Miguel Martinez works with the cheese curds to make the Red Hawk triple cream at the Cowgirl Creamery up at Point Reyes Station. Photo: Lacy Atkins/The Chronicle
A ton of reading this morning: Grant Achatz makes TIME’s 100 list, and a British writer muses on the nature of art and food. Bikes, beer and cheese come together in San Francisco. More lovin’ for the Eagle. Thinkage on automatic gratuity. All that and so much more, including the farmers of Japan, right this way.
From the local scene:
- Bike About Town combines bikes with beer and cheese education, taking a ride from the Ferry Building’s Cowgirl Creamery to the Mission’s Shotwell’s. [San Francisco Chronicle]
- Some thoughts, valid and otherwise, about automatic gratuity. [Business Times]
- Why the Eagle is home: “The Eagle isn’t really as much a bar as it is an oddball equivalent of the old school public house, the bar that also has become a community center … That’s called institutional endurance, and its rare. You can ask any bar owner or restaurant owner about this.” [SFBG]
From the national scene:
- Grant Achatz gets a place on the 2011 TIME 100 Influential People list. Thomas Keller writes the piece “Grant exemplifies the modern chef — and nothing, not even tongue cancer, has impeded his vision and desire. While his culinary achievements have been many, knowing Grant, I expect his best is yet to come.” [TIME]
- A thought-provoking piece from a British art writer contends that food (or fashion) can never be considered art. It’s a sensible argument, but many will beg to differ and the source (an art writer) should be considered. In any event, it’s fun fodder: “Art is of the mind; it is ethereal. Everything it gives us it gives to our brains. Fashion and food fail to be serious art because they are trapped in the physical world. Compare a still-life painting of food – one of those rich, laden Dutch images of lobsters and lemons – with a real plate of food. The painting is very obviously not food – it does not give what food gives. But it does nourish something deeper instead. It reaches the parts of us that chefs and couturiers cannot reach.” Discuss. [Guardian]
- Following the farmers of Northern Japan, post-quake. [Civil Eats]
- How a new generation of fast food burger joints are giving McDonald’s a run for its money. [NPR]
- Ferran Adria muses about what’s next. [Washington Post/AP]
- Taco Bell would like an apology please. [AP]
- Ayn Rand’s head cheese. [Revolving Floor]