• Starbucks will expand its breakfast to appeal to health-conscious consumers, with offerings like granola bars and a hard-boiled-egg plate. [WSJ]

• Slow Food Nation was a rousing call to arms for food activists, but whether it will result in true political action remains to be seen. [NYT]

• Britain has its locavores, too, and one chef in particular is exporting his take on local-minded eating to the U.S. with his cookbooks. [NYS]

• Six local private schools are getting locavore menus after requests from parents, administrators, and even students to stop buying products from major food conglomerates. [NYS]

• Apparently, the same thing is happening in public schools in Maine, Connecticut, and upstate New York. [WSJ]

• It turns out that Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, and all those other Slow Food people lecture … well, slowly. [Eater SF]

The much-hyped Clover coffee machines, about which so much has been said, are finally rolling into area Starbucks. [NYDN]

Former Falai chef de cuisine Tom Block needs a job, and Bret Thorn means to help him get it. [Nation's Restaurant News]

Paul McCartney was served a meaty amuse-bouche at Nick and Toni’s, and told the waiter that the chef could "stick it." And here we thought he was the cute Beatle. [Monsters and Critics]

Another international culinary contest, the IKA, competes with Bocuse d’Or, presumably as the NIT to the latter’s NCAA. You never heard of it? Neither did we. [Eater]

Why go to the trouble of making real barbecue when you can make a crappy, quasi-inedible substitute at home? All you need is indifference and a bottle of liquid smoke! [NYDN]

Want a shot of Rémy Martin Louis XIII Black Pearl Magnum cognac? Just head over to the Rose Room at the Plaza and it'll only cost you $2,500. (Although if it's happy hour maybe you'll get the next one free.) [NYDN]

Another Top Chef contestant for season five has been I.D.'d: This one is Jill Snyder of Red Maple restaurant in Baltimore. [Inside Charm City]

Just when you thought light manufacturing was finally dead in Brooklyn, it reappears via artisanal dilettantes taking a stab at gourmet greatness. [TONY]

New York Wine and Food Festival honcho Lee Schrager is confident that even the most jaded and effete New Yorkers will embrace his festival the way the locals did in South Beach. [TONY]

The former Tasca space will not be Sheridan Square's private dining room, as per the previous plan; instead it'll be a wine bar in September, with food by the restaurant and wine by Sterling Roig. [Zagat Buzz]

The locavore movement is now hitting school lunchrooms. [WSJ]

• The Times hears about underground dining groups, but manages to find one that goes beyond dinner in an apartment — and instead butchers hogs upstate. [NYT]

• Moms of NFL players are looking for work after Campbell's Soup retools its "Chunky" ads. The new campaign suggests grown men can heat their own soup. [WSJ]

• Danny Meyer did the menu for the temporary CNN Grill at the Democratic National Convention. On the menu: "CNN fries," cobb salad, and macaroni and cheese. [CityFile]

• Tastes great, drink more? Craft brewers turn away from high alcohol content to a less boozy, equally tasty beer. [NYT]

• Hamptonites hire one of their own to cater: a 13-year-old who concedes that Union Square Hospitality Group is "pretty good competition." [NYP]
Related: The Littlest Hustler [NYM]

• According to a comedian who interned at the Spotted Pig this summer: "The gnudi are only made by a privileged few and nobody can even be in the vicinity so as to keep the recipe secret." [Amateur Gourmet]

• The L.A. Times doubted whether Michael Phelps — or anyone — could really eat a 12,000-calorie breakfast, but Crazy Legs Conti does it in a five-minute video. [Fork in the Road/VV]
Related: Competitive Eater Crazy Legs Conti Experiences ‘Deja Chew’

• You can get a kati roll at the U.S. Open this year, among these other new bites, but the $13 Grey Goose Honey Deuce hasn't changed. [NYDN]
Related: U.S. Open Eats

• Filling up your container at the Whole Foods salad bar could "result in a single meal containing large percentages of the Food and Drug Administration's recommended daily allotment of calories, fat, and sodium." The super-size image might be a good way for the company to appeal to the common man, if only the price of a filled box didn't approach $20. [NYS]

• A few things you might not know about those delicious H&H Bagels: The founder hails from Puerto Rico, "hasn't been giving the IRS its share of the dough," and is $2 million in the hole. Even bagel purists must be hoping he can scoop his way out of this one. [NYP]

• Rising food costs have trickled down to school lunches, which will increase as much as 25 cents per meal this year. It might not sound so steep to you, "but if you have three kids, over a week that’s the price of a gallon of milk.“ [NYT]

• People may be cutting back on luxuries, but dessert isn't one of them. “The popularity of baking and pastry has never been greater,” says a CIA dean. [USAT]

• Tailor has had a lot of plumbing troubles, and accordingly gives its plumber the soigné treatment. [Life Vicarious]

• Snickers has been in China for fifteen years, but the candy bar didn't sell particularly well until it became the official chocolate of the Olympic Games. [WSJ]

• Food prices are expected to rise 5 to 6 percent this year, the largest increase since 1990. Look for costs to rise at that pace in 2009, too. [Reuters via NYP]

• His bagel-flavored ice cream aside, do not call Wylie Dufresne a molecular gastronomist. [Metromix]

• A Maryland man walked twelve miles for a free cheeseburger. And his reaction after eating the burger? “Definitely worth it.” [Hamburger Today]

• A third branch of the ever-popular Magnolia Bakery is set to open in midtown come late September. [NYT]

• Wine Bar Food, a tapaslike stand with a focus on Mediterranean flavors, is the newest addition to the culinary offerings at the U.S. Open this year. And it doesn’t require one of those pesky memberships the formal restaurants require. [NYS]

• This video of how Clo’s virtual wine menu works proves that it would be difficult to use when feeling tipsy. [CBS]