C3: The Food Industry Has Lost the Plot — June 2026

The food industry spent the last stretch doing two things at once: launching products so bizarre they read like satire, and watching its own business models come apart under the pressure of the internet, labor costs, and a customer base that has run out of patience. Both stories are worth telling. Let's get into it.

Quick note before we start: a lot of what's circulating right now as "new" food news is actually 2023 and 2024 material being recycled for clicks. I went back to primary sources on everything in this post. Dates and details below are verified.

Something Broke in Food Service — And It Wasn't Just the Dishwasher

Why the restaurant industry is a dumpster fire — and why it's complicated.

C3: Feet Pics, Franchise Failures, and Caviar McNuggets — May 2026

Tyrone B. Cookin · C3 Series

Curated Culinary Curiosities

May 2026 Edition

The food world is having a moment. Several moments, actually. None of them normal. Here's what caught my eye this month — verified, fact-checked, and served with a side of chef's perspective.

Industry News · BBQ

The Smoke Has Cleared — And It Doesn't Look Good for Rodney Scott's BBQ

All locations of Rodney Scott's Whole Hog BBQ have abruptly shut down. Here's what happened, who Rodney Scott is, and why the family's original pit is still very much alive.

TyroneBCookin.com  ·  May 5, 2026

If you follow the barbecue world at all, you probably saw the news drop on May 5, 2026: every single location of Rodney Scott's Whole Hog BBQ has closed. All of them. At once. Some mid-service, some with zero warning to staff. Signs on the doors say "temporary" and "until further notice" — but when a restaurant chain shuts down like this, those words don't carry much weight.

This one stings, because Rodney Scott is genuinely one of the best to ever do it. And what's happened here isn't really a story about him failing. It's a story about what happens when the business side of the restaurant industry swallows something that was never meant to be a corporation.

18 Years Later: Revisiting the 25 Reasons I'd Never Own a Restaurant

18 Years Later: Revisiting the 25 Reasons I'd Never Own a Restaurant

Back in 2008, I reposted a list on this blog. Twenty-five reasons a chef named Niall Harbison would never open a restaurant. I asked his permission, credited him properly, and then added my own little confession at the top — that 99% of his reasons were the same reasons I wrestled with the idea myself.

Here's what I didn't mention in that post: I wrote it from a ship.