<ul class="summary-list"><li>"Iron <keyword id="3699" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Chef">Chef</keyword>" star <keyword id="1083940" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Michael-Symon">Michael Symon</keyword> recently spoke to Insider about his <a href="https://www.insider.com/michael-symon-summer-cocktails-bar-essentials-2021-5">go-to summer cocktails</a>.</li><li>He also revealed what he keeps in his <keyword id="6380853" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="fridge">fridge</keyword> at all times.</li><li>He always has eggs, fresh herbs, and different varieties of cheese on hand.</li></ul>What you find in someone's fridge can say a lot about a person and their <keyword id="27178" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="cooking">cooking</keyword> style.Insider spoke to <keyword id="7499" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Celebrity-Chef">celebrity chef</keyword> and "Iron Chef" star Michael Symon about his recent partnership with Diplomático Rum, his <a href="https://www.insider.com/michael-symon-summer-cocktails-bar-essentials-2021-5">go-to summer cocktails</a>, and what the chef has on hand in his fridge at all times. Symon recommended that home cooks always have a bowl of fresh citrus for cocktail making or cooking."I always have a lot of citrus in my fridge, and there's always a pretty good amount of fresh herbs," Symon told Insider. "That's especially true this time of year when I have the garden ripping. I always have a lot of herbs on hand."<h2>Symon says eggs are essential in his fridge, but not just for the morning</h2><div type="image" title="eggs substitute" height="1250" width="1666" msid="82613793" hostid="261"></div>"You need them for so many things, way beyond breakfast," Symon told Insider. Eggs can be used to help bread things, make pasta sauces, and even add a new element to cocktails."Egg whites are one of those underutilized ingredients that really can make drinks interesting," he said.<h2>Symon also laughed about how he and his wife, Liz Shanahan, have a slight obsession with cheese, from Gouda to Brie<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=michael+symon+wife&amp;tbm=isch&amp;source=iu&amp;ictx=1&amp;fir=qpTqtDic5yGenM%252CA78sw09uS-8q_M%252C%252Fg%252F1q6qb1ypz&amp;vet=1&amp;usg=AI4_-kTSl5TQQ4_vpOsHxDPe6yaoBvIb2g&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiJ18G82cbwAhXPct8KHbhwCowQ_B16BAgREAI#imgrc=qpTqtDic5yGenM_B16BAgREAI#imgrc=qpTqtDic5yGenM"></a></h2><div type="image" title="cheese in store" height="2994" width="3992" msid="82613794" hostid="261"></div>"This is me just as much as it is Liz, but we always have lots of cheese," he said. "Sometimes I think we're a cheese store. We have so much cheese. If people came over, we could actually do a cheese tasting."When asked about whether he's a fan of charcuterie boards, Symon said he actually cures a lot of his own meat alongside Shanahan and his culinary director, Katie Pickens. He added that they all "love different types of jams.""Typically, there's a lot of chutney or jam situations around," he said. <h2>Symon also revealed there's always an 'unusual amount of mustards' in his fridge</h2><div type="image" title="mustard" height="1370" width="1826" msid="82613795" hostid="261"></div>"That's on me," he laughed. "Liz has a part in it, but when you open the door of our fridge - any kind of mustard you could ever imagine, I have it."

5 things 'Iron Chef' Michael Symon always has in his fridge

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/best-celebrity-chef-recipes-of-the-year">Celebrity chef</a> <keyword id="1083940" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Michael-Symon">Michael Symon</keyword> shared his summer <keyword id="5819" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="cocktail">cocktail</keyword> recipes and bar essentials with Insider.</li><li>He loves making a twist on a classic <a href="https://www.insider.com/i-made-celebrity-chef-moscow-mules-taste-test-review">Moscow mule</a> with rum and fresh mint.</li><li>He recommends always having a big bowl of fresh citrus fruits ready for cocktail-making.</li></ul>Celebrity chefs like Michael Symon, Ina Garten, and Padma Lakshmi have all <a href="https://www.insider.com/easy-celebrity-cocktails-at-home-recipes-videos-2020-5">embraced the art of the cocktail in the past year</a>.Symon, the <a href="https://www.insider.com/things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-bobby-flay">"Iron Chef"</a> star and host of "Worst Cooks in America," just teamed up with <a href="https://rondiplomatico.com/">Diplomático Rum</a> for a partnership that celebrates the chef's love of cooking and passion for high-quality ingredients, as well as the many cocktails you can make using rum.Insider spoke to Symon about his favorite summer cocktail recipes as well as what he always keeps on his bar cart for cocktail hour. <h2>Symon likes taking a classic mule recipe and adding rum to it</h2><div type="image" title="moscow mule" height="2662" width="3550" msid="82527569" hostid="261"></div>"I love the idea of using rum in a classic Moscow mule or even a Kentucky mule," Michael Symon told Insider.Moscow mules traditionally use vodka as the main liquor, while Kentucky mules have a bourbon or whiskey base. The Moscow mule and <a href="https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-symon/kentucky-mule-2107405">Kentucky mule</a> both typically call for <a href="https://www.insider.com/easy-cocktails-bartender-recipes-how-to-make">2 ounces of spirit</a>.Insider <a href="https://www.insider.com/i-made-celebrity-chef-moscow-mules-taste-test-review">previously tried Symon's recipe for a "strong and spicy" Kentucky mule</a> and found it was super easy to make, largely due to the fact it only requires four ingredients."Substituting in rum in that situation, with some ginger beer, fresh mint, and citrus is, in my opinion, the perfect summer cocktail," he said. <h2>He also loves a classic fizz in the summer</h2><div type="image" title="fizz cocktail egg white" height="2671" width="3561" msid="82527573" hostid="261"></div>"Egg whites are one of those underutilized ingredients that really can make <keyword id="6382707" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="drinks">drinks</keyword> interesting," he said.When asked about what essentials people should always keep on hand in their bar areas for at-home cocktail making, Symon recommended you should always have a "big bowl of citrus," whether that be lemons, limes, oranges, or a mix of the three."Summer fruits and berries are also great things to have on hand," Symon said."I also always like to have something with a little fizz, whether that be a ginger beer or a tonic. I think it works very well in most cocktails," he added.<h2>Symon also recently made his own version of a simple Daiquiri using only three ingredients</h2><blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px); data.width~540;"><div style="padding:8px;"><div style="background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:62.4537037037% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"><div style="background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/COiQfd5Anff" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank"></a> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by michael symon (@chefsymon)<time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime=""></time></div></blockquote>For the recipe, the <keyword id="7499" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Celebrity-Chef">celebrity chef</keyword> uses Diplomático rum, lime juice, and simple syrup. Symon calls the easy drink "summer in a glass," so this is one recipe you might want to try out.

'Iron Chef' Michael Symon's go-to summer cocktails - and 3 things he says you should always have in your bar

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Tech entrepreneur Marc Lore debuts his revamped food-tech startup Wonder in New York City this week.</li><li>Instead of using kitchen vans, Wonder is preparing chef-driven meals from a storefront.</li></ul>Forget the hassle of New York City restaurant reservations. If tech entrepreneur Marc Lore has it his way, Manhattan's next culinary hotspot will be the customer's doorstep, through home delivery of high-quality meals created by some of the most recognizable restaurants and chefs in the US.The former head of Walmart's e-commerce business is the CEO of Wonder. The food-tech startup began by preparing meals in vans parked outside customers' homes in New Jersey but is pivoting to delivering meals from storefronts using couriers on electric bikes.Lore's revamped food tech startup launches its new service from a storefront on the Upper West Side this week. Lore, who cofounded the e-commerce site Jet.com and sold it to Walmart,<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/muncho-vans-cook-and-deliver-ultrafast-pizzas-in-philadelphia-2023-1#marc-lore-a-former-e-commerce-exec-at-walmart-runs-food-tech-startup-wonder-wonders-mobile-kitchens-used-to-prepare-chef-driven-meals-on-demand-in-new-jersey-and-new-york-neighborhoods-17" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> had plans to expand Wonder to a fleet of 1,000 kitchen vans</a>. But in early January, the startup laid off staff and shuttered the vans, which were equipped with TurboChef ovens where drivers would finish partially cooked meals."The trucks were working well," Lore insists. The Mercedes vans consistently made $500 a night, the amount needed to break even. But, Lore said, "one of the biggest challenges we found with that business was finding suitable parking lots to put the trucks."According to the Wall Street Journal, some residents also <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/suburbanites-fight-dinner-services-trucks-noise-mercedes-vans-11658924634?mod=article_inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">complained that mobile kitchen vans were noisy</a>, but Wonder told Insider that most residents embraced the "elevated" service."We've always appreciated how welcoming everyone was," the company told Insider. "The decision to shift our operational model was made to help us serve more customers and grow more efficiently."In an interview last week with Insider, Lore said by shifting to delivery or takeout from a fixed location, Wonder can scale faster. Storefronts can offer consumers up to 30 food brands for delivery from one location, while the van model was limited to two menus per van. "We just found a better way to offer a higher quality customer experience and at the same time make a better profit margin," Lore said. The rebooted Wonder uses part-time couriers to make deliveries on electric bikes. The 2030 Broadway location opens Thursday, offering dishes curated from eight restaurant brands, including Indian cuisine from a James Beard award-winning restaurant, Greek food from Food Network star Michael Symon, and regional Mexican food from Barrio Café in Phoenix, Arizona.By the end of the year, Lore said Wonder plans to offer New Yorkers 30 restaurant brands, allowing customers to bundle "fast fine" meals created by chefs such as Nancy Silverton, José Andrés, and Bobby Flay."You can get high-quality meals delivered fast. That doesn't exist anywhere," he said. <div type="image" title="Wonder" height="1050" width="1400" msid="97914678" hostid="261" sizebytes="84842"></div>Wonder prepares food in a New Jersey commissary and finishes it in TurboChef ovens run by employees on the Upper West Side. The hub-and-spoke model allows Wonder to deliver "hot food" in 20 to 35 minutes, depending on the time of day, Lore said. It charges a delivery fee of $1.99.Wonder's service is limited to a six-block radius, ensuring a hot meal is delivered within 10 minutes after it is prepared, Lore said. Ghost kitchens like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/foodtech-startups-delivery-restaurants-industry-recession-2022-11#kristen-barnett-ceo-hungry-house-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hungry House in Manhattan and Brooklyn</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kitchen-united-raises-100-million-from-kroger-burger-king-owner-2022-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kitchen United</a> have similar business models, where food is available for delivery and takeout from one space. But Lore said there's nothing ghostly about Wonder.It has limited dine-in space, owns the menus and recipes it serves, and has its own fleet of bike couriers. The tip-eligible workers are paid $15 an hour with a wage guarantee of $21 an hour with tips. Traditional ghost kitchens rent space to brands, who cook their menus for delivery only using third-party apps."We're vertically integrated. We do everything. It's our app. It's our delivery, and it's our cooking," Lore said. "We own the rights to those brands."ClusterTruck, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-clustertruck-is-fixing-third-party-delivery-for-restaurants-2022-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a Midwest ghost kitchen that controls everything from the food recipes to delivery, is another model similar to Wonder. </a>ClusterTruck has its own drivers and doesn't work with third-party delivery apps.Still, Lore sees the value of marketing Wonder's food brands on delivery apps. On Thursday, in addition to ordering from the Wonder app, consumers can order each brand on Uber Eats or Grubhub, but Wonder's couriers will perform the delivery. <div type="image" title="Marc Lore" height="799" width="1065" msid="97914682" hostid="261" sizebytes="44314"></div>Each location, when working at capacity with 30 brands, has the potential to make $10 million in revenue a year, he said. By the end of 2023, Wonder plans to have 10 locations, with the next two openings coming to Chelsea in Manhattan, and Westfield, New Jersey. "People have told us in the restaurant industry that New York City, Manhattan specifically, is the hardest place to make a restaurant work, and if you can make it work here, you can make it anywhere," Lore said. "So once we prove it here, we're gonna feel pretty confident going into new cities."On Wednesday, Wonder is launching with eight brands. Most are foods from famous brick-and-mortar restaurants in New York and the US, including Di Fara Pizza in Brooklyn, Chai Pani in Asheville, North Carolina, Tejas Barbecue in Texas, Barrio Café in Phoenix, Arizona, and Fred's Meat &amp; Bread in Atlanta. In March, Lore said to expect more brands to launch. Wonder owns the rights to menus created in collaboration with chefs like Nancy Silverton and Jose Andres, who hold equity stakes in the company. Wonder also owns the same rights to the food it sells from award-winning restaurants such as Tejas Barbecue, which also have an equity stake in Wonder.

Marc Lore co-founded Jet.com and ran e-commerce at Walmart. Now he's out to prove he can make the delivery of 'fast fine' restaurant food work in NYC.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6371031" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="IKEA">Ikea</keyword> model hands are used as decoration or as a reference for artists learning to draw hands.</li><li>One Ikea store zip-tied the middle finger of a model hand down to prevent customers from rearranging the hand with the middle finger up.</li><li>One employee described seeing "a field of middle fingers" in his Ikea store.</li></ul>An Ikea store in Canada found a creative solution to prevent people from rearranging the store's wooden model hands to flip people off. The product, called the "HANDSKALAD," <a href="https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/handskalad-decoration-hand-natural-90424146/">costs $12.99</a> and is about a foot tall. The wooden model hands are often used as decoration or to help artists learn how to draw hands. A Reddit post on the "Mildly Interesting" subreddit showed the wooden hand, which can be adjusted to change the finger position, with its <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/IKEA/comments/owqfkb/this_ornamental_hand_at_ikea/">middle finger zip-tied down</a>, presumably to prevent customers from raising only the middle finger. Michael Symons, who took the photo of the zip-tied hand in a Winnipeg Ikea store, was shopping for baby cribs with his wife before he came across the display."I laughed as soon as I saw it, because my immediate thought was to put its middle finger up," he told Insider. He took a photo and posted it on the subreddit.Perrine Marion, who works at an Ikea in Brest, France, thought the picture was funny and said his store should do the same. "Sometimes at the end of the day you discover a field of middle fingers," Marion told Insider. "Usually we don't see people do it, but when we do, we laugh it off."On the Reddit thread discussing the photo, one person who identified themselves as an Ikea employee said that employees at their store were discouraged from modifying the product in any way that would prevent the customers from fully experiencing the product, while others said the problem of people using the model hands to flip people off was a widespread nuisance. "It's usually teenagers doing this for fun so yeah not the worst thing ever," Marion said.

Ikea shoppers keep making the wooden model hands flip people off, so one store zip-tied the middle finger down

<ul class="summary-list"><li>I tried <keyword id="10255320" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="moscow-mules">Moscow Mules</keyword> <a href="https://www.insider.com/i-made-celebrity-chef-margarita-recipes-taste-test-review">from Nancy Fuller,</a> Giada De Laurentiis, Geoffrey Zakarian, and Michael Symon.</li><li>My favorite <keyword id="1781722" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Moscow-Mule">Moscow Mule</keyword> was from De Laurentiis, and it required some homemade ingredients. </li><li>Fuller's recipe had tasty homemade ginger syrup but it was overpowered by tonic water.</li><li>Zakarian's recipe was pretty unique but I didn't love the orange-juice component of it. </li></ul>The <a href="https://www.insider.com/how-famous-drinks-got-their-names-2019-6">Moscow Mule</a> is a delightful <keyword id="5819" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="cocktail">cocktail</keyword> that's commonly flavored with mint, lime, and ginger. What makes this cocktail especially appealing is that it's typically served in a chilled copper mug, which <a href="https://www.insider.com/best-2-ingredient-cocktails-2019-4">makes the drink incredibly cold and refreshing.</a>And pros have been putting their own twist on this cocktail for years. To find the best drink, I tried to make Moscow Mules using recipes from four <a href="https://www.insider.com/famous-cooking-show-judges-share-their-best-cooking-advice">celebrity chefs</a>: Nancy Fuller, Giada De Laurentiis, Geoffrey Zakarian, and Michael Symon.Read on to see how each one tasted and how they all stacked up.<h2>Fuller's classic Moscow Mule has a homemade ginger syrup</h2><div type="image" title="Nancy Fuller ingredients" height="2844" width="3792" msid="79161770" hostid="261"></div>Fuller, <a href="https://www.insider.com/biggest-mistakes-people-make-on-cooking-shows-according-to-judges">a "Holiday Baking Championship" judge on Food Network</a>, has a simple, <a href="https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nancy-fuller/moscow-mule-3538922">straightforward Moscow Mule recipe</a>.Although it lacks lime juice, the recipe for a homemade ginger simple syrup caught my eye and I was excited to <a href="https://www.insider.com/trying-celebrity-chef-cocktail-recipes-for-negronis-best-drink">try Fuller's twist on this cocktail.</a>But instead of ginger beer, a common Moscow Mule ingredient, the recipe asks for tonic water, which isn't a favorite of mine. I hoped the ginger syrup would balance out the tonic water.<h2>Once the simple syrup was made, this drink was a breeze to put together</h2>The only thing that really took time to prepare was the ginger simple syrup, which quickly came together in under 10 minutes. I let it cool in the fridge for about an hour, then stirred the vodka and syrup together and poured this mixture over ice. I topped this with tonic water, then added fresh mint and a slice of lime to garnish.<div type="image" title="Nancy Fuller process 3" height="2774" width="3699" msid="79161772" hostid="261"></div>Although the syrup took a while to make, it yielded a full squeeze bottle's worth, so I had enough to make multiple drinks. I cut the recipe from 10 servings to one and, in doing so, realized I didn't have a measurement for how much simple syrup to use. I added 1/2 an ounce, which is a pretty standard amount of simple syrup for most cocktail recipes.<h2>As I predicted, the tonic water overpowered the drink</h2><div type="image" title="Nancy Fuller final 1" height="2419" width="3225" msid="79161774" hostid="261"></div>Unfortunately, all I could taste was tonic water, which I don't like.If this had ginger beer, I think it would actually be perfect: it had a delicious, sweet-and-spicy ginger syrup, mint, and vodka taste, but the tonic water overpowered the entire drink with a really bitter flavor.<h2>I felt like I could really flex my bartending skills with De Laurentiis' Moscow Mule recipe</h2><div type="image" title="Giada De Laurentiis ingredients" height="2707" width="3609" msid="79161776" hostid="261"></div>Sure, I could shake up some vodka and simple syrup and call it a day, but with <a href="https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/moscow-mule-cocktail-2257016">De Laurentiis' recipe</a>, I got to experiment with making my own mint-infused vodka and homemade ginger simple syrup.Aside from those two ingredients, this recipe is easy: sparkling water and lemon, lime, and mint for garnish.The <a href="https://www.insider.com/best-cinnamon-roll-recipe-from-famous-chefs">recipe sounded intimidating</a> and required about three days to infuse vodka, but I was confident the results would pay off. <h2>The simple syrup and vodka took time to prepare, but this drink was worth the wait </h2>According to the recipe, I needed to soak fresh mint in vodka for at least three days. I was in a bit of a time crunch and didn't want my vodka to be too strong, so I actually soaked the mint for just one day and it still turned out great.<div type="image" title="Giada De Laurentiis process 3" height="2630" width="3507" msid="79161777" hostid="261"></div>Since I made the ginger simple syrup for another Moscow Mule recipe, this was even easier to mix up. I added the simple syrup and vodka to a shaker with ice, poured it into a copper mug also filled with ice, then topped the concoction off with sparkling water.The garnish consisted of a lime slice, a lemon slice, and a sprig of fresh mint.<h2>This Moscow Mule was very refreshing</h2><div type="image" title="Giada De Laurentiis final 2" height="2527" width="3369" msid="79161779" hostid="261"></div>It was hard to not drink this cocktail like water. It was cold and refreshing, and the ginger and mint flavors came through equally. I loved all of the garnish, which made the drink look extra fancy.This recipe called for quite a lot of the ginger simple syrup, which gave the drink plenty of that flavor. I actually didn't miss the ginger beer that typically comes in Moscow Mules and can sometimes be too spicy for my tastebuds.The only thing I'd add to this drink is a splash of freshly squeezed lime juice to cut some of the sweetness of the syrup.<h2>Zakarian put his own twist on a Moscow Mule</h2><div type="image" title="Geoffrey Zakarian ingredients" height="2908" width="3878" msid="79161780" hostid="261"></div>By swapping lime for cranberry and orange juices, Zakarian has made a holiday drink called a <a href="https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/geoffrey-zakarian/moscow-turkey-4540592">Moscow turkey</a>.The ingredients for this are pretty unique compared to a traditional Mule - and there's no lime or mint. Another interesting aspect of this recipe is that it calls for soaking dried cranberries in simple syrup for an hour before <a href="https://www.insider.com/i-made-celebrity-chef-margarita-recipes-taste-test-review">making the drink.</a><h2>If you have simple syrup on hand, this drink is quick and easy to make</h2>Since we like to experiment with cocktail-making in my home, I already had simple syrup on hand, which effectively cut some of the prep time for this recipe.<div type="image" title="Geoffrey Zakarian process 7 cranberry garnish" height="3024" width="4032" msid="79161781" hostid="261"></div>Aside from that, soaking the cranberries for an hour was slightly time-consuming, <a href="https://www.insider.com/judges-share-ingredients-they-want-people-to-stop-using-on-cooking-shows">especially for just a garnish</a>, but at least it was quite hands-off.<div type="image" title="Geoffrey Zakarian process 2 orange juice" height="2880" width="3840" msid="79161783" hostid="261"></div>Once the cranberries were ready, I just shook the juices, vodka, and simple syrup with ice before pouring it into a copper mug. I topped it with ginger beer and the simple syrup-soaked cranberries.<h2>I could really only taste the orange juice</h2><div type="image" title="Geoffrey Zakarian final 1" height="2383" width="3177" msid="79161784" hostid="261"></div>I was pretty surprised when I took my first sip and only tasted orange juice. I took several more <a href="https://www.insider.com/unique-cocktail-and-food-pairings-2019-6">sips to try to decipher any other flavors</a>, but I only got the slightest kick from the ginger beer.I like orange juice, so this wasn't bad, <a href="https://www.insider.com/cocktails-to-learn-to-make-by-the-time-youre-30-2019-6">but for a cocktail, I think it could've been stronger.</a> With such a powerful orange-juice flavor, this drink would be great for brunch.For my own taste preferences, I'd actually nix the orange juice and add lime juice for a cranberry-lime flavor.<h2>Symon uses bourbon in his recipe for a Kentucky Mule</h2><div type="image" title="Michael Symon ingredients" height="2764" width="3686" msid="79161785" hostid="261"></div>For a twist on the classic Moscow Mule, <a href="https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-symon/kentucky-mule-2107405">Symon</a> swaps vodka for bourbon in his Kentucky Mule recipe.But I was thrown off that this recipe didn't have any sweetening agent - just bourbon, ice, lime juice, and ginger beer.<h2>I made this drink in about two minutes</h2>This was the easiest recipe of the four, and with only four ingredients I had a cocktail ready to drink in just a couple of minutes. I simply added everything to my copper mug and stirred.<div type="image" title="Michael Symon process 1 lime juice" height="2707" width="3609" msid="79161786" hostid="261"></div>I was glad I didn't have to fuss with a garnish, although I do love a gorgeous one. That said, the <a href="https://www.insider.com/cool-cocktails-that-are-actually-easy-to-make-2019-7">drink was ready in about two minutes.</a>I don't have a Collins glass as specified in the recipe, so I just used the classic copper mug.<h2>This drink was strong and spicy </h2><div type="image" title="Michael Symon final 1" height="2169" width="2892" msid="79161787" hostid="261"></div>Whew! This drink was certainly strong and extra spicy.My grocery store only had one brand of ginger beer that prides itself on being very spicy, so that certainly contributed, but the bourbon also tasted strong.This drink needed a bit more lime juice and some simple syrup <a href="https://www.insider.com/things-you-should-never-do-when-making-a-cocktail">to balance the flavors</a>. The ginger beer and lime were refreshing, but this cocktail was a tad too spicy for my taste.<h2>Overall, De Laurentiis has gotten me hooked on mules made with mint vodka and ginger simple syrup</h2><div type="image" title="Giada De Laurentiis final 4" height="2584" width="3446" msid="79161788" hostid="261"></div>Although De Laurentiis' recipe did require extra steps and more time to make, the results were worth it.The drink was refreshing and had the classic flavors of a Moscow Mule. The only thing I'd do differently is add a splash of lime juice.But <a href="https://www.insider.com/trying-celebrity-chef-cocktail-recipes-for-negronis-best-drink">the other recipes had great qualities as well</a>. Fuller's recipe would be delicious if I swapped tonic water for ginger beer. I'd love Zakarian's Moscow Mule if I replaced the orange juice with lime juice, and Symon's recipe just needs a bit of sweetener to tame all of that spicy ginger beer.Read More:<a href="https://www.insider.com/i-made-celebrity-chef-margarita-recipes-taste-test-review">I made margaritas using 4 celebrity chefs' recipes, and the best was the quickest to make</a><a href="https://www.insider.com/i-made-bloody-marys-following-celebrity-chef-recipes-taste-test-review">I made Bloody Marys using 4 celebrity chefs' recipes, and the best was the easiest to make</a><a href="https://www.insider.com/trying-celebrity-chef-cocktail-recipes-for-negronis-best-drink">I made a Negroni using 4 celebrity chefs' recipes, and the best one was easy to make</a>

I made Moscow Mules using 4 celebrity chefs' recipes, and the best was hard not to drink like water

<ul class="summary-list"><li>New ghost kitchens are upending the traditional model of renting out kitchens or franchising brands.</li><li>Burger King's owner recently opened its first ghost kitchen, or digital food hall, in Miami.</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ghost-kitchens-cloudkitchens-kitchen-united-food-halls-2021-5">Ghost kitchens</a> flourished during the pandemic. The model helps restaurants meet the growing demand for food delivery with few upfront costs.Now, ghost kitchens are entering a new phase. Startups and established companies are upending the traditional model of simply renting out kitchen space or franchising brands.Hungry House in Brooklyn, New York, for example, uses "digitally" native chef influencers to create its menu. Through a licensing agreement, Combo Kitchen works with well-recognized restaurant brands like Saladworks and places their menus in outside restaurants. BLT Kitchens incubates and tests brands before turning them into brick-and-mortar restaurants. And recently, the parent of Burger King, Restaurant Brands International, opened its first ghost kitchen in Miami. Billed as a digital-first food hall by RBI, Kitchens You Love, or KYLO Food Hall allows delivery and walk-in customers to bundle menus into one order from RBI brands such as Popeyes and Burger King.These companies are intentionally differentiating themselves from more established ghost-kitchen companies as the space has become crowded and legacy companies have<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ghost-kitchen-workers-reveal-risky-silicon-valley-growth-tactics-2022-3"> faced a host of challenges</a>. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reef-lays-offs-bonus-delays-owes-vendors-millions-2022-5">Reef Technology</a> has struggled with profitability amid VC pressure to grow rapidly, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/travis-kalanicks-cloudkitchens-repeats-uber-playbook-loses-staff-2021-4">CloudKitchens</a> — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/travis-kalanicks-cloudkitchens-repeats-uber-playbook-loses-staff-2021-4">which Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber, leads</a> — has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/travis-kalanicks-cloudkitchens-facing-a-series-of-lawsuits-2022-5">faced lawsuits</a> and a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/travis-kalanick-cloudkitchens-americas-manager-leaves-to-healthtech-startup-2021-6">talent exodus</a>. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/travis-kalanick-cloudkitchens-startup-is-cutting-jobs-2022-11">On November 1, CloudKitchens </a>laid off some staff.Still, the ghost-kitchen model has fans in both restaurant and investment spaces. For John Meyer, the ghost-kitchen craze has been beneficial to his startup, Ghost Financial. The Texas-based company offers fintech services and <a href="https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/ghost-financial-ghost-kitchen-ghostu-education-program/625100/">educational</a> classes to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/doordash-grubhub-set-rules-for-virtual-restaurants-on-delivery-apps-2022-5">virtual brands</a> and ghost-kitchen operators looking to kick-start their delivery-focused businesses. "The ghost-kitchen explosion of COVID — and the people ordering takeout — has not stopped," Meyer — who operates his own virtual restaurant, Keto Kitchen, out of a CloudKitchens facility in Austin, Texas — said. Michael Schaefer, a food-and-beverage analyst at Euromonitor who spoke at the second annual Ghost Kitchen Conference in Dallas last week, said the ghost-kitchen and virtual-brand market has grown into a "multibillion-dollar" opportunity. It has the potential to become a $1-trillion global sector by 2030. <div type="image" title="Hungry House" height="1387" width="1850" msid="95387416" hostid="261" sizebytes="298962"></div><h2>Hungry House</h2>CEO: Kristen BarnettLaunched: 2021Headquartered: New York CityFunding: Undisclosed pre-seed round last summer from Wilshire Lane Partners, an early-stage venture fund. The startup is expected to announce a new round of funding later this summer or in the fall, Barnett told Insider. Growth: The first location launched in Brooklyn in November 2021. A second Hungry House opened in the Lower East Side in Manhattan. Barnett previously held leadership roles at the ghost-kitchen startup Zuul Kitchens and the New York-based healthy fast-casual chain Dig. After <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-kitchen-uniteds-ghost-kitchens-stand-out-from-reef-cloudkitchens-2022-1">Kitchen United</a> bought Zuul, Barnett struck out on her own and created Hungry House. The startup combines her passion for menu engineering and supply chain with her love of food technology, she said. Hungry House develops its frequently changing menu with the help of "digitally native chefs" who are influencers on social-media platforms like Instagram and TikTok.Hungry House licenses the rights to the brands, and Barnett and her team engineer the menu for profitability and delivery consistency. Hungry House offers these influencer recipes under one menu, which is available for delivery or walk-up ordering via a kiosk at its Brooklyn location and soon-to-be new Manhattan location. <div type="image" title="Combo Kitchen" height="513" width="685" msid="95387417" hostid="261" sizebytes="28838"></div><h2>Combo Kitchen</h2>CEO: Hossein KasmaiHeadquartered: Miami, FloridaLaunched: 2020Funding: Looking for investors for first round of fundraising.Growth: 200 locations worldwide Combo Kitchen is a division of Franchise Creator, a consulting firm that helps businesses grow through franchising. As the CEO of Franchise Creator, Kasmai is bringing franchising to the world of ghost kitchens by partnering with well-recognized restaurant brands and placing their menus in smaller mom-and-pop restaurants, which can offer the additional menus for delivery and take-out.By working with well-established brands that consumers know like Saladworks, Kasmai said "little to no marketing is needed." Combo Kitchen also partners with well-recognized celebrities to launch new food brands under their name. "We feel that brands associated with A-rated celebrities also have the same marketing advantage," Kasmai told Insider. Kasmai believes his model has an advantage over ghost kitchens like Reef, which hires cooks to prepare licensed menus inside food trailers."As opposed to the Reef model, you have experienced restaurant operators preparing food for these larger brands for take-out and delivery," Kasmai told Insider. By using existing kitchen space and employees, Kasmai said his model allows restaurants to earn revenue without investing in additional labor or rent. Combo Kitchen takes a percentage of sales, or a royalty fee, and shares it with partners like Saladworks. That fee is different for each partner, but is generally 7% or higher, Kasmai said. <div type="image" title="One Stop Kitchen" height="3024" width="4032" msid="95387418" hostid="261" sizebytes="1337708"></div><h2>One Stop Kitchen</h2>CEO: Vijayaraj Gopinath Launched: November 2021Headquartered: Sunnyvale, CaliforniaFunding: Raised $2 million in early seed round, including backing by Y Combinator. Raising funds now for Series A.Growth: 14 locations in the Bay Area One Stop Kitchen works with restaurants that act as "fulfillment centers." These fulfillment centers are typically mom-and-pop restaurants in downtowns and high walk-in-traffic locations that use their existing kitchens to prepare 10 or more different menus from one location for delivery, pickup, or dine-in. Consumers ordering from these restaurants can mix and match food in a single order from popular local dine-in restaurants such as Walia Ethiopian Cuisine and Punjab Café."It's like a virtual food court," Viggnesh Kandasamy, the cofounder and chief technology officer of One Stop Kitchen, told Insider.One Stop Kitchen does not use licensing or franchising as part of its model. It acts as a matchmaker, pairing a fulfillment kitchen with multiple brands."We pay the brands based on the volume and we pay our fulfillment centers a certain commision or fixed cost from the orders," Kandasamy said, describing how each business makes money. <div type="image" title="Franklin Junction" height="1000" width="1333" msid="95387419" hostid="261" sizebytes="110434"></div><h2>Franklin Junction</h2>CEO: Rishi NigamLaunched: 2020Headquartered: AtlantaFunding: Undisclosed Growth: More than 500 restaurants and hotels under contract. About half are active as Host Kitchens.Franklin Junction matches underutilized restaurants, which it calls Host Kitchens, with restaurant brands looking for rapid expansion through delivery. Each restaurant benefits because it involves "capital-free revenue growth for both partners," Nigam told Insider."Host Kitchens," which the company trademarked, make money by using their extra kitchen capacity.Franklin Junction works with about 30 brands such as Nathan's Famous, Hooters, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/david-chang-drops-reef-for-ghost-kitchen-rival-kitchen-united-2021-12">David Chang's Fuku</a>. Host Kitchens are typically small-to-midsize restaurant chains, hotels, family-entertainment centers, and grocery stores. "You have to be top-level executors and have availability of scale to support big brands and the big sales that come with them," Nigam said, adding that Frisch's Big Boy is an example of a multi-unit Host Kitchen site.Franklin Junction owns the revenue from each sale, and then pays everyone else a cut, Nigam said. "We're paying the delivery companies a delivery fee. We're paying the brands a royalty or a license fee. We're paying the host kitchens a portion to cook the food," he said. <div type="image" title="Wonder food truck" height="2832" width="3776" msid="95387420" hostid="261" sizebytes="2147042"></div><h2>Wonder</h2>Majority owner: Marc LoreLaunched: December 2021Headquartered: New YorkFunding: Closed a $350 million funding round in June.Growth: Since launching six months ago, Wonder is now available in 22 towns in New Jersey, serving about 130,000 households.Wonder is part ghost kitchen, part food-delivery van, part meal-kit provider. Its owner, Marc Lore, previously launched <a href="http://jet.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jet.com,</a> which Walmart later bought.Wonder brings chef-driven meals to consumers' doorsteps by cooking them in a fleet of vans that roam neighborhoods. These ghost kitchens on wheels, outfitted with cooking equipment and chefs, can be hailed through an app."Wonder has a real opportunity to not only completely change how people eat, but also to create a better future with access to the world's best food in a convenient, affordable, and sustainable way," Lore said in a <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fpulse%2Fannouncing-wonders-350m-series-b-marc-lore%2F" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">LinkedIn</a> post, announcing the Series B round. Wonder has 19 mobile restaurants serving upper-middle-class neighborhoods of New Jersey meals from Bar Nakazawa, Nancy Silverton's Pizzeria Mozza, Bobby Flay Steak, Chios Taverna by Michael Symon, Di Fara Pizza, and Tejas Barbecue.<div type="image" title="BLT Kitchens" height="1124" width="1500" msid="95387421" hostid="261" sizebytes="239180"></div><h2>BLT Kitchens </h2>Cofounder: Tommy D'AmbrosioLaunched: 2020Headquarters: Phoenix, ArizonaFunding: Bootstrapped so far. Currently looking for funding.Growth: Two locations in Mesa and Phoenix, Arizona. BLT Kitchens rents spaces to about 100 tenants, which include food truck owners, virtual brands, and caterers looking for an approved and permitted site to prepare their food. These tenants sell food for delivery and pickup. D'Ambrosio said restaurateurs use BLT Kitchen to incubate or test brands that might be worth turning into a brick-and-mortar restaurant or a permanent food truck. D'Ambrosio previously tested interest in his Phoenix-based restaurant, Aioli Gourmet Burgers.The company owns ghost kitchen facilities in Mesa and Phoenix, Arizona that range in size from 10,000 to 14,000 square feet and include food trucks. <div type="image" title="KYLO Food Hall" height="1124" width="1500" msid="95387422" hostid="261" sizebytes="232820"></div><h2>KYLO Food Hall </h2>CEO: José Cil Launched: Fall 2022Headquartered: Miami, FloridaFunding: n/aGrowth: One location, so far, at 50 West Flagler Street in downtown Miami.RBI, the owner of Popeyes and Firehouse Subs, recently opened KYLO Food Hall inside a <a href="https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/50-W-Flagler-St-Miami-FL/22618132/">former Burger King</a> restaurant. The company, which <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/burger-king-popeyes-jack-in-box-cut-ties-reef-technology-2022-10">ended its partnership with Miami-based Reef Technology this year</a>, is not labeling the facility as a ghost kitchen. However, the food hall prepares multiple menus for delivery and takeout similar to walk-in food halls run by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kitchen-united-raises-100-million-from-kroger-burger-king-owner-2022-6">Kitchen United </a>and Hungry House.The facility is equipped with kiosks for walk-in orders. The menu features food from Burger King, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, Spris Artisan Pizza, Ms. Cheezious, and Sergio's Cuban American Kitchen.To entice new customers, RBI said KYLO will be offering two exclusive mashup menu items at the food hall: a sandwich pizza by Popeyes and Spris Artisan Pizza and a shortrib melt collaboration from Burger King and Ms. Cheezious. Are you a ghost-kitchen insider with insight to share? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at nluna@insider.com or via Signal encrypted number 714-875-6218.

Burger King's owner just opened a delivery-focused food hall where customers can order from Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, and other chains. The company is one of many expanding the ghost kitchen model to reach more diners.

This is Michael Symon's Carnivore: 120 Recipes For <keyword id="52511" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Meat">Meat</keyword> Lovers cookbook.
Why We Love It: Michael Symon, from Food Network's Iron Chef America and ABC's The Chew, has put together 120 recipes for meat lovers. Not only does he tackle classic dishes — such as steaks, chops, wings, and more — he also shows readers what to do with more uncommon cuts that might intimidate the average cook, like liverwurst, head cheese, and tripe.
With 75 full-page pictures of the meals, Symon breaks down how to make and prepare a multitude of meats, from beef to wild game. The cookbook is broken down by the type of meat, and also includes recipes for the side dishes, too.
<div class="image-container" style="width:618px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5108076869beddf17e000012-852/michael-symon-carnivore.jpeg?maxX=618" border="0" alt="Michael Symon Carnivore" width="618" /></div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Symons-Carnivore-Recipes-Lovers/dp/0307951782/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top">Amazon</a></div>
Where To Buy: Available through <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Symons-Carnivore-Recipes-Lovers/dp/0307951782/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.
Cost: $19.98.
Want to nominate a cool product for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/stuff-we-love">Stuff We Love</a>? Send an email to Megan Willett at <a href="mailto:mwillett@businessinsider.com">mwillett@businessinsider.com</a> with "<keyword id="1737252" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Stuff-We-Love">Stuff We Love</keyword>" in the subject line.

The Ultimate Cookbook For Meat Lovers

<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/591c75d0e559f1d21a8b5eb0-2400/rtr30tkm.jpg" alt="trump" />Mike Cassese/ReutersDonald Trump (2nd L) poses with his children Donald Jr. (L), Ivanka and Eric (R) during a news conference to mark the opening of the Trump International Hotel &amp; Tower in Toronto April 16, 2012.A Russian state-owned bank under US sanctions, whose CEO met with President Donald Trump's son-in-law in December, helped financed the construction of the president's 65-story Trump International Hotel and Tower in Toronto, according to a new report.The bank, Vnesheconombank (VEB), bought $850 million of stock in a Ukrainian steelmaker from billionaire Russian-Canadian developer Alexander Schnaider, who was constructing the hotel at the time, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-state-run-bank-financed-deal-involving-trump-hotel-partner-1495031708" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Wall Street Journal reported</a> on Wednesday. Shnaider initially purchased the stock via his company, Midland Resources Holding, for about $70 million after the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to the Journal.The money from the sale of that stock to VEB - which the Journal said went through while Russian President Vladimir Putin was chairman of VEB's supervisory board - was then used to help finance the construction of the Toronto hotel tower "at a key moment for the project."From the Journal: "After Mr. Shnaider and his partner sold their stake in the steelmaker, Mr. Shnaider injected more money into the Trump Toronto project, which was financially troubled. Mr. Shnaider's lawyer, Symon Zucker, said in an April interview that about $15 million from the asset sale went into the Trump Toronto project. A day later, he wrote in an email: 'I am not able to confirm that any funds' from the deal 'went into the Toronto project.'"Symon Zucker, Shnaider's lawyer, did not immediately respond to request for comment from Business Insider. But he told the Journal that Midland Resources "has never had any relationship with VEB" and "does not dictate where their purchasers borrow funds."<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/591c7611e559f11c008b60f5-2400/rtr2zsvd.jpg" alt="trump toronto" />Hyungwon Kang/ReutersToronto police place construction cones to close off streets surrounding Trump International Hotel and Tower in Toronto, Ontario early March 24, 2012 after glass panels fell off the building that is under construction on upper floors.The Trump Organization has distanced itself from the Toronto project, which <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-26/trump-hotel-in-toronto-nears-auction-after-default-by-developer" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">faced financial difficulties</a> last year. The company "merely licensed its brand and manages the hotel and residences," the Organization told the Journal in a statement.The project was initially a joint venture between Trump and Schnaider, who <a href="http://torontolife.com/city/toronto-trump-tower-lawsuit-feature/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">approached Trump in 2004</a> asking to license the Trump name for the 65-story tower. Trump said at the time that he would "manage the hotel's operations," according to the Journal, while Shnaider and his business partner, Val Levitan, focused on the development. Trump's son-in-law and a top adviser, Jared Kushner, met with the Vnesheconombank CEO Sergey Gorkov in December 2016, The New York Times reported <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jared-kushner-russia-vnesheconombank-ceo-putin-2017-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in late March.</a> Gorkov was appointed by Putin in January 2016 as part of a restructuring of the bank's management team, according to Bloomberg. Kushner's meeting with Gorkov, the struggling bank's CEO, came as Kushner was trying to find investors for a Fifth Avenue office building in Manhattan that is set to be heavily financed by Anbang Insurance Group, a firm with ties to the Chinese government. <img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/591c764fe559f119018b612d-2400/rtr30tk4.jpg" alt="trump toronto" />Mike Cassese/Reuters(L - R)Donald Trump and his children Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony during a news conference to mark the opening of the Trump International Hotel &amp; Tower in Toronto April 16, 2012.White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks told the publication at the time that the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-22/kushners-troubled-tower-debt-empty-offices-and-rising-fees" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"Kushner Tower"</a> project wasn't discussed during his meeting with Gorkov, and a White House official said in a statement that Kushner took the meetings as part of his role as "the official primary point of contact with foreign governments and officials."But the meeting was reportedly orchestrated by Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak - who also met with Kushner in December - and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jared-kushner-will-be-questioned-by-the-senate-intel-committee-about-russia-2017-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">caught the eye of the Senate Intelligence Committee</a>, which has invited Kushner to testify about his meetings with Gorkov and Kislyak. The committee is investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election and whether any members of Trump's campaign colluded with Russian officials. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also appeared to signal during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month that the intelligence community was scrutinizing Trump's business ties to Russia.Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime and terror, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/08/full-transcript-sally-yates-and-james-clapper-testify-on-russian-election-interference/?utm_term=.efc463b1aad9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">asked Clapper</a> if he ever found "a situation where a Trump business interest in Russia" gave him "concern.""Not in the course of the preparation of the intelligence community's assessment," Clapper said.Graham pressed Clapper on whether he had ever come across such a situation, to which Clapper replied, "I can't comment on that because that impacts an investigation."As Trump praised and defended Putin along the campaign trail, many questioned whether the real-estate mogul had any financial incentives - including business ties or outstanding debt - to seek better relations with Moscow.The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment. <h3>More from Natasha Bertrand:</h3><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/could-trump-be-impeached-over-comey-memo-impeachment-2017-5" rel="nofollow">Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are throwing around the I-word amid the latest Trump-Comey bombshell</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/president-trump-asked-comey-end-investigation-michael-flynn-before-firing-2017-5" rel="nofollow">Trump reportedly asked Comey to end the investigation into Michael Flynn before Comey was fired</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-trump-disclosures-to-russia-are-so-damaging-2017-5" rel="nofollow">The 2 biggest reasons why Trump's disclosures to Russia are so 'damaging'</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-russia-classified-intelligence-israel-2017-5" rel="nofollow">The source of the intel Trump shared with Russia reportedly was warned months ago not to give it to him</a></li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mcmaster-trump-russia-information-press-breifing-military-defense-2017-5" rel="nofollow">Trump's national security adviser: He 'wasn't even aware' of where information he shared with Russians came from</a></li></ul> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/watch-sally-yates-go-toe-to-toe-with-ted-cruz-over-immigration-ban-2017-5">Watch Sally Yates go toe to toe with Ted Cruz over Trump's immigration ban</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Report: Russian bank whose CEO met secretly with Jared Kushner helped finance Trump's Toronto hotel

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/511ab2dceab8eaf554000000-659-494/lays-2.jpg?maxX=400" border="0" alt="lays" width="400" /></div>Laura StamplerPeople in chicken and waffle costumes handed out the new chip flavor in downtown New York.</div>If you were to procure a time machine and go back to 2009, you would be able to casually walk into any major grocery store in the <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2108184.ece">UK and pick up a bag of Cajun Squirrel flavored chips</a>. That's right, squirrel.
This was all a part of Lay's (known as Walkers internationally) first-ever "Do Us A Flavor" competition, in which the company enlisted the people of the internet to crowdsource a crazy new potato chip flavor for a £50,000 prize.
Five years later Lay's has brought the contest to the U.S. in an extremely successful social media campaign asking consumers to submit and share their own flavor combinations on Facebook. More than 3.8 million submissions later, Lay's has finally produced its top three user-generated finalists: Chicken &amp; Waffles, Sriracha, and Cheesy Garlic Bread. The winner, as determined by votes and tweets like #SaveSriracha, will receive $1 million or 1 percent of net sales, whatever's more.
But it took a lot to whittle the 3.8 million submissions down. According to Frito-Lay spokeswoman Ann Mukherjee, a highly trained group of brand representatives, foodies, and food scientists chose 10 top flavors and then capture them on a chip.
<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/511ab300eab8eaea54000004-486-364/chicken-and-waffles-and-cheesy-garlic-bread-lays-1.png" border="0" alt="chicken and waffles and cheesy garlic bread lays" width="400" /></div><a href="http://statigr.am/p/385557397226525290_37343459">Courtesy justemonli on Instagram</a>Two new Lay's flavors.</div>"We have unbelievable culinary department," Mukherjee told BI. "We have executive chefs who work on our flavors 365 days a year. What we basically do is they make the dish first, they actually make the food first. Then we have food scientists who translate the flavors for our seasoning department. And so when we actually make the chip final evaluation, we test it against the real food. So if those food flavors don't come through, it gets rejected."
Then it came down to celebrity chef and "Iron Chef: America" regular Michael Symon and Eva Longoria to help nail down the top three.
"I actually got the chips during Sandy," said Symon, who told BI he had escaped his powerless Soho apartment after calling every chef he knew with a hotel restaurant to see if they had rooms.
"So there was no power in our apartment for ten days, we were staying in a hotel room, and Liz my wife and I were eating the chips," he continued. "We couldn't get water next door but we had lots of chips. It was actually a very comforting moment in the midst of chaos."
He tried the flavors blind to see if he could identify what the flavors actually were and narrowed his choices based on creativity, taste, and the ability to connect with consumers.
"The thing that I love about America creating the flavor is that they got to the flavor from something that stimulated a story or a childhood memory or something," Symon said. "My son is a hot sauce freak, so everything, since he was 8 years old, he's put sriracha on noodles and sandwiches and eggs and all that stuff."
<table class="image-container float_right" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/511ab334ecad048e6a000012-427-320/michael-symon.png" border="0" alt="Michael Symon" /></div>Knob CreekChef Michael Symon.</td></tr></table>While there were obviously multiple entries for the same flavor — in fact, most entries from California used jalapeno, North Carolina had beef, Ohio liked cheddar, and 80 percent of Maine entries had lobster as an ingredient — Mukherjee said that the winner was based on the explanation for the inspiration behind the flavor.
What's truly exceptional about the "Do Us A Flavor" campaign is that it perfectly utilizes all forms of social media — Lay's even made a tool called the "Chef Michael Symon Flavorizer" that (with permission) went into users Facebook timelines and suggest flavors based on different types of restaurants they'd recently posted about — and then gets consumers to actually go to brick and mortar locations to buy and try the products.
"It's another excuse to get people to talk about themselves," Mukherjee said. "At the end of the day, we all want to connect. We want to find a way to connect with each other. That's all there is. If you can crack that code in social media, then the brand benefits."
A winner will be announced on May 4.

Inside  Lay's Crazy Process For Making Chicken & Waffle Flavor Chips

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307951782/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0307951782&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=biipmeatlovers-20&amp;linkId=DYPYZOJHQLYMWNAA"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54eb6a9569beddeb1185da71-1027-769/meat-cookbook-steak-food.png" border="0" alt="meat cookbook steak food" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307951782/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0307951782&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=biipmeatlovers-20&amp;linkId=DYPYZOJHQLYMWNAA">Amazon</a></div></div></div>Meat lovers, rejoice. We found the ultimate meat-focused cookbook out there.Celebrity chef Michael Symon has put together 120 flavorful meat recipes - everything from broiled porterhouse with garlic and lemon to ribs with Cleveland BBQ sauce to bacon-wrapped rabbit legs.And best of all, the recipes are easy to follow so that even kitchen noobs won't have any difficulty following along."I never had meat turn out so well and delicious," one reviewer <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Symons-Carnivore-Recipes-Lovers/product-reviews/0307951782/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?ie=UTF8&amp;showViewpoints=0&amp;sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#RG8N94LFDFSHS">wrote</a>.<h3>Get the hardcover version for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307951782/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0307951782&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=biipmeatlovers-20&amp;linkId=VUCBKQ5G426D4LTI">$27.79</a> or the Kindle version for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307951782/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0307951782&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=biipmeatlovers-20&amp;linkId=VUCBKQ5G426D4LTI">$16.14</a>.<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IYOF4H8/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B00IYOF4H8&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=biipmicrofuel-20&amp;linkId=D4KXMEFYHSX6LP25"> </a></h3>Disclosure: This post is brought to you by Business Insider's Insider Picks team. We aim to highlight products and services you might find interesting, and if you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale. This is not an advertiser sponsored post and we operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback.Have something you think we should know about? Email us at insiderpicks@businessinsider.com. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-headphones-tricks-2015-2">14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do</a></h3> <div> <div> <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> <script> if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; } RunFunctions.push(function() { var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD',{ autoplay: 'false' }); }); </script> <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div> </div> <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script> </div>

'Carnivore' is the ultimate cookbook for meat lovers

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59f229a63e9d2520008b5ad3-1138/gettyimages-688286030.jpg" alt="Sens. Jeff Flake and Tim Kaine" data-mce-source="Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images" />Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRepublican Sen. Jeff Flake and Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine.</div></div></div><ul><li>Several prominent Republicans, including Sen. Jeff Flake, attacked President Donald Trump this week, voicing their strongest criticism yet. </li><li>While some Democrats praised Flake's denouncement of Trump, the Democratic National Committee issued a statement critical of the senator. </li><li>The mixed messaging has some wondering how Democrats will appeal to anti-Trump Republican voters in 2018. </li></ul><hr /> Democratic leadership sent conflicting messages following Republican <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-flake-senate-reelection-trump-2017-10">Sen. Jeff Flake's dramatic Tuesday announcement</a> that he will not run for reelection in 2018.After the Arizona conservative delivered perhaps the most thorough public rebuke of President Donald Trump and his administration by an elected Republican, several prominent Democratic lawmakers praised the Arizona senator's character and leadership.".@JeffFlake is one of the finest human beings I've met in <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword>. He is moral, upright, strong &amp; will be missed in the Senate," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/922918109668720641">tweeted</a> on Tuesday.Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's former running mate in the 2016 presidential election, called his Republican colleague a "friend," "a good man," and "an honest broker."But on Tuesday afternoon, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez denounced Flake's support for Trump's agenda and criticized him for not speaking out "until it's too late.""Senator Flake voted with Donald Trump 91% of the time," <a href="https://twitter.com/dncpress">Perez said</a> in a statement. "His retirement is symbol of a Republican Party whose leaders allow Donald Trump's divisive politics to flourish as long as it serves their political interests, and who fail to criticize this dangerous president until it's too late."He continued, "Republicans in Congress remain in lockstep with the Trump agenda and silent in the face of the president's disgraceful behavior."Symone Sanders, Sen. Bernie Sanders' former campaign press secretary, echoed the DNC's criticism."Jeff Flake is all talk and no action," <a href="http://mms.tveyes.com/PlaybackPortal.aspx?SavedEditID=f9a815be-f590-46b8-9423-282bc9646b4f">Sanders said on CNN</a>. "I'm not patting anyone on the back and giving them cookies and cupcakes for quitting." But Flake has long been an outspoken critic of Trump, refusing to endorse him as the party's presidential nominee and publishing a book, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Conscience-Conservative-Rejection-Destructive-Principle/dp/0399592911">Conscience of a Conservative</a>," attacking Trump and the direction of the GOP. Kaine defended Flake from accusations that he hasn't backed his words up with action, saying that while he has many substantive disagreements with Flake and Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who also excoriated the president this week for "debasing" the nation, both Republicans are principled in their policy positions. "Bob and Jeff are the same in this way: If you can convince them that something is good on the merits, they will stick with you no matter what their leadership says, no matter what the polls say," <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/25/jeff-flake-trump-republicans-agenda-244175">Kaine told Politico</a>. Both liberal and conservative commentators criticized the DNC's statement as a missed opportunity for Democrats to capitalize on Republican division. "Isn't it possible to disagree with @JeffFlake on policy and still applaud his condemnation of @POTUS divide and dissemble politics? I do," David Axelrod, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, <a href="https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/923274069839138816">tweeted</a>.Ben LaBolt, a former spokesman for Obama's presidential campaigns, said that Democrats should encourage anti-Trump Republicans to speak out. "It may not be the job of the DNC, which is focused on winning every election we can, but as Democrats we should embrace rational Republicans that are willing to stand up to Trump and to combat the erosion of democratic ideals and institutions," LaBolt wrote in a message to Business Insider. "Our system of government requires two functioning parties to thrive, and if one party checks out we're all screwed."Conservative commentators argued that the dissenting Republican leaders are "basically doing pro bono ad work for the Democratic Party," <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-dnc-is-comically-bad-at-its-job/article/2638514">as conservative commentator Becket Adams</a> wrote in the Washington Examiner."If you're DNC chief Tom Perez, this is a gift. You use these red-on-red attacks to your advantage. You say something to the effect of, 'Even GOP senator X believes Trump etc.' or 'We agree with GOP senator when he says …'" Adams went on. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59f2605cbcf93d24008b4e03-1219/gettyimages-646413152.jpg" alt="DNC Chairman Tom Perez and deputy chairman Keith Ellison." data-mce-source="Mark Wilson/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="DNC Chairman Tom Perez and deputy chairman Keith Ellison." />Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesDNC Chairman Tom Perez and deputy chairman Keith Ellison.</div></div></div>Jesse Ferguson, a top spokesman for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, said that the DNC, and Democrats more broadly, can and should highlight their policy differences with Republicans while promoting the criticism Trump is receiving from even some of the most conservative members of his party. "Sen. [Bernie] Sanders used to talk on the campaign trail about opening the doors of the Democratic Party and he's right," Ferguson told Business Insider. "We need to be welcoming in these folks who are increasingly concerned that Trump is reckless and a danger to the country. In doing that we don't have to give up on policy differences that we've had with Republicans over the years. Those are not inconsistent goals."Ferguson said that Flake, Corker, and Sen. John McCain's criticism of the president is "more credible than any case that Democrats are going to be able to make" to Trump voters. DNC spokesman Michael Tyler defending the organization's response, arguing that Democrats should welcome collaboration with Republicans where they agree on policy issues, but that they shouldn't applaud Flake's complicity with the Trump agenda."Democrats are more than willing to work with Republicans when they stand up for working people across this country, but we will not remain silent when Republicans try to strip away health care from millions, rush to give tax breaks to billionaires at the expense of working families, and vote to protect Wall Street over their own constituents, as Sen. Flake has done this year alone," Tyler said in a message to Business Insider.Flake and Corker are, indeed, very conservative. Both are protesting what they see as Trump's instability and "reckless, outrageous, and undignified" behavior, while defending much of his agenda and the advisers he has surrounded himself with. This argument is part of the same critique Democrats have made since Trump emerged on the political scene.In a <a href="https://twitter.com/TomPerez/status/923335596554309632">tweet on Wednesday</a>, Perez echoed the language Flake and Corker used, writing, "We need to be vigilant and aware of how low the bar has fallen under Donald Trump. This is not normal &amp; we won't let it become normal," Perez wrote. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-service-impaired-what-happened-before-the-jfk-assassination-2015-10">The Secret Service may have been 'impaired' the day JFK was assassinated</a></h3> <div> <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/Oz4cyaLh-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script> </div> </div>

Democrats are split on whether to support Trump-bashing senators

The best steakhouses in America, according to OpenTable

There's a lot to be learned from a person's Google searches.&#xa0;
Real estate <a href="http://blog.estately.com/2014/12/heres-what-each-state-googled-more-than-any-other-state-in-2014/">listings site Estately</a> looked at Google Trends data to determine what people, stories, and controversies residents of each state cared about most.
The map they compiled using the data shows not what each state searched for the most overall, but what they Googled more than any other state.
While New Yorkers were wondering what a selfie is, Californians and Nevadans took to Google for more information on bitcoin. The protests in Ferguson were a major interest for &#xa0;people in Missouri, and Malala Yousafzai had some big fans in Connecticut.
<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54a19eb36da811593551cb73-1200-800/google%20map.jpeg" border="0" alt="google map 2014"><a href="http://blog.estately.com/2014/12/heres-what-each-state-googled-more-than-any-other-state-in-2014/">Estately</a></img>
Here's the complete list of <a href="http://blog.estately.com/2014/12/heres-what-each-state-googled-more-than-any-other-state-in-2014/">what Estately found</a> during their analysis.&#xa0;
ALABAMA: Jameis Winston
ALASKA: Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 (tied w/ Wyoming), How to DIY, 4chan, legalize marijuana, domestic violence
ARIZONA: &#xa0;Mexico-United States Border, "Wilfred"
ARKANSAS: &#xa0;Mike Huckabee, "Dancing with the Stars"
CALIFORNIA: FIFA 2014 World Cup, Malaysian Airlines, Kim Kardashian, Iggy Azalea, Donald Sterling, Renee Zellweger, Tom Perkins, Joe the Plumber, Jamie Dornan, Steve McQueen, Charles Manson, James McAvoy, Ellen Page, James Franco Instagram, How to get rid of acne?, What is BB cream?, How to minimize pores?, How to shape eyebrows?, Nexus 6, iPad 3, Bitcoin, Kate Middleton butt, Chia seed, Uber
COLORADO: Marijuana
DELAWARE:&#xa0;&#xa0;(nothing)
FLORIDA: &#xa0;Michael Sam kiss, Michael Douglas, John Travolta, Carmen Carrera, Obamacare, Jeb Bush&#xa0;
GEORGIA: Kerry Washington, Ruby Dee, Michael Sam boyfriend, "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo," Center for Disease Control, "The Arsenio Hall Show"
HAWAII: &#xa0;Robin Williams, Jennifer Lawrence, Joan Rivers, Melanie Griffith, Jan Hooks, Theo James, Kate Upton leaked, A.L.S. Ice Bucket Challenge, I.S.I.S, Hello Kitty, iPhone 6, Apple Watch
IDAHO: How to craft, Bowe Bergdahl
ILLINOIS: &#xa0;Harold Ramis, Jenny McCarthy
INDIANA: Tony Stewart, &#xa0;Shirley Temple, Ann B. Davis, "Two and a Half Men," "Community"
IOWA: Flappy Bird, Richard Dawkins
KANSAS: (nothing)
KENTUCKY: &#xa0;What is A.L.S.?, &#xa0;"Sons of Anarchy," Betty White dead?, Billy Gilman
LOUISIANA: "True Blood," Laurence Fishburne
MAINE: "Between Two Ferns," Affordable Care Act
MARYLAND: Pharrell Williams hat, Ray Rice, Roger Goodell, Chelsea Manning, Piers Morgan, Paula Patton, Executive order, Bill Cosby
MASSACHUSETTS: &#xa0;Kate Middleton, Scottish referendum, Scottish independence, "True Detective," "The Good Wife," "The Newsroom," Patton Oswalt, Ira Glass, Tom Magliozzi, Jonathan Gruber, Bill Simmons, "Serial," "The Imitation Game," Emma Watson UN speech
MICHIGAN: Macualay Culkin dead, Kate Upton photos, Ted Nugent, George Will, Mary T. Barra
MINNESOTA: Joan Rivers death, Adrian Peterson, "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson"
MISSISSIPPI: Flappy Bird cheat, Ciara, Ciara baby, Ciara pregnant, Cee Lo Green, Robin Thicke, Raven-Symone, The Ultimate Warrior
MISSOURI: &#xa0;Ferguson, Casey Kasem
MONTANA: &#xa0;National Rife Association
NEBRASKA: &#xa0;Keystone Pipeline
NEVADA: &#xa0;Mila Kunis pregnant, Bitcoin price, What is Bitcoin?, Cliven Bundy, Bill O'Reilly, Jose Canseco, Mickey Rooney
NEW HAMPSHIRE: &#xa0;Hilary Clinton, Bode Miller, net neutrality, "Philomena"
NEW JERSEY: &#xa0;Tracy Morgan, Ansel Elgort, Alfonso Ribeiro, Idina Menzel, Kim Novak, Tim Howard, Oscar Pistorious trial, Bridgegate, War on women, Immigration reform, Frozen costume
NEW MEXICO: &#xa0;Zombies, LG G3 phone
NEW YORK: &#xa0;Philip Seymour Hoffman, Peaches Geldof, Lauren Bacall, Terry Richardson, Jared Leto, Macaulay Culkin, Margot Robbie, Kerry Washington, Laverne Cox, Donald Trump, Drake, Leslie Jones, Conchita Wurst, "Girls," Samsung Galaxy S5, How to apply foundation?, Gaza and Israel, What's a selfie?
NORTH CAROLINA: &#xa0;Maya Angelou, The Benham Brothers, What is transgender?
NORTH DAKOTA: &#xa0;Jay Leno, U.S. National Hockey Team, Kaley Cuoco, "Dumb and Dumber To"
OKLAHOMA: &#xa0;Ebola, Ebola Symptoms, I.S.I.L, Jennifer Lawrence photos, Renee Zellweger, Betty White, Lea Thompson, Tommy Chong, Mila Kunis baby, Carrie Underwood, Carrie Underwood pregnant, Benghazi, Hobby Lobby, Selfie, Sarah Goldberg, James Garner, Chelsea Handler, Kim Kardashian butt, What is a switch?
OREGON: &#xa0;Ukraine, Motorola Moto G, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Avril Lavigne, Syria news
PENNSYLVANIA: &#xa0;Macaulay Culkin dead?, 2016, 2016 Presidential election, marriage equality, "The Millers"
RHODE ISLAND: &#xa0;Woody Allen, Pope Francis, "The League"
SOUTH CAROLINA: &#xa0;Hazing
SOUTH DAKOTA: &#xa0;"The Dr. Oz Show"
TENNESSEE: &#xa0;Who is I.S.I.S.?, Kevin Sharp
TEXAS: &#xa0;Flappy Bird download, Johnny Manziel, Join I.S.I.S., Carrie Underwood baby, How to get rid of stretch marks?, James Avery, Are zombies real?, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"
UTAH: &#xa0;"Frozen," "Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1," "How to Train Your Dragon ," "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," same sex marriage, Shailene Woodley, Glenn Beck, How to kiss?, Anita Sarkeesian, Emma Watson nude, "The Mentalist," "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies"
VERMONT: &#xa0;Lena Dunham, Seth Rogen, Pete Seeger, Feminism, kale, 2014 Winter Games, climate change, "The Colbert Report," "The Grand Budapest Hotel," Amy Schumer
VIRGINIA: &#xa0;Tucker Carlson, Boko Haram, White House security, upskirt pics
WASHINGTON: &#xa0;Gamergate, marijuana store, Richard Sherman, Amanda Knox, Macklemore, minimum wage, rape culture, "Interstellar," school shooting, Amazon Fire phone, Rosetta Space Probe
WEST VIRGINIA: &#xa0;Maroon 5, Charles Manson, Brad Paisley
WISCONSIN: &#xa0;What is Tinder?, Pabst Blue Ribbon
WYOMING: &#xa0;Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 (tie with Alaska)

Here's What Each State Googled More Than Any Other State This Year

<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/526eb6b369bedd3e4a8b4577-618-463/suzy-in-seven-up-1964.png?maxX=800" border="0" alt="Suzy in Seven Up (1964)" width="800" />ScreenshotSuzy in Seven Up (1964)</div></div>
Back in 1964, the British television news show "World in Action" profiled the lives of fourteen seven-year-olds from various walks of life in the U.K.: some were in an elite West London prep school, others were from the rough and tumble East End, one grew up on farm, and two were in a children's home run by a charity.
The show was inspired by a Jesuit motto: "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man."
"Why do we bring these children together?" the show's narrator asked. "Because we want to get a glimpse of England in the year 2000. The shop steward and the executive of the year 2000 are now seven years old."
Called "Seven Up," the show was a big hit in the U.K. What happened next, however, made it legendary.
Michael Apted, a young man who had worked on the original show, decided to revisit the subjects seven years later, when they were 14 years old, for a show called "Seven plus 7." Seven years after that, he visited them again for "28 Up," and seven years after that, he did it again, and so forth all the way through "56 Up," released last year.
<embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/f-U6RfKVzCs?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;" height="338" width="600" />
The series has became one of the most celebrated TV programs in the <keyword id="6361754" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="United-Kingdom">United Kingdom</keyword>, topping a 2005 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/list/Pixb1R4U0t4/">list of the greatest documentaries ever</a>, and inspiring similar series in other countries,<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281550/"> including the United States</a>. Roger Ebert, writing <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-up-documentaries-1985">in a series about "Great Movies" in 1998</a>, said that the series aimed to "penetrate to the central mystery of life."
But what is that mystery, and what answers can the series provide? I had never watched the series before, so I recently sat down and watched all eight episodes in a row, clocking in at more than 12 hours of footage.
Here are seven things I noticed:
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/526eb8eb6bb3f7d358e65a07-626-469/lynn-in-7-plus-seven-1970-1.png" border="0" alt="Lynn in " Plus="" Seven="" width="400" />ScreenshotLynn in "7 Plus Seven" (1970)</div></div></h3>
<h3>1. Rich kids have a huge advantage over poor kids, but it is not insurmountable</h3>
In one of the most famous moments in the show, three boys from a Kensington prep school (Andrew, Charles, and John) list their future plans - a certain boarding school, followed by a particular college at Oxford or Cambridge, followed by a specific career. Of these three boys, two nailed their futures with remarkable accuracy, while the third failed to get into Oxbridge but made do with another well-respected university, Durham.
The accuracy of these boys in predicting their lives' courses is stunning, especially in comparison to the uncertainty of some of the other children in the first show. Paul, one of the boys from the charity school, doesn't know what the word "university" means - and he goes on not to drop out of high school and become a bricklayer and handyman who struggles financially.
Thankfully, childhood circumstances don't determine everything.
Nick, a child from a rural village who went to a one room school four miles away, ended up being perhaps the most academically successful of all the original children. He moves to the United States and works as a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, enjoying professional and financial success.
Likewise, one of the kids from the East End, Tony, becomes a London taxi driver with apparent economic stability - enough to buy a second home in Spain. 
Conversely, Neil, a middle-class boy who seems to be one of the brightest in the first show and had ambitions of Oxford, ends up dropping out of Aberdeen University and becoming homeless.
<h3>2. Careers are not the defining factor in people's happiness</h3>
Thankfully, professional success is not the only thing that matters.
For example, two of the most downtrodden kids in the first episode, Symon and Paul, are housed at a charity school. Symon is the product of birth out-of-wedlock and continues to live at the school, away from his single mother, until he is 13. Paul is being housed at the school while his parents divorce, and seems to hate it: telling the camera awkwardly about how the older boys hit him. Neither child attains financial stability or success, but both find a loving partner and ultimately build happy families.
On the other hand, John, one of the poshest prep school boys who went on to go to Oxford, becomes a litigator but expresses disappointment that he never became a politician, as he had hoped he would and as many of his peers did.
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/526eb913ecad048d54237807-628-471/nick-in-21-up-1977-1.png" border="0" alt="Nick in " Up="" width="400" />ScreenshotNick in "21 Up" (1977)</div></div></h3>
One of the cheeriest participants on the show is Bruce, a child from a wealthy family who goes on to work in tough East London schools and Bangladesh, before eventually working at a private school. Meanwhile, another participant who became a teacher seems far less happy - "It is not the job that makes you unhappy," Ebert <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-up-documentaries-1985">observed about this in 1998</a>. "It is whether you want to be doing it."
<h3>3. The participants show a big capacity for change</h3>
A lot can change between episodes. Bruce is one of the few characters still single at 35, and he is clearly a little worried that he may remain a bachelor. By the next episode, however, he has found a wife, and the next time we see him after that, he has not one but two kids. 
Meanwhile, Tony's economic turnaround surprised even the director, who later admitted he filmed Tony at various neighborhoods with a connection to London's gangland past as he believed he would eventually <a href="http://www.onthemedia.org/story/261818-up-series-56/transcript/">end up in prison</a>. Instead the cab driver ends up sunning himself (and his extended family) at a holiday home in Spain. 
One of the most remarkable stories in the show, however, is that of Neil, has become homeless by "28 Up." While that episode makes for uncomfortable viewing (Neil admits he has considered suicide), he is later able to return to some kind of normality as a local politician (crucially, a key part in this is played by his friend and fellow Seven Up participant Bruce).
You can see some of Neil's story in the clip from 49 Up below:
<object width="600" height="450"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/KcMWAWaXWhg?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/KcMWAWaXWhg?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="450" width="600" /></object>
<h3>4. Britain's demographics have changed dramatically</h3>
It's hard to imagine that a similar show cast today would feature the same cross section of society.
On one hand, this may have to do with the limitations on the casting process - the first show was designed as a one-off, and Apted, who did the casting on that show, was only given ten days to find its subjects.
Yet surely the casting says something about how Britain saw itself in 1964. The participants come primarily from the upper crust and lower edges of society, with almost none from the middle class. Only four of the participants are female, and just one participant is not white.
Apted didn't anticipate that changing economic factors that would blur the lines in the U.K. class system, inflating the numbers and significance of the middle class, nor that women would obtain a vastly more prominent position in society. He was also unaware <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/census-2001/index.html">that by the 2001 U.K. census</a> almost one in ten people would list themselves as an ethnicity other than white.
The show's content also reveals changes in the U.K. For example, almost all of those who grow up in London's East End move elsewhere, while those who stay look increasingly out of place in what has largely become a Bangladeshi neighborhood.
In one sad scene, Tony goes back to the dog-racing track he hung spent a lot of time in growing up as it now stands derelict. In the most recent episode he returns to the spot again - this time it has been turned into the new Olympic Stadium for the 2012 games, one example of the massive government spending being put into the area in recent years.
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/526eb92c6bb3f77054e65a13-622-467/tony-in-57-up-2012-1.png" border="0" alt="Tony in " Up="" width="400" />ScreenshotTony in "57 Up" (2012)</div></div>5. Almost everyone seems better off</h3>
When the show began, Britain was less than 20 years past the end of the Blitz, with parts of the East End still rubble. The early episodes would also deal with the economic stagnation and rising unemployment of the late 60s and 70s.
Over the course of the show, however, the economy start to get better. Almost everyone seems to be able to live to a comfortable standard. Even those who had little educational opportunity seem able to move to middle class neighborhood and enjoy a lifestyle far more comfortable than they grew up with. The most obvious example is Tony with his Marbella mansion, but it is noticeable across the board.
The experience of the show participants matches up with reality. According to one <a href="http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/14977/1/14977.pdf">University College London study released in 2002</a>, "median equivalent incomes (before housing costs) have approximately doubled in real terms over the last four decades (up by 90 per cent since 1961)." The Institute for Fiscal Studies <a href="http://www.ifs.org.uk/comms/comm124.pdf">reported last year that on average median</a> household net incomes had grown by 1.5% per year over the past 5 decades.
The problem, of course, is that economic inequality has also grown during the past five decades: Even the richest members of the show are out of place in a London that has become home to an ultra-rich global elite.
<h3>6. Having your life on camera is a strange and often unpleasant experience </h3>
Of the 14 children who were featured on the first show, only 10 have appeared in every episode. One, Kensington prep-schooler Charles, has refused to appear on any of the shows since 1977 (perhaps un-coincidentally, he now produces documentaries himself), while another says that he only participates in the shows to raise money for a charity he founded, saying that it is a "poison pill" he is forced to swallow every seven years.
Part of this is simply because the show has put the participants in the uncomfortable position of having their lives picked over by the British public. One participant, Peter, refuses to take part in three episodes after he is criticized in the tabloid press for angry remarks he made about Margaret Thatcher's government in 1984. Another participant's spouse later refuses to be involved in the show after her dismay about how some of her comments came across (she later divorces her participant husband).
Perhaps a bigger part of this animosity is because the director, Apted, forces them to scrutinize their own lives - their past, their future, their successes, and their failures. Apted, to his credit, often includes scenes of the participants scolding him for his line of questioning.
That so many participants have remained in the show says something about how much it has defined their lives.
"My ambition as a scientist is to be more famous for doing science than being in this film," Nick says at one point, "But unfortunately that's not going to happen.
<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left" style="width:400px"><div class="image on-image"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5282543069beddd31c60db30-1078-808/seven-up-neil-and-tony.png" border="0" alt="Seven Up Neil And Tony" width="400" />ScreenshotNeil and Tony in Seven Up (1964)</div></div>7. The show is a legacy of a different time</h3>
If you're a Netflix Instant customer, you can watch all eight episodes of the show in a weekend; however, it is a strange experience to do so. These shows were designed to be watched seven years apart, with viewers who might not remember what happened in the last one. Binge-watching is frustrating, as the show constantly cuts to past episodes, repeating certain moments incessantly.
As TV demands have changed, one wonders if we could pull off something so big and ambitious today (most attempts to replicate the series in other countries have not been as successful).
There is a huge level of public service involved in a show like this, and it could perhaps have only happened in the context of British television at the time (while it was shown on the BBC's commercial television rival, ITV, there was a conscious effort in the 1960s to avoid having the kind of "vulgar" programming on British commercial television as there was seen in the United States).
Apted <a href="http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-05-14/56-up-michael-apted-on-the-documentary-series-thats-spanned-five-decades">recently said that </a>"the fragmented state of the business all over the world will never allow anything like this to happen again," and he may be right.
When the show was created, "reality TV" didn't exist, and neither did the idea of a normal person going on TV to become famous. As such the people on the show were remarkably natural and candid. They had nothing to gain from being on the show. The participants' understanding of the show may have changed, however - Peter, an angry teacher who dropped out of the series for three episodes, came back to the show last year so that he could promote his new country rock group.
The show's uniqueness is becoming only more apparent as it goes on. As the show has recorded the lives of the 14 participants, it will also show them getting old and eventually dying. Even though all 14 original participants of the show are still alive, many of their parents and loved ones are not. On numerous occasions the show features the participants talking about grief, often in tears.
In the next one or two or three episodes, some participants will likely have died.
Apted, for his part, has said he has no <a href="http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-05-14/56-up-michael-apted-on-the-documentary-series-thats-spanned-five-decades">plans to pull the plug anytime soon</a>, though as he is 11 years older than his subjects, his own mortality may one day be an issue.
"Well, I know what I hope," Apted <a href="http://www.onthemedia.org/story/261818-up-series-56/transcript/">recently told</a> NPR's On The Media. "I hope to do 84 Up when I'll be 99."
The next episode of the Up Series is due in 2019. You can watch the episodes that <a href="http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/56-Up/70265193">have been released on Netflix streaming</a>, or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CD6VY6S/ref=s9_hps_ft_g74_ir02?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_s=center-3&amp;pf_rd_r=0F4C66Q40BWCWJHBP1SZ&amp;pf_rd_t=1401&amp;pf_rd_p=1635171002&amp;pf_rd_i=1001019701">order the DVDs from Amazon</a> or <a href="http://firstrunfeatures.com/56updvd.html">from independent distributors First Run Features</a>.

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