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- Actor Luke Evans, who has starred in the Fast & the Furious series, among other notable works, has dined at viral dreamboat Salt Bae’s New York City restaurant (which might be violating local health codes). Evans reports back on The Late Late Show With James Corden and describes what it’s like to eat at the funhouse. “[Salt Bae] changes his sunglasses about 70 times per seating,” he says in the clip below. “People were just, like, giving him their children, like he was Jesus... This guy’s like the messiah.”
- Tampa Bay Times dining critic Laura Reiley, who previously conducted a thorough investigation into the world of faux farm-to-table cuisine, is the latest professional restaurant reviewer to ditch the shroud of anonymity. “One of the first things you learn in Journalism 101 is to hang up the phone, get out of the office, go to where the story is, be present,” Reiley writes on her decision. “I’ve blown my cover with chefs and restaurateurs when a story has seemed ‘worth it,’ but there are stories that have been weaker, or that I haven’t gotten, in order to preserve that anonymity.”
- Living country music legend Reba McEntire just became Kentucky Fried Chicken’s newest celebrity Colonel, but is living pro wrestling legend Rick Flair next in line? The Nature Boy has won a “KFC Colonel Rumble” to claim the title of Colonel Flair. Woo.
- More than two years after the devastating terror attacks in Paris, the Grand Café Bataclan has reopened for business.
- A study of weeds in North America reveals what inhabitants of the continent grew and ate 2,000 years ago.
- Monday was Oprah Winfrey’s 64th birthday. Hero chef José Andrés didn’t wish the media mogul a happy day, but he did challenge her to a margarita-making contest.
- The real-life couple that inspired Saturday Night Live’s recent chicken pot pie sketch approve of Will Ferrell and Kate McKinnon’s antics. The SNL sketch spoofed a Maine restaurant commercial that went viral back in 2012.
- Late-night host Conan O’Brien has been filming in Haiti, so he learned how to cook the country’s cuisine at World Central Kitchen.
- Remember Medieval Times, ’90s kids? Sure you do. You might be surprised to learn the bizarre restaurant chain that combines dining and horsemanship from the 11th century is still going strong. The chain has even adopted some progressive sensibilities from these modern times and replaced all of its kings with queens.
- Shouty chef Gordon Ramsay can now also describe himself as buff chef Gordon Ramsay. The Michelin star winner and television host dropped 60 pounds to, in his own Ramsian words, save his marriage. The chef remarks: “I was overweight, 18 stone [250 pounds]. I looked like a sack of shit. I look at the pictures and think, ‘How did [my wife] Tana stay around?’ Because Tana has got better-looking and more gorgeous. And there she is, getting in bed with a fat fuck.”
- Food Policy Action, an organization that aims to “change the national dialogue on food policy,” has released its annual “State of the Plate” study. The big takeaway is that the Trump administration has been siding with big farmers and corporations while dismissing workers’ rights.
- Not only does Japan have bananas with edible peels (handy in a nation where there aren’t public trash cans), local Starbucks outposts are serving a new millennial pink latte.
- Here’s Take Root chef chef Elise Kornack on receiving harassment from patrons: “The customer isn’t always right.”
- Finally, there was an odd theory that Kanye West dined alone at an empty Berlin restaurant during the Grammys, but, sadly, that has been debunked.
