There's a unique cooking marathon planned for next weekend as part of Le Grand Fooding, the whimsical French-born culinary festival that's been rolling into town for a few years now. Called "The Exquisite Corpse," the three day event will feature a relay team of local and international chefs cooking in the kitchen for four hour blocks, around the clock, for 52 hours non-stop. It all starts the night of September 23rd at a Chelsea event space designed by artist Thomas Beale, with dinner by lead-off chefs Andrew Carmellini (Locanda Verdi, The Dutch) and Hugue Dufour (M. Wells). more ›

Missy Robbins took over as executive chef at A Voce last September with her style of cooking that's both neatly composed and rustic Italian. In one appetizer, for example, huge rectangular planks of seared trumpet royal mushrooms are gently set on a cloudlike hazelnut fonduta and simply garnished with greens and truffles. It may look like a salad on the plate, but served with a glass of red wine, it eats like a steak dinner. At her last chef gig—Spiaggia in Chicago—Robbins attracted the attention of Barack and Michelle Obama, who were regulars. And in today's New York Times, Frank Bruni does a little hail-to-the-chef thing: “As we all wonder whether our new president has the requisite judgment to steer us away from economic catastrophe,” he writes, “we can take some comfort from this: he has the requisite judgment to appreciate Missy Robbins.” more ›

Diner’s Journal reported yesterday that acclaimed chef Andrew Carmellini has signed on to culinarily rehabilitate Tribeca’s beleaguered and critic-battered Ago. The restaurant was conceived originally as a high profile project for the Greenwich Hotel, and counts Robert De Niro among its investors. Carmellini was previously the chef at Café Boulud and A Voce, and told us last October he was looking for his own restaurant space. “I’m taking my time with it,” he said, “just trying to make good decisions about the location.” In the meantime, Carmellini and wife Gwen Hyman penned a cookbook, Urban Italian, that features intuitive cooking instructions—including a directive to slice garlic “Goodfellas thin,” as per the prison dinner scene in the movie. Now we can eat! more ›

Here's our big bad roundup of all our favorite, New York-centric (or otherwise notable) food books published this year: more ›

The lamb pastrami at the two month-old Smith Street restaurant Char No. 4 is made only in the spirit of regular pastrami, which is usually made with brisket (brisket's usually beef; a chest cut). Chef Matt Greco—who worked for Gray Kunz and Andrew Carmellini—first brines a hunk of lamb shoulder for a week. After that he makes a roulade, coats it with magic Greco spice and smokes it in-house, where it's plated with a tangle of pickled onion and greens, coriander aioli, and rye-caraway toast. From the looks of the photo above, it might be tempting to call the dish some kind of post-modern rift on the gastro-ethno-geographic terrain of old New York, but Greco's attention to his craft yields nothing but clean and bright flavors, and the whole thing is amazingly good. Like, $12 good. more ›

In 1994, Eric Ripert became the executive chef of Le Bernardin after chef-owner Gilbert Le Coze died of a sudden heart attack. The following year, Ripert was only 29 years old when the restaurant was re-reviewed and kept its four-star rating from the New York Times. Le Bernardin has had a total of four four-star New York Times reviews since its New York opening in 1986, and has consistently been awarded a top rating of three Michelin stars since guide inspectors first set up shop here in 2005. more ›

Food world celebrities gathered at the Astor Center last night for a lively discussion on the phenomenon of celebrity chefs. Andrew Carmellini, Gwen Hyman, David Chang, Gail Simmons of Top Chef, and Mitchell Davis of The James Beard Foundation all weighed in on the celebrity craze, which has infiltrated kitchens everywhere like roaches. Only recently, some argued, has the idea of the celebrity chef become a prominent force in American culinary culture. Customers take digital pictures of every entrée, kids trade Iron Chef results like they were baseball statistics, and weirdos in Helsinki post wistful paeans to Tom Colicchio on Top Chef fansites. Some soundbites from last night:

Simmons on the pre-Top Chef world: “When I told my Mom I was going to be on a reality show, I had to convince her that I wasn’t going to be tied to a tree on an island in a bikini, eating maggots.” more ›

Andrew Carmellini was most recently the chef at A Voce, which was awarded three stars by the Times. He left that restaurant in June, and is currently looking at spaces to house his next restaurant project. more ›

Eater’s careful reading of Community Board 2’s upcoming licensing meeting agenda next Tuesday has uncovered that former A Voce chef Andrew Carmellini seems poised to take over the former Tasting Room space, at 264 Elizabeth Street. Chef Colin Alevras closed the much missed Tasting Room restaurant in early June. more ›

In time for next week’s Columbus Day festivities, the Post’s Steve Cuozzo lets his Ital flag fly with two gushing columns on Italian cuisine. He points out that Italian restaurants outnumber all other kinds of restaurants in New York by a big margin (and that’s not because of the ever-metastasizing Olive Gardens.) He cites seven “marvelous” eateries – Del Posto, A Voce, Abbocatto, Insieme, Fiamma, L'Impero and Alto – that “establish Italian as the cuisine to beat.” Nobu can sleep with the fishes. more ›

Got a tidbit for us? Send it to the feedbag. more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Café Boulud, reaffirms its three-star status. Says that under Chef Bertrand Chemel (who replaced Andrew Carmellini after his departure in 2005), the restaurant “promises about as much pleasure in the present as it did in the past.” He likes the traditional section of the menu best, but also loves the pastas. Doesn’t love the desserts, excepting the soufflés. more ›

Maybe it was just the red carpet, but most of the people we spoke to seemed particularly excited about the new digs for the James Beard Foundation Awards, black-tie affair held last night at Avery Fisher Hall to honor some of the country's best chefs, restaurateurs, and culinary professionals. Susan Ungaro, the President of JBF, noted that originally, James Beard had moved to New York to become an opera singer, but had to earn a living until he hit the big time. He started a catering company and the rest, as they say, is history, but she noted that he would have been pretty excited to be up on that stage. more ›

Yesterday morning, the nominees for the 2007 James Beard Foundation Awards were announced at the Beard House on West 12th Street. In additional to New York restaurant stalwarts David Waltuck of Chanterelle, Floyd Cardoz of Tabla, and Terrance Brennan of Picholine (which was rebooted in 2006 to impressive reviews, the nominees also include a bumper crop of young chefs including David Chang for Momofuku Ssam Bar, Daniel Humm for Eleven Madison Park (both for Rising Star Chef of the Year), and cut chemist Will Goldfarb of Room 4 Dessert (for Outstanding Pastry Chef). Three other nominees from San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago round out the Rising Star Chefs category; Goldfarb faces competition from four other nominees in the pastry category, including Michael Laskonis of Le Bernadin. more ›

A Voce is Italian for "word of mouth," and word is certainly spreading about this modern Italian restaurant, opened a few months ago on Madison and 26th Street. Andrew Carmellini, the chef, won numerous accolades in his previous position at Café Boulud, including the James Beard Award for Best New York Chef in 2005. Here he presents basic Italian food elevated by the incorporation of the freshest ingredients available. more ›

- Waterford Wedgwood Outstanding Restauranteur Award: Danny Meyer, Union Square Hospitality Group more ›

Other Nominees: more ›