So the saying goes . . .

Center for Science in the Public Interest has released a new study that continues to shed light on the toxic food environment we all live in, this time continuing the call for nutrition- and ingredient-labeling in restaurants. Apparently, amongst other findings, Ruby Tuesday’s chicken-and-broccoli-penne dish has over 2000 calories (a day’s worth) and contains more fat than a human being should eat in seventeen lifetimes. I’m exaggerating, but not by much. I know that local restaurants all insist the cost of labeling is prohibitive, but enough is enough. It’s time for the government to step in and provide assistance, helping restaurants that gross under a million dollars annually make ends meet and provide their customers with the information they need to make healthy choices. Once again, T-Paw, Amy K., Norm C., and Mayors Coleman and Rybak need to take the lead and make the tough, but smart choice—making our citizenry’s health Job Number One. Minnesota always boasts of its status as a healthy state. Let’s prove it by banning trans fats and making menu nutrition-labeling mandatory.

OK, so here is the Zander Café update. I spoke with Alexander Dixon last Friday, and he is closing for two to three weeks, revamping the restaurant’s interior for the first time since 1998. Look for new floors, walls, ceilings . . . and the copper lights are staying. You’ll see tablecloths for dinner when the restaurant reopens, and chef Michael Hart from Duplex will be returning to Zander’s kitchen. Expect same prices and same great neighborhood vibe.

Check out Dishola for a peek at this week’s celebrity disher’s top ten favorite foods and where to find them, both around the world and closer to home.

Supatra’s Thai Cuisine has lost their lease in Lowertown. The building changed hands about a year ago (John Rupp of W.A. Frost was the previous owner), and according to the folks at the restaurant, “. . . the new owners have a different vision for the space, which would have involved a huge build-out and a purchase of the space on top of it.” They hope to reopen a new Supatra’s around May 1, moving to West Seventh near Randolph Avenue in St. Paul. Last Saturday was their last night of service.

Speaking of W.A. Frost, Russ Klein is opening Mahon (yes, just like the cheese). Look for him to sign a lease in the coming month. Klein tells me Mahon will be on St. Paul’s premier street for dining and retail . . . . Hmmm, smells like Grand Avenue to me—in my mind, one of the smartest places these days for a chef looking to open a small, chic boîte in which to hang his hat.

A loyal reader of the blog writes, “ . . . would it be considered inappropriate to bring a very nice bottle of wine to a restaurant (Chambers) to consume with the meal if that wine is already on the wine list? The wine in question is the 2003 Joseph Phelps Insignia, which I got for around $100 and is on the wine list for $400. No lie. I have never even considered BYOB before and have no clue as to the rules . . . . ”

I say call ahead so you are not disappointed, but these days I am unaware of any restaurant that can afford not to have your business on some level, and that includes the most popular eatery in town. In fact, many restaurants are now posting a nominal charge for BYO bottles, regardless of size, type, or duplication on their own lists.

So in celebration of tonight’s debut of Bizarre Foods, I thought I would give you my favorite grilled zebra recipe—but then I realized no one would ever make it. Here instead is the grooviest and easiest Ma-Po recipe I have ever found, tweaked over the years to make it easy to replicate in your kitchen.

Ma-Po Eggplant in Garlic Sauce
4 or 5 eggplants . . . Nice, firm, fresh Asian ones—Japanese,
     Thai, or Chinese, they all work for this dish. About 3 lb.
18 oz. coarsely ground lean pork shoulder, marinated overnight
     in 1 T. corn starch, 1 T. chili paste, 2 T. rice wine, and 1 T.
     soy sauce
2 T. peanut oil
3 T. minced garlic
2 T. minced fresh ginger
6 T. minced scallions
2 dried Chinese chilies
2 T. dry rice wine
4 T. dark soy
2 T. toban djan . . . Otherwise known as chili bean sauce,
     fermented yellow bean sauce made with chilies and
     salt and sold in jars in Asian markets. Lee Kum Kee
     brand works great!
2 T. sugar
1/3 c. chicken stock
1 T. dark sesame oil

Halve, brush with vegetable oil, and roast the eggplant for 20–30 minutes at 425 degrees. Lay on platter and set aside in a warm place.

Heat a wok over high heat and add the peanut oil. Swirl oil. When smoking, add the garlic, chilies, ginger, toban djan, and scallions.

Toss and add the pork, searing well. Add remaining ingredients and allow the dish to cook until the sauce is thick and reduced around the pork, about 5 minutes.

Pour sauce over the eggplant and serve.

We’ve all heard about people having guts or cojones. According to my dad, if you have either, you can arrive home after a long night out with the guys and, finding your wife awake and holding a broom, have the guts to ask, “Are you still cleaning or are you flying somewhere?” He’s got big ones—I can’t pull that off at my house. Neither can Lenny Russo, whose wife would kill him just like mine would for a retort like that. But he did have the stones to walk away from a big corporate job at Cue, the Restaurantistan of the Bon Appetit Gulag.

Lenny Russo and I spoke for a half hour yesterday. He’s a gentleman, so for the record, he gave all the credit to his staff and regaled me with a great story or two about walking away into the sweet night after completing a one-year deal. Mission accomplished. His wife missed him, he missed Heartland, and his Cue job had become more about managing people than about cooking.

Now he can pick up all the projects that he put on hold when he got the last minute notice that Cue was really going to happen. He’s focusing on books, a TV show, setting up a nonprofit distribution network allowing farmers to help get product into underserved areas, and opening a nonprofit restaurant.

Rumors have swirled recently that the mild-mannered but streetwise Russo smacked some corporate suit on the way out the door. He laughed and said it never happened. Whatever Lenny decides to tackle next will do very well, I am sure.

Now, let’s looks at what Russo isn’t talking about. Bon App is an institutional food-service management company, a giant food monolith whose style and substance is diametrically opposed to Russo’s. This marriage was doomed from the start, but Lenny was smart to take the job. It gave him a monstrous platform from which to preach his message. Bon App got a lot out of Russo as well, garnering national attention for doing a ‘local-fresh-best’ eatery in such a large setting. Look for a dumbed down and less-inspired version of Cue to roll out as of yesterday. I have spoken to a lot of people associated with this project over the last few days—purveyors, former and current employees—and, despite Russo’s staff staying on, the suits want the menu to change, want the philosophy of the purchasing, the plating, and the cooking to change. And change it will. This relationship was a head-scratcher to many of us when it started. Corporation-vs-Artiste pairings always end badly, and while Russo and Bon App will both move on and be successful, the big losers are the Guthrie and you and me. The Guthrie because they now have a restaurant(s) on their hands that is built and set up to be the stage for substance. Now it will be only a pale version of what was and will motivate no one to eat there except out of convenience, erasing any shot they had at garnering extra business from food fans without show tickets. And us because when it was firing on all cylinders, Cue was a good place to grab a meal.

Zander Café is closing for remodeling in March. In light of all the food news of late, any hiccup in the dining forest scares me stiff. Last time my friend had lunch there, he was the only table in the joint.

La Belle Vie is participating in restaurant week, and I previewed some of the food yesterday. The sautéed skate with roasted beets, blood oranges, and black olives is so good it should be classified as a class-five narcotic.

The Town Talk boys are seven to eight weeks away from opening their new project on East Lake St. More on that after I chat with them this weekend.

The irony of today being the official Mardi Gras Day of Pleasure is not lost on anyone living in that city. What a mess . . . but movin’ on . . . .

Blowing one’s own horn is considered bad form in most circles—deservedly so, but last night’s Best of the Best Party 2007 was a GREAT event. I go to way more big events than I would care to admit to. Most are boring, with a dull crowd, serving bad food, and in less-than-thrilling surroundings. This was different, and not only was the BotB a superbly orchestrated and well-run affair, it was also one of the best parties I have been to in a long time. Huge shout out to Natasha and all her peeps for putting on such a great show. It takes a lot of work to make 1,500 people feel sooooooo good.

The food was superb—every restaurant really outdid itself with the goodies they served up, and while I didn’t get a chance to try everything, the Lurcat seared tuna with lemon was insanely good, as was the trio of treats from The Tea House. Eleanor Mondale was a class act in her acceptance of our Comeback of the Year Award, and her dad was positively beside himself with happiness watching her receive her plaque from Brian Anderson. BA was very funny, quite the quipster last night, trading shots with Brian Turner from Cities 97, who was his usual stellar self from the podium. Brian gave as good as he got last night (BT did some funny schtick about Brian’s CV as he introduced him), and seems poised and eager to open BotB 2008 with ten minutes of new solo standup stuff. All the award winners were there except Brenda Langton, whose hubby, Tim, picked up her plaque (she was at a family wedding in Hawaii), and Alex Roberts, who was absent under mysterious circumstances. Doug Flicker was supposed to be honored along with his thirteen compadres, but Auriga closed, and therefore was not really eligible in the strictest sense of the word. He was missed.

Now many of you know this, but I have been on an ice floe for the last two weeks, so excuse me for just now mentioning that Lenny Russo just had his last day at Cue on Monday. Add his name to the list of talented chefs without stoves, although technically he still has one over at Heartland.

Russ Klein spoke with me briefly last night—more on his next venture as soon as I get to schmooze with him over the next few days. He declined to talk on the record about the circumstances surrounding his exit from WA Frost because he is a class act who refuses to throw anyone under the bus—but plenty of other people were happy to chat with me about it, and let me tell you that revenues were up every year for the last five since he took over the kitchen, and that his exit from WAF was not his idea, was not precipitated by any causal event, and seems to be a case of owner-firing-chef-before-chef-left-anyway (Russ was pretty vocal in recent months about opening his own place, a career-limiting move in the eyes of some owners). Both WAF’s owner (John Rupp) and Klein will be just fine, and the only reason this is worth talking about at all is the simple fact that it is ONE MORE notable chef is leaving/moving on/being “moved on”/etc. in an industry where if you have created a good thing you try to keep it going. It’s a shame that Klein and WAF couldn’t work it out. Ditto for Russo who seemed to have the bull by the horns at Cue, but clearly was either not willing to compromise with the corporate suits or was too much trouble for them. Who knows, doesn’t really matter—both Russo and Bon Appétit will be fine. However, if you take the Cue and WAF stories and sift through the wreckage, you find two chefs who have divergent definitions of what success meant than their ownership groups. Both restaurants were riding high, and unlike Levain and Auriga, seemed to be waxing, not waning. The plots thicken. What is it about the restaurant business where two “partners” in the best sense of that word end up tanking million-dollar enterprises because they didn’t settle up issues that partners in smaller companies tend to agree on prior to even selling their first widget. One-, five-, and ten-year plans that all partners can live with are the lifeblood of good business practice. Doesn’t this all seem weird to you???

Jana Shortal on KARE 11 did a nice piece in The Extra last night on the closing of some of our local eateries. None of it was anything that readers and posters on this site don’t know about, but it was nice to see the story on the news. Watching Doug Flicker sell his pots and pans on tape was one of the saddest things I have seen in a long time, but I kept reminding myself that they had a ten-year run. Despite that, and despite Flicker’s sunny attitude, you could tell how hard this all is on him.

Last night was cooking night at the Zimmern household. Sunday evenings are reserved for making a soup, braising a piece of beef, roasting some pork, and cooking off some noodles and vegetables so that during the week we have food we can get from fridge to table in minutes. When our two-year-old says it’s time to eat, it’s time to eat.

Last night we roasted a pork shoulder on a bed of mushrooms and onions, braised an arm roast of grass-fed beef in red wine with carrots and fennel, and whipped up some Yukon Gold potatoes, but what I really was excited about was the ribollita that I made. It’s an ancient recipe that my dad got somewhere and passed on to me years ago. His version does not call for prosciutto. This classic Italian zuppa is the perfect wintertime rib-sticking meal in a bowl. Most people make it for vegetarians, but I say do it my way and use the prosciutto hock, which in most stores is thrown away and can usually be sweet-talked from the counter person for next to nothing. I buy my prosciutto at Italian markets like Broder’s, Buon Giorno, Cossetta’s, or at my neighborhood Byerly’s. And feel free to sprinkle this soup with shaved parmesan at the table!

Ribollita
1 bunch Italian parsley, chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
2 bunches celery, chopped
3 onions, chopped
1 lb. carrots, chopped
2 leeks, chopped
1/2 c. olive oil
1 prosciutto hock or heel weighing 8-9 oz. cut in half
4 c. chopped, imported, canned tomatoes, lightly drained
5 lbs. mixed greens (chard, kale, escarole, etc.), stems removed and chopped
1 lb. dried cannellini or borlotti beans**, cooked
2 medium-sized loaves stale artisanal bread, cubed
3 T. extra virgin olive oil

In a large pot, sauté parsley, garlic, celery, onions, carrots, and leeks in the oil. Add prosciutto and continue cooking until all vegetables are soft. Add tomatoes and cook for 30 minutes. Add the greens and the half the beans along with enough of the bean cooking liquid to cover. Simmer for 30 minutes. Purée the remaining beans in a food processor and add to the soup with enough bean cooking liquid to make the soup liquid-y again. Add the bread and the EVOO. season with salt and pepper, and serve. The soup should be very, very thick! Serves 6-8.

** Soak the beans overnight in water mixed with 2 T. baking soda prior to cooking to soften the skins. Rinse and cook off the beans in lightly boiling chicken broth seasoned with fresh sage, 2 c. diced tomatoes, half a head of garlic, and 1 chopped onion, drained and cooled, reserve the cooking broth.

Food stories don’t just happen in restaurants. Minnesota's Nancy Mauer has made it to the medal round (out of over 1,600 contest entries) for submitting a heritage family recipe to a contest run by chefs.com. I found out yesterday that the final cook-off is taking place this weekend in San Francisco on Feb. 17. Her recipe submission was Crispy-Golden Pork Chops with Caramelized Pan Gravy and Braised Green Onions. From the email I got from the contest’s publicist, I'll share Nancy’s thoughts and a link to the full story.

”My grandparents, who had just come to this country, were struggling to make a life for their family on a farm in rural Minnesota. Through hard work, perseverance, and many shed tears of laughter and pain, they worked hard, never letting a thought about quitting take root in their lives. It was a time in our history when the Great Depression had just swept across our land, seeking whom it could devour, and soon after, Pearl Harbor hurled our great nation into World War II.“ (Read the full story here.)

As darkly cynical as I am, even this tortured prose had me welling up. The only thing missing is the part about the family sharing the recipe with their blind dog who helped rescue shipwrecked stevedores on the Superior shore. But it’s true that recipes are edible flotsam from our own cultural history, and the pork chops sure sound tasty!

****

So some days are better than others. I have been in Alaska shooting for the Travel Channel this last week, and yesterday, I met up with Chris, Merch, and Merlin, three backcountry guides who know every inch of the Skookum ice field, Skookum glacier, and the rest of south-central Alaska's great outdoors. Notice the great outfits, all the guns, even the revolver strapped to the front of Merlin's snow machine! He likes it there in case of running up on a bear or moose when he’s cruising the backcountry. Merch rides with his shotgun on his back, his antique .22 on his lap, and God-knows-what-else in his bag. They took me across the valley floor, and we saw eagles on the edge of the wood. Merch thought they might be looking for food, so he followed an eagle to some ptarmigan, which he then let me shoot for our lunch. We went all the way up the valley, from sea level to the top of the ice fields and to the giant ice cave at the top of the mountain.

I have to tell you that of all the days I have spent in the field, from scampering through the Amazon rainforest with Pilchi indians to strolling on the beaches of Palawan with monitor lizards and cooking with Ferran Adria in Rosas, this was the most thrilling day of my professional life. Taking a snow drift at seventy miles per hour on a mountain sled (fine-tuned and customized by Chris to tackle this amazing terrain), launching into the air with the views that we had, birds cooking on our camp stove, eating ice and drinking water from a three-million-year-old glacier, without anyone around for a gazillion miles . . . well, you get the drift.

See you all at Monday’s Best of the Best Party at the Guthrie!

Sorry for the delay, readers, but communications in small, 200-person Yupik Eskimo villages is tough on a media addict like me. I just found some connectivity back in Aleyeska after blowing out my memory drives by downloading too many pictures. I think I’ve got things figured out . . . on to more important matters . . . .

Alaska is spectacular, and despite being wildly unenthusiastic about coming here in the winter, I can tell you that the winter sports scene here is as good as it gets. I have changed my mind.

* Ice fishing on a frozen river in the Western Villages along the Pacific, trekking out on foot and snowmobile, trapping mink and beaver along the way, eating seal stew and dried salmon.

* Snowmobiling across and through ancient old growth forests to the glacial passes.

* Mushing dogs through 300 inches of snowfall (they've had a big year!).

* Snowshoeing and camping in an igloo.

* Who knew a city kid could love this stuff? But I do.

Quick catch-up on other matters (I'll update you later this week when I have some time to catch up) . . . . Russ Klein is out at WA Frost (more on that on Friday after I talk to him) and Cru's Shea Gallante is coming into town for the big MPR wine dinner on the 23rd. Here is the menu, and you can get tix by emailing MPR here.

Reception

Deviled Quail Eggs with Caviar
Robiola Tartlets with Pine Nuts and Thyme
Cucumber Cups with Smoked Trout Salad
Valentino Brut Zero, Piedmont, Italy

Menu

AMUSE BOUCHE
Tartare of Madai with Black Olive, Capers, and Meyer Lemon

WARM LOBSTER SALAD
Red Kuri Squash, Fingerling Potato, Leeks, and Meux Mustard
Pickled Onion and Herb Vinaigrette
Boxler Riesling Reserve, Alsace, France 2004

TORTELLINI PASTA
Stuffed with Braised Hudson Valley Duck
Sage Emulsion and Aged Pecorino
Bartolo Mascarello Barolo, Piedmont, Italy 1992

WARM GRAIN FED LOIN OF VEAL SOUS VIDE
Glazed Winter Vegetables, Brussels Sprouts, and Albies Gold Potato Puree
Warm Black Truffle-Anchovy Aioli
Faurie St. Joseph Vieilles Vignes, Northern Rhone, France 2001

TART AU CHOCOLATE
Valrhona XOCOPILI Ganach and Prunes Stewed with Red Wine
Vanilla Bean-Almond Croquant Ice Cream
Laverriere Banyuls Grand Cru, Roussillon, France 1993

Has anyone read “Unhappy Meals,” Michael Pollan’s piece in the NYT on January 28th? He is coming to town in a few weeks, and I'll blog more about this next week, but in his article he raises the specter of access—access to healthy food. For me, it is a class issue—it costs more to eat well in America, food stamps pay for more junk than they do fresh vegetables, markets that offer the best fresh foods are absent from inner cities across America, and our preachy food culture misses the point that it takes time and money to cook in 2007. In 100 years, we have flipped around, raising a nation of young people who don't know their way around a kitchen. Forget about the "Food Network Argument" that says, “Look at all the restaurants, and magazines, and TV shows out there—people must be cooking more!” Bull.

The multinational, industrialized food cabal has wiped out home-cooking in one generation. They have successfully brainwashed most folks into believing that cooking from scratch is so hard, takes so much time, is so confusing, and is so spendy that modern-day eaters should eschew it in favor of opening jars and boxes and utilizing instant mixes whenever and wherever. Very sad. And that is why the chefs in our top tier of restaurants are so valuable (amongst other reasons): because they don't believe it has to be that way. So for whatever reasons you think all the dearly departed chefs have flown their respective coops, know this . . . they kept some flames alive that need caretaking, desperately.

Everyone loves chocolate, and like wine and cheese, today chocolate is all about terroir and artisanal crafting. Regardless of what chocolate you like to eat, with these recipes you should experiment with the good stuff. I like Valrhona and Scharffen Berger these days. Happy Valentine's Day!

The Best Brownies
2 c. toasted and cooled pecan halves
1 c. flour
6 T. unsweetened cocoa powder . . . I love Scharffen Berger brand best
1 T. instant espresso
1/2 t. salt
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate . . . Try Scharffen Berger,
    Schokenag, Callebault, or Valrhona
2 sticks unsalted butter, cubed.
5 large eggs
2 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. sour cream
2 t. vanilla extract 

Preheat oven to 400. Butter a 9 x 13 brownie pan, line it with parchment, and butter the parchment. Sift together the dry ingredients. Melt the butter and chocolate in a slow double boiler.

Beat eggs in a standing mixer until light and foamy, slowly add the sugar, increase speed to high and beat for 12–15 minutes. Lower speed to low and add the sour cream and vanilla. Add the chocolate mixture and blend briefly. Add the sifted dry ingredients and mix briefly. Fold in the nuts and pour batter into the pan.

Bake for 16 minutes or so until the edges of the brownies pull away from the pan. Rotate the pan and bake another 10 minutes—the center should be set, but a tester inserted into the center should still come out with a few crumbs attached. Do not overcook!

Cool pan on a baking rack, refrigerate for 4 hours, and turn brownies out onto a cutting board. Cut into small squares and serve at room temperature.

Molten Chocolate Cakes
2 sticks sweet butter, plus some for greasing the molds
8 oz. artisan bittersweet chocolate
4 eggs
4 egg yolks
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. flour, plus some for the molds

Butter and flour 8 four-ounce ramekins or oven-proof molds—be sure all interior surface area is covered. Cakes will stick wherever you miss, so be thorough.

Place chocolate and butter in a slow double boiler and melt to combine.

Whip eggs, egg yolks, and sugar until light and thick. Beat egg mixture into chocolate mixture. Whisk in the flour.

Pour batter into molds and bake in a preheated 450-degree oven for 10–11 minutes or until set. Cakes will have risen an inch or so. Cakes should barely hold together, holding their molten chocolate center.

Unmold and serve with sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Serves 8 as a dessert

Chocolate Mousse
24 oz. chopped bittersweet artisan chocolate
1 T. instant espresso dissolved in 1/4 c. warm water
1/2 c. Grande Marnier
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 c. of heavy cream, whipped with 1/4 c. fine sugar until stiff
10 egg whites, whipped stiff 

Place the chocolate and butter in a double boiler and stir until melted. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the espresso, Grande Marnier, and the egg yolks in a separate bowl.  Fold the egg whites in to the whipped cream, and then fold the chocolate into the cream/egg-white mixture. Stir in the espresso mixture. Combine well.

Divide the mousse into 8 glasses or bowls and refrigerate for at least 8 hours to chill and set. Garnish with whipped cream seasoned with powdered sugar and serve. Serves 8.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. toasted pecan pieces
pinch salt
3/4 t. baking soda
8 T. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. brown sugar
3 T. light corn syrup
1 large egg yolk
2 T. milk
1 T. vanilla extract
3/4 c. Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.

Sift together dry ingredients.

In a standing mixer, use a paddle attachment to combine butter, sugars, and corn syrup at low speed. Add yolk, milk, and vanilla. Mix well and add dry ingredients. Combine on low speed for about 2 minutes. Do not overbeat. Fold in chips and nuts by hand and set batter aside.

Drop 1 T. portions of batter 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 375 until brown and flat. Reserve, when finished, to a cookie rack to cool. They will be crisp. If you desire a little toothy-ness to your cookie, bake a few minutes less.

Chocolate Fondue
A short list of possible dip-ables:
Pound cake chunks
Large, "stem-on" strawberries
Fresh cherries
Fresh orange sections
Pineapple chunks
Bananas
Angel food cake squares
Small cookies
Biscotti
Pretzels
Lady fingers
Dried fruit
Glazed fruit 

The Fondue
1 c. heavy cream
16 oz. high quality bittersweet or milk chocolate, finely chopped 

Heat the cream in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan until very hot, but not boiling. Pull pan from heat and add the chocolate.

Let stand until softened, 3–5 minutes, and whisk gently. Pour into fondue pot and start dipping.

Other ideas:
Roll dipped fruit in shaved coconut, sliced almonds, etc.
Season chocolate with any flavored liqueur or non-alcoholic coffee-bar syrup.

Enough sadness and melancholy, I am back off the ledge!

Why? How?

Well, first off, I fulfilled a lifelong dream and got to make a real Butterburger last week. For those of you who have no idea what that is, I feel sad for you. Culver's Butterburger is one of the world’s most perfect foods, and those of you who know me better than most know I am sort of obsessed with them. Last week I competed in the Culver's Grand Master Finals at the Convention Center, and, thanks to my partner Rita Larson, we won first prize and were able to send $5000 to the Retreat in Wayzata, courtesy of the kind folks at Culvers. Check out the clip of all the action. Even better, second place went to Jason Matheson, my Fox colleague, who gave his dough to Big Brothers/Sisters. Third place went to KARE's Eric Perkins, and fourth place went to Leah McClean from KSTP. Eric and Jason were their usual animated selves, and cooking burgers with my two friends was a blast. We had a lot of fun, and the burgers were outstanding . . . but the real shocker was meeting Leah, who is way funnier, brassier, cuter, sexier, and a thousand times more hip than they let her appear to be on air. All in all, a great day, and I have the pix to prove it.

Even better news for the hopelessly food-addicted is that when the new downtown Minneapolis Westin Hotel opens, it will not have a national chain restaurant as its food service tenant (hooray!), nor will it have a nationally renowned restaurant group operating a concept of theirs here (not a bad thing necessarily—I love Chambers and 20.21). But the former chef from one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago is moving here to take up residence and run the kitchen at the Westin's new restaurant, Bank. His name is Todd Stein, and for the last few years he’s been the exec chef at MK, Michael Kornick's eponymous restaurant in Chicago and FYI one of the best restaurants in the Windy City. When it opened almost a decade ago, MK was considered one of the top eateries in a town filled with great restaurants, and over the years, as other restaurants have opened, it hasn't lost a step. What it has lost is great personnel—a tribute to Michael, who has successfully replaced anyone who has left with more great cooks. Mindy Segal, one of the best pastry chefs in the country, left a few years ago to open her own restaurant, Hot Chocolate, and now Stein is moving here. I have eaten at MK twice a year since it opened, and the idea that Stein is coming here is something to celebrate and says a lot about the positive impact that the new hotel boom will have on our local dining scene.

Stein told me that his focus at Bank will be on Contemporary American Regional cuisine, some of which will have an Asian twist (been there, eaten that, but oh well), and that the food will be very much what he has been cooking at MK (which rocked), but with a softer price structure. The opening of Bank is slated for sometime around the end of April, and a typical dish, Stein tells me, would be a Grilled Kobe Skirt Steak with Grilled Chicory and Italian Salsa Verde, something that Stein was known for and cooked many times at MK. The restaurant will be open breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and will be operated by Westin and Wischermanmn Partners, the people responsible for developing the building.

Mussels are my favorite food, or one of them at least. Here is an easy and flavor-friendly recipe that my pal Don Pintabona used to serve at the Tribeca Grill. I spent a weekend on the beach a few years ago with Don and his family, and he made a huge a bowl of this stuff, perfect for a weekday dinner with a salad and a crusty loaf of bread.

Spicy Mussels with Baby Bok Choy
4 heads baby bok choy
2 T. olive oil
one 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, minced
4 minced garlic cloves
3 shallots, peeled and minced
2 Kaffir lime leaves (available at Asian markets) or 1 t. lime zest
2 stalks fresh lemongrass, trimmed and finely chopped
2 T. Thai red curry paste (available at Asian markets and most supermarkets, try Thai Kitchens brand)
4 c. clam juice
2 c. unsweetened coconut milk
3 lbs. scrubbed and cleaned fresh mussels
1 c. white wine
1 medium diced red pepper
1 medium diced yellow pepper
1/4 c. chopped scallions
1/4 c. chopped basil leaves
mint leaves for garnish
salt and pepper to taste

Quarter, blanch, and set aside the bok choy, divided into your serving bowls. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add ginger, garlic, shallots, lime leaves, lemongrass, and curry paste. Cook, stirring for 3 minutes to raise heat, and add clam juice. Bring to a boil and lower heat, simmering for 10 minutes to reduce by half. Add coconut milk. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes to thicken the mixture. Set aside and keep warm.

Bring mussels and wine to a boil in a large pan over high heat. Cover and cook for 3 minutes until all mussels are open. Add coconut sauce and peppers, scallions, and basil. Season and divide into bowls, on top of the bok choy, garnishing with the mint. Serves 2–4.

With frequent chef perambulations, restaurant closings, and the growing public discontent with restaurant rule-making, it’s no wonder that Ilan beat out Marcel on last night's finale of Bravo’s Top Chef. And it’s not just here in our little corner of Paradise. Did anyone else out there read and re-read Frank Bruni’s cover story on last week’s NYT Wednesday dining section??? Kissing napkin rings is a clever header, but his rapier-sharp wit aside, Bruni’s piece was brilliant. If you haven’t read it, you should do so. It’s hysterical . . . and very accurate. From NYC to LA, the scent of blood is in the water as angry restaurant-goers seem tired of pretense, showy food, rituals, rules, and any other obstacles that lie in the path of an easy and enjoyable eating experience, which is why the most popular new restaurants shun those negative markers with a passion bordering on obsessive compulsivity.

So with restaurants like Town Talk and 112 Eatery garnering all the love these days—and local all-stars like Alex Roberts talking publicly about opening uber-casual eateries—does it make you wonder to what degree the pendulum is swinging toward easy and away from elegant? Five years ago, the mood was different . . . it goes in cycles. I asked Roberts yesterday why he thought that his eatery was still going strong, in light of the fact that most of his peers whose restaurants are usually thought of as being in the same category have closed up shop? Alma is priced right, offers food that is recognizable, eschews tablecloths, and—despite the tasting menus—is a casual enough neighborhood eatery that people still eat at the bar, plunk down at a banquette, and share a few appetizers or wander in at 5:30 with kids in tow. It’s not a challenge to decipher Alma, on any level, even for the casual food addict.

And so last night, with all of this swimming in my head, Rishia and I put Noah to bed, ordered up some pho and spring rolls, and settled-in to catch the final episode of one of the few watchable food-focused reality shows on television—if you consider sticking a bunch of culinary semi-pros and pros into a jeopardy-laden series of contests staged for dramatic effect a “reality show.” Most of these shows jump the shark at some point along the way, but Top Chef is better than most, and the contestants (unlike Hell’s Kitchen) for the most part actually know their way around a kitchen.

I sort of checked-out when the two contestants shopped for their final dinner’s ingredients at a fake farmers market staged for the show’s story arc, but by the time the chefs started cooking, I was back on board. I mean, how many food shows actually have people cooking anymore these days?

The judges included regulars Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi, and Gail Simmons, along with Wylie Dufresne—who looked as uncomfortable as I have ever seen him—a prescient Scott Conant, an overly enthusiastic Roy Yamaguchi, and a poised and elegant Hubert Keller.

Ilan cooks “all Spain all the time,” nothing wrong with that. He loves food and wasn’t trying to educate any diners or show off. If anything, his food was too simple (braised short ribs with Romesco sauce) for a competition like this, according to some judges. To Marcel, everything is an intellectual process. He’s experimental, daring (isomalt teardrops encapsulating a vinaigrette were planned, but not executed), and all his food has a philosophical point of view. After a while you get a headache from this stuff. After Ilan was selected Top Chef, Marcel said “I thought it would take more than saffron and paprika to beat me, but I guess I was wrong . . . .”

It don’t take a weatherman to see which way the wind blows…