The restaurant of French chef Paul Bocuse, who died two years ago, has lost one of its Michelin stars after holding three since 1965, a world record.

The Michelin guide announced Friday that the restaurant in Collonges-au-Mont-d'or, near the French city of Lyon, has been downgraded to two stars.

Dubbed by critics as the "pope of French cuisine," Bocuse died at age 91 in January 2018 in Collonges-au-Mont-d'or, the place where he was born.

He was a tireless pioneer, the first chef to blend the art of cooking with savvy business tactics — branding his cuisine and his image to create an empire of restaurants around the globe whose offerings range from haute cuisine to fast food.

The restaurant's kitchen is now run by a trio of French chefs.

The Bocuse group also owns a restaurant in Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida, that opened in 1982, and several brasseries, cafes and other establishments in the city of Lyon and in Japan.

The SweetSin Coffees is quite a favorite amongst youngsters in Dhanmondi. Recently, they opened a new branch at Gulshan Avenue (same building as Fryyay) to attract people from the tri-state area. They also have a new breakfast menu that included platters like Waffled up breakfast, Pancake surprise, Grilled cheese morning, and Quesadilla mix platter.

The Waffled up breakfast comes with simple waffles with maple syrup, chicken strips, beef bacon, mushrooms, and poached egg. The waffle they serve is slightly soggy however, the mushroom, bacon, and chicken strips were quite tasty and filling. The Pancake surprise came with pancakes with maple syrup, a cheesy omelette, chicken sausage, and mushrooms. I really liked this breakfast meal. The cheesy omelette has a stringy pull if you have it while it’s hot. The sausages taste like the frozen ones you fry at home. I had two other friends who tried the rest 2 platters. The Grilled cheese morning really stole the show. It is undoubtedly the best breakfast meal they serve. The salty and gooey cheese sandwiches were grilled to perfection.

It came with well sautéed garlic mushrooms, vegetable stuffed chicken, and the delicious cheese omelette. Honestly, this meal was the perfect balance of all their good items. The vegetable stuffed chicken could use a spicy sauce though as overall, the meal was quite light. So if you are into light, mild flavors for breakfast, you’ll enjoy the meal. Lastly, there was the Quesadilla mix platter. While it sounds quite unconventional to have a Mexican item for breakfast, quesadilla is nothing but stuffed bread. So there’s nothing to be afraid of. The spices used here were quite mild as well. The paratha like bread seemed to have become soggy because of the stuffing. The scrambled eggs lacked any seasoning so we had to add salt and pepper according to our preference.

In all, we all approve of the Grilled Cheese Morning platter. The Grilled Cheese melted our minds with how perfectly it was done. Overall, The SweetSin Coffees is a great choice to catch up with your friends for brunch on a budget.

Fuchkawali; a name that raises eyebrows due to how strange it sounds when you mention it to someone. It is an actual place in Banani 11 which is serving fuchkas named Dhakaiyya, Mumbaiyan, Isaan, Peshwari, and lastly Bolognese. I will admit, when I first came across this name, I wasn’t keen at all to try it out given the price point (around 180-200 BDT) but then I saw the Bolognese fuchka and it piqued my interest. Additionally, since they had a mixed platter available, I decided that there’s no harm in trying as it’s fuchka after all.

To start off, the shop is absolutely tiny. You place and receive your order through a window and there’s about 4-5 seats available at the back. We placed our order for the mixed platter and it took quite some time to arrive. However, I have to say I was pleased with how clean the kitchen looked and that the staffs were all wearing gloves while preparing our order.

As for the food, most of the fuchkas tasted quite alike. The Mumbaiyan and Dhakaiyya tasted almost the same; slightly spicy with a topping and stuffed with potatoes and lentils. Honestly, I couldn’t taste the difference in them. The Isaan was supposed to have a mix of vegetables, peanuts, Thai spice, and served with an extremely hot sauce and in my opinion, it delivered nothing as promised. The Peshwari was sadly unavailable but it is supposed to have a mix of chicken and beef with a special sauce made of herbs. The Bolognese was my favorite though. As unconventional as it sounds, this meaty fuchka was topped with a cheesy sauce. It made me feel like I was having some sort of pasta only within a shell instead of with some noodles. The shells were way too oily and we had to wipe our hand on a tissue rigorously after finishing it. They were all dolloped with yoghurt or cheese (in case of Bolognese) which everyone may not be a fan of.

Fuchkawali tried to do something unique yet local. However, I think they could experiment a lot more and didn’t really live up to the hype.

Cilantro has been around for ages! In fact, some people of the earlier generation may also tell you that Cilantro or Coentro (now closed) used to be their hangout spots. Luckily for us, Cilantro still exists and the food is absolutely delicious!

Located at Satmasjid Road right next to Abacus, Cilantro may seem to be tucked away as you can’t actually find the restaurant unless you are aware of the place.
After walking through a narrow alley, you find a wooden gate through which you enter a cozy and aesthetic space. With both floor and seat seating arrangements and lights hung from the ceiling, it’s a restaurant fit both for hangouts and dates. My order there is usually the same; Beef Poutine, Beef Tacos, and Iced Tea. However, their meals are also very good.  

The Beef Tacos are scrumptious soft shelled beef tacos are made with roti like Tortillas and topped off with Pico de Gallo (salsa) and shredded mozzarella cheese and served with a house special sauce and pickled onions!Instead of using ground beef like typical tacos tend to do, they used strips of juicy steaks. The meat tasted slightly overcooked but the pickled onions and house special sauce made me completely disregard it by adding a tangy and spicy kick to every bite. The mozzarella didn't add any flavour to it however; the fresh salsas were the ultimate savor to the dish binding every component of the taco together. I tried their shrimp taco as well but didn't like how dry they were. They could've kept it simple with the flavoring but instead turned it into something very deshi.

While Dhaka has very few places serving proper Poutines, Cilantro does an excellent job with theirs. Properly cut wedges baked to perfection with that slight crisp goes great with the cheese sauce, minced beef, and fresh salsa. This dish is enough to be split by 2 (or 3 if ordered as an appetizer). A must order if anyone ever pays them a visit!

Finally for dessert we got Churros which are fried dough pastry usually had as a snack. They're usually coated with granular sugar and dipped in chocolate sauce for consumption. The Churros at Cilantro are served hot and the thick dark chocolate sauce works great with these dough sticks. However, over my last few visits, I have noticed that their Churros are very oily which doesn't leave you feeling light as it should. I always get this dessert along with their platter but if I had to order them on their own, would probably think twice before doing so.

As for drinks, you can try any of theirs as they are all very refreshing! I usually get the Apple Iced Tea but the Blackberry drink that I got was mindblowing: tangy with hint of spice!

After a big year for its plant-based burger, Impossible Foods has something new on its plate.

The California-based company unveiled Impossible Pork and Impossible Sausage on Monday evening at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas.

It's Impossible Food's first foray beyond fake beef. The Impossible Burger, which went on sale in 2016, has been a key player in the growing category of vegan meats. Like the burger, Impossible Food's pork and sausage are made from soy but mimic the taste and texture of ground meat.

Impossible Pork will be rolled out to restaurants first. The company isn't yet saying when it will come to groceries. Impossible Foods only recently began selling its burgers in grocery stores, although they're available at more than 17,000 restaurants in the U.S., Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau.

Burger King will give consumers their first taste of Impossible Sausage. Later this month, 139 Burger King restaurants in five U.S. cities will offer the Impossible Croissan'wich, made with plant-based sausage coupled with the traditional egg and cheese. Burger King did a similar test of the Impossible Whopper last year before expanding sales nationwide.

The pork products and the Impossible Burger are made in a similar way. Impossible Foods gets heme — the protein that gives meat its flavor and texture — from soy leghemoglobin, which is found in the roots of soy plants. To make heme in high volume, it inserts the DNA from soy into yeast and ferments it. That mixture is then combined with other ingredients, like coconut oil.

The company tweaked the ingredients to mimic pork's springy texture and mild flavor. For the sausage it added spices.

Impossible Pork has 220 calories in a four-ounce serving. That's not much less than a serving of Smithfield 80% lean ground pork, which has 260 calories. Smithfield's animal-derived pork has more total fat, at 20 grams, than Impossible Pork, which has 13 grams. But Impossible Pork has far more sodium, at 420 milligrams. Smithfield has 70 milligrams.

But health concerns are only part of the reason consumers are eating more plant-based meats. Animal welfare and environmental concerns are also a factor. Nearly 1.5 billion pigs are killed for food each year, a number that has tripled in the last 50 years, according to the World Economic Forum. Raising those pigs depletes natural resources and increases greenhouse gas emissions.

"Everything that we're doing is trying to avert the biggest threat that the world is facing," Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown told The Associated Press.

Brown said the company decided pork should be its next product because customers were frequently requesting it. Impossible Foods started working on the new products about 18 months ago and accelerated development in the second half of 2019.

Brown said ground pork is also critical to meeting the company's international expansion goals. While Americans eat more beef and chicken, pork is the most widely consumed meat worldwide, according to the National Pork Board. Chinese consumers eat more than 88 pounds (40 kilograms) of pork per year, compared to 65 pounds (30 kilograms) for Americans.

Brown said he believes a product like Impossible Pork is critical in China, which has limited arable land and relies heavily on imported meat. Last year, Chinese pork prices surged after African swine fever wiped out millions of pigs.

Brown said Impossible Foods is talking to Chinese regulators and potential partners that could make Impossible Pork — as well as plant-based burgers — in China.

"This is a huge opportunity for China in terms of its food security," Brown said.

Impossible Foods is also waiting for approval from European regulators to sell its products there.

In the U.S., 2019 was a breakout year for plant-based meat. U.S. sales jumped 10% last year to nearly $1 billion; traditional meat sales rose 2% to $95 billion in that same time, according to Nielsen.

Impossible Foods rival Beyond Meat — which already sells plant-based sausage links — had a successful public stock offering in the spring. Impossible Foods ran short of burgers in the first half of the year thanks to the buzz from Burger King. After partnering with OSI Group, a food service company, Brown said Impossible Foods produced twice as much of its plant-based meat in the last quarter of 2019 as it sold in all of 2018.

"We have to keep scaling up as fast as we possibly can," Brown said.

Brown said he welcomes new competitors in the space, including deep-pocketed rivals like Nestle and Tyson Foods. The meat industry is vast, he said, and plant-based meats are still only around 1% of sales.

His only concern is that plant-based products taste good enough to convince meat eaters to switch.

"A crappy product won't win over meat lovers," Brown said.