Top 10 food stories of 2010

The year 2010 in food was marked by tectonic shifts in the way we perceive food and restaurants. Which is not to say that it wasn’t, well, more than a little paradoxical. On the one hand, it was the year when the anti-restaurant became the coolest thing in restaurants - Test Kitchen with its constantly changing cast of chefs; all of the various pop-up restaurants; even underground suppers, where people pay for dinners in private homes. And of course, there is the whole food truck phenomenon. Name a specialty and there is probably a mobile restaurant serving it, complete with website and Twitter feed. Above, Food blogger Misty Oka photographs a dish. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Also, 2010 was the year food truck pioneer Roy Choi, one of the founders of Kogi, the Korean taco truck, opened not one, but two brick-and-mortar restaurants. Above, the roving Kogi Korean taco truck in 2009. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

It was the year the Michelin Guide awarded restaurants in Tokyo more total stars than restaurants in Paris. (Nozomi Iwakiri / Kyodo News)

Then there was the day so many diners were so eager to claim tables at chef Ludo Lefebvre’s just-announced pop-up restaurant LudoBites 6.0, that they crashed the Open Table reservations website. Above, Lefebvre and his wife Krissy. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times))

It was the year we got serious about healthy eating: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa established a Food Policy Council for the City of Los Angeles; calorie counts became required on some menus; and the military declared that childhood obesity was so bad it threatened national security. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

On the other hand, it was the year that bacon finally seemed to take over everything; and pork belly seemed to become more ubiquitous on fine-dining menus than chopped salad. Above, matzoh balls wrapped in bacon. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles)

It was the year we began to look at our beloved farmers markets with a slightly jaundiced eye after widespread reports of cheating made us wonder where all this stuff was really coming from -- small farmers or the produce market? (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

In August, in one of the largest food recalls ever, one company had to pull more than half-billion eggs off the market after a salmonella outbreak. (Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images)

There were major shifts in food publishing. The grande dame of food magazines, Gourmet, was shuttered after almost 70 years; and it was announced that its spunky corporate sister Bon Appetit was moving from its longtime home of Los Angeles to New York, with a major makeover sure to come. (Conde Nast)

But dreams still do come true: Aarti Sequeira, a relatively unknown Southern California blogger, wound up with her own successful show on the Food Network. (The Food Network)