Radhika Desai's Restaurant and Briefest of Interviews

Speak, Memoir: Stephanie Izard

According to the New York Daily News, Stephanie Izard has written a memoir to be called Tasting Menu: Why Food Equals Life, Why Restaurants Equal Soul & Why Cheese Makes Me Happy. The book is supposed to provide a "female perspective" on Chicago's best restaurants.

Chicago Sighting: I Saw a Man, He Dined with His Wives

Ah, possums, Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town, where the man sighted (LTH Forum via The Chicago Reader) was none other than Marcel Vigneron. The three women with him were not his wives ("Wrong gender, dude!"): Sandee Birdsong, Josie Smith-Malave, and Tiffani Faison. Holy Lesbian Triple Threat!

According to the sighting, Marcel and the Dreamgirls were spotted last Friday at Frontera Grill "with stage makeup on." Furthermore, Marcel "is growing some type of weird Abe Lincoln meets Hobbit-type beard." (There's a joke in there, possums, about Marcel, three lesbians, and beards, but "Marcel is gay" jokes are trop last season for us, and so we desist.) At any rate, what this means, possums, is that it looks as if Season 4 has already begun filming, well before next week's Chicago-based live reveal. If any of you Chicagoan possums catch sight of a stray cheftestant or two, wield those cell-phone cameras and drop us a line.

Amuse-Biatch Goes Apocalyptic: The End Is Nigh!

Or so we hear, possums.

According to what sounds very much like a press release, the first part of the Top Chef finale, filmed in Aspen, Colorado, will air on September 26.

On October 3, the second part of the finale will reveal the winner "LIVE from Chicago," where Season 4, according to another report we read, is scheduled to start filming this month.

The end, then, is mercifully near.

As for tomorrow night's episode, our pal Lesley at Eater LA has done a little Sherlocking to uncover their "secret" destination. Check it out.

Potential Season 4 Judge Gets Some Bad News

Possums, we take a momentary rest from the bitchery and snark to reflect on the evergreen truth that the gods have a twisted sense of humor (and no, we're not referring simply to Lindsay Lohan's arrest this morning).

Rather, our musings are sparked by the sad news that 33-year-old, Chicago-based culinary wunderkind Grant Achatz, of Alinea Restaurant (named best in the nation by Gourmet), and a hero to many a chef and cheftestant (including, natürlich, Marcel Vigneron), has been diagnosed with "an 'advanced stage' of squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth -- a type of head and neck cancer." For a chef to get carcinoma of the mouth seems a cruel joke indeed on the part of the gods. And doctors say that head and neck cancer is quite rare, so even in illness, Chef Achatz is extraordinary.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Chef Achatz "will likely begin aggressive treatment within the next few weeks," and we wish him well.

It was Chef Achatz, together with Homaro Cantu, Charlie Trotter and others, who is responsible for Chicago's new-found fame as a culinary hot spot, which in turn led to Bravo's decision to film the fourth season of Top Chef in the City of Big Shoulders and Big Bellies (which we say affectionately, having a soft spot for Chicagoans).

Following its tradition of getting renowned local chefs involved in the show, no doubt Bravo would have tried to get Chef Achatz as a guest judge. We hope Bravo does just that, and that Chef Achatz is well enough to participate.