Homemade candy corn. Photo: NoshWithMe, Flickr.

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

Why buy bags of Brach's when you can make your own gorgeous Halloween candy?

A chain of Spanish-American restaurants in Brooklyn and Queens offers seafood-loaded and tequila-spiked "Viagra" soup.

A recent study published in the Journal of Neuroscience is the first to show that eating and drinking act as painkillers by way of distraction.

The new "Hell's Kitchen" Nintendo game requires players to chop food and drop it into pots, but surprisingly does not involve swearing and smoking.

Move over Starbucks, Wolfgang Puck is introducing bottled Culinary Iced Coffees made with organic ingredients.

In the latest Todd English news, his former fiancée, Erica Wang, turned herself in to the police today, after he filed assault charges against her.

'Live, Love, Eat! The Best of Wolfgang Puck'
By Wolfgang Puck
Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. -- 2002
Buy it on Amazon

With an accent thicker than anything a knife can penetrate, a bevy of successful restaurants and a line of signature canned soups and frozen pizzas, hearty Austrian celebrity chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck has made quite an impact on modern cooking in the U.S. Having studied cooking in France before becoming executive chef at the esteemed Los Angeles eatery Ma Maison, he's commended for the rise of California cuisine, inspired by refined French cooking techniques and flavors.

WIth a philosophy of "Live, Love, Eat!," chef Puck imparts his passion for fresh and flavorful cuisine in his recipe collection, "Live, Love Eat! The Best of Wolfgang Puck."

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

Mario Batali, sans Doritos. Photo: Bauer-Griffin.

What do chefs eat when they need a palate cleanser after so much fancy restaurant fare? When they take off their aprons, they reach for the same indulgences we do -- perhaps just with an upgrade. Slashfood asked celebrity chefs to share their favorite cravings.

Mario Batali
When orange-clogged chef and television personality Mario Batali isn't reinventing Italian cuisine, he's still got it in the bag -- of Doritos, that is. "I love two things: good gelato and, strangely enough, Doritos and salsa. It has to be Doritos, though. I especially like the lime-flavored ones with chili."

Nigella Lawson
Which foods make domestic goddess Nigella Lawson feel sinful? None! Nigella, who is famous for her intimate, relaxed cooking style says, "I don't have any guilty food pleasures. The only thing one should ever feel guilty about is not taking pleasure."

See what snacks Bobby Flay, Tom Colicchio and other celebrity chefs sneak after the jump.

Wolfgang Puck. Photo: Lisa Romerein.

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck has been sued over his attempt to develop the .food domain in cyberspace.

Minds+Machines, a company that had partnered with the Spago restaurant owner on the project, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Tuesday alleging breach of contract as well as tortious interference and fraud on the part of Puck's wife, Gelila. The suit demands $5 million from the Pucks.

Earlier this year, Wolfgang Puck and Gelila Puck had announced their partnership with the company to develop .food Internet addresses.

"This is a great way for the finest food enterprises to stand out from the crowd on the Internet," Puck said in June. "Owning a .FOOD address is like opening a business on the best street in any city in the world."

Jen Zavala. Photo: Bravo

Neck tattoos are the new fauxhawks.

OK, so if you watched last night's season premiere of "Top Chef," that statement might ring a tad premature considering that that most obvious wearer of throat ink ended up being the first to go home.

But if you're looking to Bravo's increasingly popular cooking competition to discern new and exciting trends in the culinary world, you could do worse than to single out "oddly placed chef tats" as this year's food foam.

Relocating to Vegas has seemingly brought out the bad-to-the-bone personas of the 17 brash, mostly young contestants. Or at least that's what their carefully edited, perfectly timed snotty remarks would have us believe.

There's Jennifer, self-proclaimed "bitch in the kitchen" and queen of the "you got a problem with that?" shrug. As long as her dishes continue to be as seemingly spot-on as the bright prawn ceviche she whipped up for the Quickfire challenge, she suits us just fine.

Designated jerk in the group: "Jersey Mike," who managed to denigrate women, cancer survivors and the entire 40-something population in deeming elimination-immune Robin "one less old lady I have to worry about."

Though some Jewish food mavens may beg to differ, we think few dishes are as associated with the children of Israel as gefilte fish. While not as easy-to-love as blintzes, as versatile as horseradish or as soothing as chicken soup, the ubiquitous balls of ground fish make a fine appetizer for almost any holiday meal.

Gefilte fish, which takes its name from gefüllte, the German word for "stuffed," was traditionally made using finely ground pike or carp mixed with eggs, onion, flour, seasonings and either matzoh meal or challah bread. It was then packed into the skin of a deboned fish, poached with onions and carrots, chilled and sliced. Today gefilte fish is typically formed into patties and served cold. It is often preserved in a jellied fish broth and commonly accompanied by horseradish and a slice of carrot.

While gefilte fish isn't one of the symbolic foods on the Passover Seder Plate, it is a traditional part of the meal in many households. Part of its popularity lies in the cultural significance underlying its preparation: Since one can buy it deboned, it doesn't require work at the table, which means that it can be eaten during the Sabbath when work is forbidden. Another benefit is that fish is parve, so kosher consumers can eat it on the same plate with either meat or dairy foods.

Another reason for the aqueous critter's lingering popularity lies in its economy. Originally developed in Europe's Ashkenazi Jewish community, gefilte fish balls incorporated cereals and fillers to stretch the fish itself. The fish was class-free -- accessible enough for the poorest member of a community, yet glitzy enough for the most wealthy.

Today gefilte fish continues to be a popular and enduring cultural motif. On one end of the spectrum, enterprising chefs like Wolfgang Puck are finding ways to make it more exciting; on the other, a strong market for the traditional ground fish and stuffing survives. Brett Werner, manager of Miami Beach's popular Roasters' n Toasters deli, estimates that his store has sold approximately 200 quarter-pound pieces of the fish for this year's Passover already!

How do you feel about gefilte fish?

Right now, anything organic is hot in the food industry. That's one reason that soup making giant Campbell's Soup Company bought the Wolfgang Puck line of organic soups from Country Gourmet Foods. In addition to purchasing the soup line for an "undisclosed sum," Campbell's Soup had to negotiate a licensing agreement with Wolfgang Puck Worldwide to keep using Puck's image on the soup.

Campbell's Soup may have made forays into the organic or natural market with a few products, but according to Advertising Age the brand is really hoping that the Wolfgang Puck line will add some prestige, not to mention get their foot in the door at Whole Foods.

How do you feel about Campbell's Soup owning the Wolfgang Puck line? Do you think they are unfairly buying their way into the organic market, or is this an acceptable tactic?

Wolfgang Puck Self-Heating Latte cans are currently being pulled from shelves after reports of the cans leaking chemicals into the coffee or exploding, according to a recent story from beverage industry publication BevNET. The BevNET story recounts a blame game between licensees, the can's manufacturers, distributors and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc. The latter apparently requested that the cans be pulled after repeated customer complaints and supposed scrutiny from the FDA. The cans were originally released last spring. Some complaints included reports of a white substance, perhaps the calcium oxide used in the can's heating system, floating in the coffee. A Las Vegas woman also claims she was badly burned by a malfunctioning can that exploded. The cans supposedly heat their contents to 140 degrees. According to BevNET, the company that designed the cans marketed them with the slogan "It does what?"

[Photo: BevNET]

NBC's Celebrity Cooking Showdown premiered last night after weeks of less-than-optimistic reviews. The show, in case you missed it, is Dancing with the Stars meets Iron Chef America. A celebrity, of whom the most famous is Tom Arnold, is paired with a real chef, either Cat Cora, Wolfgang Puck or  Govind Armstrong. The chef must attempt to train the celebrity to cook in a mini "boot camp", after which the celebrity and chef will face off Iron Chef-style against another team. Confused?

Last night's premier episode featured the following teams: Cindy Margolis and Wolfgang Puck, Tony Gonzalez and Cat Cora, Alison Sweeney and Govind Armstrong. When the show began, the celebs came out. Cindy was almost not wearing a shirt, Tony was twice as tall as Cat and Cat's hair was styled professionally, like it never is on Iron Chef America. Alison was wearing a short dress, but seemed to have more culinary prowess than the others based on her cooking-lesson clip.

{spoilers ahead}

Forbes Top 100 Celebrities list includes 3 celebrity chefs this year, Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck and Charlie Palmer, in spots 85, 86 and 100, respectively.

Emeril Lagasse rose in the ranks from spot 90 to 85 this year. The top rated chef on the Food Network is on more than one channel now that he has signed a deal with Crest toothpaste to appear, using one of his signature phrases, "Bam!", in their ads. Emeril made over $9 million dollars this year, but this could increase during 2006, as his line of signature produce is scheduled to hit the shelves.

Wolfgang Puck was ranked number 85 last year, but his pay of over $12 million dollars eases the pain of being bumped out of position by Emeril. Puck is expanding his line of gourmet take-away offerings and "express" restaurants at airports all over the country, which should do well as airlines cut back on inflight meals.

Charlie Palmer does not have a TV show, but he does have 11 restaurants on both coasts and over $4.7 million dollars in the last year for his efforts. Working with only one major investor, this driven but low-key culinary player's roster of restaurants includes the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse, Aureole, Astra, Astra West, Metrazur and Kitchen 82, with a chain of high-end grocery stores in the works. Jean-George Vongerichten held the 100th spot last year.