Green Tomato Research Articles

English

Leafy vegetables are used in making soups, local salads and diverse forms of foods for human consumption is common in Africa. These vegetables include Brassica oleracea (cabbage), Phaseolus vulgaris (green beans) and Solanum lycopersicum (tomatoes). The area of study is famous for agriculture and mining activities; Farmers cultivate them on degraded farmlands polluted with metals; these vegetables absorb these metals thereby making them enter the food chain. During dry season, water from mining ponds is used for irrigation. Industrial waste water is also used. Levels of cadmium (Cd), Arsenic (As), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb), were assessed using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optically Emitting Spectrophotometer (ICP-OES) equipment. Five samples of each vegetable were collected randomly from different irrigation farms situated at Bassa, Bisichi and Zaramaganda. Graph pad prism-7 multiple comparison tests in a one-way ANOVA was used to compare variations in metal concentrations at 95% confidence limit. Pb, As and Cd were not detected in water samples from Bisichi but mean level of Cd and Pb in water from Bassa and Zaramaganda were 0.932 mg/L (P=0.05) and 1.242 mg/L (P=0.05); 0.84 mg/L (P=0.05) and 16.338 mg/L (P=0.05), respectively relative the FAO/WHO safe limits. Water samples from Bassa contained Cu whose level was above (P=0.05) safe limits; only one was below the standard (P>0.05). Samples from Zaramaganda contained highest levels of the metals. cabbage and green beans from Zaramaganda and Bisichi contained Pb, Cu above (P=0.05) the FAO/WHO limit. Mean Pb content in cabbage and green beans from Bisichi was 2.099 and 0.189 mg/kg respectively. From Bassa, Pb content in tomatoes and green beans were 0.086 and 491.31 mg/kg respectively. From Zaramaganda, Pb content in green beans and tomatoes were 12.31 and 14.522 mg/kg; level of Cd in green beans 0.481 mg/kg. Considering Cu, tomato from Bassa contained highest level, 64.310 mg/kg (P=0.05), green beans from Zarmaganda was 48.251 mg/kg (P=0.05), tomato from Bisichi contained 38.541(P=0.05) relative safe limits. In conclusion, the significant concentrations of Cd, Pb and Cu in the vegetables in the area of study, which are routinely used in making soups, portage and local salads, predispose consumers to, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, inhibition of the heme biosynthesis pathway, hemolysis and febrile reactions due to their respective toxicities. Key words: Cabbage, tomatoes, green beans, cadmium, arsenic, copper, and lead.

Application of dielectric barrier discharge for improving food shelf life and reducing spoilage

Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) based ozone therapy is an attractive non-thermal, additive-free and environment-friendly alternative to traditional food processing technologies. Its practical application is dependent on economical ozone generation and optimum ozone dosage. This study investigates the one-time and periodic application of a compact (48 cu. cm), lightweight (55 g), low power, low temperature, DBD ozone generator for treatment of spoilage inocula prepared from combinations of spoiled green beans, grape tomatoes, lettuce and strawberries. A one-time exposure of 126–136 ppm of average ozone concentration produced by the DBD generator over 3 min and 15 min resulted in at least 1 and 4 log reduction, respectively, in microbial colonies present in the spoilage inocula. Daily exposure of 128.7 ppm average ozone concentration over 3 min under similar conditions showed that inhibition through periodic exposure can successfully inhibit the growth of both bacteria and mold species with at least 5 log reduction of microbial colonies. Visual inspection of whole fruits and vegetables with similar 3-min daily exposure showed the potential of ozone therapy to at least double the shelf-life of food products. For the daily exposures, energy required by the DBD ozone generator was calculated as 0.39 pm 0.06 kJ/day.

Antimicrobial properties of tomato leaves, stems, and fruit and their relationship to chemical composition

BackgroundWe previously reported that the tomato glycoalkaloid tomatine inhibited the growth of Trichomonas vaginalis strain G3, Tritrichomonas foetus strain D1, and Tritrichomonas foetus-like strain C1 that cause disease in humans and farm and domesticated animals. The increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance requires development of new tools to enhance or replace medicinal antibiotics.MethodsWild tomato plants were harvested and divided into leaves, stems, and fruit of different colors: green, yellow, and red. Samples were freeze dried and ground with a handheld mill. The resulting powders were evaluated for their potential anti-microbial effects on protozoan parasites, bacteria, and fungi. A concentration of 0.02% (w/v) was used for the inhibition of protozoan parasites. A high concentration of 10% (w/v) solution was tested for bacteria and fungi as an initial screen to evaluate potential anti-microbial activity and results using this high concentration limits its clinical relevance.ResultsNatural powders derived from various parts of tomato plants were all effective in inhibiting the growth of the three trichomonads to varying degrees. Test samples from leaves, stems, and immature ‘green’ tomato peels and fruit, all containing tomatine, were more effective as an inhibitor of the D1 strain than those prepared from yellow and red tomato peels which lack tomatine. Chlorogenic acid and quercetin glycosides were present in all parts of the plant and fruit, while caffeic acid was only found in the fruit peels. Any correlation between plant components and inhibition of the G3 and C1 strains was not apparent, although all the powders were variably effective. Tomato leaf was the most effective powder in all strains, and was also the highest in tomatine. S. enterica showed a minor susceptibility while B. cereus and C. albicans fungi both showed a significant growth inhibition with some of the test powders. The powders inhibited growth of the pathogens without affecting beneficial lactobacilli found in the normal flora of the vagina.ConclusionsThe results suggest that powders prepared from tomato leaves, stems, and green tomato peels and to a lesser extent from peels from yellow and red tomatoes offer potential multiple health benefits against infections caused by pathogenic protozoa, bacteria, and fungi, without affecting beneficial lactobacilli that also reside in the normal flora of the vagina.

Genotype and Maturity Stage Affect the Content and Composition of Polyamines in Tomato—Possible Relations to Plant and Human Health

Polyamines (PAs) are molecules affecting several physiological characteristics in all living organisms with cell protective effects, thereby impacting plant and human health. Here, we used HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS to evaluate the content and composition of PAs in eight tomato genotypes over their maturation period, and related the content and composition to other quality traits and possible implications for plant and human health. The tomato genotype, maturity stage and their interactions, significantly affected the content and composition of PAs. Two of the genotypes, ‘Huichol’ and ‘Rio Grande’ showed consistently lower levels of PAs than the other evaluated genotypes. The variation in content and composition of PAs among genotypes was found to vary inconsistently over the maturation period. Putrescine content in the different genotypes either did not vary significantly, increased, or showed the lowest level in the middle of the maturation period, while spermidine content decreased or did not show significant variation. The genotypes ‘HT36’ and ‘HT25’ showed high levels of PAs during red and green maturity stages, respectively, and can thereby be seen as suitable health promoting red and green candidate tomatoes. Depiction of variation of the PAs creates opportunities for breeding and production of health promoting tomato as a food or food additive.

Tomatidine Improves Pulmonary Inflammation in Mice with Acute Lung Injury.

Tomatidine, which is isolated from green tomato, can ameliorate inflammation and oxidative stress in cells and animal experiments and has been shown to improve airway inflammation in a murine model of asthma. Here, we investigated whether tomatidine can ameliorate acute lung injury in mice. Mice were given tomatidine by intraperitoneal injection for 7 consecutive days, and then, lung injury was induced via intratracheal instillation of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Tomatidine reduced inflammatory cytokine expressions in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), attenuated neutrophil infiltration in the BALF and lung tissue, increased superoxide dismutase activity and glutathione levels, and alleviated myeloperoxidase expression in the lung tissue of mice with lung injury. Tomatidine also decreased inflammatory cytokine and chemokine gene expression in inflammatory lungs and attenuated the phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase and nuclear factor kappa B. Furthermore, tomatidine enhanced the production of heme oxygenase-1, decreased the secretion of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in LPS-stimulated lung epithelial cells, and attenuated THP-1 monocyte adhesion. Our findings suggest that tomatidine attenuates oxidative stress and inflammation, improving acute lung injury in mice.

Bioenergy Production through Mono and Co-Digestion of Tomato Residues

The agro-industry of tomato generates three types of residues: ripe rotten tomato (unfit for consumption) (RT), green (unripe) tomato (GT), and tomato branches including leaves and stems (TB). These materials are commonly wasted or used as feed for livestock. Energy production through anaerobic digestion is an alternative way to manage and simultaneously valorise these materials. Initially, the operating conditions of mono anaerobic digestion were investigated using RT. Thus, a design of experiments based on a two-level fractional factorial design with resolution V was performed to determine the factors that affect biochemical methane potential (BMP). The substrate to inoculum ratio (SIR), total volatile solids concentration (VSt), working volume (WV), presence of nutrients (Nu), and the pre-incubation of the inoculum (Inc) were investigated. The results showed that SIR is the most important factor. The maximum BMP for RT was 297 NmLCH4/gVS with SIR = 0.5; tVS = 20 g/L; WV = 20%; no pre-incubation and the presence of nutrients. Using these optimum operating conditions, co-digestion was investigated through a mixture design approach. The substrates RT and GT presented similar BMP values, whereas TB led to a significantly lower BMP. Indeed, when high concentrations of TB were used, a significant decrease in methane production was observed. Nonetheless, the highest BMP was achieved with a mixture of 63% RT + 20% GT + 17% TB, with a production of 324 NmLCH4/gVS, corresponding to a synergetic co-digestion performance index of about 1.20. In general, although the substrate RT generates the highest BMP, the mixture with GT did not impair the methane yield. Overall, the co-digestion of tomato residues must be conducted with SIR close to 0.5 and the content of tomato branches in the reaction mixture should be kept low (up to 20%).

Development of a reverse-transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay for the detection of Tobacco mild green mosaic virus (TMGMV)

Tobacco mild green mosaic virus (TMGMV), a member species of the genus Tobamovirus, infects pepper (Capsicum annuum) and a number of other economically important species in the Solanaceae family. TMGMV infections had seriously impacted pepper production worldwide, including China. A reverse-transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assay was developed to detect TMGMV in pepper field samples and seed. This assay was based on four primers that matched to six sequences in the C-terminal region of the TMGMV genome. RT-LAMP assay could detect the presence of the virus in 3.0 × 10−7 µg of total RNA extract from pepper leaves, which was ten times more sensitive than the corresponding reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. This method specifically detected TMGMV but not the closely related species of the same genus Pepper mild mottle virus, Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus and Tomato mosaic virus. In addition, the use of SYBR Green I facilitated the detection of the TMGMV RT-LAMP products by the naked eye. These results indicated that the RT-LAMP assay was a simple, sensitive, specific and affordable diagnostic tool that has the potential to detect and monitor TMGMV infection in field samples.

Autonomous Visual Servoing for Alternately Working Arm Robots

Robots have infiltrated many aspects of human life up to this point, and with the term Industry 4.0, robots have even become the primary workforce in various factories. This condition necessitates that the robots collaborate without clashing. This paper discusses the application of two arm robot manipulators working alternately in sorting agricultural products. The proposed method employs simple image processing to detect the object and becomes the input to the system to control the robots. The effectiveness of the proposed method is enhanced by the application of a Fuzzy Logic Controller to smoothen robots’ joints motions. The average time required by the robot to finish their task from detecting to returning to standby position is 11.76 s for green tomatoes and 12.86 s for red tomatoes. The experimental results show that the proposed method is effective in controlling two robots to pick and place agricultural products using visual servoing.

Integrated management of residues from tomato production: Recovery of value-added compounds and biogas production in the biorefinery context

The biorefinery approach must be boosted in the management of agro-residues in the future. The present study aims to investigate the valorization of tomato production residues, namely rotten tomato (unfit for consumption - RT), green tomato (GT), and tomato branches (TB). The assessment involves the recovery of value-added compounds through the extraction process followed by biogas production through anaerobic digestion. A thorough characterization of the three residues (RT, GT, and TB) was carried out, including the identification of volatile compounds by solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The volatiles analysis revealed the presence of flavor enhancer compounds and molecules with insecticidal properties. A solid-liquid extraction with ethanol allowed the recovery of value-added compounds in the extracts, in particular phenolic compounds, β-carotene, and lycopene, which contributed to the antioxidant activity. RT and TB extracts were found to be richer in total phenolic compounds (~27 mg GAE/gdb dry basis) and exhibited higher antioxidant activity (IC50 = 0.911 and 0.745 mg/mL). The tomato branches extract had the highest concentration of carotenoids with 37.23 and 3.08 mg/kgdb of β-carotene and lycopene, respectively. The biochemical methane potential (BMP) was assessed in sealed reactors operating in anaerobic conditions for all the raw (RT, GT, and TB) and extracted substrates waste (RTe, GTe, and TBe). While the BMP of RT and GT was in the range of 232–285 mL CH4/g VS, a lower value of 141 mL CH4/g VS was obtained for TB. The methane production for each pair of raw and extracted substrates (RT/RTe, GT/GTe, and TB/TBe) was considered statistically similar at a 95 % confidence level. Overall, the value-added compounds recovery through ethanolic extraction did not compromise the methane production of the materials.

Improving nutritional quality of unripe tomato through fermentation by a consortium of yeast and lactic acid bacteria.

Portugal is one of the main producers of industrial tomato and tomato paste, an important intermediate ingredient used in many added-value foods. The tomato processing industry rigorously selects the fruits by colour during mechanical harvest, picking only completely ripe fruits to produce high quality tomato paste. The latest available data shows that about 1.12 × 108 kg yr-1 of non-red/not-ripe tomatoes are left in the field, representing a major side product/field residue with great impact on the environment and for tomato producers. The aim of the work was to use fermentation by a consortium of yeast and lactic acid bacteria to improve the nutritional quality of unripe tomato paste. A consortium of Lactobacillus plantarum, Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Kluyveromyces marxianus was selected, producing an acidic paste with olive-like flavours after 4 days of fermentation. Nutritional characterization revealed a significant improvement (P< 0.05) in the content of ascorbic acid and antioxidant potential. In addition, ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) analysis showed that the fermented green tomato paste content in glycoalkaloid α-tomatine represents no hazard to the consumer. Therefore, the obtained fermented green tomato paste can be further used to produce new food products, such as salad dressings and sauces. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Financial Security of Farmers through Homestead Vegetable Production in Barishal District, Bangladesh

Homestead farming is always ignored though it is a boundless promising area for economic sustainability. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to determine the present status of the homestead vegetable production and also to ascertain the socio-economic condition of the local farmers of the Barishal District. The influence of different types of socio-economic factors on the economic security of the farmers through homestead vegetable production was also investigated through this study. Following proportionate random sampling technique, a total number of 180 farmers were sampled from three villages of Babuganj Upazila of Barishal of Bangladesh and were interviewed through a predesigned questionnaire. The findings of the study revealed that half of farmers were more than 50 years old, of whom 89% were educated either primary to more than SSC level and had an average family annual income of USD 1967.9. The family size of the respondents indicated that 80% of the farmers had small to medium (4-6 members) family size. The findings also indicated that, on an average, the farmers had 1.25 acre of total land and 0.17 acre of homestead vegetable land in which they spent about 3 hours of time in a day to perform homestead vegetable production. Out of all the farmers, 30% of them didn’t receive any training on any agriculture related issues and 30% of them didn’t receive any training on homestead vegetable gardening related issues. The farmers of the study area practiced some technologies in homestead vegetable production, like, balanced fertilizer use, and pheromone trap. The farmers produced different types of vegetables in their homestead areas and among them green papaya, brinjal and tomato were the dominant. The results of the study also revealed that the farmers earned about USD 50 per year from homestead vegetable gardening which helped them to upsurge some sorts of financial safety and improve nutritional status of their families. In addition, out of nine attributes, two attributes, namely, family size and vegetable land ownership had significant influence on the financial security through homestead vegetable gardening.

Low Oxygen Storage Improves Tomato Postharvest Cold Tolerance, Especially for Tomatoes Cultivated with Far-Red LED Light

We investigated the effects of low oxygen storage on chilling injury development, colour development, respiration and H2O2 levels of ‘Merlice’ tomatoes cultivated with and without far red (FR) LED lighting during 20 days of shelf-life. Mature green (MG) and red (R) tomatoes were stored at 2 °C in combination with 0.5, 2.5, 5 and 21 kPa O2 for 15 days (experiment 1). MG tomatoes cultivated under either white LED or white LED light with FR LED light were stored at 2 °C in combination with 1, 5 and 21 O2 kPa for 14 days (experiment 2). Chilled MG and R tomatoes from experiment 1 showed decay, firmness loss and higher weight loss during shelf-life which were reduced under low oxygen conditions. FR during cultivation improved chilling tolerance of MG tomatoes. Fastest colour development and lowest respiration rate during shelf-life were observed for MG fruit cultivated with FR lighting prior to storage at 1 kPa O2/0 kPa CO2. H2O2 levels during the shelf-life were not affected during cold storage. The improved cold tolerance of MG tomatoes cultivated with FR lighting is likely due to lower oxygen uptake that led to both higher lycopene synthesis and less softening.

Preferensi Spodoptera Frugiperda J.E. Smith pada Berbagai Tanaman

Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a pest that boomed in early 2019. The research was conducted descriptively in areas that had never been attacked by S. frugiperda by planting various types of crops such as sweet corn, white corn, hybrid corn, green beans, tomatoes, chilies and sorghum. The results showed that S. frugiperda was very fond of sweet corn, followed by white corn, hybrid corn and sorghum. Green bean, chili and tomato plants were not attacked by S. frugiperda. Pest S. frugiperda began to attack sweet corn plants at 3 weeks after planting with the initial attack in the form of scratches on the leaves and continued to the base / growing point (leaves still curled). Even this pest also attacks the male flowers that have not opened and attacks the sweet corn cobs. S. frugiperda began to attack sweet corn at the age of 20.33 days after planting, on white corn 25.67 days after planting, hybrid corn 25.53 days after planting and sorghum at 28.67 days after planting. In sweet corn, the attack reached the corn cobs, while in white corn and hybrid corn, the attack only showed damage to the leaves, not to the cornflower as well as to sorghum. The percentage of attack on white corn (22.15%) and hybrid corn (18.26%) and on sorghum was only 10.34% less than attack on sweet corn (40.02%).

Exogenous methyl jasmonate regulates sucrose metabolism in tomato during postharvest ripening

Sucrose metabolism is a fundamental process during tomato ripening. Studies have shown the role of the phytohormone methyl jasmonate (MeJA) in tomato fruit ripening. However, the role of MeJA in regulating sucrose metabolism in tomato is still unclear. In this study, mature green cherry tomato fruit were infiltrated with MeJA (0.5 mM) or sterile deionized water (control). The changes in color, firmness, and ethylene production in fruit, the contents of sucrose, glucose and fructose, and the enzymatic activities and the expression levels of key genes associated with sucrose metabolism were determined periodically during a storage period of 16 d. MeJA-treated fruit showed a significant acceleration in ripening, with higher a* value and ethylene production and lower firmness. MeJA treatment enhanced sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) activity, whereas it inhibited acid invertase (AI) and neutral invertase (NI) activities. These changes in enzyme activities together resulted in a significantly higher sucrose content and lower glucose and fructose contents. Furthermore, exogenous MeJA upregulated the gene expression levels of sucrose-phosphate synthase1–4 (SPS1-4) and sucrose-phosphate phosphatase2 (SPP2), which were associated with sucrose biosynthesis, and downregulated those related to sucrose degradation, except for sucrose synthase2 (SUS2) and SUS3. The findings indicated that exogenous MeJA might alter sucrose metabolism during tomato ripening by regulating the enzymatic activities and gene expression levels. This research provides valuable information to elucidate the mechanisms via which MeJA regulates tomato sucrose metabolism.

Evaluating the Single-Shot MultiBox Detector and YOLO Deep Learning Models for the Detection of Tomatoes in a Greenhouse.

The development of robotic solutions for agriculture requires advanced perception capabilities that can work reliably in any crop stage. For example, to automatise the tomato harvesting process in greenhouses, the visual perception system needs to detect the tomato in any life cycle stage (flower to the ripe tomato). The state-of-the-art for visual tomato detection focuses mainly on ripe tomato, which has a distinctive colour from the background. This paper contributes with an annotated visual dataset of green and reddish tomatoes. This kind of dataset is uncommon and not available for research purposes. This will enable further developments in edge artificial intelligence for in situ and in real-time visual tomato detection required for the development of harvesting robots. Considering this dataset, five deep learning models were selected, trained and benchmarked to detect green and reddish tomatoes grown in greenhouses. Considering our robotic platform specifications, only the Single-Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD) and YOLO architectures were considered. The results proved that the system can detect green and reddish tomatoes, even those occluded by leaves. SSD MobileNet v2 had the best performance when compared against SSD Inception v2, SSD ResNet 50, SSD ResNet 101 and YOLOv4 Tiny, reaching an F1-score of %, an mAP of % and an inference time of with the NVIDIA Turing Architecture platform, an NVIDIA Tesla T4, with 12 GB. YOLOv4 Tiny also had impressive results, mainly concerning inferring times of about 5 .

Transcriptome analysis of the effect of modified atmosphere packaging and low temperature on the mature green tomatoes during storage

Transcriptome analysis of the effect of modified atmosphere packaging and low temperature on the mature green tomatoes during storage

Modeling the change in color of mature green tomato during ripening at different storage temperatures based on cumulative ethylene production

Modeling the change in color of mature green tomato during ripening at different storage temperatures based on cumulative ethylene production

α-Tomatine, a novel early-stage autophagy inhibitor, inhibits autophagy to enhance apoptosis via Beclin-1 in Skov3 cells

Targeting the autophagy process is considered to be a promising new strategy for drug treatment of ovarian cancer. α-Tomatine, a steroidal alkaloid extracted, is mainly isolated from leaves, roots and immature green tomatoes. α-Tomatine has biological activities such as anticancer, antioxidative and anti-inflammatory. The study aimed to explore the effects of α-tomatine on proliferation, apoptosis and autophagy and the underlying mechanisms in ovarian cancer Skov3 cells. After treatment with different concentrations of α-tomatine (0, 0.75, 1 and 1.5 μM) in Skov3 cells for 24 h, proliferation was determined by the CCK-8 assay, and apoptosis was detected by flow cytometric analysis. Autophagy in cells was determined by the number of fluorescent spots using confocal fluorescence microscopy after mRFP-GFP-LC3 transfection. The relationship between autophagy and apoptosis was proved by Beclin-1 overexpression. The protein expression levels were tested by western blotting. The results demonstrated that α-tomatine effectively repressed proliferation, exerted a proapoptotic effect and inhibited early-stage autophagy in Skov3 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Additionally, Beclin-1 overexpression significantly suppressed α-tomatine-treated apoptosis in Skov3 cells, indicating that α-tomatine inhibits autophagy to induce apoptosis. We also found α-tomatine inhibited the protein expression levels of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. However, the autophagy inhibition of α-tomatine could be reversed obviously by Beclin-1 overexpression. Taken together, α-tomatine inhibited autophagy through Beclin-1. Our study suggests that α-tomatine, as a novel early-stage autophagy inhibitor, might be a potential drug for further treatment of ovarian cancer by inhibiting proliferation and promoting apoptosis.

Pengaruh Macam dan Konsentrasi Ekstrak Tomat Terhadap Pertumbuhan Anggrek Cattleya Secara In Vitro

The research was aimed to observe the influence of kinds and dosage of tomato extract on growth of orchid Cattleya planlet in the Murashige and Skoog media. The experiment was arranged in a completely random design (2 x 3) + 1 control with three replications. The first factor was maturity of tomato consisted of 2 levels i.e riped and green tomato. The second factor was dosage of tomato extract consisted of 100 gram/liter, 150 gram/liter, 200 gram/liter, and with no tomato extract as control. Result of the research indicated that application of 100 g/liter of ripening tomato extract gave the better growth of Cattleya orchid than the other treatments.

The Whistle Stop Café and Luke’s Diner

This paper compares the Whistle Stop Café in Fanny Flagg’s 1987 novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café to Luke’s Diner in the pilot episode of the TV show Gilmore Girls (2000). I argue that the two cafes are similar in that both offer up a utopian space where women can be themselves, enact their desires and speak their minds without fear of judgement or violence. Through a comparison of the two, I also show the ways in which gendered power dynamics have changed over time: while the Whistle Stop Café provides a refuge from male violence, Luke's Diner functions as a space in which women can exert their own agency through speech, thus keeping the threat of male violence at bay. My analysis shows that the culinary space of the café or diner contains traditionally feminine elements through its association with food and cooking as well as traditionally masculine elements through its presence in the public sphere.