Mediavore

It had to happen: A cooking school will teach the fine art of celebrity chefdom. [ ]
Albany is looking to get local and organic produce into low-income neighborhoods. [ ]
A peek inside the supersecret Bite Club.

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The city, seeking to find out just how badly New Yorkers eat prior to implementing its new calorie-info law, is trading MetroCards for meal receipts. [ ]
Akthar Nawab of , Michael Anthony of , and Chris Lee of all talk about the challenges of taking over an established restaurant (getting reviewed too soon, finding the fuse box, etc.).

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s April Bloomfield is being named Food Wine s Best New Chef. [ ]
Bloomberg signs bill establishing safety guidelines for delivery guys but stops short of limiting packets of ketchup. [ ]
Rabbi ordered to stop baking matzo out of his school bus granted reprieve.

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Urban agriculture not limited to NYU kids growing weed in closet; New Yorkers also making wine on rooftops. [ ]
The has allegedly been scamming the city hiding money and giving away meals. [ ]
workers, claiming they are paid only $1.

44 an hour, bring a federal lawsuit against the place. [ ]
Jeffrey Chodorow is back to business, promoting on the Today show. The highlight?

This beef actually lowers your cholesterol. [ ]
Burger King swears off cage eggs and inhumanely treated pork although it will be a while before its suppliers can catch up with the new policy. [ ]
New York molecular-gastronomy alert: Spanish neurologist-scientist-chef Dr.

Miguel Sanchez Romera is scoping out NYC locations must have greenhouse. [ ]
Cafe Fonduta s ordeal with the Department of Health highlights the overall klutziness of the system. [ ]
If the community board s street-events committee has its way, the San Gennaro festival may get the boot from Little Italy.

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Jeremy Piven is now banned from all restaurants for taking a table for twelve in Aspen and then tipping the waiter with an Entourage DVD. [ ]
A morbid look, inspired by the tragedy, at the history of restaurant shootings and their aftermaths. [ ]
According to a revealing new profile by Heat author Bill Buford, Gordon Ramsay isn t a bad guy, but he does get angry, helplessly and uncontrollably angry not an earthly anger but something darker and has trouble knowing how to stop.

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State legislator proposes an A through F system of grading restaurant hygiene, but the Department of Health is against it. [ ]
A Staten Island pizzeria beats out a field of 65 from six countries to win the 23rd International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. It s , right?

? No. It s Goodfella s Brick Oven Pizza.

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Did you know that has closed-circuit cameras watching every plate? That's one of ten dark secrets of the restaurant business [ ]
How good can a pizza delivered to New York from Oregon be? Pretty damn good, apparently.

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s not all that and not just because it s busy, either. [ ]
Shocking health news of the day: Chinese food, at least the kind we eat in New York, is outrageously salty and fatty. [ ]
Meanwhile, Chinese buns are only getting more popular in the city s better restaurants.

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Bret Thorn, Nation s Restaurant News restaurant blogger and a longtime observer of the scene, gives his Beard Award picks. [ ]
Zak Pelaccio and Top Chef s Harold Dieterle open new restaurants. [ ]
And Jeffrey Chodorow s new Malaysian restaurant, for which Pelaccio was consulting chef, opens in London.

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The rat expert who instructed the Department of Health says the city is a rodent s paradise. [ ]
The Department of Health rampage claims its most eminent victim yet: the venerable (formerly known as La Cote Basque). Apparently chef Jean-Jacques Rachou had a few things to say to the inspectors when they arrived.

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According to the owner s father, legend Dom De Marco, may close permanently in the wake of the recent shooting. [ ]
A more palatable way of making foie gras: Let the geese gorge themselves. [ via ]
The Department of Health closes beloved (temporarily!

) because pizza maestro Dom DeMarco wasn't using gloves or wearing a hat. [ ]
And the much more tragic story for the family continues to develop: The shooter saw himself, as so many trigger-happy madmen do, as slow to anger. [ ]
So much food is being imported into America that the FDA can t possibly inspect it all.

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The NYPD releases a surveillance video of the gun battle. It s difficult to make out, but very graphic and not a little disturbing. [ ]
Brace yourselves: McDonald s has decreed that there will be no more Shamrock Shakes in NYC, although they re still widely available elsewhere.

What s up with that? [ ]
The Restaurant Group is enjoying a sudden bidding war for its acquisition, after having already accepted a good offer. [ ]
bartender and two NYPD auxiliary officers shot and killed in Village gun rampage.

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High-end chain restaurants like or are on the rise, as some recent mergers and acquisitions suggest. [ ]
Jo l Robuchon stands behind the counter at this week; Alain Ducasse may not be going to Chicago after all. [ ]
With , , and others, room service has recently gotten a lot more ambitious though not necessarily successful.

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is back in business after its brief and much-publicized closure. [ ]
Once they move into , the brothers behind PM plan to put s Marcus Samuelsson in charge of the kitchen. [ ]
Donald Trump covets the most vulgar thing in New York that doesn t already have his name on it: , which has two years left on its lease.

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A Zeitgeist moment: The East Village s alt.coffee gives up the ghost, remaking itself as a Hopscotch, a caf e tailored to the needs of children and families. [ ]
Candela owners shutting down and reopening as Irving Mill Restaurant and Tap Room in the fall, with alum Johnny Schaeffer doing his Greenmarket thing in the kitchen.

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Apparently, abuse of every kind is rampant in kitchens. Herewith, complaints leveled against , , , , and more. [ ]
Post KFC Taco Bell scandal, New York restaurant closures triple.

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is, like every other Keith McNally venture, a smashing success, and likely to remain so. [ ]
The owner of the abjectly apologizes for its monstrous sign but says that the lease has been signed and that there s no way out of it. Whether this satisfies Keith McNally and other opponents remains to be seen.

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Rachael Ray conquers yet another swath of America, becoming the official spokes-chef for Dunkin Donuts. She will develop a line of dishes for the chain. [ (registration required)]
The FDA allowing factory farm veterinarians to use cattle antibiotics which may lead to resistant microbes and eventually endanger humans.

The Times is not down. [ ]
reopens, none the worse for wear after their brief run-in with the Health Department. [ ]
, the cooperative founded by former Windows on the World workers, continues to struggle with the economic realities of opening and running a Manhattan restaurant.

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fires their $190,000-a-year spokesman for sitting around playing backgammon with models instead of building up the bar s global brand. [ ]
Some restaurant owners want to bring in garbage disposals as a weapon in the war on rats, but the city won t allow it, claiming that the sewer system would be overwhelmed. [ ]
gets a liquor license and some original cocktails to go with it; meanwhile, McDonald s will be giving away free coffee all day tomorrow.

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Ernest Gallo, co-founder with his brother Julio of the much-maligned but enormously successful California winery, dies at 97. [ ]
A Health Department inspector is caught on video snoozing at a bar when he was supposed to be tracking down rats. [ ]
Keith McNally and other meatpacking-district residents are trying to work things out with the and its monstrous sign.

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Kanye West has curry delivered from England. His tab? Almost $4,000, without tip.

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The city s rat-patrol chief vows that the rats will not win. [ ]
In Vogue, Jeffrey Steingarten reveals that New York s top unemployed chef, Paul Liebrandt, is doing a restaurant with Drew Nieporent. Snack asserts it s .

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Amusing slam of Bruni s Robert s Steakhouse review from conservative mainstay National Review. Need we say more? [ ]
City suspends the rookie health inspector that passed KFC Taco Bell, promises to teach its inspectors how to recognize rodent infestation.

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Whole Foods has gotten bigger but not better, losing focus on food quality and its moral mission. [ ]
Here s a pretty detailed retelling of the Chodorow saga, sympathetic to the restaurateur, but also giving the critics their say. Drew Nieporent speaks on behalf of the hapless restaurant owners.

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Top Chef winner Ilan Hall is seen walking in the airport with paired Louis Vuitton bag and belt, white Nikes with pink laces, and a $12,000 Patek Philippe diamond watch. [ ]
Jeffrey Chodorow offers an Ahab-like reward for the first employee who spots Frank Bruni, promising him a Caribbean vacation. [ ]
The social scene at is predictably exclusive: When Keith McNally opens a restaurant, the famous will come.

The fabulous will follow. The walk-ins will wait. [ ]
Paula Deen is confronted with a naked man in a hotel and kindly gives him her newspaper to cover up with.

Not the Food Network star we would have expected this story to be about. [ ]
Rats, big ones, have taken up residence at the KFC-Taco Bell on West 4th Street and Sixth Avenue, and WNBC has the video to prove it. [ ]
A lot of New Yorkers are cooking up a storm for their Oscar parties.

Personally, we think they would do better to heed Rob and Robin s advice, and just order out. [ ]
Bruni has but a few baffled words about Chodogate. [ ]
KFC seeks a papal blessing for its Fish Snacker sandwich.

For real. [ ]
's Eric Ripert apparently has a huge Latin following, and he will be hailed as a hero when he arrives in Miami this weekend for the South Beach Wine Food Festival. [ ]
Zak Pelaccio s new London restaurant (first ) finally opens and issues a press release with a menu.

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In a recent post, we called Michael Ruhlman a mandarin and critiqued his hauteur. Count us wrong on both counts: This response, titled Grub Street Wankers, and the vitriol that follows in the comment section, isn t exactly high-minded. [ ]
The big billboards erected on Hudson Street by the Hotel Gansevoort are so ugly that Keith McNally and s Joel Michel are refusing to take hotel reservations in protest.