At a New York baking supplies store recently, I started chatting with a woman who had just launched her own party cakes business.

What I heard was a familiar story. She loved to bake. Friends were wild for her butter pineapple cake. First she sold one, then another. Orders...

With the holidays upon us, it's time to get a buzz on. What better way to indulge holiday guests than to serve liquored-up ice creams, floats, and cocktails?

Today, spiked ice cream creations are all the rage.

But mixing together ice cream and spirits is nothing new.

The...

You would think that svelte celebs would keep their distance from temptations like ice cream. After all, an ice cream habit can quickly turn a willowy figure into pure porkiness.

But celebs love ice cream, just like the rest of us.

Ever wonder about stars' favorite ice creams? Here's a...

Alec Baldwin, looking a bit ruddier and beefier than the suave Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock, sat amidst friends and neighbors at an event Saturday night to support Quail Hill Farm, the Peconic Land Trust's 30-acre tract in Amagansett....

Borrowing a page from President-elect Obama's reliance on high-tech tools to win the White House, hunger groups are launching their own tech-heavy drives to feed America's hungry.

It's all in response to Obama's call for a national day of service to take place on Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 19,...

Want to know what's cooking with the incoming Obama administration?

The nation's chefs, bakers and restaurateurs aren't waiting to find out. Whether it's for profits or patriotism, chefs are crafting food creations--from cupcakes to cocktails--to honor the incoming 44th president's historic January 20th inauguration.

For inspiration, many food professionals...

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas -- the 2009 version that is.

With stocks swooning, layoffs spreading, and visions of the Great Depression supplanting any thoughts of dancing sugar plums, this holiday seasoning is shaping up to be a sober one.

Even the time-honored corporate practice of bestowing...

When it comes to selecting which foods to serve election night, there are as many schools of thought as there are positions ranged across the political spectrum.

Whether to chill the champagne before election returns even start to scroll across the TV screen can be a hotly debated topic. To...

When the stock market tanks, you may be forced to pass up that long-planned Caribbean vacation. And the kids may be asked to make do with less pricey back-to-school outfits.

But one thing you can't easily go without is food.

With growing numbers of budget-conscious Americans cutting back on restaurant...

What does the science of taste have to do with pizza?

A lot it turns out, since one of the five basic tastes--umami--appears in Parmesan cheese and cooked tomatoes.

Umami is a hot topic in the food world these days. One of of five distinctive tastes--the others are salt,...

Like all trends, going local sometimes goes too far. If you need evidence of this, read the story in the Times last week about the Brooklyn couple who tried to grow their own lettuce -- only to find that it had rotted before they finally picked it.

Why...

Last week, famed grocer and cheesemonger Steve Jenkins held forth on the world of food in an interview with Leonard Lopate on New York public radio station, WNYC.

Jenkins was there to flack his new book, The Food Life, but along the way he had some refreshingly forthright...

Who would have guessed that Starbucks would be missed in a place like Southold?

Situated on the picturesque North Fork of Long Island, the 368-year old village harkens back to simpler times. There's Rothman's Department Store, the 90-plus year old family-owned emporium where vintage guitars and banjos hang amidst...

The local food movement is hot stuff in the U.S. In Italy, at least in the off-the-beaten-track Le Marche region, locally produced food, is well, just food.

I'm just back from a week in this verdant rich agricultural area, which lies between Italy's Appennine Mountains and the Adriatic coast. You...

"We're old school," declared Marble Pop sales rep James Kosuge, a grin spreading across his face. "We use artificial ingredients."

Marble Pop, a popular Japanese soda, was making its U.S. debut at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. That's the gathering of specialty food producers which takes...

Is locally grown food about to go corporate?

That's what I've been wondering as I've pondered Whole Foods' new deal with a small sustainable Long Island vegetable grower. The grocery chain is aiming to bring high quality locally grown salad mix, produced by Long Island-based Satur Farms, to several...