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.

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.

Curated Culinary Curiosities: LEGOs, Loopholes, and Lies

Welcome back to C3 — Curated Culinary Curiosities — where I round up the food stories that are too strange, too important, or too flat-out ridiculous to ignore. This batch? Oh, we've got a genuine crime caper involving pasta and LEGOs, a federal food safety loophole that's been hiding in plain sight for decades, a fast food chain that wants you to eat the wrapper, and a fraud problem with olive oil that makes me want to just press my own at home.

Let's get into it.

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🧱 The Pasta Bandit: A Crime Story in Several Courses

Confirmed & wrapped up — April 18, 2026

Drawer Clutter and Dirty Lies: The Most Useless Kitchen Tools Ever Made Popular

Being in professional kitchens taught me a lot of things. One of them is this: the tool industry's greatest trick was convincing home cooks that cooking is harder than it is — and then selling them the equipment to manage that imaginary difficulty. Today we're calling it out. From the banana slicer to the Rollie Eggmaster (yes, that's a real thing), here's the definitive Hall of Shame for kitchen gadgets that had no business being this popular.

Exhibit A through Z. You probably own at least three of these. No judgment. (Almost.)

Let me start with a confession.

I have been a professional chef for over thirty years. Hot, no-nonsense kitchens where if a tool didn't earn its place on the line, it got thrown in a drawer and never came back out. I've cooked aboard a hospital ship in West Africa. I've fed over a thousand people at a stretch on outdoor flat tops. I know what actually works in a kitchen — and I know what's a pretty lie wrapped in injection-molded plastic.

The Best Cooking Tools I Actually Use (And My Honest Notes on All of Them)

A while back I put together an Kitchen Equipment Best Buys I actually own and use — not stuff I was paid to say nice things about, not gear someone sent me for free. My stuff. With my real notes attached. 

I've been getting questions about it lately, so I figured I'd pull it all together here in one place and expand on a few things the character limits on Amazon don't let me say. The list is organized loosely by category. If you want to shop the whole thing in one place, this category is at: The Best Cooking Tools. 

Let's get into it.

Shop the tyronebcookin Store — 368 Designs on Food, Faith, Family & Fun

tyronebcookin

I COOK STUFF... Designs on Food, Faith, Family, and Fun!

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👕 Visit the Store →

You've been watching me cook, following along on community serving days, and keeping up with the family adventures — and a lot of you have asked about the shirts. So let me properly introduce you to the store.

Over at my TeePublic store I've built out 368 designs across 9 collections — everything from chef life and BBQ culture to nurse appreciation, faith-based designs, family and parenting humor, vintage throwbacks, gamer styles, and more. Some of these designs I made for Stephanie when she started nursing. Some came straight out of the kitchen. Some are just things I wanted to exist in the world and didn't see anywhere else. All of it is me.

Stop Cooking Like It’s 2024. Here’s What’s Actually Vibe-y in the Kitchen Right Now

Let’s be real: your air fryer is tired, and your sourdough starter from 2020 has definitely seen better days. If you’re looking to flex on the group chat or just want your kitchen to smell like a five-star bistro, 2026 is bringing some chaos (the good kind).

From "cabbage-core" to "swavory" snacks, here is what’s trending for home chefs who actually like food.

Cuisinart 3 in 1 Pizza Trial

I Finally Tried the Pizza Oven Part of My Cuisinart 3-in-1 — Here's My Honest Take

I'll be honest with you — I had this thing for a while before I ever touched the pizza oven function. I'd been using it as a regular grill and griddle, and it was handling that job just fine. But the pizza oven part? I kept putting it off. Setting up the stone, sliding pies in through that little front door... it just seemed like more steps than I wanted to deal with on a weeknight.

But I finally did it. I shot the whole thing on video so y'all could watch along, and I want to give you my full thoughts here too — because a 30-second clip doesn't cover everything you'd actually want to know before buying or using this thing.

Convert old grill into roll-away tabletop for Cuisinart 3-in-1

You know how it goes. You buy a new piece of outdoor cooking gear, and suddenly there's this old grill cart just sitting there — rusting, taking up space, not really doing anything useful anymore. Most people would drag it to the curb. I looked at it and saw a project.

I had just picked up the Cuisinart 3-in-1 pizza oven, grill, and griddle, and right away I could tell it needed a proper home outside. It's a tabletop unit, which is great for portability, but you still need something sturdy to set it on — something at the right height, with room to work. I wasn't about to spend money on a new cart when I had an old grill base in the garage and a stack of leftover wood just waiting to be used.

So here's what I did, why it worked, and what you should know if you want to try something similar.

Quick Calzones with Store-Bought Dough — The Boys Take Over the Kitchen

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If you didn't know, Aldi has a ready-to-bake pizza dough they sell right in the store — and it's actually pretty good. We've used it a couple of times now and it's become our go-to for a quick lunch that gets the boys involved in making their own food. This time around we put it to work on calzones, and let each of them build their own from start to finish.

Tytus, Ezra, and Kyle all got in on it — and let me tell you, the personality differences between these three showed up immediately the moment they started choosing their fillings.

No Flour, No Mess, Pizza Dough Rolling

The PIZZA hack you never knew you needed! At home, no rolling pin, no machine. This clip was pulled from my full-length video "PIZZA! Start to finish!" https://youtu.be/seLx6YSyP_c Take advantage of the equipment I have reviewed for top recommendations in the kitchen. Kitchen Best Buys http://bit.ly/KitchenBestBuys

Easy Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls are the greatest snacks, desserts, and breakfast food! In this video, I make them from scratch using my own technique and the recipe for bread dough. https://www.tyronebcookin.com/2009/05/easy-bread-dough.html 

If you would rather not make the dough, buy pizza dough balls from your local grocer.

I do not use a sweetened dough for Cinnamon Rolls because there is enough added sweetness in the filling and glaze.

My cameraman is Tytus today!

Do you need recommendations for your kitchen? Here are my top picks... Kitchen Best Buys http://bit.ly/KitchenBestBuys

PIZZA! Start to Finish!

Pizza! Start to Finish! Is a promise we gave you in "trial run 2". We said we would revisit PIZZA in more detail and here we have! There's no food shortage in Barton's house. We say this because you can whip up some dough and throw all kinds of leftovers on top and call it a pizza! LOL The boys and I have fun with this! We use either a pizza stone or a pizza steal in the oven. We have both. Some people feel the need to let it cool down and remove it after use. We leave the stone/steel in there all the time. We cook right on top of it. Doesn't matter if its a sheet tray of cookies or a casserole in a glass dish. Here's a recipe to get you started... Easy Bread and Pizza Dough Recipe

The Bcookin Show Too! (Pizza)

Tytus and I have made some improvements. I am getting a little better at editing and using the "thumbnail, end screen, subscribe button, watermark, and next video/playlist" add-ons for Youtube.

In this next video you may recognize some older clips that I pieced together. Eventually we will break it all down in newer shows but for right now we are getting the feel of things. 

What does that mean? we will video more technique and recipe breakdown. Showing you how we do it. 

• Make the dough, 
• ingredients we use, 
• equipment,
• tips and tricks...

But for now, thanks for being patient as we work this all out. 

* Thank you Anne and Beth for emailing in your suggestions and comments! We appreciate the encouragement!

Sam's FOODIE Club

I noticed lately at my local Sam's Club it has really tried to draw in the "foodie" crowd. Sure it has the usual restaurant section and the home kitchen aisle BUT now they are really getting into it!

Wood Fired Oven. Cool, yet steep(price). I think we could make a bigger one with less money...a friend once found online where you could make one out of used or broken tombstones(recycling baby!)! -- Imagine pulling a delicious pizza out of it and seeing "Here lies Bro..." crusted into the bottom of it? HAHAHA 

Quick Kids Pizza Any Diet

Hear me out! As long as you can turn your oven on high as it will go, slide a cookie sheet/pan (or square stone) in there, and the oven doesn't take all day to heat up...you can feed pizza to your kids quickly with a crispy crust!  

Tortillas seem to come in any size, and any diet nowadays. Wheat, white, corn, gluten free...it's amazing really. For the basic I use white, flour tortillas. Turn oven up as far as it will go, you can stick pizza in before it reaches temperature and then check it in about five minutes to gage where it's at. Sauce (marinara, BBQ, Alfredo, pesto...), toppings, slide in oven with spatula or upside down tray, on top of hot tray or stone (I can do four small pizzas on my stone) bake till crispy and cheese/topping bubbling(five to ten minutes). Next round, if there is one, pizzas will cook quicker. If you have trouble getting them out just pinch end of crust with tongs and drag on top tray or plate.

Look at the crust on that puzza, thin, crispy, great color!

**if your a purist or a "professional" then maybe this isn't for you! But it's great for moms and dads that want something hot and quick without making / keeping actual dough or premade crusts around. And now your tortillas are much more versatile.**

Breakfast For Lunch!

Everyone seems to love eating breakfast at lunch! Today was a little different and since breakfast originally fell on Labor Day on the calendar I figured lets just move it to the end of the week. Fridays are usually pizza day. We order from Dominoes...it helps me work on receiving orders (from trucks), paperwork, and extra cleaning.

Little Valley Academy gets a sausage biscuit, hash rounds(w/ketchup), and mixed fruit!

Valley Fellowship Christian Academy (K5-12TH) gets scrambled eggs, hash rounds, biscuit and sausage gravy, and of course ketchup and real butter. We scramble real eggs, cook the sausage, make the sausage gravy...Shown is the High School plate.

Small Bits & Favorites

Last week I had a visit from the Health Department, as I normally do every 2 months(or at least that seems to be the time pattern for my inspections). As you would have guessed from the picture I made a 95. The 5 points were one critical violation. That morning one of my reach in refrigerators was having trouble keeping milk at the proper temperature instead it was 44-46 Fahrenheit. Unfortunately whoever installed the thermostat prior to our purchase put it at the coldest part of the refrigerator, not the warmest, which is standard practice. Usually hot air rises so most probes are mounted/located at the top, near the front, by where the door opens. Ours was not. I received an extra form for the violation which gave me ten days to fix the problem and then they come back to sign off. Fortunately I am on good terms with the current and past inspectors. We had the refrigerator serviced (thermostat going bad) and I emailed the inspector they could come back early and check if it was more convenient for them. They came the next day and signed off on it and thanked me for letting them know it was ready. We got it fixed in a day, then watched to make sure it "regulated" back to normal so the whole process was about 3 days.

I have ranged between 99 and 95 the past two years since opening this kitchen. The 100 seems to be elusive. I expect it though, its the sign of perfection. And who really has perfection? Its rhetorical, don't answer that. But one day...

WOW! Children's cereals, sugar by the pound! (AND ADULTS) ...I would encourage you to read this article. It will give you graphs/charts that give you the good with the bad. But in paraphrase most cereals (and granola) are over 34% of the daily allowance of sugar. How does that compare? WE, AND/OR OUR KIDS, COULD EAT ICE CREAM FOR BREAKFAST AND ONLY HIT 15%!!! Here is a link to a downloadable 27 page PDF. Do you really want to read 27 pages? Maybe not, but just by skimming the information was fascinating and the charts were great! We don't let our children eat "cereal" and most granola they eat is made at home, in our kitchen.

Get yo' summer sip on with a mason jar without a critter gettin' in it! I wanted to throw this one out there because I thought it was cool! Maybe its expensive for some straw and lids you may be able to creat yourself by cutting round discs out of flat plastic and punching a hole in it! Then go to your local Starbucks or McD's and get yourself a hand full of those big straws...its probably already a DIY project on Pinterest by somebody!

Two things that have been on my mind after reading reviews and articles from some of my "go-to" places for culinary news and science:

At Home Sous Vide Machine by Sansaire.com
Priced at $199, so yes, its still a wish list item! LOL (I got a family with two growing boys to feed and clothe, poppin' off more than $20 dollars for a kitchen tool that I can play with is a stretch at my house...but I will take donations if your offering and feeling sympathetic towards my plea!) What is Sous Vide you say? Taken from Wikipedia.com:

Sous-vide (/suːˈviːd/; French for "under vacuum")^[1] is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath or in a temperature-controlled steam environment for longer than normal cooking times—72 hours in some cases—at an accurately regulated temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 55 °C (131 °F) to 60 °C (140 °F) for meats and higher for vegetables. The intention is to cook the item evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside, and retain moisture.

The Baking Steel & Griddle 2.0! Now this one is not actually on the market yet, it comes out in June.

Yep, this baby will probably run a hundred plus based off of looking at the other prices...click the picture for a link to the webpage. Used in place of a pizza stone, or flip it over to use it like a griddle that has a grease channel. Its heavy, and it retains heat. Unlike pizza stones I doubt it will ever crack or break on you!

[all pictures used from its original website are linked TO THAT WEBSITE. If I am in violation from using them please let me know and I will remove them.]

I'm PACKIN' and it's LOADED!

I pack my boys lunches for several reasons but mainly because they eat a lot! And they love a variety of things. This topic comes up a lot with other friends of mine both parent and non parent when chatting socially on twitter or Facebook.

[ You can catch me on twitter @tyronebcookin or Instagram @tyronebcookn. Without the "i".]

My boys lunches have a lot of small portions and they are based off things we know they will eat. In the pictures/diagrams listed in this post it doesn't say but the apple sauce is no sugar added, the peanut butter granola bar and mini pumpkin muffins are home made(made by my wife, she also is an excellent cook). The fruit snacks are all natural with no corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup. Sometimes we even make the apple sauce when we get a good price on some tasty apples. 

Most of our food is purchased through Aldi's which is the parent company for Trader Joes (which is not in our area yet) and we recognize a lot of the food as the same products and quality. 

We interchange the food components as stuff goes on sale or is available. On the weekends I usually make big batches of waffles and pancakes that we eat then freeze for use all during the week. Lunch meat can be changed, restaurant take home and supper leftovers can be used...sometimes we just throw a couple of pieces of pepperoni pizza in there!

Tytus' Lunch - 3 1/2 years old:

Ezra's Lunch - 15 months old:

Pizza, Aluminum Foil, and Parchment Paper

📌 Originally posted August 2013 · Updated & expanded 2026 — This post still gets a ton of traffic, so I figured it was time to give it the full treatment it deserves.

Pizza, Aluminum Foil, and Parchment Paper

What I've Learned After All These Years

Let me set the scene. It's a Saturday night, I'm ready to make pizza, I go to grab the parchment paper — and it's gone. Not a single sheet left in the house.

Now at this point I've got dough rested, sauce made, toppings ready to go. I'm not stopping. So I did what any committed home pizza cook does: I improvised. I grabbed the aluminum foil and figured we'd see what happened.

That one Saturday night turned into one of the most-visited posts on this entire blog, which honestly still surprises me. But I get it — because the parchment vs. foil question comes up every time someone starts getting serious about homemade pizza. So let me give you the full picture, not just the original experiment.

Saturday night pizza — the experiment that started it all