Denmark is debating whether top-level cooking counts as art, and the country’s most theatrical restaurants sit at the center of it. The culture ministry is exploring formal recognition for gastronomy. Some chefs say food can carry ideas, emotion, and social messages, like modern performance art. They also say art status could unlock public funding and private grants. But others say food has a different purpose which must be consumed. Art voices say chefs could start competing for the same cultural money.

It might still be winter in Minnesota, but spring is in the air for people lined up at the Dairy Queen in Moorhead, Minnesota, for its annual opening. The event is a community tradition, no matter what the weather. The Dairy Queen “heritage store” has operated for 77 years and offers treats found almost nowhere else. People bundled up in coats, hats and gloves in freezing cold to line up Sunday for ice cream treats. March is very much a winter month in the upper Midwest, and the first day of the month can often bring subzero cold or heavy snow. But at the Moorhead Dairy Queen, it seemed like a bit of a summer day — almost.