When you ask food icons like Alton Brown to talk about cookbooks, you might expect them to tell you that they found inspiration in an esoteric tome you've never heard of, or to recommend the latest offering by whoever is in vogue at the moment. Brown, on the other hand, goes straight to the classics. Food Republic explains that the "Good Eats" star thinks that everyone should own a copy of Joy of Cooking - but not just any edition: specifically the 1979 printing of the 1975 edition.

Jamie Oliver has had many ups and downs in his career, but currently things are going well for Jamie Oliver Holdings, despite a dip in profits last year. While sales were strong at restaurants, cookery schools and franchise business, profits were down almost half from the previous year. Some of that is due to opening costs on a new London cookery school and a business restructure. Jamie's latest cookbook, Eat Yourself Healthy: Food to Change Your Life, was a global bestseller and things are looking rosy going forward, as Jamie eyes adding more Jamie's Italian restaurants in the UK.

August 18 was International Pinot Noir day, and The Standard has a fascinating article on the pinot noir grape, known as "the heartbreak grape" for its finicky growing habits. It has thin skin and grows in tight bunches, which invite disease, and it is particularly susceptible to adverse weather conditions. However, when done well, says Richard Hemming MW, ‘no type of wine promises such ecstasy more than Pinot Noir’. 

It's back-to-school time in the US, and to help ease parents and kids into the new routine, restaurants across the country are offering limited-time deals. Chipotle, Cracker Barrel, Einstein Bros. Bagels, HelloFresh, Instacart, Smashburger, and more have discounts on everything from coffee to help parents deal with dropoff to snacks for the students' lunch bags.

With food recall after food recall hitting the news recently in the US, people may wonder if this means there are more food safety issues than usual. The answer is yes and no. According to Craig Hedberg, a professor and foodborne-disease epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, while it may look like there is much more foodborne illness this summer, things are not as bad as they seem. While the cylcospora outbreak involving lettuce is of a larger magnitude than previous outbreaks of the parasite, "in terms of all of the things that are going on with food, it's not all that unusual," he told Business Insider. Summer is always a busy time for food recalls, and sometimes an ingredient is used in many products so while several items may be recalled, there is only one root cause. States have also become better at spotting outbreaks, using gene sequencing to link seemingly isolated foodborne illnesses. The upshot: pay attention to recalls, but don't let them stand in the way of eating fruits and vegetables.