Has it been a year? Already? Yes, once again, as it has been since 1957, July is National Hot Dog Month! According to National Hot Dog & Sausage Council president and self-described "Queen of Wien" Janet Riley., "On Independence Day, Americans will enjoy 150 million hot dogs, enough to stretch from D.C. to L.A. more than five times."
After a lousy 2008, chefs' salaries recovered some in 2009, reports online culinary news site StarChefs.com. "After a 13% dip from 2007 to 2008, pastry chefs salaries rose 5.7% in 2009, with an average salary of $48,861," according to a StarChefs survey. "Executive chef salaries similarly rebounded by 6.1% from last year's figures."
That's the good news. The bad news: "Sous chef salaries, the only category that did not fall from 2007 to 2008, finally felt the sting of the economic slowdown, dropping 4.4%. Line Cook salaries continued to dip, falling an additional 2.6%."
Speaking of stats, this just in from the Trust for America's Health: Adult obesity rates increased in 28 states in 2009. Only one state saw a decline, and it's not really even a state: the District of Columbia. The study F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2010 found that 38 states now have adult obesity rates above 25 percent. By way of comparison, in 1991 no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent. Missouri's obesity rate currently stands at 29.3 percent, 12th highest in the nation.
The Show-Me State's childhood obesity rate, meanwhile, stands at 13.6 percent, 31st in the U.S. Maybe this helps to explain how that can be.
As Gut Check brings you the World Goblet 2010 tourney to determine the bestest country for value-priced wines, Slashfood.com's doing a similar exercise, with its World Cup of Beer.
