Sports
Patt Morrison: As the world arrives in Paris for the Olympics, Paris food goes local. How can L.A. compete?
How do you say “locavore” en francais?
When Olympic athletes and members of the press sit down to dine on the bounty of France next month, some of what’s on their plates will have been grown and gardened and harvested — from underground garages to road medians to rooftops — in Paris.
Not every course of every meal, not by a long shot. Perhaps a microgreens or endive salad, with shitake mushrooms? Serving up 13 million Olympics meals and snacks, all exclusively Parisian-made, is beyond the reach of even this city’s cuisine miracle workers. And this bit of food bandwidth won’t be getting athlete-style scores or Michelin stars, but it will be enough to show the yield and reach of Paris’ ambitious “Capital Agricole” projects.
Edible Paris is one section you’ll find on the city’s long, ambitious enviro menu — a larger regreening of the City of Light into the City of Lighter Environmental Impact. Paris has begun banishing cars and car pollution from the city’s heart, plans to add almost 250 acres of green space and another 75 acres dedicated to urban agriculture — beehives, hops, fruit trees, vegetables, cultivated largely on public property.
When I was in Paris a while back, I made my way into the august French Renaissance-style city hall, the Hotel de Ville, and up to the office of Audrey Pulvar, the deputy mayor in charge of sustainable food and agriculture and the systems to make them possible.
I knew I’d come to the right place when I looked out the window beyond her desk and saw — a window box. Those weren’t flowers she was growing there; they were beets and tomatoes.
The ParisCulteurs project envisions a cultivated world city that cultivates more than flowers and fashion. Like any modern city, Paris’ early inhabitants raised their own food; the Romans, who called the place Lutetia, coaxed grapes and figs from the Gallic soil.
At Versailles, some 20 miles outside Paris, Queen Marie Antoinette had the Hameau, her little model farm with its working dairy. On the walls of the Paris suburb of Montreuil there once grew peaches of legendary richness, and a very few are still cultivated with the tenderness afforded to babies.
Yet for centuries, the best of France’s goods and goodies have floated upriver or flowed downhill for the care and feeding of Paris.
Pulvar’s projects are like the tines of a fork, several in number but working toward the same aims of nutrition and environmental responsibility. Paris already serves 30 million “collective catering” meals a year, she told me — to students, kids in daycare, city workers, the elderly and needy.
The AgriParis program that will be feeding athletes and journalists throughout the Games intends eventually to make all of that food organic and sustainable, and half of it produced within about 150 carbon-considerate miles of Paris. That sounds like a vast territory, but now it’s almost three times that.
Another tine on the French fork is the urban agriculture project to educate Parisian schoolchildren and their families about food — where it comes from and what it takes to bring it to their plates. (This reminded me of the time 10 years ago when I hung out with Jamie Oliver as he was trying to get the LAUSD on board with his good-food program. He found that some high schoolers could not identify basic food origins — honey comes from bears? Guacamole from green apples?)
The city of Paris owns a lot of land and a lot of buildings, and Pulvar’s projects welcome green-minded small businesses wanting to rent those spaces and grow and market their goods in civic spaces like roadway medians, abandoned parking lots and the rooftops of city-owned buildings and apartment complexes.
Paris still has empty acreage like the “petite ceinture,” or small belt, an abandoned 19th century railroad track that encircles Paris, and it’s being transformed into agricultural gardens. On old walls of a Paris that grew beyond them, beer brewers rent the vertical stretches for growing hops. A school rooftop is being dedicated for an aromatic garden of herbs, berries, vegetables and a solar dryer for teas. And an urban farm created atop the city’s Charonne reservoir grows and sells microgreens to locals, and teaches the green-minded how to grow them, too.
The Railway Farm, also on the small belt, is a community project that, with the blessings of the city, developed an award-winning enclave of homeless and student housing, agriculture and composting workshops, and crops of herbs, berries and vegetables — and the restaurant to serve them.
City of light, city of the 2024 Olympics, city of locally grown food.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Parisians’ default verb may sometimes seem to be “grogner,” to grumble, but Pulvar thinks most ordinary Parisians are fine with the projects, especially the nonprofit initiatives.
“After COVID,” she told me, “many people realized they wanted their lives to be different. Often, they are people in business school who now have business degrees and who wanted to change their lives. A lot of women [do], especially, and it’s oftentimes led by neighborhood initiatives, groups who conceive of a project and decide to work on improving the lives of the people in their neighborhoods.”
At first, French farmers were skeptical, though. “They felt like they were being told they were not needed in the countryside anymore. That was not the case at all,” Pulvar said. “Everyone knows that we cannot feed Paris with city agriculture [alone]. We will always need the farmers outside of Paris.”
Now, what can L.A. — host of the next Summer Olympics in 2028 — possibly do to compete?
Confession: We can’t compete, not in the urban agriculture category. If our past performance as host of the 1984 Olympics is how we’d qualify, I don’t think we’d even make the team.
Not too much was made of what athletes were eating in 1984. The L.A. Olympic Organizing Committee put forth a “food vision” manifesto, promising a Southern California bounty of “fruit and vegetables in a variety and quantity like very few places in the world.”
There were a few stories about restaurants hoping for a tourist customer surge, and an Olympic Restaurant Ethics Committee was formed by a few restaurants to pledge good service and no price gouging.
The Times surveyed renowned chefs and found that beyond some red-white-and-blue-frosted desserts, and foodstuff arranged to suggest the Olympic rings — fruit, antipasti, onion rings — most weren’t bothering. Ken Frank, of the then-new-ish La Toque, said, “Just because I’m serving a five-course menu during the Olympics doesn’t mean I will call it a ‘pentathlon.’” (Since then, Frank’s restaurants have earned him a restaurateur’s gold medals: more than a dozen Michelin stars.)
Los Angeles Magazine’s deep dive into Olympic food turned up this: Despite the usual calorific dishes and never-expiring canned fruit cocktail, in 1984, some of the cuisine available round the clock to athletes at the nine Olympic Village cafeterias also stretched to “regional favorites: cheese enchiladas, gazpacho, and avocado soup” and dishes “still unfamiliar to most Americans in 1984: ceviche, tabbouleh, oriental vegetables and water chestnuts.” Also, radically, there were doggie bags.
A clipping from The Times in August 1984 highlights the popularity and difficulty of an Olympics promotion put on by McDonald’s.
(Los Angeles Times archive / newspapers.com)
The best Olympics food story had nothing to do with what the athletes ate. McDonald’s promoted a game-card giveaway to customers, and for every card that matched up to an American athlete winning a medal, something on its menu — Cokes, fries, burgers — would be free.
McDonald’s hadn’t counted on the no-show-Commie effect of the Soviet boycott of the Games, so more Americans won medals in the Russians’ absence. A few franchises ran out of Big Mac buns. A McD’s regional VP told The Times back then that it was “the most successful” company games promotion, “but it’s also the most costly.”
And in 1932, when L.A. first landed the Summer Olympics, the L.A. Times’ “home services bureau” director offered some spirit-of-the-Games recipes: chicken curry for India — pretty daring then, no doubt -—and a “flag of all nations” ham, which turned out to be a pretty standard ham that was just ornamented with darling little flags from all the competing countries.
What makes this ham recipe “Olympian” — from an August 1932 edition of the Los Angeles Times about Olympic-themed food — seems to be mostly the flags.
(Los Angeles Times archive / newspapers.com)
We’ve long had a reputation as a cradle of health food culture. In the movie “Annie Hall,” Woody Allen aims his anti-L.A.-disdain at The Source, the pioneering health food restaurant on the Sunset Strip, by ordering “alfalfa sprouts and mashed yeast.” (The Source was operated by a kind of a culty guy who called himself Father Yod, but culty L.A. and culinary L.A. are ordinarily two different stories.)
Therefore, what we can’t match from Paris 2024, L.A. 2028 can contrast.
For every ounce of biotic-organic-supercleansing foodstuffs sold at Erewhon, we sell probably 10 pounds of the world’s most famous fast food. Most of the founding burger and taco empires were started up within maybe a hundred miles of L.A. City Hall. That’s what we should be peddling to the world’s greatest athletes: Welcome to L.A., and to all the basic food groups — salt, fat, sugar and guilty pleasure.
Go on! Have a burger! Have a doughnut! Taco trucks! Gas station sushi! Pho and poke bowls! Kosher burritos! Fatburgers and In-N-Out! Tommy’s hamburgers and Pink’s hot dogs! Fusion city, fusion food!
Welcome to L.A.! Enjoy the fast food (and the 1984 Olympics opening ceremony at the Coliseum)!
(Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times)
Perhaps only the Earl of Sandwich has done more for great fast food than Los Angeles.
We could give the athletes apps and maps to find some faves.
I envision social media accounts crammed with athletes’ selfies in front of Randy’s Doughnuts in Inglewood, an example of mimetic architecture — where the buildings look like the things they sell. (The Brown Derby was not mimetic because it didn’t sell derbies, but The Tamale in long-ago Montebello did sell tamales.)
And the ultimate pilgrimage: to the ground of the vanished Hinky Dink BBQ stand, the spot on old Route 66 at the border between Pasadena and Eagle Rock. About a hundred years ago, as the origin story goes, one of the boys in the Sternberger family may have scorched a burger and covered up the burn with a slab of cheese. Ladies and gentlemen, messieurs et mesdames, le cheeseburger.
Oh, and “locavore” in French? It’s “locavore.”
Explaining L.A. With Patt Morrison
Los Angeles is a complex place. In this weekly feature, Patt Morrison is explaining how it works, its history and its culture.
Sports
Jason Kelce says Eagles players share blame with fired coordinator Kevin Patullo for offensive struggles
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The Philadelphia Eagles fired offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo after a disappointing 23-19 loss in the Wild Card round against the San Francisco 49ers.
However, former Eagles star center Jason Kelce said that while Patullo bears responsibility for the offensive struggles, he thought the players could have performed better.
“The bottom line is this offense didn’t live up to what it should have, right? And Patullo, as the offensive coordinator, bears responsibility and so do the players. That’s my thing. I don’t think the players played as good as they could have,” Kelce said during a recent episode of the “New Heights” podcast.
Jason Kelce looks on before the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Arizona Cardinals at AT&T Stadium. The game took place in Arlington, Texas, on Nov. 3, 2025. (Kevin Jairaj/Imagn Images)
“I love all those guys and that’s just the way it is sometimes. I had my seasons. I damn sure did. And you know, how do they rebound from this? Where do they go from here? There’ll be new faces in. There’ll be faces that are familiar that are out.”
The 38-year-old said he doesn’t think it’s fair for all the blame to be placed on Patullo. Kelce referenced the offensive line’s inability to stay healthy and a running game that regressed as causes for the downturn.
“The main reason (for the regression) and I’ve been saying this from the beginning was the run game. The offensive line’s inability to stay healthy altogether to open up holes. Saquon Barkley almost set the NFL record for rushing last year. They were incredible in the run game,” Kelce said.
The seven-time Pro Bowler pointed out that while the Eagles won the Super Bowl last season, the passing game struggled. With the running game not nearly as dynamic as it was last season, the issues with the passing game became more prominent.
EAGLES MOVE ON FROM OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR KEVIN PATULLO AFTER UNEVEN SEASON, COACH NICK SIRIANNI SAYS
Jason Kelce waves to fans during the Super Bowl LIX championship parade and rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 14, 2025. (Kyle Ross/Imagn Images)
“The passing game, they struggled last year. I mean, there were all sorts of things happening last season that we like to forget because we won the Super Bowl, but the passing game has been an issue for multiple seasons now. Now, the running game isn’t there. Why isn’t it there? The offensive line is in and out. They’re hurt. Guys are overcoming injuries. They’re not playing the same way they’ve played in the past,” Kelce said.
“You have a quarterback that’s not running as much. Jalen Hurts, the threat of him running the ball, opens up so much for the running back when they have to truly respect it, and it also opens up things downfield.”
Kelce did lament the lack of creativity within the Eagles offense and said it would “behoove” them to bring in someone from outside the building as their new offensive coordinator.
“I would love to see more motions. I would love to see all that stuff,” Kelce said. “It would probably behoove the Eagles to bring in somebody with a fresh perspective on where it’s at currently, because when you’re in it, you’re thinking about what you’ve done well in the past. You’re thinking about how you’ve had success.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Former player Jason Kelce reacts prior to the game between the Washington Commanders and the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. The game took place in Kansas City, Missouri, on Oct. 27, 2025. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
“It’s like, man, I know this guy can do this. I know this can happen here. Yeah. When you bring in somebody else, it’s like, man, this is where we’re at now. And now we can bring in some fresh ideas. we can figure out a way to maximize things while keeping that nucleus together.”
Last season, during the team’s Super Bowl-winning season, they were tied for fourth in the NFL, averaging 29 points per game. This season, they scored a touchdown fewer, averaging 22.1 points per game, which ranked 19th in the NFL.
The Eagles hope their next offensive coordinator can turn things around quickly.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Lynn Jones didn’t have a question ready.
The 64-year-old veteran reporter for the Jacksonville Free Press was attending Jaguars coach Liam Coen‘s postgame news conference Sunday after his team’s 27-23 playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Three other reporters had already asked game-specific questions when the microphone was passed to Jones, who was still looking at her notes and trying to figure out what to ask the first-year coach immediately after a heartbreaking end to the season.
She ended up not asking anything at all.
Instead, Jones spent 22 seconds of the six-minute news conference offering Coen words of encouragement and praise. Things like, “I just want to tell you congratulations on your success, young man” and “You hold your head up, all right? You guys have had a most magnificent season.”
Jones told The Times in a phone interview Tuesday that the words “just flowed out of me.”
Those words prompted what appeared to be a genuine smile from Coen, who answered each of Jones’ seven comments with a variation of “thank you, ma’am” or “I appreciate it.”
“The man was hurting,” Jones told The Times. But then “he starts smiling. ‘Yes, ma’am, yes, ma’am.’ And he felt better to know that it’s OK, it’s going to be OK. ‘I’ve done a great job,’ you know? So I was glad to make him feel that way.”
Video from the session quickly went viral. ESPN’s Adam Schefter wrote on X, “This is an awesome post-game exchange between a reporter and Jaguars HC Liam Coen.”
Associated Press reporter Mark Long expressed a different point of view.
“Nothing ‘awesome’ about fans/fake media doing stuff like that,” Long wrote in an X post that has since been deleted. “It should be embarrassing for the people who credentialed her and her organization, and it’s a waste of time for those of us actually working.”
Many others have weighed in on either side of the issue. ESPN personality Pat McAfee wrote in a lengthy X post that sports writers who criticized Jones’ actions are “curmudgeon bums” whose “opinions and thoughts are coming from a place of wanting to destroy sports.”
“feels like some journalism was actually done there,” McAfee added of Jones’ approach.
ESPN reporter Brooke Pryor wrote on X: “look, it’s a kind sentiment, but it’s not the job of a reporter to console a coach in a postgame press conference. Pressers are to ask questions to gain a better understanding of what happened or figure out what’s next — and do it in a limited amount of time.”
Time wasn’t an issue for Jones, who said every reporter with a question had the opportunity to ask it. She added that her brief interaction with Coen seemed to lighten the mood a bit in the room.
Rev. Bernice King, daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., released a statement in support of Jones.
“Humanity + compassion done = unprofessional,” King wrote. “If so, the world could certainly use more ‘unprofessionalism’ right now. Thank you, Ms. Jones.”
Jones, who worked for the Jaguars as an administrative assistant during their inaugural season in 1995, has no problem admitting she’s a fan of the team she now covers. She also has been a reporter for more than three decades, including the last 18 years at the Free Press, and bristles at being labeled “fake media.”
“That’s where I draw the line,” she said. “That’s why I have not responded to the gentleman from the AP or anyone else for that matter, because it doesn’t affect me. I know my credibility. I know what I do and how we do it as an organization.
“They’ve been talking about us being a small-town market, but we have a big heart. We here at the Free Press, we do things intentionally and in a manner that’s reported from all eyes, you know, every community in that sense.”
On Tuesday, the Free Press — a member of the National Newspapers Publishers Assn., which represents more than 200 Black-owned newspapers in the United States — started selling apparel featuring the newspaper’s name, Jones’ name and some of the uplifting phrases she used during her interaction with Coen.
“Join the Free Press family and the Lynn Jones movement of nothing but love and get your t-shirt, hoodie or sweatshirt today,” the newspaper wrote on Instagram. “ALL PROCEEDS will go towards scholarships and internships to teach young journalists a positive spin to reporting!”
Jones said her actions at Coen’s news conference were typical for her. “Oh, that’s me,” she said, “anybody will tell you.”
She added: “I’m a passionate person, so when I’m in these environments, it’s easy to be able to have a warm interaction with these individuals.”
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Brooks Koepka may have returned to the PGA Tour following a stint at LIV Golf, but do not expect the Saudi-backed league’s other biggest stars to join in.
Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith all committed to staying put when speaking to reporters on Tuesday at a preseason press conference.
“I had no idea, no idea that that would happen.” DeChambeau said. “No idea what the penalties would even be. Right now, I’ve got a contract. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do at LIV Golf this year.”
Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm walk to the eighth green during the first round of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 2, 2022. (Adam Cairns/The Columbus Dispatch)
“I made a decision to come out here and spend more time at home, and I’m not giving that away. I’ll be on LIV for years to come,” added Smith, who won the 2022 Open Championship shortly before officially committing to LIV.
DeChambeau and Smith each left in 2022, but Rahm was perhaps the biggest surprise. Once very outspoken against LIV, he joined the league in December 2023.
In August 2024, he shut down rumors of buyer’s remorse to Fox News Digital, and that still appears to be the case.
“I’m not planning on going anywhere. Very similar answer to what Bryson gave. I wish Brooks the best. As far as I’m concerned, I’m focused on the league and my team this year, and hopefully we can repeat as champions again,” Rahm said.
Koepka’s decision came weeks after he revealed he would be leaving the rival series.
“I want to thank my family and my team for their continued support throughout every step of my professional career,” he wrote on social media. “When I was a child, I always dreamed about competing on the @PGATOUR, and I am just as excited today to announce that I am returning to the PGA TOUR. Being closer to home and spending more time with my family makes this opportunity especially meaningful to me.
Brooks Koepka, of the United States, acknowledges the crowd on the 5th green during the first round of the British Open golf championship at the Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland, July 17, 2025. (Peter Morrison, File/AP Photo)
KAI TRUMP ADMITS SHE STAYS OUT OF POLITICS ‘COMPLETELY,’ CALLING IT A ‘DANGEROUS THING’
“I believe in where the PGA TOUR is headed with new leadership, new investors, and an equity program that gives players a meaningful ownership stake,” he continued. “I also understand there are financial penalties associated with this decision, and I accept those.”
Koepka said he planned to be at the Farmers Insurance Open and the Waste Management Phoenix Open in the coming weeks.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said Koepka’s return sparked the Returning Member Program for those who left the company and may decide to follow in Koepka’s footsteps.
Rolapp said Koepka agreed to a few conditions upon his return to the PGA Tour. It included a “five-year forfeiture of potential equity in the PGA Tour’s Player Equity Program, representing one of the largest financial repercussions in professional sports history, with estimations that he could miss out on approximately $50–85 million in potential earnings, depending on his competitive performance and the growth of the Tour,” according to Rolapp. Koepka will also make a $5 million charitable donation to an organization yet to be determined.
Brooks Koepka during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Quail Hollow. (Aaron Doster/Imagn Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Koepka became the first person to return to the PGA Tour after defecting for LIV.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
North Dakota troopers escort semi truck hauling 81 foot wide building on five mile journey
Sen. Jon Husted cites Ohio case in push for abortion drug restrictions
Absentee Shawnee tribal leadership responds after citizens report harassment by ICE
Oregon Receiver Evan Stewart’s Return Could Shake Up Ducks’ Offense
Geospatial Study Ties Melanoma Hot Spots to Farming Practices in Pennsylvania | Managed Healthcare Executive
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Video: ‘It Didn’t Have to Happen This Way:’ U.Va. Faculty Call for Review of Police Response to Protests
Republicans light cigars, cigarettes on burning photos of Khamenei to show support for Iranian protesters
EU Parliament questions defence loan’s ‘€17 billion gift’ to Hungary
Trump administration sends letter wiping out addiction, mental health grants
Video: Clashes With Federal Agents in Minneapolis Escalate
Venezuela releases multiple American citizens from prison following military operation
-
Montana4 days agoService door of Crans-Montana bar where 40 died in fire was locked from inside, owner says
-
Technology1 week agoPower bank feature creep is out of control
-
Delaware5 days agoMERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach
-
Dallas, TX6 days agoAnti-ICE protest outside Dallas City Hall follows deadly shooting in Minneapolis
-
Dallas, TX1 week agoDefensive coordinator candidates who could improve Cowboys’ brutal secondary in 2026
-
Virginia4 days agoVirginia Tech gains commitment from ACC transfer QB
-
Education1 week agoVideo: This Organizer Reclaims Counter Space
-
Iowa1 week agoPat McAfee praises Audi Crooks, plays hype song for Iowa State star