Lucky Carol Ness! The Chronicle Food section scribe is off in Turin, Italy, to update us on a BIG meeting for the Slow Food Movement. Her detailed reporting has always shined (ring the full disclosure bell: yes, we used to intern there, and yes, we have pals there, including our husband). Of particular note is the fact that many Californians--both famous and not so much - are participating. For the record, Dairy Queen at The Ethicurean is interested and green with envy over the Turin happenings. Mmmmkay. We're not sure we agree with Ms. DQ that the Bay Area scene is “as deserted as New York in August.” We'd rather be here, with all the artisan chocolate with tea notes, pumpkins, squash, beets, and cavolo nero popping up. We mean it, we really, really do. more ›

Check out that cute logo: the Assocation of Food Journalists just handed out its awards this past weekend, so we would like to congratulate all our San Francisco winners: Bonnie Wach, the excellent contributor of the San Francisco Weekly, which thus gets a step ahead in the hotly contested weekly of the week competition. Who ever said the Weekly food critics were underperforming? Awards also went to Julie Kaufmann, of the Merc, for best food section, and to the Chron’s Miriam Morgan, Linda Murphy, Carol Ness, Michael Bauer, Craig Lee for best food section, best photography, best feature writing, best news reporting, etc. The Chron sure racked them awards. Congratulations to all of them. more ›