The Westport Flea Market's Burgermobile. Photo: Emily Farris

Before we all pile into the Burgermobile and head into the weekend, let's ketchup on the events of the past week.

The College of William & Mary spearheaded an effort to approve an asparagus stalk as their school mascot, while our beer blogger set out in search of the Great Lost Bear.

Our Coffee Meister got fresh about frozen beans, some nice Southern brothers threw down with an Iron Chef who'd just been grilled by the President and a pastry paragon fell short in his efforts to entice the wee folks with tofu pizza.

The Hungry Bride contemplated the morning after, our sommelier-in-training got a chilly response to the notion of iced wine, an Arkansas pea champ came out of her shell and we washed it all down with a Grasshopper and a pint of oyster ice cream.

Catch you at the Fancy Food Show!

Ted Lee and Matt Lee Photo: The Lee Bros.

So you think you're out playing hooky from work on the promise of a lovely Southern lunch stewed up by your favorite cookbook authors and then all of a sudden, in strides Bobby Flay.

Yup -- "Throwdown."

Matt Lee and Ted Lee and the rest of the assembled had been lured to a barge on the Hudson River -- Matt's preferred canoeing channel -- on the premise that the brothers would be filming a segment for a Food Network special called "Lowcountry Lowdown." They'd filmed the first half in Charleston, S.C., and reportedly, the duel would have gone down on their home turf, had Chef Flay not fallen prey to the vagaries of air travel.

Read more about throwing down with the Country Captain after the jump.

Politicians are used to getting grilled, but when Bobby Flay dropped by the White House for a private lesson, the tables were turned. The chef schooled President Obama on his corn technique and the importance of not flipping positions on meaty matters.

[via: Politico]

Itching for pictures from the Food & Wine Magazine Classic in Aspen? What's Mario wearing? Did Ilan Hall rock the Pee-Wee Herman tux again? We'll be posting red carpet and candid images throughout the festival, so bookmark, refresh and repeat as needed.

Catch up on real time Twitter coverage here and see photos from last night's red carpet event after the jump.

Couldn't swing a trip to Food & Wine Magazine's Classic in Aspen this year? S'okay -- we've got you covered. Kick back with a glass of bubbly and some schmancy nibbles, bookmark this post and keep on checking back for real-time Twitter coverage from the event. Keep up with pictures from the red carpet and around the festival here.

On-scene Tweeters include:

Food & Wine editors and staffers Dana Cowin @fwscout, Christina Grdovic @grdovic, Kate Krader @kkrader, Gail Simmons @gailsimmons, Ray Isle @islewine, Jee Park @JeeWPark, Lori LeFevre @llefevre and their main feed @fandw

Top Chef alumni Richard Blais @RichardBlais, Stephanie Izard @stephanieizard and Ilan Hall @ilanhall

After the jump, see the live feed from the Food & Wine Classic.

'Craig Claiborne's Southern Cooking'
Craig Claiborne with foreword by John T. Edge and Georgeanna Milam
University of Georgia Press -- 2007 (originally published in 1987 by Clamshell Productions, Ltd.)
Buy it on Amazon

"It is not a question of chauvinism, but I have always averred that Southern cooking is by far the vastest and most varied of all traditional regional cooking in this country," wrote Craig Claiborne in the foreword to this pan-Southern paean to the cuisine of his childhood.

While Claiborne fled the physical South -- and his legendarily smothering mother, Miss Kathleen -- in favor of a stint in the Navy, hotel school in Switzerland and a multi-decade tenure as food editor of the New York Times, his palate remained staunchly attuned to the servant-cooked colloquial fare he'd enjoyed at his mother's boardinghouse.

What we tested and whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

I'm stingy with my smoke.

Not in a "don't bogart that can, man" way. Just that if I'm going to go to all the trouble of stoking a hardwood lump charcoal fire, obsessively monitoring its low-'n-slow-ness for a goodly chunk of the day, feeding its greedy gut with beer-soaked mesquite and hickory chunks at half-hour intervals all for the sake of an albeit fabulous brisket or pork shoulder, I'm gonna want a bit more return on the investment.

Here's where foil pans of salt, cherries and lemons come in.

'Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It - And Other Cooking Projects'
By Karen Solomon
Photography by Jennifer Martine
Ten Speed Press -- 2009
Buy it on Amazon

Recession? Schmecession! No matter the country's economic straits, Karen Solomon's guide to DIY kitchen staples and handmade gourmet gifts is a must for crafters, armchair chemists, budget-conscious chefs, curious kids (and their parents) and anyone who's ever popped open a jar of processed preserves, a tub of watery ricotta or a plastic tube of sausage and thought, "I could do better."

The book is jam-packed with simple, flawless instructions for making marshmallows, bacon, cheese, pickles, lard, smoked fish, ketchup, olives and several dozen other edible treasures, entirely worth the effort and for a fraction of the cost of their store-bought counterparts.

See what we tested and whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

Apologies to anyone dining in a marquee New York restaurant on Wednesday night -- we were hogging all your chefs and a restaurateur or 10 over at the Roseland Ballroom. And no, we won't apologize; it was all for a great cause.

Since 1988, the Share Our Strength organization has drawn together chefs, mixologists, volunteers and food fans in cities around the United States for Taste of the Nation events benefiting local food assistance organizations via funds generated by ticket sales, sponsorships and silent auctions. New York City's 2009 installment featured small-plate fare from more than 50 eateries and chefs, including newly minted James Beard Award winner Dan Barber's Blue Hill, Danny Meyer's entire armada of restaurants and the revitalized Oak Room as well as generously poured tipples from the likes of Audrey Saunders, Tony Abou-Ganim, Jim Meehan and many (many ... so, so, many ... ) more.

After the jump, read more about celeb spotting, volunteer opportunities and the best bite we had all night.

An "American Idol" host may be getting naked in a town near you.

Emmy award-nominated Ryan Seacrest is teaming up with British chef Jamie Oliver to make over the eating habits of America's fattest cities. ABC has ordered six episodes of an unscripted reality series in which Oliver will travel to the unhealthiest places in the United States and work with residents to use local resources to improve their diet.

For Oliver, who rose to prominence as the BBC's "Naked Chef" -- a reference he insists is to the simplicity of his recipes -- this is familiar television fare. In his 2005 four-part documentary series "Jamie's School Dinners," Oliver worked with school administrators and governmental officials to improve the quality of meals served to British students. In 2008, "Jamie's Ministry of Food" broadcast his efforts to teach the residents of Rotherham, South Yorkshire how to cook simple, healthy meals for themselves and pass the recipes on to others.


When Slashfood caught up with Oliver at a live radio appearance last November, he told listeners, "When our kids go to school, they should get a half decent meal. They should learn how to batch cook, make a basic stew and love a salad. The most powerful thing is the basic life skill of taking care of yourself."

Oliver continued, "My job is to make agriculture look entertaining. We live in a time when most people don't know where their food comes from. If you give them credit and let them know they'll shop better. Small nuggets of information can change lives."

Seacrest, whose production company will film the as-yet-untitled series, credits his interest in the subject matter to his self-described chubby childhood. The Hollywood Reporter notes that a strong listener response to an episode of Seacrest's KISS-FM morning show spurred him to action. Said Seacrest, "I'm a firm believer that the fuel we put into our body results in a healthy lifestyle. Jamie's going to come over here, roll up his sleeves and use the resources of each town to help condition living habits to make it a better and healthier place."

While filming locations have not yet been announced, a 2009 report published in Men's Fitness cites the top fattest American cities in order as:

1. Miami
2. Oklahoma City
3. San Antonio
4. Las Vegas
5. New York
6. Houston
7. El Paso, Texas
8. Jacksonville, Fla.
9. Charlotte, N.C.
10. Louisville-Jefferson, Ky.

No apples were harmed in the baking of this pie.

Perhaps at some point in the distant past, it was possible for a person under the age of 50 to whip up a mock apple pie, hold the irony. Now in an age wherein slowstainable locaheirganic produce is de rigueur in many circles (not mine, but then again, I pour cherry soda all over unsuspecting hams and eat brains from a can) it seems almost viciously retrograde to dump lemony simple syrup on top of a pile of mushed-up crackers and pass it off as fruit.

So don't do that. Just enjoy it for its bizarrely satisfying damp cracker heft. Use, I dunno, heirloom leaf lard in the crust or send a tithe to Michael Pollan if you feel you need to, but really, this pie is in no need of apology.

Get the Ritz Mock Apple Pie recipe after the jump.

Whew! We're exhausted post Media Awards and Chefs Night Out Soiree and will be taking a brief nap before live-Twittering the results for Restaurants and Books on Monday evening as @slashfood. In the meantime, congrats to ...

Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants and/or Chefs

Katy McLaughlin
The Wall Street Journal
"Sushi Bullies"


Newspaper Feature Writing Without Recipes

Kristen Hinman
Riverfront Times
"The Pope of Pork"

More James Beard Media Award Winners after the jump.

We'll be live-Twittering tonight's James Beard Media Awards and Monday's Restaurant Awards, so follow along @slashfood. Meanwhile, snack on these links to the nominated articles, recipes, reviews, food sections, sites, blogs and books.

Journalism Awards

For articles published in English in 2008.

Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants And/Or Chefs

Monica Eng, Phil Vettel
Chicago Tribune
"Big Night. Big Mystery: Why Did Michael Carlson Vanish the Day After Serving Dinner to the Greatest Chefs in the World?"

Katy McLaughlin
The Wall Street Journal
"Sushi Bullies"

Tom Sietsema
The Washington Post
"Sound Check"

More links to Journalism, Cookbook and Broadcast nominees after the jump.

"It's the most exciting two minutes in sports!"

We're laying 2:1 odds that some pal of yours has been champing at the bit to trot out that chestnut ever since Big Brown galloped toward destiny last Derby Day. And sure, you hooted, hollered, maybe even donned a big, fancy hat and welled up a little but honestly, did you watch even one other horse race in '08? Chances are, you were there for the mint juleps.

If you are there -- as in Churchill Downs -- for the juleps, you'll be in the hands of of the track's Executive Chef Joseph "Jo-Jo" Doyle, and that ain't a bad place to be at all. The 34-year-old chef isn't a Kentuckian by birth, but tells Slashfood that the cuisine of his Mobile, AL and New Orleans upbringing prepped him for making traditional Bluegrass fare.

Hear more from Chef Doyle and get traditional Kentucky Benedictine and Bourbon Slush recipes after the jump.

Yeah, it's a teensy bit Inside Baseball for the fooderati, but we got a big kick out of seeing our favorite Gourmet staffers (Wuzzap, Terrebonne? Lookin' fresh, Knauer and Houghtaling!) in a cute 'n campy Gourmet.com video sending up Editor-In-Chief Ruth Reichl's '90s tenure as an undercover restaurant critic for the New York Times.

Reichl's penchant for wearing outlandish disguises to protect her dwindling anonymity was the underpinning of her 2005 memoir Garlic and Sapphires, but somehow we doubt even she would have the quenelles to stomp into the Four Seasons' Pool Room wearing quite this much codpiece.

[via: Gourmet.com]