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Food

This Month

Christmas meals in France are often fresh, locally sourced and avoid ultra-processed foods.

Don’t want to get fat at Christmas? Do what the French do

They don’t start stuffing themselves with mince pies as soon as the supermarkets begin playing festive music in September, for one thing.

  • Charlotte Kan
Cadbury’s chocolate makers had made a chocolate crown for King Charles III’s coronation.

King dumps chocolate brand from royal list for first time in 170 years

Cadbury, which got its first royal warrant from Queen Victoria, was among 100 companies cut from the list that allows them to display a royal coat of arms.

  • Updated
  • Hayley Dixon
Adam Mourad, Sydney Fish Market’s chief commercial officer.

The seafood trend challenging prawns this Christmas

Sashimi is proving a new popular alternative on Australian holiday platters this year, though one traditional English product remains king.

  • Tom Rabe

A gift guide for foodies, from cookbooks to culinary rarities

A $300 pepper mill, a jar of animal fat and Gordon Ramsay’s favourite non-stick pan. Here are some must-have kitchen accessories.

  • Updated
  • Necia Wilden
You, too, can make  Meatsmith’s Fig and Jamon Salad featured in their new cookbook. It’s a great gift idea, too.

Jill Dupleix’s easy festive menu from three top cookbooks of 2023

Why sweat in the kitchen while everyone else is drinking bubbly and opening presents?

  • Updated
  • Jill Dupleix
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David Thompson is a celebrated chef who specialises in Thai food. He opened his restaurant Long Chim in Sydney in 2016.

David Thompson’s Long Chim closure blamed on rents and poor business

The high-profile Thai restaurant is the latest major restaurant to close. It blamed high rents, but administrators says staff costs were too high.

  • Campbell Kwan
Fruit processing at SPC Global’s factory at Shepparton in Victoria.

SPC bets Australian-made can outflank cheap Italian tomatoes

Robert Iervasi ran Australia’s biggest beer group selling Victoria Bitter and Carlton Draught. The newest face on the ASX wants to be just as iconic.

  • Simon Evans
A substantial breakfast is healthier than a tiny breakfast, a huge meal or skipping it entirely, says new research.

Why skipping breakfast in your 50s could actually make you fatter

But beware – people who have more than 30 per cent of their recommended daily calories in their first meal of the day are even more unhealthy, says a new study.

  • Joe Pinkstone
Rockpool Bar & Grill in Melbourne.

Hospitality empire behind Rockpool reports $288 million loss

The restaurant group, now called Pacific Hunter, grew out of celebrity chef Neil Perry’s high-profile Sydney steak restaurant.

  • Primrose Riordan
Fresh seafood from Fremantle Octopus is served in high-end restaurants.

Tentacles out at Fremantle Octopus with Kidder Williams on the scene

Fremantle Octopus owns about half of the licences in the WA Octopus Fishery, but it doesn’t have the cash to put most of them to use.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Australian Open takes premium packages to another level

In January, fine dining comes to the tennis when Martin Benn and Vicki Wild serve guests in a new purpose-built pavilion called Club 1905.

  • Jill Dupleix

The case against nuclear energy is convincing

Readers’ letters on the CSIRO’s latest assessment of nuclear power, antisemitism, big business and productivity, and safeguarding essential food supplies.

Collins Foods, which operates 285 of the 750 KFC outlets in Australia, says profit margins will be under more pressure over the next six months.

Making money from $8 burgers gets harder for KFC

Rising wages costs and energy bills at a time of consumer cutbacks crunched profits at Collins Foods, which operates 285 of the 750 KFC outlets in Australia.

  • Simon Evans
Michele O’Neill, standing in the centre in front of the fireplace, is Co-owner, La Chapelle, a 10th-century chapel restored as boutique accommodation in Provence, France

How Aussie expats celebrate Christmas with foreign flourish

Boxing Day might not include beach cricket for these five living abroad, but some customs from home can be honoured.

  • Tony Davis, Lauren Sams and Stephen Todd

November

Elon Musk, US President-elect Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Mike Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr enjoy a McDonald’s meal aboard Trump’s private plane.

I ate like Trump for a week. I don’t understand how he is still alive

Donald Trump’s diet is that of a child, just a bland bonanza of beige – and it properly affected my body.

  • Gareth Davies
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Processed meats are high in salt and saturated fat, both of which are inflammatory. 

Why that ultra-processed food is ageing you

As anyone who’s ever tried to stop at just one potato chip can tell you, the stuff is moreish – and scientists are discovering more about the harmful effects.

  • The Economist
Wine is essential to the BioSing story and Lesar has a 13,000-bottle collection.

Would you eat bear salami?

Filled with umami, the cured meat is the brainchild of Slovenian small-goods producer David Lesar. It’s just one of many internationally lauded cured products he produces.

  • Paul Best
Venture capital is not all Canva and Culture Amp.

Dear VC, can you please improve our farming industry?

Fruit and vegetable growers have called in the white sneaker brigade to solve the horticulture sector’s problems and open up new markets sooner.

  • Anthony Macdonald
Bill, the co-owner of Acai Underworld in Sydney’s Lansdowne, sometimes turns away 100 cars a night.

The muscle and clout behind Australia’s $750m acai boom

Australian businesses are scrambling to jump aboard the superfood trend as it attracts fitness buffs and social media users entranced by colourful desserts.

  • Updated
  • Simon Evans
Jarden chief executives Aidan Allen and Sarah Rennie.

Jarden sues ex-client after getting cut from $300m deal

The investment bank worked on the auction of the commercial sauces and condiments maker but was axed just before a deal with private equity giant Quadrant.

  • Jemima Whyte

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/food-5xd