Susan Sampson from the Toronto Star is in Chicago this week, looking at molecular gastronomy. She interviews Hervé This, the head of the molecular gastronomy lab at Collège de France in Paris. Sampson also looks at a couple of Chicago’s most well-known molecular gastronomy restaurants, including Grant Achatz’s Alinea.

What’s important to note though, because Toronto is always a few years behind what is trendy everywhere else (hush, you hecklers, may I remind you of Toronto’s “swing music” revolution, three years after it was dead in the rest of the western world??) is that the molecular gastronomy trend really isn’t that new. Anthony Bourdain makes a reference to Ferran Adrià in his book Kitchen Confidential, published in 2000. So when we start getting inundated with gobs of foam on a stick, don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

Sampson also looks at the gizmos and gadgets used in the preparation of this scientific food which includes aerators, dehydrators and heat guns. Mmmm… tasty.

Back in the land of food that resembles food, Linda Barnard of The Star reviews Al Lago Ristorante, and Jennifer Bain shares the news that bread from Montreal’s famed Première Moisson is now available in Toronto. Bain also previews Second Harvest’s Toronto Taste and visits Your Fresh Market, a Wal-Mart grocery store with a selection of goods, including organics designed to compete with the major chains:

But plenty of time- and cash-starved people need the lowest prices and one-stop shopping. It feels like a luxury to shop at farmers’ markets and more expensive supermarket chains, and to drive for ages sourcing international ingredients. In fact, Your Fresh Market carries the same products and brands as any well-stocked Canadian supermarket.

Besides, it pleases me to think of Wal-Mart shoppers loading up on red and white miso, Persian flatbread, gai lan, quinoa, kamut vegetable spirals, salsa verde and ancho chili powder – and making these ingredients mainstream.

There are, of course, the standard Wal-Mart downsides to all of this, such as the unionizing issue, the destruction of small town business centres and the concerns about Wal-Mart’s cheap goods promoting sweatshops, but Bain’s got a point when she says that, to some folks, price is really the bottom line. Let’s just hope Canadian chains are able to compete.

After all this talk of Wal-Mart, I need a drink. Josh Rubin reviews Red Cap this week as they issue special commemorative 2-4 bottles with Bob and Doug McKenzie on them. Rubin even interviews actor Dave Thomas about those Great White North sketches. And for the non-hosers, Gordon Stimmell offers his picks for perfect patio sipping.

At The Sun, Rita DeMontis interviews Ted Reader, Canada’s Master Grill Guy. Is it bad that I have no idea who this is? Can I plead vegetarian?

Elizabeth Baird’s got another column of food news and interesting bits including a cooking school in Niagara, vanilla Rice Krispies and pro-biotic bread. Who with the what now? I should just leave this one alone, shouldn’t I? Finally there’s an article that looks like it’s going to be about ramps (wild leeks), but it’s really just one paragraph about how they’re really trendy this season and the rest of the article is about headbands and Jessica Simpson’s tan. I don’t get it.

Beppi Crosariol at the Globe and Mail looks at the trendiness of pork. Apparently pig is everyone’s favourite new meat… well, except for the Muslims, the Jews and the vegetarians. And here I was thinking the Berkshire pork thing had jumped the shark. Crosariol also looks at another food trend, fruit beers, apparently not just for women anymore. Which is fine, let the boys have ‘em - that way maybe we can get more women turned onto the wonderful flavours of stouts and porters.

Chef Normand LaPrise intrigues my inner mycologist with his piece about local morel mushrooms. And Sue Reidl finishes up her Ruhlman-esque stint at cooking school by waxing all Ruhlman-like about sauces.