You can't help but really like Ellie Matthews. Ten years ago, she won the Pillsbury Bake-Off with her Salsa Couscous Chicken recipe, a blend of salsa and the flavors of Morocco.

Now she's written a book about her experiences: "The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir."

NPR's Steve Inskeep recently chatted with Matthews. Turns out, she's an unbelievably down-to-earth, sweet woman with a self-deprecating streak that you can't help but appreciate. Throughout the interview, she insists that she's not anyone special, that she "doesn't claim to be a better cook than anyone else." Typically, Matthews says, she will "buy ingredients that look good, wrestle them into a pan, and serve a meal."

"I'm not a fussy cook," Matthews said. "I don't put four different kinds of sea salt into something, or 18 different kinds of vinegar" (it could be assumed that the book title partially refers to the fact that her final recipe for the contest wasn't garnished or artfully arranged, but she won anyway).

What's more, she didn't even really seem all that impressed with the prize money. She simply enjoys cooking, and was a little disappointed when she won because she knew it would disqualify her from participating in the contest again.

As for what she did with the money? She admitted, "I'd like to think my life is just more than just what I buy on a whim or how I indulge myself," and then said that if she was, say, at a plant nursery, she could maybe splurge on a new plant for her garden.

Again: how can you not like this woman?

These and other equally pressing questions were answered recently when Cookie Monster (and Cheryl Henson, Muppet creator Jim Hensen's daughter) were interviewed for NPR as part of the station's "In Character" series. Henson revealed that Cookie Monster's large black mouth is actually a hole in the puppet costume, where most of the food is deposited (directly on top of the puppeteer's head). The rest is mashed into crumbs and flies around his head during his frenzied eating.

Cookie was asked several questions similar to the format adapted by Inside the Actors' Studio host James Lipton. We've summarized them here for you, using actual quotes from Cookie himself, to reveal just a little bit more about what goes on inside that big furry blue head of his.

Favorite word: COOKIE! Ahahaha....What did you expect?
Least favorite word: "OUT OF COOKIES! Does that count? Okay...how about pusillanimous?"
What sound/noise do you love: "Anumumumum!" (the noise that he makes as he's devouring cookies)
What sound/noise do you hate: Snoring.
Favorite curse word: "Well, me have favorite dirty word: Oscar the Grouch! That is one dirty word."
Who would you like to see on a new bank note? "Bert. Me think he'd look really nice there, just the shape of Bert's head would fit nicely in the center of the bill."
What profession would you least like to try? Ophthalmology
If you were reincarnated as another animal, what would you like it to be? A Snuffulupagus.
If heaven exists, what you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? "COWABUNGA!"

A couple of weeks ago, I headed over to DiBruno Bros. to buy some fresh ricotta. I was making a cheesy egg casserole for a Saturday brunch and like to use ricotta to give it some heft and body. It was a Friday afternoon when I headed over and the line at the cheese counter was several people deep as people were shopping for the evening and weekend. The cheesemongers were working with people, helping them determine what cheeses would work best for them and giving them lots of opportunities to taste the cheeses before they purchased. I stood there, patiently waiting my turn, watching as one woman looked for just the right cheese to take with her to a dinner party.

The guy helping her saw me watching as she tasted cheeses and the next time he offered her a sample, held one out for me to try as well. As luck would have it, the sample he offered me was of Twig Farm Wheel. It's soft cheese with a pungent rind that has a powerfully delicious taste. I liked it so much that I kept thinking about it after over the weekend and on Monday headed back to the cheese counter for my own small wedge (which I stretched out over the course of two meals, so as to better relish it).

Fast forward to this afternoon, when I came across an audio interview done by the folks at Cheese by Hand with the cheese makers at Twig Farm. It makes the cheese seem all the more delicious, knowing the background behind Twig Farm and the time and energy they put into crafting quality cheeses. If you like knowing where your food comes from, this interview will appeal to you.

I'm not the most regular reader of Chow, so it took me some time to notice that they have been interviewing all of the contestants from this season of Top Chef as they get eliminated from the competition. So far, they have spoken to Chef Tom, who chats about the previous season's cast and Suyai, who was eliminated in the first episode; Otto, who was eliminated after an infamous lychee incident; Emily, whose food didn't wow the firemen in episode three; Marissa and Josie who were eliminated after their trio of palate cleansers failed to impress; and Carlos, the contestant who left after the most recent episode.

It is definitely interesting to hear the perspectives of the different competitors and to hear what their experiences were like. Some seem like genuinely nice people, while others seem to have a bit of resentment over the way their time on the show went. Type-A personalities working in cramped quarters in record-breaking Los Angeles heat is a recipe for conflict, to say the least. It is also interesting to get another perspective on the chefs and their personalities without Bravo's editing and to see if you still think that the judges made the right decisions.

We've been waiting for some time now for Fast Food Nation, the theatrical version of Eric Schlosser's popular book from about 5 years ago, to hit theaters. Fortunately, we don't have to wait much longer as the release date is November 17th.

The Washington Post has an interview with Schlosser and director Richard Linklate, who co-wrote the loosely adapted and fictionalized screenplay with Schlosser. Instead of only taking questions from an interviewer, however, they opened the floor to some curious readers from around the country so that they could ask their own questions about what went into making the film and what issues Schlosser has had to deal with since writing the original book. For example, one wants to know how many lawyers they needed to "cover-their-ass," while another wants to know if Schlosser has seen any big changes since the first publication of the book.

The interview doesn't offer as much food for thought as the book, but it's still enough to whet the appetitie for the movie's premier.

I had almost forgotten about an old New Yorker profile of David Karp, Fruit Detective, until Bad Things posted a link to it along with a new Karp article on heirloom strawberries. As his title suggests, Karp is an investigator of fruits, a scout for specialty stores and a writer. By all accounts, he's very passionate, some would say crazed, about finding and tasting rare or outstanding fruit specimens. The strawberry piece finds him following a horticulturist around fields outside of Miami in search of new crossbreeds of prized musk strawberries. The photo of Karp comes from a short Smithsonian interview, wherein he explains the pith helmet, among other things.

Today Salon.com features a decent interview with Anthony Bourdain. Some of it is fairly amusing--most accounts of eating marginally butchered warthog generally are. Still, some might find other parts of it a little tired, as many of the questions seem geared toward coaxing forth the extreme views that Bourdain is known for. Not that I didn't enjoy hearing him call Rachael Ray a "bobble-head."

I guess maybe I'd just rather watch or read about him out doing his thing, eating "squeezle" in Vietnam, than talking trash. Still, he has is eloquent moments, talking about the best and worst meals of his life, and how women had to forge a path into high-end restaurant kitchens. All in all, it's an entertaining interview. For even more Bourdain, Megnut has short piece about his 50th birthday party, written by Michael Ruhlman.

NPR's Melissa Block recently spoke with noted nutritionist Marion Nestle about grocery shopping, food advertisements and healthy eating, all of which are the subjects of Nestle's new book What to Eat. Nestle talks about how grocery stores lure shoppers through their aisles and how food manufacturer's advertising "crosses an ethical line" by marketing products to children. Nestle calls for restrictions of television advertising and, if possible, the elimination of cartoons on food packaging. In an additional clip, she goes on to talk about the trend toward organic offerings by large supermarkets and the move to weaken organic standards.

Nick Lindauer over at the Hot Sauce Blog recently posted a link to an interview with Belizean hot sauce maker Marie Sharp. Sharp was the original creator of Melinda's line, and she discusses, in detail, how she lost the name to her U.S. distributor. Sharp describes the origins of her hot sauce line, from growing peppers for local friends to eventually finding her products on the shelves of Wal-Mart. The interview was originally published in Belize Magazine, so many of the questions pertain to Sharp's relationship with her country-local fruit, animals and history. It's an interesting read for you hot sauce buffs.

Salon.com currently features an interview with Ryan Nerz, author of Eat This Book: A Year of Gorging and Glory on the Competitive Eating Circuit. The book chronicles Nerz's experiences and observations from having emceed several eating contests over the course of a year. What's even better is that there's another book out on the subject, entitled Horseman of the Esophagus. Incidentally, both have hot dogs on their covers. In the Salon interview, Nerz talks about some of the more hotly contested subjects in the world of competitive eating, namely the "belt of fat" theory, which tries to explain why thin people have better luck in eating competitions than larger folks.

Salon.com recently featured a an interview with food politics writer and frequent NYT Magazine contributor Michael Pollan. The discussion focused mainly on Pollan's new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. Like Pollan's The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore's Dilemma appears to take a few core examples—in this case, four American meals—and discuss them in great detail. Pollan breaks down the the economic and political components of meals from McDonald's and Whole Foods, as well as  organic farms and foraged materials. In the Salon interview, he outlines some of his views on big agriculture and big organic farming, misleading labeling at stores like Whole Foods, and shifting hardwired cravings for fast food. 

In an interview with Pop Candy this week, Paula revealed a few secrets about her life as a celebrity chef, now that she is the most watched personality on the Food Network. For example, with two restaurants to run in addition to her busy TV, book-writing, magazine-editing schedule, she and her family rarely eat at home, preferring to eat at one of her restaurants. She says she spends approximately $100,000 on food for both restaurants, one of which seats over 300 diners at a time. That is not stopping her from cooking Christmas dinner, though. Her table will be spread with a standing rib roast, green bean bundles, shrimp-stuffed twice-baked potatoes, salad and “everything that goes along with [those]”. The best meal she ate this year was not one of her own, but a romantic dinner with her husband in Paris’ George V at the Four Seasons.  Paula also has a new line of cookware in the works for 2006, along with a new biographical book.