Eater continues to doggedly pursue the details of next season's apparent "all-star" edition of Top Chef to the detriment of the current season. The website's latest posting features some undercover work at the Bowery  Whole Foods, where Eater spies snap some pictures of what appear to be cheftestants scrambling for ingredients.

All of this is fine and good. It doesn't hurt to know, generally speaking, what to expect about next season. But through some assumptions and deductive reasoning, Eater goes one step further and predicts who wins this season of Top Chef.

Frankly,  I don't care. I'm ready to skip to the last page of this boring book. But you might still care. If you do care, do not click on this link! You've been warned.

Fists are thrown. Chairs are tossed. Tables are upturned. Burritos are destroyed. I guess there's a reason they call the place Blockheads.

Despite all that intelligence at the table, none of us knew how to pronounce the name of the place: "E-space"? "E-spahase"? Or my personal favorite (coined by WaPo's food editor Joe Yonan): "E-spa-che," as if the place sold both gazpacho and ceviche.

Regardless, we were all there to find out the 2010 winners of the James Beard Foundation Media and Book Awards.  Oh, and to nosh on a multi-course meal that was better than any of us had a right to expect, given the large catering demands placed on the kitchen. (Of course, when the courses are created by Gerald Hirigoyen, John Besh, Suzanne Goin, and Karen DeMasco, you're not exactly dealing with U.S. Foodservice, are you?)

Food aside, one of the biggest upsets of the evening — perhaps second only to Colman Andrews and Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl losing out to Edible Brooklyn's Rachel Wharton for food-related column — was the Kojo Nnamdi Show beating The Splendid Table in the audio Webcast or radio show category. Given that the former show is local (and largely devoted to politics when not chewing over food), and the latter national, I thought Kojo didn't stand a chance. Shows you how much I know.

I was very pleased for Kojo, even more so when producer Brendan Sweeney, in accepting the award for the no-show Nnamdi, noted that the Beard medal says as much about D.C.'s food scene as it does about the Kojo Nnamdi Show. Or something along those lines. You have to remember, I was about three glasses of wine in at this point.

The Beard Foundation also gave the Washington Post more love. For the second year in row, the Post's food section, under editor Yonan, won a Beard award, beating out both the Boston Globe and San Francisco Chronicle's food sections for the honor. In accepting the medal, Yonan noted the difficulties of continuing to put out quality food sections in the time of shrinking budgets and newspaper readerships. He said that for every subscriber lost, the Post needs to pick up another 100 online readers. Or something like that. Remember the wine-drinking factor here.

Yonan then finished his remarks on an ironic note. He said he was reading a story online that very day that ended with a short editor's note at the bottom. It said that this is a more complete version of the story that appeared in print. I suspect the bloggers in the room didn't get the point.

The other D.C. winner was Chefs A' Field, the PBS series that is now in its fourth season. The show is produced by Warner Hanson Television, which was founded in Washington D.C. by Heidi Hanson and Chris Warner in 2000 and has already racked up multiple Beard awards in its brief existence. Chefs A' Field bested some heavy hitters, including The Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Food Network and PBS's Gourmet’s Adventures with Ruth. As in Ruth Reichl.

The hard-luck loser for the evening — at least in my eyes — was David Guas, whose excellent DamGoodSweet lost out to James Peterson's Baking in the dessert and baking cookbook category. At least yours truly had good company for those who came home empty-handed. I lost to Jared Jacang Maher's excellent "A Hunger to Help" in the newspaper feature writing category about restaurants and/or chefs.

Here's the full list of winners from last night's cookbook and media awards. Tonight, it's the chefs' turn. The Beard Awards for restaurants and chefs will be passed out at the Lincoln Center.

Have some opinions about the Beard Awards or any other subject? Pass them along.

This may be a first: A Brooklyn lobster vendor is planning to launch a street truck in D.C. because our bureaucracy is easier to deal with.

So says Susan Povich, co-owner of the Red Hook Lobster Pound in Brooklyn, who told the New York Times earlier this week that she's given up on the burdensome Big Apple bureaucracy in favor of ours. Her quote must be music to the ears of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, which has been working for years to make it easier for street vendors to set up shop:

“I wanted a truck in New York,” Ms. Povich said. “But it is just an impossible prospect given the licensing and turf wars.” In Washington, she continued, “it’s a great time to get in at the beginning, and we figure that we have at least two more years with a bunch of transplanted Ivy League New Englanders in the government aching for a lobster roll.”

I briefly chatted with Ralph Gorham, Povich's husband, who's so sidewalk-spitting mad about New York bureaucracy he couldn't even talk on the record. He left the PR chores to his wife, who was traveling today and unavailable. I also have a call into DCRA to see where in the permitting and licensing process Red Hook is. More on that as I know it.

I do know this: The mere promise of fresh Maine lobsters on our streets has caused many of us in the food-writing community to start drooling, Pavlovian style, over the buttery rolls to come. The Going Out Gurus has more about Red Hook's frustration with NYC bureaucracy as well as Povich's D.C. connection: her grandfather was the late Post sportswriter Shirley Povich.

Now, if you want to understand why New Yorkers bow before Red Hook with an almost religious servility, just read this outtake from Florence Fabricant's short item in the Times last year:

Mr. Gorham (above), who also makes tables from recycled wood, drives round-trip to Kittery, Me., on Thursdays to buy up to 1,000 pounds of fresh lobsters off the boats. He does not buy lobsters from pounds, where they may have been lolling in the water for days or weeks, shedding flavor and texture.

His lobsters go on sale Friday at noon; by Sunday evening, when he and his wife close, they are usually all gone...

There is, however, one stick in the mud about this Red Hook invasion. District Plates would like to know why everyone is getting all red, hot and bothered about this Northern carpetbagger when we have a great Maryland seafood delicacy right in front of our faces. Good question.

By the way, you can get a sneak preview of Red Hook Lobster Pound next weekend at the Azalea Garden Festival in Bethesda. Douglas Povich, the cousin of Susan and the man behind the local truck, will be showcasing the rolls to come on D.C.'s streets.

Lombardi's: Is it everything New Yorkers think it is?

And now the moment I've been waiting for (so I can have my life back again): The City Paper's debut Young & Hungry Dining Guide finally hits the streets tomorrow.

Actually, I had a great time exploring our city, its suburbs, and all (well, many of) the varied places to eat in this region. The fact is, I had a helluva time trying to come up with only 50 of my (current) favorites. It's harder than you think. My working list included more than 130 restaurants and takeouts, almost any one of which could have made the final cut.

I'm hoping the Dining Guide inspires even more discussion about D.C.'s best places to eat: the ones on my list you agree with, the ones you don't, and the ones I was obviously so stupid to overlook.

Unfortunately, my private life, now that I have it back, takes me out of town today and tomorrow, just as the guide comes out. I'll be in New York City for the next couple of days, eating and drinking as much as humanly possible, perhaps even trying to figure out why folks like Andrew Beaujon think NYC pizza is so goddamn great.

More about the Big Apple when I return.

Photo by Eric__I_E via Flickr, Creative Commons

Did you hear that? Utter radio silence.

Y&H expected a cacophony of food blog and board commentary today following the announcement of the 2009 James Beard Awards for restaurants and chefs.  But after the D.C. area got the cold shoulder last night at the Beard ceremony in the Big Apple, there has been little hand-wringing about the snubs, aside from an implication of favoritism among judges (Don Rockwell), an honor-to-be-nominated pep talk (Michael Birchenall), and a straight-forward, just-the-facts-ma'am report (the Post's Joe Yonan, an award-winner himself this year).

What's missing? Arguments, fussing, and outraged commentary about the New York-orientation of this year's winners. However, if you study the 2009 winners, particularly national categories in which nominees come from all parts of the country, you'll find that New York chefs and restaurants won 8 out of 9 times.

WTF? I mean, WTF?

OK, yes, everyone who follows food in this country understands that NYC is still the epicenter of the known universe when it comes to dining. Just ask a New Yorker — or even someone who just writes for a New York publication — and they'll tell you.

This year's winners got me to thinking about the process behind the voting. On the foundation's Awards Policies and Procedures page, you can find this explanation under the Restaurant and Chef Awards:

Anyone can submit a chef or restaurant for consideration during the online open call for entries in the fall. (There is no entry fee.) Entries are tabulated by the independent accounting firm Lutz & Carr, and based on the results, the Restaurant and Chef Awards Committee produces a nominating ballot with up to 20 semifinalists in each category. This ballot is distributed online to more than 400 judges, who select the five official nominees in each category. The same judges then vote on these five nominees to choose the winners.

The judges include previous Restaurant and Chef Award winners, the Restaurant and Chef Awards Committee, 25 leading regional restaurant critics, food and wine editors, and culinary educators in each of the 10 regions. There are more than 400 judges nationwide.

In each category, the judges are looking for individuals whose contribution to their field is unique and long-lasting. The specific criteria change depending on the category...

How many of these 400 judges, you have to wonder, are based in New York City? Given that the panel includes previous winners and "food and wine editors," you have to think that a good percentage of them are. I called the Beard Foundation's PR folks to see if they could track down the list of judges, so that I could determine any NYC biases. I'm still waiting on that list and, if I get it, I'll pass along any findings.

As of right now, however, color me skeptical. I mean, if the majority of them are based in New York, then how often do they travel to cities outside of NYC to taste the food of the other nominees? Once? (If so, what if that one meal happens to be a dud, which happens even at the best of 'em.) More then once? (If so, who's footing the bill for all this travel and dining?) None? (If so, who the hell should care about these awards?)

So many questions, so few answers.

I had a really hard time believing Whole Foods was that stupid, so I checked its Web site, where I found this bit of brilliant marketing-speak: "Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFMI) today announces the arrival of “Shrimpsgiving” in its seafood departments nationwide."

Here's the pertinent paragraph from the press release:

Shrimpsgiving celebrates the little-known fact that the Pilgrims and Native Americans enjoyed seafood along with their turkey at the first Thanksgiving meal. To honor those early traditions and to kick off the holiday season, Whole Foods Market stores will feature special prices on the nation’s perennial seafood favorite during the month of November and a larger array of shrimp than previous years during this holiday season.

Whole Foods is apparently justifying its whole promotion based on this page from History.com, which carries this sub-headline: "Foods That May Have Been on the Menu." I repeat, foods that may have been on the menu. A quick flip through my trusty Penguin Companion to Food unearths this nugget about the first Thanksgiving:

"It is certain that the feast was held, and that both the settlers and the Native Indians of the area took part; a contemporary source states that the latter included Chief Massasoit and ninety men, and that the dishes served included fowl and deer. Beyond that, little is known for sure, and the event was not repeated until 1623."

I guess this wouldn't be the first time a marketing ploy has been based on fiction and conjecture.

Photo by Molly Allan.