"TopChefMasters" news and stories

Good news: Top Chef Masters is up for a third season, says Eater. Even better news? Celebrity chef and KitchenDaily contributer Curtis Stone will be hosting. (Sorry, Kelly Choi.) And he's also on the roster to judge contestants on NBC's upcoming America's Next Great Restaurant, which is set to premier in March. Non-food-obessed folks might recognize Curtis for his long run on Celebrity Apprentice 3, but longtime fans will remember his early days on TLC's Take Home Chef, where he found wandering home-cooks in grocery aisles to go home with in order to revamp thier special meals (along with an engagement or two).

But here at AOL, we know him as the guy who teaches us simple, down-to-earth cooking in a KitchenDaily video series aptly called Cooking with Curtis Stone. His Austrailian upbringing and classic London training (under legend Marco Pierre White) have lent us many a satisfying dish. Find demos for making homemade waffles, white chocolate Macademia nut cookies, and plenty of meat -- braised short ribs with honey-roasted carrots, turkey bolognese, and a standing rib roast all sound great for anyone else braving a snowdrift right now.

Watch Curtis Stone's videos from KitchenDaily after the jump ...

After winning "Wedding Wars" on the previous episode of Top Chef Masters, Chef Jody Adams wasn't able to keep that momentum going into this week's "Exotic Surf & Turf" challenge. As the owner and brains behind Cambridge, Massachusetts's Rialto Restaurant, Adams has made her mark on the culinary worlds by fusing New England ingredients into traditional Italian cooking. Slashfood spoke with Adams about working with exotic ingredients on Top Chef, Susur Lee's advantages and where she'll finally learn to cook goat.

Did you attend the viewing party at Rialto last night?
I did. I was surrounded by friends and families and customers and a lot of love.

Did they boo?
There was a little booing, I have to say. It was like "huh! You're kidding, not our Jody!"

More with Jody Adams after the jump.

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

Serve up fright-night bites, like Vampire Nut Mix, for a last-minute fete.

Once that Jack O' Lantern has served its purpose, turn it into Chicken Pumpkin Stew.

Remember Nestle's Chunky? A slideshow of vintage candy will refresh your memory.

Vote bottoms up or thumbs down on Halloween spirits, including eyeball highball and bloody brain shooters.

Dip into football with shrimp and potato chips.

Do you think "Top Chef" has overcooked itself with the renewal of "Top Chef Masters"?

Anthony Bourdain enters Toon Town with the animated Web series, "Anthony Bourdain's Alternate Universe".

A few of the best stories spied elsewhere on the Web this week:

Bravo announces that "Top Chef Masters'" will be renewed for a second season, this time with the addition of Food & Wine's Gail Simmons to the judges' table.

Chicago pizza lover Craig Scharoff takes a bet to eat only sausage pizza for one month and, with a little over a week left, Scharoff has actually lost a few pounds, owing to the fact that he no longer eats his kids' leftovers.

We know you'll be lining up for the Heston Blumenthal-endorsed SousVide Supreme, the first to market sous vide machine for the ambitious home cook who can't live without the tender texture and flavor the cooking method yields.

In surprising and annoying study news, researchers found that in addition to red wine, prolonged contact with white wine erodes tooth enamel -- making teeth more sensitive to cold, hot and sweet food, as well as staining. Even more surprising is that brushing teeth after drinking white wine worsens the damage.

The new edition of classic cooking tome "Larousse Gastronomique" arrives in stores with a thud, weighing in at eight pounds and 1,206 pages, with updates from avant-garde chefs such as Ferran Adria and Thomas Keller along with recipes for traditional French dishes like crepes suzettes.

Photo: Frazer Harrison, Getty Images

A "Top Chef" host has a little something in the oven -- and it's not a Quickfire dish.

Reps for Padma Lakshmi confirmed to Usmagazine.com that the former model, burger spokeswoman and Emmy winner is pregnant with her first child after a multi-year struggle with endometriosis.

The 39-year-old co-founded the Endometriosis Foundation of America earlier this year in an attempt to raise awareness about the condition in which uterine lining accumulates in other parts of the body, sometimes leading to chronic pain and infertility.

Lakshmi's three-year marriage to novelist Salman Rushdie ended in divorce in 2007 and the identity of the father has not been publicly revealed.