• Michael Pollan’s essay about Julia Child for The New York Times Magazine this weekend segues into the paradox that “many Americans are spending considerably more time watching images of cooking on television than they are cooking themselves.” [NYT]
• After “rural districts won concessions that would exempt farms from paying a registration fee,” the House of Representatives passed a law giving the FDA increased power to enforce food safety. [WSJ]
• Chinese restaurant workers who sued the restaurant group Wu Liang Ye for labor violations last year filed a claim with the National Labor Relations Board this week. [City Room/NYT]
• A woman asks if it’s okay for her to be turned off when a guy chooses a chain restaurant for a first date. [Smitten/Glamour via Serious Eats]
• Porky’s actor (and former longtime boyfriend to Christy Turlington) Roger Wilson has been bartending at Phillipe East Hampton. [NYP]
• Another article devoted to DiFara’s $5 slice includes a quote from Bloomberg (“The real question, relative to the local economy, is whether people are trading up from a $2.75 slice or down from a $25 entrée”) and the revelation from manager Margaret Mieles that the price “can only go up.” [NYT]
• Australian scientists fed rats garlic for 30 days and decided that garlic is healthier for your heart when it’s raw. [Reuters]
• The (at least until now) highly esteemed French dessert wine Sauternes will now be sold to foreign nightclubs in individual test-tube-shaped bottles. Producer Château d’Arche is still looking for a U.S. importer. [Decanter]
