Stephan's Friday Picks

• Sulphur scramble poses latest threat to global food prices (FT)
• Inside the world of 'dark nutrition' (NYT)
• The peculiar charms of douzhi, Beijing's fermented bean juice (FT)
• As private equity scales up small restaurants, customers push back (NYT)
• From the archives (2009): The taste makers (The New Yorker)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• Couche-Tard deal for Cumberland would make strategic sense, analysts say (Bloomberg)
• Has substitution culture gone too far (Eater)
• Barilla paid $750 million for Goodles in all-cash deal (Bloomberg)
• How smart does my fridge need to be (FT)
• DoorDash is in advanced talks to acquire delivery rival Instacart (WSJ)

 Stephan's Wednesday Picks

• Carrefour's $2 billion stock plunge shows cost of France unrest (Bloomberg)
• Hershey, king of Halloween, wants to win all the holidays (Bloomberg)
• Oxford Street's pedestrian revolution is finally here (FT)
• Why so many shoppers think retailers are using AI to jack up prices (WSJ)
• California wines don't age? Think again (FT)

 Stephan's Tuesday Picks

• Kroger to invest $5 billion on improving value, lowering prices (Bloomberg)
• How Coca-Cola got burned with a $5 billion bet on Costa coffee (Bloomberg)
• Procter & Gamble's sales offset rising fuel costs (WSJ)
• Sainsbury's faces tough market as Britons grapple with rising costs (Bloomberg)
• Canadian cheese was about to become the next big thing. Then came the tariffs (NYT)

 Stephan's Monday Picks

• The new age of reading (The New Yorker)
• How the world fell back in love with butter (The Guardian)
• Who hacked France's supermarket fridges (The Guardian)
• Lindt brings back former boss as steep price rises hit demand for its chocolate (FT)
• Why it's so hard to get a reservation right now, according to a restaurateur (Food & Wine)

 Stephan's Friday Picks

• George McNally's brasserie inheritance (The New Yorker)
• For CPG companies, agentic AI's real payoff is growth (McKinsey)
• You haven't done Toronto if you haven't had a Jamaican beef patty (Bloomberg)
• How climate change is causing the gentrification of seafood (NYT)
• From the archives (2006): Paradise sold: What are you buying when you buy organic (The New Yorker)

 Stephan's Thursday Picks

• The judgment bottleneck: Balancing AI and human speeds in strategy (McKinsey)
• The chocolate conspiracy (Grub Street)
• Albertsons and Kroger to call ex-CEOs to testify over failed deal (Bloomberg)
• It's sliced cheese on bread. And it's rocking Copenhagen's world (NYT)
• Unilever agrees to sell Welly bandage business to private equity firm (WSJ)