How did you do in your office pool for the Oscars? Well here come the JBA local looks for all those who pay attention to the Oscars for the Overfed! Congrats to all nominees in all categories, but since this is a local blog, I only focused on the local talent.

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According to a note in my inbox, Fugaise, which is three-and-a-half years old, will cease doing business on Saturday, March 14. According to the letter,  “. . . although customer and critic feedback has always been fantastic, the restaurant has recently found it hard to survive financially."

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Ouch! Talk about a bad call. My Top Chef semifinalist pick, Jamie Lauren from San Fran, got bounced last week right after I picked her to go to the finals with Stefan. What I didn’t count on was her taking the gas pipe in the Ripert copycat competition. That was a tough task, but she kind of gave up on the job at hand, or was that just my imagination?

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Cozy Cafe in Cyrus, Minnesota, has closed. I had the chance to spend a day celebrating the fine art of lutefisk at the Cozy Cafe one day and met the mayor, the local pastor, the volunteer fire department, and everyone else in the town (literally) when they all turned out to help me shoot my TV show. So the news made me very sad.

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