Food snob quiz, rats in the market, locavore setback

Food snob quiz, rats in the market, locavore setback

Food snobbery: what's the score? (Photo by Hobvias Sudoneighm)

• Ever wonder what the criteria are to be categorized as a food snob? Time Out’s Holier Than Chow on-line quiz asks 30 questions before labelling participants as Easy Macs, Discerning Diners or Bona Fide Foodie Elitists. [Time Out]

• Save the best wine for sipping, not cooking, say many Toronto chefs. Some Food Network types suggest that top-shelf vino is best in the kitchen, but most high-end restaurants use lesser stuff. And money saved is not the only benefit of subbing in cheaper hooch: fine wine’s richer flavour can overpower—instead of enhance—foods. [Toronto Star]

• Those keeping notes on the New York–Toronto comparison may be disturbed by news of the most recent commonality: rats. Five businesses in Kensington Market and Chinatown were closed due to rodent problems and other infractions. [National Post]

• Farmers may be superheroes in the thriving locavore community, but they won’t be getting new powers just yet. A bid to form a union at a farm north of Toronto has been trumped by the Ontario Court of Appeal. [Globe and Mail]

• More woes for Maple Leaf Foods: the company announced that it would delay the sale of a Burlington plant due to a hostile market. The lethal listeria outbreak and recent sewing-needle-in-food scare couldn’t have helped much, either. [Reuters]