Appearing on CBS This Morning, Andrés said he expected more of a mea culpa from Deen but suggested there is plenty of blame to go around, pointing the finger at Food Network, Hollywood, and the sports industrial complex, as well, for contributing to the country's unhealthy eating habits just as much as the Southern fried-chicken diva has.

"It's not like Paula Deen now is the cause of obesity in America," Andrés said.

Check out the full video below:

Quick hits on the meatless beat

The Campaign Continues: Meatless Mondays receives another bump in coverage as Kelly DiNardo asks local chefs for meatless recipes on the new Food Network based, City Eats, a combination blog, reservation and deals site launched in D.C. last week.

Tofurkey Delight: Via Twitter, Subway encouraged its meatless eaters to tell the hoagie chain how to best build a "veggie delight" sandwich in conjunction with October as Vegetarian Awareness Month. Takoma Park, Md.-based Compassion Over Killing takes it one step farther, asking Subway to add meatless proteins to its offerings. Agree? Leave a comment for Subway here.

Power Vegans: Not even "Twitter cofounder Biz Stone, casino magnate Steve Wynn [or] hip-hop pioneer Russell Simmons" conversion to veganism can push the masses toward a meatless world. Food researcher Harry Balzer of the NPD Group counts 1.5 percent of the population as vegetarian.

Rejection: A sense of humor is important.

Photo by Stefanie Gans

Food Network Magazine

You won’t find any sauce on the best pie in the house — and you won’t miss it. The Smoky comes with a double dose of smoke instead: smoked cremini mushrooms and mozzarella, along with bacon and sweet caramelized onions.

What's your pick for best pizza in the city?

Photo courtesy of Food Network

Food Network will hold a casting call for the eighth season of Food Network Star in D.C. next month. The producers are scouting for talent that is "full of life, passionate about cooking, and knowledgeable about food."

Details follow:
Food Network Star  - D.C. Casting Call
Monday, August 8th 2011
10am-2pm
The Westin City Center
1400 M St. NW, Washington, DC 20005
Bring:
Application
2 photos of yourself
Resume
More information

Photo: Food Network

Y&H is getting a little misty-eyed, which is totally not allowed at Washington City Paper. I'm heading into my final two days in this esteemed (well, more like skanky) chair, and I'm realizing for the first time that this will be my last issue of the weekly Greatest Hits.

So can I tell you a secret? The web monkeys never much cared for the term, "Greatest Hits." They thought it wasn't accurate, which of course it isn't. They preferred the term, "most popular" blog posts from the week. But I stubbornly stuck with "Greatest Hits," just because a) the term reminded me of all those ridiculous greatest hits albums I grew up with (Quiet Riot's Greatest Hits? Really? Wouldn't it be the world's shortest album?) and b) it's my goddamn blog.

Well, it was my blog. It will soon be someone else's, and he or she will get to play the intractable ass (band name!) next.  In the meantime, here are the last Greatest Hits under my watch:

1. South Park Sinks Its Teeth into Food TV Culture
2. On the Rocks: Can America Learn to Drink Intelligently?
3. Pigs Take Flight at Eola in Dupont
4. Y&H Is Leaving the Building
5. Bayou Bakery Is Your Source for Beignets and Chicory Coffee

Photo by Andrew George

Anthony Bourdain may have been among the first to skewer the vapidity of celebrity chef TV culture, but South Park has taken it to a whole new level with its recent "Creme Fraiche" episode. The animators eviscerated the Food Network and its many imitators, leaving no sacred cow with its entrails intact.

Not surprisingly, the episode has been a hit among cynical ink-stained (radiation-scorched?) wretches like me. Take a look at some recent commentary:

• Robert Sietsema of the Village Voice offers a giddy blow-by-blow.
• FNH says that South Park "somehow managed to cram almost every celebrity chef stereotype into a 22-minute episode."
• Broward/Palm Beach New Times says the show "might just be the best episode of South Park in years."
• Eater calls the episode a "story of modern-day suburban sexual frustration channeled into unhealthy food obsessions and celebrity worship."
• Even the Chowhounds were delighted to watch their celebrity chefs take pot shots.

You can watch more scenes from the episode here.

Since he's still technically on hiatus between his former gig at Vidalia and his new one at Rogue 24, R.J. Cooper clearly has some time on his hands to mix it up on reality TV. He'll be the challenging chef on the season debut of Iron Chef America, which will air on Sunday, Nov. 28, on the Food Network.

According to a press release, Cooper will face the winner of the current season of The Next Iron Chef. His culinary team will include Harper McClure, the future chef de cuisine at Rogue 24, and David Guas, the former Passion Food pastry chef who's opening his own place, Bayou Bakery.

Y&H got Cooper on the horn as soon as he heard about the news. Here's our short Q&A, which tells you a lot about the information control over at the Food Network:

Can you say whether you won or not?

"I can't say," Cooper says.

Can you say what the secret ingredient was?

"Can't say that, either."

Can you say who the judges were?

"Can't say that, either."

How did you decide on your team?

"Harper's going to work for me," he says. "David's a great pastry chef, and he's not doing anything either."

[We laugh.]

Can you confirm what Eater recently reported: that chefs are told before taping which three or four ingredients might be the secret one so they can prep?

"That's true and false," Cooper says, helpfully.

And that was the extent of our "interview."

Guess we'll have to find out what happens on Nov. 28.

Well, it is the time of year for this stuff, isn't it?

Falafel shots and hot dog air coming soon to a mobile vendor near you!

For Y&H, there's usually a pattern to my April Fool's Day, and it goes like this:  I login to the computer, call up Google to conduct a search, and sit there slack-jawed for a minute while reading about the Google Gulp or Google Romance or (the best one yet) Google Paper.

Then I take another swig of coffee, realize what day it is, and remind myself that I'm still gullible. This year's Google prank, alas, failed miserably to yank my chain.

But there were other good ones out there, a number of them food-related. Take a look:

• Alinea at Home blogger Carol Blymire is taking her act on the road with a street food version of Grant Achatz's molecular cooking. Pho on a pin anyone?
• The notoriously peripatetic chef, Peter Chang, will be launching a new business, Chang Can Cook, a "40 foot mobile unit that can be moved on a moments notice to a new location."
• Serious Eats' Slice blog will focus on Neapolitan pizza exclusively, written only in Italian, now that the site is being underwritten by the Naples Tourism Bureau.
• West Coast's famous In-N-Out Burger is coming to New York City.
• Chow.com helps you make your own partially hydrogenated trans fat.
• Food Network's parent company is taking over Food Network Humor site. Guy Fieri's hair now off-limits.
• Starbucks to offer two new sizes, the Plenta (128 oz) and the Micra (2 oz).
• Chow also reports that Michelin is firing its inspectors, moving to user-generated content.

Photo courtesy of Carol Blymire