100 - For the Progress Crit

Michelin Starred Restaurants

• The michelin man logo was created after A Universal and Colonial Exhibition in Lyon in 1894, where the michelin stand was piled high with 2 columns of tires, and Edouard Michelin remarked 'give it some arms and legs and it would look like a man'.
• The michelin guide was first created in 1900 as a free booklet to advise motorists on the best places to refuel and charge their batteries. Only in 1926 did they introduce the michelin star system.
• When inspectors visit a restaurant or hotel and are impressed with it, they visit the establishment several more times to continue their reviewing.
• 1 Michelin Star = a good place to stop on your journey/ 2 = worth a detour / 3 = worth a special journey
• Currently, Japan has the highest number of 3 star restaurants, 32 out of the 79 restaurants given the accolade. 
• Gordon Ramsay, The Fat Duck and Waterside Inn, have all successfully upheld their 3 stars. The Fat Duck for 8 years, Gordon Ramsay for 11 years, and the Waterside Inn for 27 years.
• The first chefs to receive 3 stars were Eugenie Brazier, Marie Bourgeois, Fernand Point, Andre Terrail, Joseph Baraterro, Francis Catont and Francois Pernollet. 
• Due to its french origins, both American and English critics have accused the michelin guide of having an elitist biased towards classic french cuisine. In reaction, the michelin guide then began to hand out stars to pubs and restaurants featuring alternative cuisines.
• In 1982 Le Gavroche became the first UK restaurant to achieve 3 Michelin Stars.
• Bernard Loiseau committed suicide on February 24, 2003, shooting himself in the mouth with his shotgun after a full day of work in his kitchen.The Gault Millau guide had recently downgraded his restaurant from 19/20 to 17/20, and there were also rumors in Le Figaro that theMichelin Guide was planning to remove one of La Côte d'Or's three stars.

Most expensive Foods

• The worlds most expensive bottles of Champagne cost $275,000. They were recovered from a shipwreck in 1997, after originally being intended for the Russian Imperial family in 1916. They were auctioned off the to the Ritz Carlton in Moscow. 
• The world's most expensive burger is the Fleurburger 5000, which was created by Hubert Keller in Las Vegas and costs $5000. It features Kobe Beef, truffles and a brioche bun, and is served with a bottle of 1990 Chateau Petrus. 
• The most expensive stilton cheese in the world is Clawson Stilton Gold. It includes edible gold and real gold liqueur and sells for £608 a kilo. 
• Chef Spencer Burge created a steak pie that sells for $12,500. It's made from Waygu beef, black truffles and 2 bottles of 1982 Chateau Meuton Rothschild. 
• Civet, the rarest form of coffee in the world, can sell for as much as $600 a pound. 
• The most expensive cocktail in the world costs $7,500. Served at the Burj Al Arab Hotel, and is made with 55 year old scotch, passion fruit sugar, imported ice amd is served in an 18 karat gold tumbler. 
• The most expensive pizza in the world created by Domenico Crolla costs $4,200 and is served with gold chips.
• The world's most expensive curry, the Samundari Khazana curry, costs $3,200.
• The most prized chocolate in the world, Knipschildt, costs $2,600 per pound.
• Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world and costs $2000 per pound. 

Japan and Fine Food

• Matsutake mushrooms, which can cost up to $2000 a kilo are traditionally given as special gifts to businessmen in Japan. 
• Matsutake mushrooms never grow in the same spot twice, as they form a symbiotic relationship with the trees roots.
• Fugu fish is a delicacy in Japan, despite the notorious risk eating it can cause to your life. To be able to cook and sell it, chefs need to possess a lisence and undergo intense training lasting 2-3 years after which they must take a test. Only 30% of applicants pass it.
• Japan's cows produce the most luxurious beef, entitled Kobe beef. It is produced from the Tajima breed of cow, which is hereditarily inclined to produce a higher percentage of oleaginous and unsaturated fat. 
• Kobe beef can cost up to $300 a pound.
• The Tajima cows that produce Kobe beef are given daily massages to ensure the meat is of the highest quality. Rumour also has it that they listen to classical music and are given luxury beer. 
• Japan is the largest exporter of frogs legs.
• Meat was excluded from the Japanese diet for religious reasons until 1868.
• The Dansuke watermelon is an incredibly rare gift to be given in Japan. Only 65 are said to grow each season in a specific part of Japan, and they can cost up to $6,100.

Top 10 Most Unhealthy Foods

• Burger King's Triple Whopper with Cheese - 1250 calories
• Qdoba Mexican Grill Beef Taco Salad - 1280 calories
• Dairy Queen's Six Piece Chicken Strip Basket - 1410 calories
• Hardee's Monster Thick Burger - 1420 calories
• Domino's 3 Cheese Mac-n-Cheese Bread Bowl Pasta - 1460 calories
• Five Guys Burgers and Fries Large French Fries - 1464 calories
• Ruby Tuesdays Boston Blue Burger - 1466 calories
• Carl Jr's Double Six Dollar Burger - 1520 calories
• Nathan's Famous Fish and Chips - 1537 calories
• Quizno's Large Tuna Melt - 1760 calories

10 Toxic Foods - 

• Tomatoes stems contain a chemical called Glycoalkaloid, which caused stomach upsets and anxiety.
• Apples contain a small level of cyanide, which is found in the seeds. Whilst eating them won't kill you, they will have serious implications. 
• Cherry pips produce hydrogen cyanide which can cause mild poisoning, but if eaten in larger quantities they can cause kidney failure and difficulty breathing.
• Almonds are illegal to sell unless they have been processed through a heat source, because there is cyanide in the raw seed.
• Potatoes contain glycoalkaloid poison which results in some potatoes green colour, and eating them can leave you in a coma. 
• Chillis contain a chemical called capsaicin, which is a chemical often used in paint stripper.
• Raw cashews contain urushiol which is the same chemical found in poison ivy. Before being sold cashews must be steamed to get rid of the chemical.
• There are 100 types of mushrooms which are said to be toxic.
• Fugu (pufferfish) is a delicacy in Japan and Korea, despite it being the second most poisonous vertebrate in the world.
• Cassava roots, which are used to make tapioca contain high levels of cyanogenic glucosides which are extremely poisonous. They must be pounded into a paste with flour and left in the shade for 5 hours to break down the cyanide. 

Food myths/Facts 

• Tajima cows are said to be given daily massages, fed beer, and played mozart to ensure they are of the highest quality.
• White truffles were believed to come from the ground after lightening struck the earth.
• In the middle ages, the church felt that truffles were a creation of the devil due to their exotic aroma.
• In American Indian folklore, some tribes were said to believe that quiet, contented spirits lived inside of each popcorn kernel. When their houses were heated, the spirits would become angrier and angrier, shaking the kernels, and when the heat became unbearable, they would burst out of their homes and into the air in a disgruntled puff of steam. 
• George Washington Carver did not patent peanut butter, as he believed that all food products were gifts from God.
• Worcestershire sauce is made by dissolving whole anchovies in vinegar until they melt fully.
• Peanut oil can be used to create a constituent of dynamite.
• In emergencies, coconut water can be used as a substitute for blood plasma, because its sterile and has an ideal ph level.
• Native Americans never actually ate turkey; killing such a timid bird was thought to indicate laziness.
• An ancient Egyptian would place his right hand on an onion when taking an oath, as the round shape symbolised eternity.

Food Origins/History

• The first soup was made of hippopotamus and dates back to 6000BC.
• Lobster Thermidor was invented in 1894 at the restaurant Maire in Paris in honour of the first night of the play 'Thermidor' by Victorien Sardou.
• The popsicle was invented in 1905 by an 11 year old Frank Epperson, who had left powdered soda and water overnight outside that froze. He only patented it 18 years later. 
• In May, 1886, Coca Cola was invented by Doctor John Pemberton a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia. John Pemberton concocted the Coca Cola formula in a three legged brass kettle in his backyard.
• Cheesecake is believed to have originated in ancient Greece. Historians believe that cheesecake was served to the athletes during the first Olympic Games held in 776 B.C. 
• In 1894, Kellogg was trying to improve the diet of hospital patients. He was searching for a digestible bread substitute using the process of boiling wheat. Kellogg accidentally left a pot of boiled wheat to stand and the wheat became tempered (soften). When Kellogg rolled the tempered or softened wheat and let it dry, each grain of wheat emerged as a large thin flake. The flakes turned out to be a tasty cereal. Kellogg had invented corn flakes.
• By 3,000 B.C. there were at least six different types of beer in Egypt.
• 
  Carrots were first cultivated in Afghanistan in the 7th century, and they started with yellow flesh and a purple exterior.
• Marshmallow candy originated in ancient Egypt. It was a honey candy that was flavored and thickened with Marsh-Mallow plant sap.
• Pasta originated in China approximately 40 centuries ago and has wandered around the world.

Cheese

• Cheese is the oldest of all man-made foods.
• Swiss cheese is made when the cheese ferments, and a bacterial action generates gas. As the gas is liberated, it bubbles through the cheese, leaving all those holes.
• Cheese is the most shop lifted food product globally.
• Greece and France lead the pack in cheese consumption per capita, averaging 27.3 and 24.0 kilograms per person in 2003 respectively.
• The United States is the top producer of cheese in the world, with Wisconsin and California leading the states in production.
• A farm in Bjurholm, Sweden actually makes moose cheese. The lactation period of moose is short, lasting from about June to August, and the farm, owned by Christer and Ulla Johansson, keeps three moose that produce only 300 kilograms of cheese per year. The moose cheese sells for roughly $1000 per kilogram
• Cheese is believed to have been discovered in the Middle East or by nomadic Turkic tribes in Central Asia, where foodstuffs were commonly stored in animal hides or organs for transport.
• In 2005 the British Cheese Board organised a study involving 200 volunteers in an attempt to nail the old wives' tale that eating cheese before sleep gives you nightmares. The results revealed a different story: more than three quarters of the participants, who ate 20 grams of cheese before going to bed, reported undisturbed sleep, although the majority of them were able to recall their dreams. More surprisingly, the different varieties of cheese seemed to produce different kinds of dream. Cheddar induced a higher proportion of dreams about celebrities; Red Leicester summoned childhood memories; Lancashire generated dreams about work; while Cheshire inspired no dreams at all.

10 Foods that Have Been Banned In Various Countries

• French primary schools have banned tomato ketchup from meal times because the french believes it poses a cultural threat to their cuisine, saying that it masks the flavour of what they are eating.
• Kinder Eggs are not allowed to be sold in the USA, and were barred from import by US Customs and Border Protection because it contains a "non-nutritive object embedded in it."
• Denmark banned Marmite, because the yeast extract defies a 2004 law that restricts food products fortified with vitamins.
• The raw version of Ackee fruit, of  Jamaican origin,  is banned from import to the United States because it contains toxins that may block the body's ability to produce an extra supply of glucose.
• Jelly beans made with a thickening agent called konjac are banned from import in the UK and the rest of the EU, on the basis that they pose a choking hazard. 
• Haggis is banned in America due to a law against sheep lungs in food products.
• Samosas have been banned in Somalia after the country's al-Shabaab group deemed them "offensive" and "too Christian."
• Unpasteurised milk is banned in 22 states in the US and Canada over concerns about germs
• Slaughtering horses for human consumption is illegal in the US, although it is not against the law to consume horse meat.
• Traditional Absinthe was banned for many years in the US and Europe because it contains large concentrations of wormwood, a plant containing the chemical thujone, which can induce hallucinations and affect mental health. The ban was lifted in the 1990s in Europe but in its rawest form, Absinthe remains technically illegal in the States as a food product controlled by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Strange Foods

• In Mexico, tortillas are sometimes made with red and white Agave worms - the same worms found in mescal bottles. Their popularity largely stems from the belief that they are an aphrodisiac.
• The Chinese are fond of eating honeybee larvae and the pupae of silkworms in stir fries. In some parts of the country fried scorpions and dragonflies are consumed.
• In Columbia people fry or roast black ants to eat. The ants are chip-sized and have a smoky flavour. They are often served in cinemas and are actually quite a healthy alternative to popcorn.
• In North Africa and the Middle East, nomadic tribes feast on roasted camel. Thanks to their North African Empire, the French developed a taste for camel too, though in France the preferred dish is camel's foot.
• A South Korea treat was to dip live baby octopuses in oil and swallow whole. The tradition died out after human fatalities caused by the octopus gripping the sides of the throat, choking the diner.
• Kenya's Masai have an odd recipe for milkshake. They mix cow's blood with their daily milk, as they believe it makes them stronger. They collect the blood by shooting an arrow into the neck of the animal.
• The South Koreans love dogs, especially when served in stew. In Andean parts of South America, you might be offered a delicacy known as 'cuy' - guinea pig roasted whole.
• In some parts of Indonesia, bats are grilled or deep-fried. Fruit bats are skinned and the head and wings removed. The body is cut into cubes and stewed, while the wings are served in coconut milk.
• Balut are duck eggs that have been incubated until the fetus is all feathery and beaky, and then boiled alive. The bones give the eggs a uniquely crunchy texture, and are eaten in Cambodia and the Phillipines, and are considered to be an aphrodisiac.
• Baby mice wine is a traditional Chinese and Korean "health tonic".