Rocca Gets a Rave; Posto is Practically Perfect

• Devra First gives Rocca a glowing three star review, noting that chef Tiffani Faison has been hampered by her stint on Top Chef: "Enough. From here on out, Faison will not be known as “Tiffani from ‘Top Chef.’ ’’ She should just be known as the killer cook she is. After stints at the likes of Straight Wharf in Nantucket and o ya, she has created at Rocca one of those incredibly beguiling menus that make you want to eat everything on it. Her flavors are bold, unusual, and strikingly combined. There’s nothing crazy — this is just real food, influenced by modern Italy — but there’s also nothing you’re going to see on other menus around town." [Globe]

• Mat Schaffer crowns Somerville's Posto with a very positive B+: "Pizzerias don’t come any better than Posto in Davis Square, Somerville." [Herald]

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Meet the Contestants on Top Chef: Just Desserts

Photo: Scott Schafer/Bravo

Top Chef: Just Desserts premieres on Bravo on September 15, 2010 at 11 p.m. Expect guest appearances from chocolatier Jacques Torres, Le Bernardin pastry chef Michael Laiskonis, Sherry Yard of Spago, and others. We've got a list of the cheftestants and a little biographical information below.

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Food & Wine Founder Michael Batterberry Dies

Food & Wine and Food Arts founder Michael Batterberry died on Wednesday at age 78, reports the New York Times. Batterberry and his wife, Ariane, developed the concept that would become Food & Wine with goals of "[puncturing] what they saw as the truffled pomposity of Gourmet" and appealing to men as much as women — this was a good 30 years ahead of the dude-food revolution. Batterberry received the James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award at last May's ceremony. While Food & Wine is still quite healthy, the Times notes that he did manage to outlive his old nemesis Gourmet. [NYT]

Legislature Approves Park Restaurants

New York's Shake Shack was the inspiration for a Common restaurant.

Boston jut got one step closer to a potential Shake Shack. The Massachusetts legislature approved a measure yesterday that would allow restaurants in the Boston Common's Pink Palace and the Fens' Duck Hut, reports Universal Hub. Once the measure is approved by Governor Patrick, interested parties will submit a formal Request for Proposal. Thus far, the Shake Shack, Legacy Place's Met Burger Bar, and The Common Room, a seafood shack from former Biltmore Room owner Jeffrey Mills, have all expressed interest in the Pink Palace. The park restaurants could open as soon as next summer.

Legislature Agrees to Let City Rent Out Two Old Buildings on Common, in Fens for Restaurants [Universal Hub]

Beer Gets More Alcoholic; Jewelry for Foodies

• Last week's 55 percent-alcohol beer has been replaced as the world's most alcoholic by Start The Future, a Japanese beer that clocks in at 120 proof. [Reuters]

• Jewelry designer Rachel Chyna White's new Demitasse line includes necklaces that say "Foodie" and pave diamond-encrusted vanilla bean knife charms. [Mouthing Off/F&W]

• In Vietnam, banh mi are served 24 hours a day. [WSJ]

• MiceDirect recalled their frozen mice this weekend after a salmonella outbreak that sickened 400 people, most of whom were snake owners. [NYT]

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07/29/10

Searching for a Bite of Michigan In the Hub; Has Dunkies Gone Downhill?

• Unfortunately, the nearest Michigan-style Coney Island hot dogs are in Taunton. [Chowhound]

• Incendiary: "I can't deal with Dunkies anymore. Too insipid, too genericalized." [Yelp]

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Moody French Cooking Vignettes: The Future of Food Magazines?

Photographer William Hereford produced what he thinks could be just the thing for cooking magazines looking to make the leap to tablet technology. His short-form, wordless vignettes — which he describes on his blog as "a kind of experiment combining typeface typical of magazines with video which has been shot and edited to feel like a still photograph" — feature lush video of a meal being cooked overlaid with text describing the ingredients, processes, and helpful notes. It's like watching a tightly edited cooking show on mute, with the (literate, copyedited, beautifully laid-out) closed captioning on.

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Patrick Pledges $10 Million to Public Market

It looks like the long-awaited Boston Public Market is actually finally happening. The Patrick administration pledged $10 million to the cause yesterday, reports the Globe. The fledgling market, which will be run by the Boston Public Market Association, will be located at Blackstone and Hanover, right near the Haymarket station.

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What to Eat at Towne, Bringing Whiskey Butter Lobster to Hynes Tomorrow

Towne

Towne, the epic Lydia Shire/Jasper White/Mario Capone collaboration, opens in the Hynes Convention Center tomorrow and we've got your first look at the menu. As promised, it spans the globe, bouncing from China (pig chop with fried milk and Wuxi riblets) to Italy (a Wednesday and Sunday special of porchetta with anise-flamed broiled summer peach) to America itself (wood-fired lobster with lobster sausage, whiskey butter, and fries). Of note: the menu requests that you order the burger rare. Above all, the food here is fun: a starter of foie gras is paired with a roasted grape risotto, a witty play on the foie gras and jam sandwiches we've seen at so many restaurant parties and the iceberg salad goes by the punderful "Iceberg, Baby." Towne gets serious when it comes to the prices, however: entrees will generally run you $25-35 and it's possible to pay over $20 for a starter.

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Top Chef Recap: Give Peas a Chance

Photo: David Giesbrecht/Bravo

Last night's Top Chef finally paid proper homage to its home city by bringing in special local traditions like complaining and some political guests. We skipped government class for AP microeconomics, but our education gap was filled during the high-stakes Quickfire. Padma instructed the chefs to serve their dish on a toothpick to guest judge Representative Aaron Schock of Illinois, as the Ethics Committee requires that food served to congressmen be on toothpicks, lest their votes be swayed by lavish meals. Who knew?

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