subject— readers, in other [...]

In the wake of the Times' investigation of the ground-beef industry — and its section on how quickly slaughterhouses must break down carcases — Y&H offers up this video on the proper way to butcher a side of beef. Obviously this is an apples-and-oranges comparison. Slaughterhouses must remove hides, organs, and intestines; butcher Tom Mylan [...]

 Michael Landrum, the man who put the meat into the Ray's mini-empire, has never been shy about telling the world about the superiority of his beef.  The New York Times' investigation of the commercial ground-beef industry gave him another chance to do more of the same. Landrum responded to three of the four questions posed [...]

Rumors had been circulating for weeks about pending cutbacks at either Gourmet or Bon Appetit, but Condé Nast's decision today to ax editor Ruth Reichl's print baby sent shock waves through the food community (even if Gourmet's book publishing and TV operations will continue, as will the Web site). In his business story for the [...]

Following the New York Times' investigation of the ground-beef industry, and the failed safety systems designed to protect the public from its worst practices, Y&H contacted a number of prominent burger operators to get their take on the situation. It was a chance for them to refute any information, argue that the safety of gourmet [...]