Andrew Simmons

On January 3rd, LG Electronics unveiled a sparkling new arsenal of smart appliances at the 2011 International CES--the world's grandest consumer technology tradeshow. According to a press release, the company's refrigerators have an LCD display with removable food icons and a voice recognition function, enabling users to keep tabs on......

This time of year, people are holding fast to fresh New Year's resolutions, many of which pertain to eating and drinking habits. Magazines and websites love rattling off good food-related resolutions, often suggesting lifestyle changes such as fewer processed foods, less meat, and more local produce as well as austerity......

Someday, thousands (maybe just hundreds) of years from now, aliens will comb through the bales of dust formerly known as Earth's great cities and find, among the charred furniture and shattered computer monitors, an inordinate number of half-shredded magazines containing advertisements featuring women laughing alone with salads. At that point,......

What do deviled eggs, a Tokyo sushi spot, and home-made XO sauce have in common? They are Los Angeles's contributions to the latest issue of Saveur: essentially a long list of restaurants, ingredients, cookbooks, gadgets, and dishes shared by some of the world's preeminent chefs. Carolynn Spence of Chateau Marmont......

Ground beef is a genuine terror. We live in an age in which E. coli contamination fears compel dedicated, discerning carnivores to cremate their backyard burgers into dusty grey frisbees. Even at reputable joints with proprietary grinds and sparkling health scores, some customers would rather utter the dreaded phrase, "well......

While no city beats Norman, Oklahoma for shockingly high levels of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium in its tap water, both Los Angeles and Riverside have higher levels than California officials would like to see. With .20 and 1.69 parts per billion (ppb), LA and Riverside, respectively, don't even come close to......

Foods can be divided into two categories: Those which can be fried, and those which, as many of us have discovered in a sodden, late-night session with a $20 deep-fryer, cannot. Leftover pizza? Deli meats? Juice? At the Machine Project's holiday Fry-a-Thon in Echo Park tomorrow, guests can come to......

Ominous splotches of burgundy, salmon, and peach are usually reserved for maps illuminating the presence of sex offenders, spiraling crime rates, and dangerous pollution levels. Upon pulling up Food & Water Watch's interactive Factory Farm Map, some people will see that magnitude of foulness along with the fowl: broilers in......

We've never recovered from our first eggnog experience. We were in kindergarten, enjoying an early December holiday-themed clown show in the auditorium of our school. There was punch--a sea of red drink with drifts of Cool Whip floating on top--and a snowy vat of non-alcoholic 'nog. We drank a few......