Some seem to think that restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow's grudge against NY Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni runs deeper than just one bad review. Chodorow has, after all, said that he feels his restaurants have always gotten the short stick from the reviewer. A recent piece on Page Six of the NY Post seems to confirm this, as Chodorow has just announce that Bruni is banned from all of his 29 restaurants.

For those of you wondering how the Chodorow plans to ban someone whose looks are supposed to be a secret, just know that restaurant staffs make it their business to unmask restaurant critics whenever possible, many kitchens will have a wall of critics and other notable people to keep an eye out for. Chodorow's employees have an extra reason to look for Bruni because Jeffrey has offered a free trip for two to the Caribbean to the first person to recognize him. As insurance to make sure he is seen, Chodorow plans to post a photo of Bruni on his personal blog sometime soon.

It seems that this month there was a first for the Does My Blog Look Good in This? food blogger photography competition: a tie! This round was hosted by Katherine, from Toast Point, and after getting a look at the entries, it is easy to see why judging was so difficult. Every photo looked like a winner. The photo above is a Matcha Opera Cake from Anita, at Dessert First, with its lovely layers of green tea genoise, chocolate ganache, and green tea buttercream. It tied with the Roasted Tomato, Red Onion and Arugula Tart from Bea at La Tartine Gourmande. In addition to the top two, there were winners in several additional categories. Becks and Posh had the "most original" entry with her photo of "Alien Tomato, Pregnant with Strawberry" and Peabody's Texas Big Hair Tarts captured everyone's fancy as the "most edible." Last but not least was the "most aesthetically pleasing" photo of financiers from From Our Kitchen.

David Lebovitz thinks that Chocolate Covered Marshmallows are a difficult food to photograph and I have to agree with him, having spent a good deal of time photographing marshmallows myself. Those little pillows of sugar have a softness and lightness to them that is hard to capture on film, although that ethereal quality is not exactly what he was referring to when he expressed that opinion. He was referring to the fact that he couldn't stop eating them once he started. I don't blame him one bit, judging from this shot that he managed to snap before they were all gone.

His marshmallows are from Pierre Marcolini in Paris, but if last year was any indication, the closer we get to the holiday shopping season, the easier it will be to find chocolate covered marshmallows at chocolatiers and specialty shops in your area.

I don't normally get my food news from men's mags, but it's not that often that they include chefs amidst the models, either.

Cat Cora is one of the Food Network's Iron Chefs, a latecomer to that show after its first season started to add a bit of gender equality. A talented chef from the South, the 39-year-old specializes in Greek and Mediterranean foods, though she's not above throwing some old fashioned soul food into the mix. She's also not above doing a little grocery shopping at the convenience store, where she picked up some ingredients for FHM's Mini Mart Iron Chef article

With only a few ingredients, she whipped up Jerky Tartar, Ham and Cheese Roulade and Napoleon Krispy Kremes. As much fun as it would be to see Krispy Kremes as the secret ingredient on Iron Chef, none of these recipes would have gotten her a win, so don't expect to be too inspired by the food in the piece and just check it out if you want to check out Cat.

[via The Food Section]

Maki at i was just really very hungry posted a great guide on how to take food photos in restaurants and other public places. A prolific blogger and writer, she has extensive experience and, judging from her photos, is good at what she does. Now, with some practice (and a good camera), getting quality photos at home isn't too difficult because you have the control over the lighting and there is not time pressure because there isn't anyone at the next table peeking over to see what you're doing.

Restaurants can be challenging places to shoot if they're dark, quiet or crowded, and because they are places of business, it is important to be unobtrusive. Maki uses three different cameras, ranging from a professional model to a camera phone for taking her photos. While she prefers to use the pro camera, there are situations were the other two are simply more appropriate, such as trying to be discrete with a camera in a restaurant. Beyond camera selection, here are a few of her tips for taking good food photos away from home:

The difference between a sticky bun, cinnamon bun and cinnamon roll has always been a bit confusing. So far as I can tell, a sticky bun has a gooey topping (or bottom) that is baked in the pan right along with the buns. One thing I know for sure is that sticky buns are not treats for everyday eating, loaded with butter and sugar. Jennifer, the very innovative Domestic Goddess, made up a batch of these gorgeous buns that are light enough to enjoy without forcing yourself into the gym later to compensate. Her banana sticky buns are rich with banana flavoring and, while they still have a bit of butter (primarily in the filling and the topping), they also have a bit of whole wheat flour in the dough and use egg whites instead of whole eggs. It's still not health food, but since they're sure to put a smile on your face, who could say that they're not good for you? The recipe can be found here.

Tyler and Amanda love to eat and love to share their interest in all things edible through their blog, What We're Eating. As it turns out, they eat a lot of good stuff and take some really outstanding photos of all of it. They also present their posts in a very unusual (for a food blog) dialogue format that is a lot of fun to read. This is a picture of some Pork Tamales that they had down in Rosarito, Mexico. They declared the tamales to be the best they'd ever had - and judging by the picture, I don't doubt it. Of course, both Tyler and Amanda prefer other Mexican foods to tamales, so the tamales only got a 4.1/5 star rating. At least it wasn't the tamale's fault.

Adding potato to bread doughs gives them a moist, but very light texture. Potatoes are on the bland side, though, so Gemma, the Part Time Pro-Bono Baker decided to add a little more flavor to her potato biscuits by adding cheddar cheese and topping them with poppy seeds for a bit of crunch. They take mere minutes to put together, and even though the potato needs to be cooked in advance, boiling one potato doesn't take much time. When I bake things that call for adding potato to the dough, I will often just use reconstituted potato flakes, which you can buy at the store. They turn out the same consistency in the finished product - and these biscuits are a finished product I wouldn't mind seeing on my table.

Every foodie who likes to take a good picture needs to invest in one of these bottle-top tripods. The way it works is simple: there is a tripod attachment on the top of a bottle cap. The cap fits onto any bottles with a 28.5 - 30.5-mm diameter. Using a tripod will virtually eliminate shaking and blurs in your food photographs and allow you to focus on your angle, plating and presentation. Of course, it is also a great way to set-up other types of photos, like a group shot at a family barbecue, for example. If you do try it, make sure to send us your food porn pics! Price: $19.99.

We've seen strangely shaped watermelons and monster watermelons, but we have yet to see watermelon carving of the magnitude found in this online gallery. The horse and cyclist, shown above, are two of my favorites, though the skiier and Taj Mahal are very impressive. Watermelons are natural canvases for food art due to their large size and thick but easily carved rind. The fact that they are colorful is an added bonus. With a sharp knife and a steady hand, it does not seem like it would be that difficult to carve a basic pattern into a watermelon - after all, thousands of children carve into pumpkins every year, and watermelon carving does not require you to gut the fruit before starting.

Is your repertoire of desserts not colorful enough? Longing for something to dazzle your eyes as much as - or perhaps more than - your taste buds? Take a peek at this blue cake found on Flickr. Those multi-colored bits that resemble pebbles are, in fact, pebbles. They are Fruity Pebbles, to be exact, and are a sorely under-utilized component in making brightly colored cakes. Note that there appear to be pebbles inside the cake as well as on top, which means that there may very well be a bit of crunch to each slice. The secret ingredient to turn the cake such a lovely teal shade is none other than 100% natural Smurf. Just kidding. It's only food coloring. We don't advocate the senseless slaughter of defenseless Smurfs here at Slashfood - not even to color cakes.

Oh, and by the way, Happy April Fool's Day!

If there is one thing that will sell a cookbook it is high quality, full-color photographs of the food. Good cookbooks will sell regardless, especially as word of mouth spreads, but if you flip open a brand new cookbook in the bookstore and your mouth begins to water, chances are excellent that you will be walking out with that book in hand. Unfortunately, while a picture may be worth a thousand words, it doesn’t necessarily indicate a good recipe. Some dishes will photograph well, but are lacking the flavor to make them great. This is a disappointing thing to discover about a new cookbook or recipe, but it will happen, even in great cookbooks. The more perplexing problem is when the photo of the food is unappetizing. The dish may taste fantastic, but the very sight of the finished dish is unappetizing. Creamed chipped beef and chilis are good examples of things that don’t photograph particularly well. The best way for a publisher or a cookbook author to avoid this sort of negative attention is to leave out the photo. A few choice words about how wonderful the recipe is will sell it – even without an illustration.

The photo shown here is of a recipe for S’mores Ice Cream on Cooking.com. While the dessert is simple and probably tastes good, this is a bad photo. Though I believe it is actually the large storage bowl for the ice cream, it resembles a bowl of chunky-looking chocolate soup and it is unappetizing. Scoop some out, put it in a cone – people, including myself, will be far more likely to make it.

Nika's Culinaria is a gorgeous blog dedicated to culinary photography. She experiments with zoom, light, focus and, of course, delectable goodies. Since there are so many sweets around this time of year, the savory but oh-so-sweet looking Basil, Lime, Brie and Puff Pastry appetizers really caught my eye. I love the layering, the coloring and the way she managed to capture the flakiness of the puff pastry. I'm not biased in any way because I own the same plate that she used to stage the photo. No recipe is needed to recreate these simple, savory snacks, but I can still only imagine the delicious blend of the flavors until I have an opportunity to try these out at my next party.