Food

Here's a good party game for a 50th birthday party: Compare bald spots. But there's a twist. Last week Jose Gutierrez was surprised by about 15 of his closest friends at Café Society to celebrate his upcoming birthday. The food kept coming and the wine flowed freely. As guests made toasts -- and roasts -- to Gutierrez, Stan Gibson walked around the table with a digital camera snapping pictures of backs of heads. Full story »

Q: What makes a recipe your own? Cooking contests usually require that the recipe must be yours, but there is always a chance that what you think is "your" recipe has been published somewhere. Does changing one ingredient in a published recipe make it "yours"? Full story »

Get some great suds, food and music during the 13th annual Art on Tap on the south lawn of The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, 4339 Park, from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. The star of the show is the beer tasting, which will include 150 beers -- microbrews, imports and domestic. Full story »

It seems sad to cut into the gorgeous, shiny, deep purple skin of an eggplant just to make a meal. And perhaps that's why some people buy them but never cook them, as if they were mere decoration, like those fancy, frilly leafed cabbages you see in bank landscaping and house magazines. Full story »

MILAN -- She wore a moose apron and purple Chanel glasses. She talked lovingly to the veal roast and admitted to inflicting suffering upon the Carnaroli rice for the sake of a good risotto. And quite frankly, with further revelations of a no-perfume, no-husband, no-wine drinking, no-idle chatting policy in her kitchen, she hardly seemed a gatekeeper of civility. Full story »

Before all the homegrown tomatoes are gone, we'd better answer Charlie Mae Dandridge's request for a salsa recipe. Full story »

Konrad Spitzbart, executive pastry chef at The Peabody, is the focus of this week's Chef's Special. His favorite meals are the ones he remembers from growing up in Austria. "Every time I go back to Austria I put in an order of things my mom cooks, like lung stew, dumplings, fried liver, and brains with scrambled eggs." Full story »

The members of the Southern Foodways Alliance are hardly high-falutin' folks -- at least not the 150 or so who filled the Powerhouse in Oxford, Miss., Friday night to attend Potlikker Oxford, the SFA's fourth Potlikker Film Festival. Full story »

Forget a chicken for every pot -- a major right of every American is a potato salad for every cookout. Full story »

I can't believe Labor Day is upon us. Has anyone else been so busy this summer that they didn't even have time to stop and enjoy it? Full story »

Last week we mentioned how Paula Deen's cheese biscuit recipe had evolved over the years, adding salt to taste, then a more precise measurement for the salt. Many recipes improve over the years, but some need no improvement. Full story »

Here's what's coming up Full story »

Jason Severs, chef at Bari Ristorante e Enoteca, is the focus of this week's Q&A. Among his best dishes: "A semolina-crusted whole black bass with fresh tomatoes, onions, parsley, red wine vinegar and chile peppers, that when I can get it in, we sell out before the night is through." The worst dish he has ever made? Let's just say that it was a hot item that day. Full story »

To Amy Hobbs Harris, a dozen jars of strawberry preserves are worth $391 -- the amount she estimates she'll save in a year by canning the fruit herself. Full story »

It started with leftover corn on the cob. We'd been part of a pot-luck cookout and I'd made it the way I always do. Full story »