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All stories relating to McDonald’s

Ryan Gosling hates McDonald’s and asks the company to “stop clowning around”

An undercover video was released in November that documented the cruelty hens face at Sparboe Egg Farms, who, until recently, were the primary egg providers for McDonald’s locations in the United States. Despite efforts by McDonald’s to cut ties with Sparboe, an unhappy group of celebrity chicken advocates—including Ryan Gosling, Emily Deschanel, Alicia Silverstone, Kristin Bauer, Bryan Adams, Zooey Deschanel, Wendie Malick, Maria Menounos, Steve-O, and Ed Begley Jr.—have sent a letter to McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner that highlights how angry they are with the brand’s acceptance of animal cruelty. The letter notes that these farms are a breeding ground for dead and rotting corpses left in cages and how commonplace it is to find baby birds with singed beaks and others trapped and mangled in cage wire. The Almighty Goz protects human beings and chickens. Swoon. Check out the full letter »

(Image: Ryan Gosling, Christopher Drost)

The Dish

Opening

September 1, 2011 | 4:38 pm

15 Comments

Introducing: Urban Eatery, the Eaton Centre’s new, disconcertingly Danish food court

The Eaton Centre’s new food court, featuring Panton S chairs. No, really. (Image: Caroline Aksich)

The food court experience is a notoriously horrible one. The ambiance is nonexistent, the options are limited to the typical fast-food chains, and the waste produced is enormous. For years, the Eaton Centre food court has been no exception—that is, until Cadillac-Fairview embarked on creating Canada’s first “destination food court” there. It took $48 million and 14 months of renovations to transform the subterranean food court into an “urban eatery”—something that feels more like Copenhagen (mid-century modern furniture, a red, white and wood colour palette) than Toronto—until you see the A&W at least.

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The Informer

Summit Survivor

June 29, 2010 | 2:21 pm

22 Comments

“You should have left when you had a chance”: a first-person account of being detained at Queen and Spadina

Queen and Spadina: "We were being surrounded on all sides but didn't realize it. I think I saw the man with the big hair getting dragged away later" (Image: Aaron Leaf)

A couple hours into our detainment at Queen and Spadina on Sunday, soaked and shivering, her press accreditation around her neck, my companion asked one of the riot police for any scrap of information he could tell us. “Please tell us what’s happening. Is there any way at all we can leave?”

“You should have left when you had a chance,” he said.

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The Informer

Summit Survivor

June 28, 2010 | 2:42 pm

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Toronto G20 photo gallery: the eerie aftermath

A collage of the many businesses that had to cover smashed windows over the G20 weekend. Most have already been replaced (Image: Karon Liu)

Before hundreds of bystanders were corralled into a human blockade at Queen and Spadina under torrential rain, the downtown core had a sense of peacefulness, albeit one that was basically forced down with an iron fist. Yonge and Queen streets, where much of Saturday’s riots happened, were practically deserted at noon. Stores were boarded up or closed, the roads were empty, save the streetcars that were running unusually frequently, and the only people on the sidewalks were police officers guarding every city block, tourists and amateur photographers who were weirdly hoping for a repeat of the previous day.

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The Informer

Summit Survivor

June 26, 2010 | 7:42 pm

4 Comments

Slide show: Toronto’s anti-G20 riot

What started as a peaceful protest at Queen’s Park, with about 10,000 participants, became a riot as a small group of violent troublemakers smashed windows, set cop cars ablaze and confronted the police. The anti-G20 activists stormed through Queen West and the financial district this afternoon, before heading north toward Yonge and College. We were there, capturing every step of the evolution from protest to violence.

The Dish

Locavoracious

March 13, 2010 | 3:36 pm

6 Comments

Three things we learned about locavore road trips from the Globe

Highway hell for locavores (Image: Grant Hutchins)

Canada’s highways can be hell for road-tripping locavores—all those thousands of kilometres of pavement, with nary a locally grown, non-processed food in sight. Luckily, the Globe has served up a few solutions. Three useful tips, after the jump.

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The Dish

Caffeine High

March 12, 2010 | 10:02 am

8 Comments

BNN legitimizes McDonald’s–Tim Hortons coffee war in excruciatingly long taste test

James, Taylor sniff out the goodness (Image: BNN)

We knew the country’s post-Olympic patriotism would settle down, but not like this. The Business News Network spent nearly 20 minutes analyzing every last drop of the McDonald’s–Tim Hortons coffee war, and, long story short, they believe McDonald’s coffee tastes better than Timmies’.

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The Dish

Caffeine High

March 3, 2010 | 11:33 am

3 Comments

McDonald’s gives away coffee in promotion that has nothing to do with Timmie’s Roll Up the Rim

Three-time loser (Image: Shayne Kaye)

It’s that time of year again, when coffee aficionados ditch their independent coffee shops, and the streets are strewn with Tim Hortons cups. Yes, it’s time for Roll Up the Rim to Win. This year, however, McDonald’s isn’t sitting idly by as the country gets ready to roll. The Star reports that the fast food giant is handing out free coffee for two weeks. A spokesperson for McDonald’s says the promotion has nothing to do with Roll Up the Rim, but rather that it’s due to the increased exposure of the fast food chain during the Olympics, when commercial breaks offered nothing but McDonald’s, Visa and Government of Canada ads.

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The Dish

Culinary Curiosities

February 10, 2010 | 2:12 pm

2 Comments

This Olympics, McDonald’s claims the word “burger,” forcing native pavilion to rewrite its menu

A burger by any other name: a Big Mac from the last Olympics

Olympic attendees stopping in at the Four Host First Nations pavilion in Vancouver this weekend should look for “sliders” or “bannockwiches” (bison patties with wild mushrooms and Saltspring goat cheese between bannock rounds)—just not burgers. The organizing committee, VANOC, has decided to eliminate the word “burger” from the FHFN pavilion at the behest of McDonald’s, a major sponsor of the Games. Bill Cooper, VANOC’s head of commercial rights management, told the National Post that “there are a number of guidelines…at all designated 2010 Games celebration sites, of which the FHFN pavilion is one.” The rules forbid “certain brands or words that create special associations with our sponsors and their products.” The guidelines are enforced to protect sponsors’ “significant commitment and investment.”

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The Dish

Read All About It

January 25, 2010 | 12:54 pm

1 Comment

The world’s most outrageous foods, why winter tomatoes are hateful, calorie labels might actually be effective

This Wendy's menu in New York lists calories (Photo by Ed Yourdon)

• A new study at Stanford University confirms that in-restaurant calorie counts change eating behaviour. In New York, where the labels have taken effect, Dunkin’ Donuts has lost at least three per cent of its business. A bill to bring similar labels to Ontario restaurants was introduced at Queen’s Park last year but has an uncertain future. [The Atlantic]

• McDonald’s customers are being told to “stay awhile” by a new proprietary entertainment network that reverses the chain’s fast-food ethos. More than just a new revenue stream, the in-house McDonald’s Channel would entice diners to kick back while slurping high-profit coffees and desserts. [NRN]

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The Dish

Deathwatch

January 21, 2010 | 1:41 pm

13 Comments

Toronto restaurateur charged with serving up McDonald’s-related scam

Would you like lies with that: ?? allegedly promised to open McDonald's locations along the 407

Would you like lies with that? Tsatsaris allegedly promised to open McDonald's locations along the 407

Fourteen years after calling him a “real-life Santa Claus” for his work feeding the homeless, the Toronto Sun is reporting that restaurateur Peter Tsatsaris has been charged with three counts of fraud over $5,000 and 11 counts of uttering a forged document. Tsatsaris is alleged to have bilked investors out of money by convincing them they were buying McDonald’s restaurants along Highway 407 in Thornhill. One of the scam’s alleged victims, known only as “Robert,” claims to have lost $500,000 from January to May 2009. He called police after speaking directly with McDonald’s, who advised him he was one of “X number of persons” to call about Tsatsaris and he should go to the authorities. Between 1994 and 2004, Tsatsaris was linked to local restaurants The Strand, Wildfire Steakhouse and Mars Uptown.

• Restaurateur charged with cooking up scam [Toronto Sun]

The Dish

Read All About It

January 6, 2010 | 8:46 am

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Fifty tidbits about Nigella Lawson, predicting the food trends of 2010, Anthony Bourdain as a teenager

Going smokeless: Nigella Lawson (Photo by Phile Guest)

• Food Network Humour has published a series of photos of famous cooking show hosts in their salad days. Our favourites are Paula Deen and her enormous bouffant hair, Nigella Lawson attempting Audrey Hepburn, and Anthony Bourdain’s long hippie hair. [Food Network Humor]

• Speaking of Nigella Lawson, the Daily Mail presents 50 tidbits about the kitchen kitten in celebration of her upcoming 50th birthday. Among the revelations: she washes her hair only once a week, she doesn’t wear “knickers,” she has a 32G bust, and her favourite recent purchase is a Slanket, to keep her warm on planes. We have more in common with the domestic goddess than we ever knew. [Daily Mail]

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The Dish

Read All About It

December 19, 2009 | 1:20 pm

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Stealing mushrooms, McDonald’s feeding Olympians, how to deal with wine snobs

Stolen booty: fungus goes felonious (Photo by RawheaD Rex)

• Ever since a worldwide shortage of mushrooms caused prices to soar in 2006, the forests of France have been plagued with gangs who are aggressively stealing vast amounts of fungus to sell on the black market. Not only are they damaging the environment by over-harvesting, but the lucrative crop is causing them to become violent (residents have reported hearing gunshots). Food burgling is big business in France: first oysters, now mushrooms, which can fetch nearly $50 a kilogram. [Maclean’s]

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The Dish

Read All About It

November 21, 2009 | 11:50 am

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Coolio gets a cooking show (yes, that Coolio), Rachael Ray bests Martha Stewart, recession ruins champagne sales

• Mid-’90s rapper Coolio has traded in rhymes for recipes. The Ghetto Gourmet now has an on-line cooking show and a new book called Cookin’ With Coolio. Mixing African-American and urban foods with such world cuisines as Asian and Italian, Coolio has crafted what he calls “ghetto fusion,” offering dishes like chicken lettuce blunts, Coolio caprese salad and cold shrimpin’. Although the rapper said he grew up in the kitchen, there might be an ulterior motive behind his food: “If I can get [a woman] to eat my food, I can [seduce her]”—meaning, we think, that he can follow a rump roast with some serious back. [Boston]

• We are sad to report that the tussle between food mavens Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray ended before it had a chance to get interesting. In the end, Ray won the Miss Congeniality belt, and Stewart was simply outclassed. After appearing on the Rachael Ray Show, Stewart condescendingly remarked on Nightline that while she herself is a teacher, Ray is a mere entertainer. Instead of slinging back insults, Ray gracefully acknowledged Stewart’s strong talents and admitted that when it comes to food she’d rather eat Stewart’s than her own. Now, Martha, could you teach us how to strike it rich on the markets? [New York]

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The Dish

Read All About It

November 20, 2009 | 8:41 am

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Five ethically dubious foods, taste-testing Toronto’s burger joints, presidentially pardoned turkeys end up at Disney World

• After the explosion in popularity of this video showing a still-live deep-fried carp being eaten, the Guardian compiled a list of morally dubious eating trends. Chinese chefs figured out that placing a wet cloth over the fish’s head before deep-frying its body will ensure that it’s still gasping when it reaches the plate. Equally squirm-inducing are the traditions of eating live octopus or the still-beating heart of a snake. [Guardian]

• With the gourmet burger craze taking hold across the city, the Star’s Amy Pataki samples various incarnations to see which ones deliver in the flavour department. She concludes that in most cases, the trend is a good thing, and ranks the newest spot, Oh Boy Burger Market, as the best. [Toronto Star]

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