SousChef Community

There's a chance this may be my last post on Epi-Log. A surfeit of other projects lately has meant I haven't been able to dedicate the amount of time I like to for each piece here, and the folks at Epicurious have been gracious enough to let me take some time off while I concentrate on other work (and actually get to spend an occasional hour or ...

Happy 75th, Billy Goat Tavern! Arguably the most famous bar/restaurant in Chicago, the Billy Goat Tavern turns 75. Take that, Cubs! (I admit it: I'm biased toward the White Sox.) Is McDonald's New Ad Wicked ... or Wicked? Does an Illinois-based megachain like McDonald's have the right to quiz Northeastern consumers about whether they're ''New ...

If you ever get word that the heads of Pizza Hut, Domino's and all the other pizza chains of the country have been seen hanging out in shady backrooms together, let Mark Bello know it's time to make himself scarce. He's probably the biggest threat to pizza-restaurant hegemony out there today. I'm not just talking about learning to make pizzas at ...

1. Goose was the traditional principle dish for Christmas in Europe for a long time, but from the 16th century, wealthier European families began indulging in a new holiday meal. What was it? a. ham b. turkey c. beef d. veal 2. Why is it tradition for everyone to get up from the Christmas dinner table at same time in the Czech Republic? a. It ...

Just pretend this is a picture of a gingerbread castle and not a haunted house. So it's the holiday season, and most of us are going to follow a script for the next couple of days that goes something like this: 1. Fly/drive/take a train to a relative's house. 2. Catch up with everyone. 3. Half or more of the group retires to the den/living ...

The ''Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food'' Web video series is part of the USDA's program to try to help consumers get in better touch with where the meals on their dinner tables actually come from. On Wednesday, White House chef Sam Kass made the latest in a number of recent high-profile media appearances in the latest installment of ''Know Your ...

Eating Humble Pie: A cough-syrup-in-the-gravy scandal? Furor over a switch from soft Wigan pies to a crustier kind from another British town? Just another year in the annual world meat-pie-eating contest in England. (The winner ate an entire pie in 35.86 seconds. Probably much bigger than the ones in this picture.) Will There Be a Domino's ...

Funky Rhode Island-based kitchen-gadget manufacturer Fred and Friends is finding that one of its designs is, ahem, running aground with some people. The problem is that its Gin & Titonic ice-cube tray ($6.99) is a spoof of the 1912 Titanic disaster. You know, the one where 1,522 people died. ''Sink one in your drink,'' the company's Web site ...

In Germany, holiday grocery shopping turned into a police incident when a 74-year-old man, a 34-year-old woman, vying for the same cart, sparked a battle with salamis as truncheons and wedges of hard cheese as daggers. The incident left the woman's 53-year-old mother's head cracked on a glass case, the 74-year-old with a punch to the face, and the ...

Fighting for Brown Moo Juice: The dairy industry has formed the Raise Your Hand for Chocolate Milk campaign as a bulwark against the growing movement to strike chocolate milk off school menus. Those who want chocolate milk banned from school say it's a sugary drink that encourages unhealthy food choices. The dairy industry says that when you take ...