Gourmet Foods

Steven Wynbrandt sticks his hand deep beneath the layers of straw that blanket his enormous compost heap and pulls out a fistful of black gold, sweet and earthy. “Look at this soil,” Wynbrandt says with excitement as his fingers open, revealing his secret recipe for compost: decomposed dairy cow manure, alfalfa, yarrow, camomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion and valerian flowers. “I'm an alchemist.” PHOTOS: The Wynbrandt backyard As further proof that compost is to gardening these days what grass-fed beef and gluten-free gourmet foods are to the world of food, the Wynbrandt compost heap photographed by the Los Angeles Times would later sell through word of mouth for $1 a pound.

Steven Wynbrandt sticks his hand deep beneath the layers of straw that blanket his enormous compost heap and pulls out a fistful of black gold, sweet and earthy. “Look at this soil,” Wynbrandt says with excitement as his fingers open, revealing his secret recipe for compost: decomposed dairy cow manure, alfalfa, yarrow, camomile, stinging nettle, oak bark, dandelion and valerian flowers. “I'm an alchemist.” PHOTOS: The Wynbrandt backyard As further proof that compost is to gardening these days what grass-fed beef and gluten-free gourmet foods are to the world of food, the Wynbrandt compost heap photographed by the Los Angeles Times would later sell through word of mouth for $1 a pound.

You can find some fairly unique gifts online for your epicurean friends and relatives, everything from a wine-and-cheese-toting waist pack at Harry and David (http://www.harryanddavid.com) to an olive-wood cheese board filled with rich British cheese and its own double-handled knife at IGourmet.com (http://www.igourmet.com).

The holiday catalogs are already being mailed out by Harry & David, offering the century-old merchant's trademark luxury gifts including gourmet fruit from Oregon's Rogue River Valley, with a promise of "happiness delivered. " The picture is much less cheerful at the company's headquarters in Medford, Ore., where corporate cost-cutting and absentee management belie the firm's public face as a folksy, agrarian outfit with roots as solid as those growing under the pear trees in Harry & David's orchards.

Chateaubriand for two served by candlelight, with fresh flowers on the table and classical music in the background--University of Illinois students discover even a dormitory dining room can be elegant. Each week, they scramble for reservations and a chance to sample international gourmet foods at bargain prices in this tiny and unusual restaurant in Allen Hall. "What a way to end the week," one guest wrote on the comment card.

Whole Foods Market Inc., the nation's largest natural-foods grocer, said earnings climbed 37% in its fiscal third quarter and boosted its full-year forecast. Net income rose to $22.1 million, or 36 cents a share, in the period ended July 7, as sales jumped 21% to $648.7 million from $535.6 million. The Austin, Texas-based retailer is luring customers with gourmet foods, a wide selection of meat and fish and private-label goods, which are more profitable than national brands, analysts have said.

New L'Unique Shop: Like Cartier, a few other businesses are confident enough to be expanding during a recession. L'Unique Gift Co. in Irvine is opening a new store at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, which will be called the L'Unique Gourmet Co. The store will specialize in gourmet foods and kitchen items when it opens next month near I. Magnin, said Marsha Uri, a co-owner along with Eleanor Genuardi and Suzanne Skinner.

Have a craving for Le Cochon d'Or smoked ham from Cap-de-la-Madeleine in Quebec? How about some Yarmouth Island lobster hors d'oeuvres or Mama Africa's Zulu lemon, garlic, jalepeno relish? Those and thousands of other regional specialties are being offered by online bookstore giant Amazon.com in its latest move to diversify from its core business of selling books and music.

Having won over frugal shoppers with basic private-label lines, the nation's supermarkets are now trying to lure other customers with their brands of gourmet-style coffees, ice creams and fresh pasta sauces. Vons is tempting customers with its Royal Request espresso-flavored ice cream. Ralphs is serving up Private Selection soft drinks, introduced over Memorial Day weekend. In Northern California, Safeway is enticing shoppers with its own chunky chocolate chip cookies.

Only two years ago, the possibility of walking into a retail market and finding fish from Galilee, red shrimp from Spain, John Dory from New Zealand, loup de mer from the Mediterranean and dozens of other exotic fish from around the world was nil. In those days, only first-rate restaurants were recipients of precious air-flown cargo from the world over. Things are different today. Flying Foods International Inc.

It was a battle of the old school versus the new — a cook-off that pitted some of the city's veteran vendors of tacos and bacon-wrapped hot dogs against a new guard of gourmet food trucks known for fashionable menus and for sharing their locations via Twitter. But after the last bite was swallowed at the first L.A. Vendy Awards this weekend, tradition triumphed when judges crowned Nina Garcia the queen of L.A.'s street food scene. Garcia, who has served up supple Mexico City-style quesadillas and pambazos on street corners in Boyle Heights for two decades, beat out street vendor newcomers like the Grilled Cheese Truck along with old favorites, like East L.A.'s Tacos el Galuzo.

Since Condé Nast shuttered Gourmet magazine a month ago, the world of food publishing has been consumed by postmortems. What went wrong and why? But maybe a more interesting question is: Where do we go from here? The queen is dead, long live the queen. But which magazine will emerge to take Gourmet's throne? The answer is, probably none of them. In looking through the Thanksgiving issues of the various food periodicals now on the newsstands, it becomes clear that more and more magazine publishing is about what broadcasters call narrowcasting -- focusing on serving the needs of a small but enthusiastic audience.

It's hard enough resisting a fresh cupcake sitting placidly in the bakery case. Now that cupcake is coming after you. In what harks back to the heyday of the Helms Bakery neighborhood delivery truck decades ago, Sprinkles Cupcakes of Beverly Hills will use a "Sprinklesmobile" to sell red velvet, lemon coconut, banana dark chocolate and other cupcake varieties starting next week. "Mobile food is one of the hottest things going all over the country.

Some Ventura County farmers are ripping out acres of ho-hum orange groves that produced fruit crated off to supermarkets, and instead are planting lucrative crops such as strawberries, and designer pomelo and jujube orchards, that fetch good money from Los Angeles area foodies. "We just got into the Santa Monica market," said Robin Smith, who along with her husband, Steve, uprooted half of their Valencia oranges six years ago.

Italians call it "white gold," and now gourmets are going to have to dig even deeper into their pockets to buy white truffle -- the strong, garlicky-scented delicacy usually shaved into pasta, salad and omelets. Experts said last month that this year's harvest of the fungus fruit had been one of the poorest in recent years, pushing up costs for a product already known for its extravagant price tag.

PEOPLE say one can't fight City Hall, but Les Surfas is giving it a valiant try. As local blog watchers are aware, Surfas and his eponymous restaurant supply and gourmet food store in Culver City have lately been the focus of frenzied online speculation now that Culver City has decided to use eminent domain to claim the land on which Surfas houses his warehouse and offices. The city wants a transit-oriented mixed-use development on the site in anticipation of the Expo Line, a light-rail line.

From salad dressings to chocolate-covered potato chips to bread made with beer and beer without alcohol, the International Fancy Food and Confection Show tickled the palate and pounced on the pockets of industry gourmands. The four-day gourmet paradise at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, which opened Sunday, exhibited more than 8,000 products for sampling, notation or purchase by fine-food addicts.

A growing number of entrepreneurs nationwide have cooked up ways to capitalize on the gourmet takeout craze by saving customers the hassle of driving to get the food. The L.A. Lunch Club, operating in San Fernando Valley communities since the beginning of the year, is one of a handful of Southland companies that delivers meals prepared by a variety of restaurants.

Have a craving for Le Cochon d'Or smoked ham from Cap-de-la-Madeleine in Quebec? How about some Yarmouth Island lobster hors d'oeuvres or Mama Africa's Zulu lemon, garlic, jalepeno relish? Those and thousands of other regional specialties are being offered by online bookstore giant Amazon.com in its latest move to diversify from its core business of selling books and music.

A Sonoma-based foie gras company has filed suit against a group of animal rights activists that claims they are conspiring to destroy the liver pate industry by repeatedly breaking into the company's Central Valley duck farm and stealing fowl.