It’s rolling out now in partnership with Instacart to more than 25 US cities, with car rentals joining private car hires later this summer:
Have groceries waiting at your Airbnb when you arrive, or order them any time during your trip. In select cities, hosts can even receive the order and pre-stock your home before you check in. Airbnb guests get $0 delivery and $10 off an order of $50 or more.
Calbee, the Japanese snack company, is temporarily switching its packaging on some items to grayscale, citing “supply instability affecting certain raw materials amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East.” CNN reports that it wasn’t clear what component was at risk — but it’s just the latest industry to feel the pinch as a result of the US and Israel attacking Iran in February.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is choking off the world’s supply of fertilizer feedstock, triggering concerns about rising food prices and shortages.
Then you’ll be pleased to know that Beyond Meat’s protein soda now comes in four new flavors. You can now buy a 12-pack with piña colada, cherry berry, cucumber grapefruit, and strawberry lemonade, still with your choice of 10g or 20g of protein.
The ‘crisp and refreshing’ protein drink is a sign of a company running out of time to turn it around.
Most Brits are used to using Google Maps for restaurant recommendations, but its opaque algorithm can reward chains and existing hits, making it hard for new independent spots to get traction. This map tries to fix that, highlighting restaurants underrated by the algorithm because they don’t get the footfall.
The city’s lawsuit, against the likes of Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Kraft, accuses them of selling foods that they knew to be “dangerous for human consumption,” saddling both cities and citizens with “enormous costs” thanks to ensuing health issues.
AI-generated images of food attached to nonsense recipes and Google AI Overview remixes of actual recipes are taking a huge toll on traffic for recipe bloggers. But home cooks are also wasting time and money following recipes that claim to be for cookies but only yield melted pools of cloyingly sweet dough. According to Bloomberg:
An AI-assembled version of [Eb] Gargano’s Christmas cake, for instance, would have people cooking a 6-inch cake for 3 to 4 hours at 320°F (160°C). “You’d end up with charcoal!” she said. Meanwhile, traffic to her turkey recipe is already down 40% year over year.
So says an EU court in Luxembourg, which ruled there’s no such thing as non-alcoholic gin.
The bloc is on a roll lately when it comes to cracking down on normal names for new food and drink, after lawmakers last month voted in favor of banning the term “veggie burger.”
[The Guardian]
Italian pasta companies are preparing to pull their products from US grocery stores as early as January, the Wall Street Journal reports — another downstream effect of the Trump administration’s sky-high tariffs and duties on imports. Some of the new taxes (which total 107 percent) come after a US Commerce Department review of several pasta companies, and the severity of the penalty has Italian producers worried.
Magnum is tapping an AI called Giuseppe to help it develop new products, revamp existing ones, and, of course, cut costs. Giuseppe’s maker NotCo has helped big brands like Shake Shack and Kraft make plant-based versions of products like custard, mac ‘n’ cheese, and mayo.
Sydney-based Vow is the first lab-grown meat manufacturer approved to launch Down Under. Vow, which has sold its meat under the Forged brand in Singapore since last year, offers quail foie gras and pâté, plus a quail-based candle you can dip food into as it melts.
They say they “craft entirely new, never before seen (or eaten) meats,” which is certainly one way to get around how hard it is to make a lab-grown steak.
The Trump administration has cut off access to data used globally for warnings about disasters and shortages.
The online reservation platform has launched a slate of new features, pricing updates, and a “full-on-charm offensive,” to lure high-profile restaurants away from its biggest rival, reports New York Magazine:
The strategy is working. Estela, Raf’s, Altro Paradiso, Scarr’s Pizza, and Win Son are just some of the restaurants that have moved from Resy to OpenTable since last summer. Meanwhile, newer spots like Demo, Strange Delight, Bar Kabawa, Gjelina, and Zimmi’s — hip places one might automatically assume are on Resy — launched on OpenTable right out of the gate. Don Angie and San Sabino are in the process of making the switch, too.
[grubstreet.com]
Doritos are changing shape for the first time. A limited number of square chips will be hidden in UK bags to promote the upcoming Minecraft movie, with a cash prize if you find one. New flavors named after the game’s Creeper and Ghast enemies are going on sale too. PepsiCo’s chief chip technician — a job title we should all aspire to — is clearly proud of his work.
Following McDonald’s in China releasing a Tetris-playing nugget last year, KFC in Spain has created a Tamagotchi-like digital pet called the Eduardochi. It was originally sold through KFC’s website and app, but starting on December 3rd it will be available through KFC’s restaurants across Spain for €3.99 (around $4.20) with many of them hopefully ending up on eBay.
Sorry, I had to. Anyway, please look at these pictures of how Nerds Gummy Clusters are made — and keep your eyes peeled for them this Halloween because they are scary good.
[The New York Times]
Our friends at New York peek into Wonder, the rapidly-expanding fancy food hall / delivery app that partners with fancy chefs and restaurants to bring their signature dishes to more locations. The back-end is, well, food kits?
Once items make it to the larger menu, they’re prepped in a centralized commercial kitchen in New Jersey and sent daily, mostly as kits, to Wonder’s stores, where everything is finished to order. (Not for nothing, Wonder acquired the meal-kit service Blue Apron last year.) It’s not heat-and-eat, as Blue Apron is, or even reheated, Wonder’s CMO, Daniel Shlossman, assured me, but it is true that all of the finishing can be done in the restaurants’ all-electric kitchens by non-chef staffs, which are outfitted with quick-cooking ovens, hot-water baths, and electric fryers. There are no flames in Wonder kitchens.
One the one hand: brilliant. On the other: weird!
[Grub Street]
DoorDash is bundling Max’s $9.99 / month ad-supported plan with its annual DashPash membership in the US, which costs $96 / year. Uber One offers a similar bundle with Disney Plus in the UK.
Bullying works: after TikTok users complained about Chipotle’s inconsistent portion sizes, the company announced this week it is “doubling down” on training to ensure customers get “correct and generous portions.” It will cost the company $50 million, executives told analysts.
