The Rake Magazine

By the way, that's not me, that's my Tummy-Double.

Yes, I read cookbooks from cover to cover, like a novel. Truly, I snuggle down into the couch with a big glass of wine and read them, skimming the recipes while conjuring events and parties that might support my new creations.

Now that June is upon us, I can justify purchasing a large quantity of books: It's my summer reading/entertaining stockpile. Clearly I'll be too busy poolside with my Pimm's Cup to make it to the bookstore before people just start showing up and demanding food. So I hunt and gather.

It helps that the New York Times Sunday Book Review last week was their food issue. Tra la la!

I've pretty much read this one already while standing in Barnes & Noble. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats is magnetic. With pictures of global families surrounded by the food they eat, it draws you in and hooks your stomach to someone else's half-way around the world.

I've also paged through The New American Cooking. I love how it shows the beautiful diversity of our culinary landscape.

I am so excited to read The Omnivore's Dilemma. I truly think one of the most vexing questions in the universe is "What should we have for dinner?" This looks to be an insightful and interesting discussion of what we eat and why we eat it.

The Nasty Bits by Bourdain promises to be good. I like his writing more often than his television, but appreciate the raw attitude always.

The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen. Filling out his chef-trilogy (Making of a Chef, Soul of a Chef) Ruhlman always manages to nail the fish to the table.

I Love Crab Cakes! because I love Tom Douglas!

I met this firecracker of a Japanese woman this past winter and now I can't wait to swim through her book, Harumi's Japanese Cooking.

I can't take my eyes off it, I'm a complete rubber-necker for the world of competitive eating. So is Ryan Nerz as displayed with Eat This Book (not the Tyler "tough-chef-walking" Florence book).

A History of the World in 6 Glasses. Because everyone needs a signature drink, dahling.

The Brewmasters Table is on my list because sometimes there's nothing that will cure a summer day like a Trappist Ale. But what to eat? Some may bemoan the lack of recipes, but I'm keen on taking his food/beer pairings and creating my own dishes.

It's all about the Potato Salad.

This is sort of an anti-pasto potato salad.

This one is herby and light.

This one, made with french fries, won a Food Network contest.

Martha's All American version.

Ach du lieber, wir essen Kartoffelsalat. Sehr gut, ja?

Well, Tiffani lost. Harold has been named Top Chef.

He's going back to New York to open his own restaurant and I'm sure he will have investors and press knocking down his door. He'll probably be successful, as long as he has a smart someone running his front-of-house.

But did he deserve the win?

In the final round, he took the safe route. His dishes were good, but they didn't seem to WOW the guests while they were eating them. In fact they seemed to react to them more fondly during the panel discussion than they did during the actual tasting.

Tiffani took a bold route. She put out twice the preparations saddled with a hungover/drunk crew. In any normal situation, Dave and Stephen would have been sent home or fired. Her dishes were good and interesting. In contrast, people seemed to really like her food during the tasting, then during panel gave it a "meh".

The choice had already been made. I knew that the show had chosen to villify Tiffani and make her out to be a baddie. I knew that meant that she was in danger of losing so that the show could "punish" her and let the popular kid win.

I'm just surprised that the panel took the safe route and didn't see risk-taking and perseverance through serious adversity as more winsome qualities than average consistency. If Colicchio were competeing instead of judging, which route do you think he would have taken? If it were Keller vs. Colicchio, do you think either would have taken the safe route? They would have attempted to dazzle, and if they were as young as Tiffani, they might also have fallen short on some dishes. But that wouldn't change who they are.

Shouldn't the title of Top Chef speak more to whom they will become in the industry rather than how they failed or succeeded on a taste profile in one or two dishes? In Project Runway they always speak about the winner as the "next big designer". The judges of Top Chef, it seems, were more concerned with their own abilities to judge food than they were about identifying a potentially serious player in the industry.

I know Tiffani will land on her feet, and I know in the end she will be more successful than jealous Leeann, untalented Miguel, or the fool Dave (who, with all his on camera eye-rolling antics, will probably never be welcomed in a serious professional kitchen).

I'm sure there will be another season. But if they choose to champion palatable mediocrity over spicy determination, I might as well make myself a mayonnaise sandwich and watch American Idol.

Scenes from the melee that was the Trader Joe's opening in St. Louis Park.

Seriously, it was packed. Anyone with a cart was nearly lynched.

Everything is sold under the Trader Joe's label.

The cheese selection was good but not phenomenal. And I want phenomenal cheese forever more.

Yay, gazpacho!

A nice deal on frozen fish, a nice selection.

The guy in yellow is wearing a Wedge Co-op tee-shirt. Traitor.

Joey Chestnut, they muttered beneath their breath, Joey Chestnut could be the one.

It may be too soon to talk about it, we may be jinxing the best chance we've had in a long time, but the world of competitive eating is a-buzz with Joey Chestnut.

Last Thursday, in the Las Vegas qualifier for the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, Mr. Chestnut set a new American record by eating 50 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. "This is the greatest thing to happen in the history of American sports. Joey Chestnut's accomplishment may change the course of a nation" said Richard Shea, President of the International Federation of Competitive Eaters.

Since 1916, Nathan's Famous has conducted their vaunted hot dog eating contest on Coney Island. For the last four years the title has been held by one Takeru Kobayashi, a slight 144lb. Japanese man who packs away HDBs (hot dogs and buns) like Tic-Tacs. His 2005 title came on the heels of a record 49 HDBs in 12 minutes. Thought by some to be the Greatest Eater in History, Kobayashi and his feats of degustation over the past couple of years have helped to catapult competitive eating into the mainstream. The Nathan's competition is like the World Series of competitive eating, sanctioned by the IFOCE and given air-time on ESPN.

And while watching diminutive Asian people (the 100lb. Korean-born Sonya Thomas came in second last year with 42 HDBs and is widely considered to be one of the toughest eaters alive) snarf hot dogs is entertaining, you can't help but think that overeating is clearly an American stong-point, why can't we hold the coveted Mustard Yellow International Belt?

Enter Joey Chestnut, 22-year-old civil engineering student from California. A striking 6'6" tall and weighing in at 230lb., Mr. Chestnut seems to fit the conventional ideal of a competitive eater. He slipped into the buzz last year when, as a veritable nobody, he won the Stockton Fried Asparagus Eating Contest. When it came time for Nathan's, he shocked the veterans by coming in third. He looks hungry, and unlike Kobayashi, we aren't left to wonder where it all goes.

As of Thursday, the gauntlet has been thrown. Will 2006 play out the classic American Cinderella story? Will the phenom Mr. Chestnut take the title in the name of his brother, a National Guardsman fighting in Iraq? Or will it be a Kobayashi Maru: an imcomprehensible use of will power and esophagial skill to topple a mighty foe?

The Nathan's circuit has officially begun, the next qualifying competition in Philly on Memorial Day. After that eaters in Tempe, Norfolk, New Jersey and Atlanta will have a shot at winning a place on Coney Island for The Fourth.

We will be watching, Mr. Chestnut, oh yes we will.