One person's haul from Food Fête. Photo: craigemorsels/Flickr

If New York City's annual Fancy Food Show is a hurricane of food-related items, occupying three vast floors of the sprawling Javits Center, then the tiny, cramped Food Fête is its spin-off tornado.

Hosted in a smaller space and likewise designed to get food writers and editors interested in new and interesting culinary products, the Fête was an interesting and slightly chaotic affair. High-end eats were hawked right up alongside lower-end food, from a very tasty slice of grass-fed steak to a Kikkoman "umami" demonstration in which we were subjected to a taste-off between a regular chocolate and one containing soy sauce -- a rather palate-numbing experience, that.

Former Top Cheffer Stephanie Izard was there with Lucini, the spicy olive oil she endorses, which she had drizzled on a very tasty panzanella. She told us she hadn't had a chance to roam the halls yet. But we had, and our faves are after the jump.

Couldn't swing a trip to Food & Wine Magazine's Classic in Aspen this year? S'okay -- we've got you covered. Kick back with a glass of bubbly and some schmancy nibbles, bookmark this post and keep on checking back for real-time Twitter coverage from the event. Keep up with pictures from the red carpet and around the festival here.

On-scene Tweeters include:

Food & Wine editors and staffers Dana Cowin @fwscout, Christina Grdovic @grdovic, Kate Krader @kkrader, Gail Simmons @gailsimmons, Ray Isle @islewine, Jee Park @JeeWPark, Lori LeFevre @llefevre and their main feed @fandw

Top Chef alumni Richard Blais @RichardBlais, Stephanie Izard @stephanieizard and Ilan Hall @ilanhall

After the jump, see the live feed from the Food & Wine Classic.

Wylie Dusfresne at wd-50. Photo: Sara Bonisteel.

Now this is more like it. If the paragon of haute cuisine civility that is "Top Chef Masters" isn't going to provide the kind of back-stabbing, dish-sabotaging enfant terrible tantrums its more proletarian cousin offers, the least they can do is give us some righteously fiery, four-letter angst. And who better to unleash a torrent of obscenities than Wylie Dufresne?

Proving yet again that this particular season might as well be named "Top Chef: Comeuppance," this latest installment saw the "don't call me a molecular gastronomist" proprietor of wd-50 -- as well as Citizen Cake's Elizabeth Falkner -- graded by the same Season 2 hopefuls who were once subject to their withering critiques as "Top Chef" judges.

Dufresne's food may have been Vulcan-like in its futurist logic -- eggs poached in an immersion circulator, oozing toothpaste-consistency yolks; squares of crispy-skinned chicken breast -- but his mouth on Wednesday was closer to William Shatner on a bender.

By Alexis Korman

Is lamb replacing bacon as the go-to fetish object for meat lovers? Recipes for the succulent spring meat have recently popped up on Seriously Good, Bitten and Market Manila, but lamb is also making an appearance on the competitive cook-off circuit.

This weekend, lamb was the star of New York City's Taste of Tribeca food festival, featured in an "Iron Chef"-style showdown between two well-known toques, "Top Chef" Season Five alum Leah Cohen (remembered not just for her cooking skills, but also for her scandalous make-out session with winner Hosea Rosenberg) and Austrian wunderkind Kurt Gutenbrunner of New Yorks Wallsé.

Read more about the heated competition after the jump.

Every spring, ostrich eggs appear at Whole Foods, where they nestle in beds of straw alongside the more diminutive and mundane quail and duck eggs. Glimpsing one is a little like watching that video of a pig suckling some tiger cubs: a novel and slightly surreal display of the animal kingdom's quirkier side.

Most shoppers pause to look at them quizzically, perhaps remembering the "Top Chef" contestant whose doom was sealed by an ostrich egg quiche. Others pick them up, marveling at their weight (about 3 pounds) and size. Very few people actually seem to buy them -- aside from the "What on earth do I do with this thing?" factor, there's the additional deterrent of the price tag: each egg, which is the equivalent of about 18-24 chicken eggs, costs $39.99. That's is a lot to pay for breakfast, even if it will feed 10 of your closest friends. But according to one Whole Foods manager, the eggs are oddly popular, particularly among those cooking for office parties. Apparently hummus and carrot sticks just aren't what they used to be.

Though their size may be intimidating, ostrich eggs are surprisingly easy to cook. Their shell is literally their biggest barrier, and that can be easily breached with the help of a hammer. Once you're in, you're pretty much free to do as you please. The watery consistency of the yolk and albumen lends itself to easy blending, and combined with a couple tablespoons of olive oil, some good cheese and whatever other fillings you prefer (the one here employed one bunch of kale, chopped up and sautéed in olive oil, and half a pound of Zingerman's Cheshire), the egg is perfect for scrambling. Its texture is lighter and fluffier than that of a chicken egg, and it has a milder, faintly sweeter taste that's incredibly delicious. It's little wonder that places like The Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, which sells the eggs for $15 apiece, are trying to increase their popularity. With a little bit of PR savvy, these beauties could be the next breakfast of champions -- or at least the toast of office parties nationwide.

• What's the perfect-sized crawfish? One writer ponders the question as the little buggers scurry into peak season.
  
• "Mixologist:" Trendy name to roll your eyes at, or a movement to return to the wonderful basics of bartending?
• One would think farmers' markets were all about featuring straight-from-the-farm foods. But these days they're also rife with events, including a couple with certain Top Chefs.
• Hopper's Wines & Spirits prepares for a big Burgundy tasting: Wines from all the villages in the Cote d'Or.
• Antoines, a 169-year-old French Quarter restaurant, has a new addition, The Hermes Bar.
• Dietician Molly Kimball offers a list of ways to make pizza a less hip-widening food experience, including thinner crust, extra sauce and more veggies.

There's a point where harmless entertainment crosses a fine, delicate line into inanity. This exchange -- apparently from the Facebook pages of Top Chef's Stefan and Fabio -- shows them blithely skipping across that line, hand in hand.

Attempting to parse the tiff (purportedly sparked by Stefan's belief that Fabio is appropriating friends from his profile) is like staring into a bottomless abyss populated by stuffed animals and typos. Stefan calls Fabio a "Double sidet sword" and "prince of sandwiches and ice cream." Fabio parries, "You don't like me any more, puppy? I think you're getting old."

Light-hearted, free-association banter follows. Winky faces are involved. A few excruciating lines later, they make up, with Fabio vowing to be "Top Facebook."

Somewhere grass grows, paint peels and we are all irrevocably 45 seconds older. Check it out; tell us if we're overreacting.

[Via Eater LA]

What do upscale eats, Bravo and "Doogie Howser, M.D." have in common?

"Top Chef Masters", obviously. The spinoff of beloved show "Top Chef" will chronicle even more chef-on-chef trials -- now among seasoned, nationally known cooks -- and feature an incredible (and slightly bizarre) range of visiting judges.

We already knew about former New York Magazine critic Gael Greene (who looks pert and dare-we-say smurfy in her red cap) and sparkly eyed host Kelly Choi, but "guest stars and judges" including Neil Patrick Harris, Zooey Deschanel and the guys who write "Lost"? Oh, "Top Chef," always keeping us guessing.

Toques include the wizardly, Alsatian-born Hubert Keller of California's Fleur de Lys, New York's Anita Lo (Anissa) and ubiquitous South-of-the-Border specialist Rick Bayless.

Never fear: Padma, Tom and Gail will all be making cameos. As per Patrick Harris, who knew he was a culinary expert?

Patient: "You're a kid."
Doogie Howser, M.D.: "True, but I'm also a genius."

We'll be the judge of that, Doogie. Click to see the 24 contestants and read their glorious bios.

Stephanie Izard and Lee Anne Wong at Best New Chefs 2009

Reminding y'all to follow @slashfood on Twitter tonight for breaking news and menu notes from tonight's Food & Wine Best New Chefs 2009 soiree. Chefs on deck for the night's grub include Former BNC winners Momofuku's David Chang, Scarpetta's Scott Conant and Anthos' Michael Psilakis as well as Top Chef champs Harold Dieterle and Stephanie Izard.

Tweets are anticipated to get a tad less carefully spell-checked as the night progresses and cocktails are, um, sampled. Forgive us.

Follow Slashfood on Twitter

UPDATE: The Winners

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.

• The growing trend of culinary kids is encountering a wee bit of backlash.
  
• Do you rip recipes out of your magazines or save the whole issue if there's something you like?
• The combination of turkey, manchego and pear butter sounds like a inspired sandwich with a nice sweet/savory attitude.
• Food Network's Sandra Lee is getting another show on the channel. In this one, she'll be focusing on affordable edibles.
• Skittles turns their homepage over to a feed of Twitter comments about the brand and the media goes crazy.
• Hosea wins Top Chef and refuses to apologize for his victory.
• Looking for a few good appetizer recipes? Here are five that go great with wine.

Well, Top Chef Season Five has come to an end, although the conclusion feels far from satisfying to me. Watching the episode last night, I was practically screaming at Carla, begging her not to surrender to Casey's influence (why on earth would she sous vide something when it was so obviously not her cooking style?). Scott and I picked our winners (he was betting on Carla, whereas, despite my love for Ms. Hootie Hoo, I figured that Stefan was going to be victorious) before we turned on the TV and were flabbergasted when neither one of our chef'testants ended up pulling out a win.

Reaction to the winner has been vociferous across the internet. The comment thread over at Skillet Doux is nearing 100 and if you search for Hosea, Carla or Stefan on Twitter, there are pages and pages of tweets related to the episode. Reading Michael Y. Park's analysis over at the Epi-Log, one thing stood out for me and that's his recommendation that the Top Chef producers change the way the winner is selected. He says,

Because the winner of the final challenge is crowned winner of the entire season, the show has devolved into the contestants trying not to screw up rather than be great chefs.

What do you think about Park's comment? Do you think that it's wrong to pick the winner based upon that single meal? And how are you feeling about Hosea's win (and Carla's tragic abdication of her authority)? What about Stefan? Should he have been the winner?

Are you ready for the final episode of Top Chef, Season Five? Ready or not, it's coming tonight and Carla, Hosea and Stephan are the final three chef'testants. The challenge they're being given is to cook the best three course tasting menu that they've ever made and serve it to a table of 12 (judges and guests). There will be twists (one of the preview clips hints at an alligator) and we don't know who will be assisting as sous chefs for the finalists (there was much gasping when the chef'testants saw them, but the producers carefully kept their identities hidden).

Who's your pick to win tonight? Do you think that that Stephan will take the day or will Carla, with her crafty ways, steal his thunder. What about Hosea? Does he have a chance?

Just this week, Bravo announced the host and judges for the new series that's a Top Chef spin-off - Top Chef Masters. The host will be food journalist Kelly Choi and the judges will include restaurant critic Gael Greene (pictured on the right), culinary expert James Oseland, and food critic Jay Rayner. Unlike Top Chef, the show will feature 24 chefs that have already made it big.

These world-renowned chefs will compete against each other in a series of weekly challenges, and only one chef will win a prize for the charity of their choice. Their food will not only be tasted and evaluated by the judges, but also by a wide range of tasters for whom the challenge is aimed. This can include patrons at a five-star restaurant or a room full of hungry kids.

As exciting as it is to see Gael Greene, NYC food critic institution, star as one of the judges, I'm dying to know which chefs will be competing on the show. Entertainment Weekly predicts that the series will probably cast chefs, like Anthony Bourdain, who have guest-judged on Top Chef in the past. Who are some chefs that you'd like to see compete?