By Gabriella Vigoreaux Photo credit: Paul Michael, StockFood. Mashed potatoes used to be the superstars of our Thanksgiving table, but lately it seems they have lost their luster. What happened to our favorite comfort food? Our guess is that there are about a million ways that mashed...

These days, super heroes are all the rage, it seems. Most have supernatural powers to do good in the world. But we have people in our food system who don't need super powers to do good in the world - they're our everyday food worker heroes. And so for our 3rd annual International Food Workers Week,...

 A group calling for better working conditions at Walmart is criticizing a food donation campaign for employees in need, saying it's symptomatic of wages being too low. But Dawnne Sulaitis, the Walmart department manager who started the campaign for "Store 3430" in Midwest City, Oklahoma,...

Ingredients 450g skinless, free-range chicken breasts, cut into 3cm pieces 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns peanut oil, for deep frying (about 3 cups) 1 cup fresh basil leaves 4 long green shallots, finely sliced 1 tbsp shaoxing (Chinese wine) For the marinade 1 tbsp oyster sauce 1/2 tbsp...

Plating up tips for the home chef A few simple tips could help increase the wow factor of your next dinner party. When hosting a dinner party, do you slave away all day in the kitchen, only to throw the different elements onto the plate? Chefs Thomas Woods and Hayden McFarland can help you add...

Ingredients 350g brown sugar 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped 5 pears, peeled, cut into 2cm slices 60ml dessert wine 1 orange, rind thinly peeled and juiced  1/2 lemon, rind thinly peeled and juiced 4 eggs 200g butter, melted and cooled 260g plain flour 1 tsp baking...

What better way to celebrate spring than with a recipe for the year's first cherries? Frank Camorra's cherry pies have a tart twist. During the week we look to our Asian neighbours for inspiration with some quick and tasty dinner ideas: a vegetable and Thai fish curry. Then we skip to the...

Ingredients 125ml extra virgin olive oil 2 large brown onions, chopped 200g minced beef 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp chilli powder 1/4 bunch oregano leaves, chopped sea salt and freshly ground pepper 1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley...

Ingredients 400g sashimi-grade fish (tuna, salmon, snapper etc) 100g good-quality raw prawn meat 1 cup loosely packed coriander leaves 1 cup fresh lime juice 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped 1 fresh green jalapeño chilli, de-seeded and chopped sea salt 1 ripe avocado, chopped into...

Ingredients 600g carrots, peeled and diced 125g sugar 300ml thickened cream 100ml orange juice Method 1. Cook the carrots in a pot of simmering water until tender (about 20 minutes), then drain and leave to cool. Heat the sugar and 300 millilitres of water in a small pan while...