John Kessler

Golden Corral

When I decided to visit chain restaurants, I promised that I would approach each place with an open mind. I was honestly curious about Golden Corral, and that has now been sated. I most likely would not go back to the Golden Corral. I wasn’t looking for a memorable meal but nonetheless I couldn’t find much that personally appealed, but the cotton candy was fun.

Jenny Turknett

Gluten-free dining

While in wine country, I was very interested to see how each of Thomas Keller’s restaurants treated gluten-free diners given that the popular Cup 4 Cup all-purpose, gluten-free flour was developed at the French Laundry. Of Keller’s restaurants, Ad Hoc, with a family-style concept least conducive to accommodating gluten-free diners, was the most sensitive to guests’ needs.

Jon Watson

Food-borne illness

Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a tool to leverage data from Twitter to help identify likely sources of food-borne illness. Still being tested in New York, the program named “nEmesis” monitors and combines the data from public tweets, looking for relevant hashtags like #tummyhurts. The program’s findings have matched up closely with the New York Department of Health’s current grades for the establishments pinpointed as possible sources of food-borne illness.

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Peggy Harris (foreground) stocks the shelves at Sandy's IGA, which is the only grocery store in town, Tuesday, October 7, 2025, in Sparta. Hancock County has one of the highest rates of childhood food insecurity in the country. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC