Iconoculture: Advanced palates require complex and compelling flavors, and striking new presentations of age-old ingredients will inspire many cooks to try new dishes. Velissa Van Scoyoc doesn’t think zesty spices belong in boring jars. Her Gusto! Spice Cakes are colorful blocks of “visual aroma” that inspire cooks to spike dishes with exotic seasonings and flavor infusions. “I wanted to renew […]

ThePublican.com: A vending machine for bottled beers and RTDs aimed at pubs, bars and nightclubs is being launched by a young entrepreneur. Michael Bowes, a 23-year-old from Glasgow, is the man behind BarHand – a “robotic” vending machine which aims to relieve the pressure on busy barstaff. BoozeBox, a similar vending machine, was launched in March and received criticism on […]

Iconoculture: Long waits make nights out a drag for patrons, and impatient patrons make nights a drag for waitstaff. Dispensing convenience keeps guests and staff cheery. Elbows, curses, sneers … Just another night queuing for drinks. But Barhand could bring that to an end. The torqued vending machine’s robotic arm dispenses bottled brews, cutting queues and easing staff burdens. Barhand’s […]

Cool Hunting: Because of Cool Hunting’s unusually high alcohol content this week, it seems prudent to balance out our rampant vices with a little virtue. Thus it is my temperate pleasure to introduce a more righteous source of refreshment: Juicy Water by Innocent Drinks. The health-focused U.K. company is taking aim at the shortcomings of most juice drinks: they’re either […]

Influx Insights: Dismissed by many as a fad, molecular gastronomy has a new found legitimacy, as last week, Britain’s The Fat Duck was named the world’s best restaurant. At The Fat Duck you will find the most extraordinary menu items imaginable. The Degustation Menu includes; snail porridge, sardine on toast sorbet, salmon poached with liquorice, white chocolate and caviar and […]

PorkMag.com: Coleman Natural Foods, the largest natural meat company in the United States, is offering a new line of all natural beef, poultry, lamb, pork and sausage products to the conventional grocery stores. The new “Coleman Purely Natural” line will be offered in dedicated natural meat sections within conventional grocery stores across the country. “The entire food industry is undergoing […]

BocaNews.com: A businesswoman from Boca Raton is about to take the plunge into the bottled water market. But she’s targeting a group that’s been largely left high and dry by specialty beverage firms. In late June, she hopes to begin vending W2O, a vitamin-packed water “uniquely designed for women,” said Lila Newman, owner of Double A Beverage LLC and creator […]

USAToday.com: The national obsession with snacking has finally come to this (health-food activists, hide your eyes): chicken fries. Hungry to lure in customers at all hours, Burger King is tentatively planning the launch this summer of a spicy, 4-inch-long, fried white-meat chicken snack that looks like a cross between a chicken strip and french fry. “For me, they’re like M&Ms,” […]

Bradenton Herald: Scott Matthew knows there’s nothing like a hot pizza delivered to your door on a January night. One such night last year, when an hour seemed too long to wait, he went to bed hungry, but woke up inspired. “If you bake the pizzas in vans on the way to you, it would be so neat. You could […]

IOL: Displaying fancy toilet seats studded with flowers and shells, colourful bathtubs, faucets, mirrors and shower curtains, the well-lit window in this southern Taiwan city looks like a showroom for a trendy bathroom brand. But this is a restaurant. It’s unusual theme is proving a draw for customers eager to eat food off plates and bowls shaped like western loo […]