• It's summer, and that means it's time for a good old-fashioned Nantucket clambake.
• Wolfgang Puck on the 25th anniversary of Spago.
• What is White Tea Liqueur?
• Are vegetarians eating more meat these days?
• What's your food personality?
• Here are the best new California chardonnays.
• This month's recipes: Tarragon Lemonade, Goat Cheese-Garlic Toasts, Grilled Shrimp Summer Rolls, Potato Pancakes with Smoked Salmon, Caviar, and Dill Cream, Easy Chicken Fajitas, and Espresso-Chocolate Semifreddo.

For over ten years now, Wolfgang Puck has been serving the stars at the Governor's Ball - also known as the official "after party" for the Academy Awards, where all the nominees congregate to look glamorous, talk to the press and eat dinner. Not all of the secrets of the Oscar ceremony itself, like what the stage is going to look like, are revealed ahead of time and the menu for the Ball was clearly a bit hush-hush to start. Fortunately, little by little, information leaked out.

The Ball is not going to be a sit-down affair, but an elegant/casual cocktail-type of party, an the overriding theme this year will be "Oscar goes organic." The food, in addition to being organic and/or humanely raised will be small or bite-sized, and will include favorites (and Puck standbys) like sushi, grilled Kobe beef, Spicy Tuna Tartare in a Sesame Miso Cone, Smoked Salmon Oscars with French Farm-Raised Osetra Caviar and Roasted Pumpkin Squash Ravioli with White Truffles. And, of course, there will be plenty of champagne and chocolate Oscar statuettes to go around.

I was first introduced to Chinese Chicken Salad when I moved to LA after college. I don't remember which one was first, but I thought California Chicken Cafe, Feast from the East, and Chin Chin were absolutely brilliant with their renditions of this salad that has absolutely no roots Chinese cuisine. I am going to guess that it should be attributed to the Asian Fusion cuisine of Wolfgang Puck at his restaurant Chinois on Main some time in the early '80s, but I could be wrong.

There are lots of variations of the salad, and pretty much as long as it has chicken and some other ingredient that suggests "Asian," it can be called Chinese Chicken Salad. The base is usually shredded iceberg lettuce and/or Napa cabbage, and then includes but is not limited to: julienned carrots, scallions, either almonds or cashews, snow pea pods, mandarin oranges, and fried noodles or wonton strips. I have even seen recipes that use instant ramen noodles. The dressing is invariably some version of a sesame ginger vinaigrette.

Here are eight Chinese Chicken Salad recipes from around the food blogosphere to inspire you:

1. Passionate Nonchalance makes a dressing using peanut butter
2. My Sister's Kitchen is one that uses ramen noodles
3. The Survival Gourmet fixes one up at the request of his wife
4. Nosh Thoughts steers clear of the can and uses real oranges
5. The Scent of Green Bananas adds the scent of cilantro
6. Elise's Simply Recipes has two recipes: one from Martha and a second one
7. Kady is Gourmetish, making up the salad but using a great bottled dressing
8. 'Ono Kine Grindz makes Chinese Chicken Salad to use his slivered scallions

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}

The James Beard Foundation has just announced their nominees for the 2006 James Beard Foundation Awards. The awards are the most prestigious in the industry and honor the top culinary professionals in every category, from journalists to cookbooks to chefs. There are 62 awards in all this year. Nominees include:

Best General Cookbooks

• Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks by Linda Carucci; The Cook's Book by Jill Norman; The Instant Cook by Donna Hay

Internet writing on Restaurant, Food, Beverage or Nutrition

• "Reserve Wines Score, by at What Price?"; "Down with Gloves: Why Chefs Shouldn't Have to Wear Them"; "Star Wars: Did Michelin Lower the Bar for New York?"

Best Internet Website for Food

• AliceFeiring.com; Epicurious.com; LeitesCulinaria.com

Wolfgang Puck has been the chef in charge of coordinating the menu at the official post-Academy Awards dinner for over ten years. Every year he tempts the taste buds of Hollywood's elite and never fails to impress. The dinner is served to more than 1600 guests, and coordinating the staffing necessary to serve that number of people simultaneously  - hundreds of personnel in the dining room and kitchen - almost requires more skill than putting together an award-winning menu.

The menu will feature chicken and black truffle risotto, smoked salmon pizzas and, of course, gold dusted chocolate Oscars made from Valrhona chocolate in custom molds. Other foods will be shaped as Oscars to bring fun and a unifying theme to the evening, like Oscar crackers as appetizers and pastry Oscars with the main course. Pastry chef Sherry Yard has created an "Asian-inspired Zen fantasy" dessert, in a black and white chocolate opera cake enhanced with coconut filling, a pineapple sour cream ice cream cone and a sprinkle of pineapple and passion fruit.

[Photo from Sky.com]

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.