Food news antipasto

Award-winning cookbook author and television host Pati Jinich has a new gig: teaching you how to write a cookbook. Jinich is partnering with notebook brand Levenger to create the workbook How to Write a Cookbook, filled with practical advice for anyone wanting to dip a toe into the world of cookbook writing.

The Independent’s Helen Coffey has a bone to pick with viral food trends: they are wrecking the planet. Okay, maybe that is a stretch, but as we saw with the Dubai chocolate craze causing a pistachio shortage, a food that becomes popular across the globe seemingly overnight can wreak havoc on supply chains and disrupt global trade. In addition to Dubai chocolate, Coffey discusses the current demand for matcha, which has put a strain on a small Japanese city that is a major producer of the powder.

A few weeks ago we were writing about the Girl Scout cookie/Pop Tart mashups, and now Pop Tarts are headed to another grocery aisle. You will soon be able to reach for Pop Tarts ice cream sandwiches and even pints of Pop Tarts ice cream. The sandwiches are based on the popular flavors Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon, Frosted Strawberry, and Frosted Chocolate Fudge. The ice cream pints will come in the cinnamon and strawberry versions, but they are swapping out Frosted S’mores for the Chocolate Fudge.

Author Jill Damatac is expanding on her 2020 essay titled “Dirty Kitchen” to create a book of the same name that is “a masterful blend of memoir, precolonial mythology, and recipes.” The book tells the story of her family’s moves from the Philippines to the US and then on to the UK, exploring colonialism and the difficulties being an undocumented person in a foreign land. Each chapter revolves around one Filipino dish, and the recipe is interwoven throughout the story.

If you are avoiding gluten and eat items that use cassava as a flour substitute, you will want to head over to Food and Wine to learn about the extremely high levels of lead that could be in your food. Consumer Reports tested several different items that contained cassava and found that some of them had lead levels up to 2,000 times the recommended safety limit.

In case you missed this post from the weekend: The princess cake’s ascendance.