Neighborhood Restaurant Group

by Marian Burros   What sets Michael Babin apart from his peers is not the fact that he owns 11 successful restaurants and assorted food-related businesses, collectively known as the Neighborhood Restaurant Group. What makes this Cajun-Italian transplant from Baton Rouge – he grew up with pigs and a vegetable garden out back — stand [...]

Carole Morison Discusses Life After “Food, Inc.”

By Marian Burros, Photography by Molly McDonald Peterson Big Chicken “was never happy with my big mouth,” says Carole Morison, who spent 23 years as a contract chicken farmer on her husband’s family farm. Audiences of the documentary about the horrors of agribusiness, “Food, Inc.,” may remember Morison explaining why many farmers are too intimidated [...]

Sam Kass: Power Tie and Toque

by Marian Burros, Photography by Molly McDonald Peterson Sam Kass’s trajectory from private chef in Chicago to White House point man on First Lady Michelle Obama’s childhood obesity initiative, Let’s Move, was hardly preordained. He wanted to be a major league baseball player, and had a baseball scholarship to a community college. He eventually realized [...]

These Are a Few of Chefs’ Favorite Things

  None of us needs more kitchen clutter, but we do need tools that make cooking at home more enjoyable and efficient. These farm-to-table chefs weigh in on the best picks. By Katie McCaskey & Jennifer Conrad Seidel Did you need ideas for how to spend the gift cards you received over the holidays? Did [...]

First-Annual Holiday Gift Guide

We think the perfect gift is edible, locally made, and available online, so it can be shared with friends and family near and far.    

Artisans & Entrepreneurs: Cheese Greater

The demand for FireFly Farms’ cheeses — including a rare goat’s-milk blue — seems insatiable. By Marian Burros • Photos by Molly McDonald Peterson   When Michael Koch and Pablo Solanet bought an old farm in Garrett County, Maryland, in 1997 and turned it into their weekend getaway, it was not with the thought that [...]

One of Us?

Kathleen Merrigan is working hard to change federal agriculture policy from inside the USDA. By Marian Burros Until last spring, phrases like “sustainable agriculture,” “local food,” and “mobile slaughterhouses” were only whispered in the halls of the Department of Agriculture, the agency where industrial agriculture and biotechnology reigned supreme. Then Kathleen Merrigan—a 50-year-old assistant professor [...]

Vouchers for Veggies

Helping food stamp recipients shop at farmers markets near and far. By Marian Burros • Photo by Kristen Taylor With names like Boston Bounty Bucks, Fresh Checks, and Double Dollars, programs at a few farmers markets across the country—including some in the Capital foodshed—offer economically vulnerable people a deal they cannot refuse: as much as [...]

No Whining in Winter

Some D.C. area chefs are making an extra effort to use local, seasonal ingredients even in these long winter months. And diners are learning to like it.