“Dark Chocolate Provides Inspiration”   
HERSHEY, Pa., PRNewswire -- Scharffen Berger chocolate makes its first motion picture appearance this summer in Julie & Julia, the highly anticipated motion picture from Sony Pictures set for release nationwide August 7.
Meryl Streep is Julia Child and Amy Adams is Julie Powell in writer-director Nora Ephron's adaptation of two bestselling memoirs: Powell's Julie & Julia and My Life in France, by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme.
Based on two true stories, Julie & Julia intertwines the lives of two women who, though separated by time and space, are both at loose ends...until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible. The film is produced by Laurence Mark, Nora Ephron, Amy Robinson, and Eric Steel.
In an early scene, a distraught Julie Powell finds inspiration in a Scharffen Berger storefront - a pivotal point in the movie where Powell first makes the connection between cooking and pleasure. This realization, symbolized by her delight in making a chocolate cream pie, pushes her to begin her idiosyncratic-but-enriching cooking and writing project.

"AAA inspectors dine at more than 10,000 restaurants a year, which enables them to recognize and validate trends as they occur".

Ten 2009 restaurant trends identified by AAA inspectors:

1. Innovation: greater creativity and differentiation leading to more eclectic decor, menu items, styles of service and pricing policies.
2. Healthier options: organic ingredients, hormone-free meats and smaller portions including bite-sized desserts.
3. "Greener" restaurants: more establishments employing eco-friendly practices such as recyclable or compostable containers, energy efficient appliances and eco-friendly cleaning supplies.
4. Attention to value and convenience: options such as fresh prepackaged to-go items and one-price meals.
5. Regional ethnicity: increased focus on cuisines from smaller, regional areas such as southern Mexico or Piedmont, Italy.
6. Fewer general cuisines: fare identified by specific country of origin such as Korea or Vietnam rather than a broader region such as Asia.
7. Increased use of local ingredients: menus highlighting fresh, indigenous ingredients.
8. Multiple serving sizes: options such as small plates, prix-fixe dining (complete meal with several courses), shareable dishes, family-style platters and bar menus.
9. Upgraded/expanded children's menus: child versions of signature items and/or healthier options for kids.
10. Diverse beverage menus: selections such as micro-distilled liquor, culinary cocktails and organic wine, specialty iced tea, organic coffee and flavored/enhanced water.

"Student-Created Dinners Inspired by the Film and Private Screenings Raise Funds for Charity"

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill.PRNewswire -- In Columbia Pictures' Julie & Julia, Julia Child attends and graduates Le Cordon Bleu before becoming a culinary icon for professional and home cooks alike. With Julie & Julia featuring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Stanley Tucci, set to hit the big screen on August 7, Le Cordon Bleu Schools North America will celebrate the film's release with an exclusive "Dinner and a Movie" series. On August 5, students at 14 Le Cordon Bleu Schools North America affiliate campuses will create and serve a special movie-inspired menu to delight the senses. Each dinner guest also will be invited to attend a private screening of the movie in their area. A portion of the proceeds from these dinners will be donated to the local Ronald McDonald House in each participating city.

"You can't market food grown on a farm but produced in a factory," she says. "You need to be honest about what you're selling."

Food Inc., a new documentary by director Robert Kenner, points an accusing finger at the U.S. food industry - a corporate monopoly, it says, that treats livestock inhumanely and grows genetically modified crops with fertilizers and pest killers that put public health and the planet at risk.
The film has stirred the long-simmering debate between food industry representatives and consumer advocates over what's safe and not-so-safe to eat. In Food Inc., author and investigative journalist Eric Schlosser describes the American food industry as an over-mechanized monopoly in which a handful of corporations produce and sell 80 percent of what we eat.
Schlosser argues that the highly processed food it produces is filled with chemical additives and is nutritionally inferior to natural foods. Other food ethicists appear in the film to echo Schlosser's concerns.
The film shows us cattle artificially fattened with high-corn diets. Cows, it reminds us, did not evolve to eat corn.
According to Kenner's documentary, poultry are also fed chemically enhanced foods so chickens will grow larger and faster and be ready for market sooner. The film takes us to crowded and dirty cattle feed lots that are a breeding ground for a potentially deadly form of E.coli bacteria.

When Hurricne Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, tens of thousands of people lost their personal treasures - photographs, documents, family recipes. Over the last three years, a local newspaper has taken upon itself the task of helping its readers recreate those recipes. The initiative led to a cookbook called Cooking Up a Storm. 
"We definitely have o of the few indigenous cuisines in the United States," says Judy Walker, food editor of the New Orleans newspaper, The Times-Picayune. 
"Being an old port city, we have the original influence of the French, Spanish and African-Americans that were here originally," she adds. "But through the years, different ethnic groups made their contributions, like the Sicilians. So many Sicilians came here directly from Italy at the beginning of the 20th century that the French Quarter was called 'Little Palermo' for years. We have German influence on our cuisine. We have the Croatian influence. Then we have the recent Vietnamese influence."
New Orleans cooking style

New Orleans is famous for its seafood

Walker says she has always admired how cooks in her city use the region's distinctive flavors. "We have so many fabulous indigenous ingredients, specifically the seafood. We can get some of the best seafood in the world here," she says. "Plus, people in New Orleans, the home cooks here, are fabulous cooks, just like the cooks in the restaurants. People here really know how to season things. People here know how to combine seasonings and layer the flavors in different ways. So, it's not just ingredients, but it's techniques."
Recipes lost and found
Like many New Orleanians, Walker left the city after Katrina. When she returned about two months later, she discovered her popular recipe-sharing column had become even more popular. Readers had lost the recipes they had cut out of the newspaper over the years, and they asked Walker if The Times-Picayune could help restore their lost collections.

A gutted house in New Orleans shows the impact of Hurricane Katrina

"I was able to find some of them in our database," she says. "I would also ask other readers of the newspaper, through the column, if they had the recipes."
Walker says some of the recipes were more popular than others and were easier to find.
"I would say some of the 'gumbo' recipes are really popular," she says. "There is one that people here make after Thanksgiving with the turkey carcass. It's called 'turkey bone gumbo.' That's absolutely delicious. There is a crawfish pie recipe. It's extremely popular with our readers. There is a fried turkey recipe, because people here do that."
More than just a cookbook
The recipe recovery project grew into a cookbook called Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, edited by Judy Walker and fellow chef and columnist Marcelle Bienvenu. Its 250 recipes represent the very best of classic and contemporary New Orleans cuisine - from appetizers, soups and salads to entrees, casseroles, desserts and cocktails. 
Cooking Up a Storm, Walker says, is not only about the recipes, it also tells the stories of the people who searched so hard to find them again. One of her favorites is Kelly Hamilton's garlic shrimp. Hamilton teaches history at a local university and runs culinary history tours in the French Quarter. She told Walker about a group of people from an Oregon church who came to New Orleans to help with the relief efforts and worked to rebuild her house.
"These people had gutted her house after the flood, and they found out that she had lost all her cookbooks that were so important to her," she says. "When they went back to Oregon, they started mailing her cookbooks. So she has now this fabulous Northwestern cookbook collection."
Better than Better Cheddar 
Another of Walker's favorite recipes in the book is for an appetizer, called Better than Better Cheddar.
"It's based on a cheddar dip," she explains. "It's a cheese spread that one of the local supermarkets makes that somebody duplicated. We think our version is even a little better. It's a very simple recipe. It's a pound of smoked shredded Gouda cheese, a pound of sharp white cheddar cheese, all shredded. Three green onions, all chopped up, all the parts of them. A cup of toasted walnuts, and I use pecans sometimes. Then it has a homemade Creole mayonnaise that you can put with it. Mix it all, and spread it on crackers."
Warm reception nationwide
Walker says Cooking Up a Storm has been very well received, in New Orleans and beyond.
"What I came to realize is people all around the world experienced Katrina right along everybody here who lived through it," she says. "They just experienced it through their television sets. It was a disaster that was felt worldwide. 
"People have a great feeling for New Orleans. And so many people have been here. They have experienced the cuisine and the wonderful restaurants we have. They have a great feeling and love of New Orleans food. So between people visiting New Orleans and people watching it be destroyed on television, people have really responded to this book. They respond to it as a reconstruction project, a community project."
Working on this project has been a rewarding experience, Walker says. It has also been quite inspiring, she adds, to see the determination of New Orleanians to preserve and safeguard the culinary legacy of their city.

A new generation of authentic Latino foods is emphasizing pure ingredients, vivid flavors and lighter recipes, according to "Latino Foods: The Next Wave Culinary Trend Mapping Report" by the Center for Culinary Development (CCD) and Packaged Facts. In contrast to heavier, higher-fat Tex-Mex fare now integrated into American eating, emerging food trends from the Caribbean and Central and South America point to foods altogether more healthful and flavorful.
Driving the wave. Multiple drivers are propelling this new wave of Latino food forward in the U.S., beyond the growing and diverse Latino population now at roughly 15%, which is projected to rise to 25% by 2050. While Latinos seek to connect to their heritage through these regional foods, other Americans look to authentic recipes in an increased desire for original and fresh flavor.
"Just as Pan-Asian foods have brought new flavor and ingredient excitement to the American plate and palate, now it's time to make way for Pan-Latin," says Kimberly Egan, CEO of CCD.
New ingredients from diverse sources. The Mexican herb epazote, Yucatecan sour Seville oranges and mild Peruvian aji amarillo chiles are now flavoring restaurant fare and gourmet recipes. Mexican cheese and soft corn tortillas are transforming taco night into something more culturally authentic.
Authentically healthful. This authenticity is also naturally healthier. The everyday foods of Latin America don't relay as much on fat and instead use fresh ingredients for flavor. Think ultra-fresh tableside guacamole or lime-kissed rotisserie chicken. Olive oil-based Puerto Rican sofrito is the foundation of myriad regional dishes.
Which of these will follow the mojito and evolve into a popular flavor profile. Saville orange gum, anyone?
The Culinary Trend Mapping Report is co-published by the Center for Culinary Development and Packaged Facts.  www.packagedfacts.com/landing/culinarytrends.asp
NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwire) -- 03/18/09 --