Food

HARRISBURG - A state senator thinks that Pennsylvania ought to do what no other state, including left-leaning California, has done: require that food products be labeled to show whether they contain genetically engineered ingredients. Or at the very least, said Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery), the bill he introduced Tuesday should start a conversation here on one of the hottest topics in consumer health circles. "I am concerned about the lack of information available about the presence of genetically engineered food, and I believe it is every consumer's right to know what ingredients are found in the products they buy," Leach said Tuesday in an interview.

When Camden's LEAP Academy University Charter School compelled its new food-service management company to retain the school's executive chef and give him a $24,000 raise, LEAP also had to pay a $151,428 penalty to its previous vendor, documents show. Including Michele Pastorello's new $95,000 salary, LEAP has spent nearly $250,000 this school year to keep him employed as executive chef. The position typically pays about $40,000, according to industry experts. Pastorello is the live-in boyfriend of LEAP founder and board chairwoman Gloria Bonilla-Santiago.

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Colloquially, people call it the "Love III" because so many remember going there on a first date, getting engaged, or celebrating another momentous life occasion there. Dozens of kitchen and wait staff even met and married there. But soon, couples will have to seek the Library III - an odd landmark of a restaurant along the Black Horse Pike that used the same dark-brown paint on both the exterior and interior and hasn't changed even slightly since it opened 40 years ago - at a new location.

What is it? A "mobile farmer's market" that whips up hearty sandwiches, soups and salads made with locally sourced, seasonal ingredients. Fare that's more healthy and tasty than you might expect from two guys in a truck. What to eat: Owners Kris Pepper and Eliot Coven are still plating their winter menu, which features the flavorful grilled squash sandwich (squash, ham, mixed greens, goat cheese and homemade herb mustard on multigrain bread) and rib-sticking soups, such as chipotle black bean chili and organic potato and leek.

K RITI SEHGAL, 29, a University of Pennsylvania grad who lives in Center City, is co-founder (with her brother, Kunal, who lives in New York) of Pure Fare. The company, launched in April 2011, provides fresh, healthy all-natural foods supported by Web tools that enable consumers to track health goals. Pure Fare has two locations: 21st Street near Walnut, and South Street above 16th, both in Center City. Q: Tell me about the idea for Pure Fare. A: It started as a technology idea.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. - The late South Philly mob figure Salvatore Testa probably isn't remembered by most people as the purveyor of inspirational words. But Steve Martorano can argue that Testa not only motivated him to change his life for the better, but he actually may have saved it. "I remember Salvie Testa tellin' me, 'Stevie, I'm gonna live hard and fast. I know I'm not gonna be around long, so I'm gonna live that way,' " recalled Martorano during a recent chat at the flagship store of his three-outlet Café Martorano restaurant chain.

NEW YORK - Cruise trends as the 2013 season gets under way are shaping up to include a bigger focus on multi-generational groups, more specialty food offerings, and continued efforts to wow passengers with new onboard firsts, such as an aquapark, a glass walkway, and a vertical garden. Here are some details on what's new in cruising.   The new 'It' ships CruiseCritic.com editor Carolyn Spencer Brown says two of the hottest new ships debuting in 2013 are the Norwegian Breakaway, which will be the largest ship ever to homeport year-round in New York City beginning in May, and Princess Cruises' Royal Princess, launching in June.

ROME - The Obama administration will provide food and medicine to Syrian rebel fighters, Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday, announcing a cautious U.S. foray into frontline battlefield support that falls far short of the heavy weapons or high-tech gear the rebels seek. "The stakes are really high, and we can't risk letting this country - in the heart of the Middle East - be destroyed by vicious autocrats or hijacked by the extremists," Kerry said following discussions among a group of Western and Arab nations that are funding, and in some cases arming, the fighters.

WASHINGTON - Fewer food-safety inspections and an increased risk to consumers will result from the lack of a new 2013 budget from Congress and the impending across-the-board spending cuts, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said Thursday. The cuts were to take effect Friday unless the White House and Congress could come to a budget agreement. The reduced inspections and budget cuts could delay a new food safety law that requires the agency to boost inspections and directs farms and food facilities to ensure their food is safe.

WE NEED to be careful about declaring national metaphorical war - the war on drugs is a costly black hole, the war on poverty a mixed bag. But the war on hunger? That's one we can win. And did win, back in the '60s and '70s. We wiped the floor with hunger. The battle began in 1968, not long after CBS aired a documentary, "Hunger in America," that shocked the population into awareness and action - prodded by the public outrage, Congress funded national school-lunch programs and food stamps, and within a decade the problem was licked.