"TedLee" news and stories

Not sure which new cookbooks are worth investing in this year? Take the guesswork out of your decision and follow along with food52's Tournament of Cookbooks. The competition -- run by this new home-cooking Web site's founders (former New York Times food editor Amanda Hesser and food writer Merrill Stubbs) -- pits 16 of this year's best books against each other, to be cooked from and judged by 17 venerable chefs and food writers.

Tournament rounds will play out over the course of 4 weeks, with a decision announced every weekday beginning Wednesday. For the first challenge in the bracket, "My New Orleans," by John Besh was bested by "Real Cajun," by Donald Link, as judged by Daniel Patteron. The winning book will take home the first Piglet trophy and be feted at the Astor Center in New York City on Nov. 9, 2009.

After the jump, see list of the cookbooks and judges in play. ...

There are seasoned restaurateurs and there are talented cookbook auteurs. The twain aren't always possessed of the same skill set -- no one was expecting James Beard to jump on the line when the saucier called in sick at Chart House, nor was Julia going to be summoned to expedite at her favored Santa Barbara haunt, La Super Rica Taqueria -- but food fetishists can dare to dream. Think of it as culinary fantasy football, mulling over the cookbooks we'd like to see writ real and sit-down-in-able.

I posed the notion of a pop-up restaurant to Matt Lee and Ted Lee., co-authors of my all-time most beloved (and stained) cookbook, the James Beard Award winning "The Lee Bros. Southern Cooking," and the upcoming "Simple Fresh Southern" and they shared their menu wish list and locale in the video above. (By the way, the first guy is Ted. People get that mixed up all the time.)

Which non-restaurant chef's cookbook would you like to see turned into an eatery, even for just a single meal? Let us know in the comments below.

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.

Whenever I  visit my boyfriend's parents in South Carolina, I 'm amazed by Southerners' allegiance to the Memphis-based grocery store, Piggly Wiggly. Known simply as "The Pig" by all (as in "We're out of milk and onions. Looks like I need to go to the Pig!"), Piggly Wiggly's status in the South cannot be overstated.

I mean, when you see adults wearing a tee-shirt that reads "I'm Big on the Pig," you know that it's more than just low prices and convenient parking that's bringing them in.

Leave it to the New York Times Magazine's food writers Matt and Ted Lee to bring us Piggly Wiggly -- no matter where we live -- via Boiled Peanuts, their Southern food products site.

• Magnets are 5 for $7.25.
• "I'm Big on the Pig" t-shirts are $19.50.
• "I'm Big on the Pig" bumper stickers are $2.

Free Memphis street cred with every purchase!