Julia's Picnic In The Sky

I've often wondered what Julia Child eats on airlines. Now we know. On her departure from Chicago recently, Chef Stephen Chiappetti of Mango plated up a 14-dish feast to go—complete with $50 a plate china. Shopping bags full of items like prosciutto with mango and mache, smoked sturgeon, roasted chicken and garlic tart in a copper cassoulet, and three desserts were delivered by the restaurant's publicist to Julia and entourage. The chef who represents the US in Lyon's Bocuse d'Or competition in January could care less about the china and glassware. As his publicist notes, "He wouldn't serve her on anything else." (From Nation's Restaurant News, Dec. 9)

BTW: Julia was returning from her "Baking with Julia" tour. Recipes from this new book and series are available on the eGG's A La Carte Channel and you can buy the book in the Shopping's Books For Cooks.

Odwalla, Inc. is selling apple juice again—but this time it's pasteurized. The California company was linked to an outbreak of e.coli bacteria earlier this year in which an infant girl died. Odwalla has made its reputation on all-natural fresh juices which it claims taste superior to other products, and it continues to sell unpasteurized citrus juices. The move to "flash-pasteurization" is a move to regain public confidence, and not entirely out of line with the company's established healthy-foods image. The process quickly heats the juice to a specific temperature, holds it there for a few seconds then quickly cools it, affecting the taste less than does the longer process of traditional pasteurization. All of this opens up the question of whether fresh juices should be required to be pasteurized, a matter currently under discussion at the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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