Will They Teach How to Cook Sashimi?

Earlier this year, Le Cordon Bleu (Paris) bought up the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London. This turns out to have been the beginning of an international expansion move on the part of the famous cooking school, which will soon open a branch in Tokyo (Le Cordon Bleu Japon) in conjunction with Seibu Department Stores Ltd. It should save some air fares--currently 20% of the students at the original Paris school are from Japan.

High Energy Freeze-Out

New Scientist reports that a California inventor named Steven Garrett has built a “thermoacoustic engine” that can cause either heating or cooling, depending on how its high-energy sound waves cause molecules of inert gases to oscillate. Garrett predicts acoustic air conditioners will be on the market in two years, with acoustic refrigerators to follow.

Hot Newsletter

On the eve of the world champion chili contest in Rosamond, it should be noted that International Chili Society (the official newsletter of, well, the International Chili Society) is required reading for serious chili contest hopefuls. A recent issue listed 34 cookoffs in California alone, plus chatty reports on recent chili contests all around the country and a full-page add for Pepto-Bismol. (Plus a serious note on how to distinguish between heartburn and heart attack.) A $25 year’s membership in the society includes a subscription: P.O. Box 2966, Newport Beach, Calif. 92663.

Drought Doubts

Restaurant-goers may have noticed that these days waiters always ask, “Would you like anything from the bar?” as soon as we sit down. The reason, we are told, is that the waiters are subliminally trying to encourage water conservation in these days of drought. But weren’t they telling us just a little while back it’s the washing of the glass that uses most of the water?

And They Don’t Need Weekends Off

Robots are delivering food trays in a Danbury, Conn. hospital. Called HelpMates, they are four feet high and have a map of the premises in their software so they can find their way around. They’re able to avoid both stationary and moving obstacles and can even open doors and call elevators. The manufacturer hopes to have them on the market by the end of the year and, unaware of the home appliance tastes of the film industry, expects hospitals will be the only buyers. If you want one, have $55,000 ready or charge it on your Titanium Card.

Tortillas Get With the Program

Tortilla sales have grown five times over the last decade, but until this year tortilla makers had no professional organization. Then Irwin Steinberg, former head of Mission Foods, founded the Tortilla Industry Assn., based in Encino and representing 70 tortilla manufacturers (out of some 400 nationwide). Apart from promoting tortillas, Steinberg looks forward to a low-fat wheat tortilla and standard tortilla sizes--your basic Texas corn tortilla, for instance, is 6 1/2 inches wide, half an inch bigger than the usual California model. Also on the tortilla upgrade trail is the Cereal Quality Lab at Texas A&M;, which has been testing thousands of tortilla recipes for “taste, nutritional content and ability to roll.” Added fiber, it has been speculated, may increase rollability.

Vegetable Trendoids

Those dizzy Easterners. The St. Clair Ice Cream Co. of South Norwalk, Conn., makes pumpkin-flavored ice cream molded in the shape of a miniature pumpkin, and corn-flavored ice cream shaped like a four-ounce corncob. And they make fun of us for our pink tofu.