The Big Roquefort Stink

Roquefort, home of the world’s most famous blue cheese, is all aquiver, reports the Wall Street Journal. The syndicate that controls 80% of the village’s cheese output is in financial trouble after a disastrous yogurt-marketing venture, and there is a takeover battle going on between Agnelli (the Italian car-makers) and Nestle (the Swiss chocolate people) over the syndicate’s major shareholder, Perrier (the water folks).

But With Bacon and Eggs, You’re on Your Own

Starbucks Coffee wants us to start thinking about pairing coffees with foods, as we do with wines: for instance, with bittersweet chocolate items such as mousse or truffles, drink piquant, pungent coffee such as Mocha Sanani or espresso; with milk chocolate, drink Sulawesi and Sumatra Boengie (love that name). With breakfast cereal they recommend fragrant, floral Mexican, Ethiopian or Kenyan with cereal.

My Little Sea Pony

The National Fisheries Institute predicts lighter batters on fish sticks, which will cut their calorie count by almost three quarters (we’re waiting to see), and frozen breaded fish targeted at sub-teens that will be shaped like starfish and sea horses (we’re betting money).

In Round Figures

You can decipher nutrition labels using the rule of thumb that if the label lists more than one gram of fat for every 30 calories, you’re going over the recommended maximum fat ratio of 30% of total calories. Or you can skip the math and order a wallet-sized 30% Fat Content Chart from an outfit called Helfrich, Leone & Associates. Send your check for $2.74 ($1.99 plus 75 cents handling) to Box 908, Maryville, Ill. 62062.

A $50,000 Dutch Treat

The grand prize winner of Tuesday’s 35th Pillsbury Bake-Off was Gladys Fulton of Summerville, S.C. Her Pennsylvania Dutch Pie, filled with thickened applesauce flavored with cinnamon and molasses, topped with a layer of cake and a coffee glaze, also won the Refrigerated Pie Crust category of the Bake-Off, which now has canned and frozen vegetable cooking competitions alongside the traditional and readymade dough categories.

Another Bean Brewed From

Incognito is a soybean masquerading as a coffee bean. Like other coffee substitutes (oops: alternatives ) it doesn’t quite have a true coffee flavor, but on the other hand it has zero caffeine; and unlike the others (most are roasted grains), it contains some nutritious amino acids. At health food stores, mostly on the West Side, anywhere from $3.50 to $4.99.