Blagden Alley Tease: Over in Shaw, chef R.J. Cooper partially removed his shirt in an alleyway "in a demonstration of badassery" in advance of the opening of what promises to be his culinary center-stage spectacle at Rogue 24. [The Feast]

In-Depth Vegetable News: "When buying asparagus, girth is key." Baby asparagus, you see, is just a marketing gimmick scheme. [TBD]

Pop-Up BBQ Lunch: For fans of barbecue, check out the Friday sidewalk special at Westend Bistro. A $14 picnic basket lunch "includes a choice of meat, slaw, a fluffy biscuit..., dessert and tea or lemonade." [Metrocurean]

New Identity: Presto chango! A new tapas bar will emerge in Ballston after renovations conclude at Upper Crust Café. [Eat More Drink More via ARLNow]

Tremors in the Tysons Dining World! In some Fairfax County fine-dining news, Jon Mathieson, formerly of Inox and 2941 will be headed to Michel Richard's Michel at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner. Says Todd Kliman: "The mission is to make Michel more like Central and less like Citronelle." [Washingtonian]

Photo by Flickr user purpaboo using an Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license

But this year, food trucks will also be involved. It's just another sign that the insurgent food truck scene is becoming more entrenched in D.C.'s dining establishment. (Red Hook Lobster Pound will be there, naturally. Here's a reminder of just how good a lobster roll can taste in a confined space versus sidewalk consumption.)

So with this event, food trucks will help benefit our four-legged friends. What's next? A food truck for dogs? Don't be surprised if that's coming: There's a "gourmet dog cookie/ice cream truck" ready to roll in Los Angeles this weekend!

Photo by Flickr user cloneofsnake under an Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license

Today and throughout the week, Y&H will be giving you a glimpse back at 2009, via the blog posts that most captured your attention. First up: the granddaddy of all aggregations, the 10 most-read items of  the year.

The list is after the jump.

1. Budweiser Launches Select 55, Light Beer Arms Race Gets Absurd. This page, posted by the Beerspotter in August, is the Michael Jordan of Young & Hungry. It performs at peak levels week after week. The page is also the holy temple of search engine optimization; future Web gurus will study its signs and contours to learn out how it has performed so well on Google.
2. Vintage TV Beer Commercials. I compiled this page as daily blog filler, no more important to me than some random fat dude screaming for his McDonald's chicken sandwich. But the internets has its own way of rewarding inanity.
3. Spike Mendelsohn Evicted from His Capitol Hill Rental House. The item that forever put Y&H on the burger man's shit list.
4. Ritz Pastry Chef Jérôme Girardot Found Dead in Cameron Station Park. A terrible, terrible incident that I still think about with equal parts wonder and sadness.
5. Another D.C. Beer Week? Yes, Please. Because it's always better the second-time around.
6. Birch & Barley Opens Today. What's Inside? The Logan Circle beer emporium has been a consistently strong performer on Y&H. It is, in fact, the only establishment with two nods on this list.
7. Nori Amaya's Friends and Fans Express Their Grief on Her Facebook Page. People were so desperate for information on this tragic killing that they turned to my shallow little effort — and sometimes expressed their anger at its lack of real info.
8. Birch & Barley Slated for Summer Opening. Maybe. More false optimism spooned out by Y&H.
9. Breadline Busted on 19 Health Code Violations, Ten of Them Critical. Excessive fruit flies! Dirty meat slicers! Operating without a license! Readers wanted to know all the icky details of Breadline's spectacular health inspection failure.
10. Michel Richard Plans to Move His Home Base to Tysons Corner. The maestro of D.C. chefs hunted for investors last year for a planned move to the former Maestro space in McLean.

The dude in the white t-shirt is Gordon Ramsay. Really.

This may mean something. It may mean nothing. But one of Y&H's many foot soldiers — OK, he's actually a friend of Carol Blymire's, aka Alinea at Home — spotted British bad boy Gordon Ramsay roaming the streets of Georgetown on Saturday.

Given that Ramsay's bid for the Maestro space at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons has fallen through — and that Michel Richard is apparently headed to McLean — speculators were already speculating that, perhaps, the chef was casing Richard's joint in the Latham Hotel for a future restaurant.

Whew, this level of gossip makes Y&H want to take a shower. But I asked the iPhone ready Chris Wilson if he followed Ramsay after taking this pic or if he felt that was entering stalker territory. Wilson's response:

"I was trying not [to] be too stalker'ey, since after my other half yelled out "oh shit! it's Gordon Ramsay!" he started walking faster I was going to try and get a photo with him, but he seemed to be on a mission."

Wilson did learn, however, that Ramsay dined at J. Paul's with Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw. How did he learn this? From a Tweet from Women's Wear Daily, of course.

More as I know it — or as the gossip mill coughs it up.

Photo by Chris Wilson

As you might have guessed, traffic to Y&H spiked tremendously this week on the news that celebrity chef Michel Richard had plans to move his base to the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner. No other post this week had nearly as much traffic, despite the fact that Thursday was Food Day here at the paper.

1. Michel Richard Plans to Move His Home Base to Tysons Corner
2. Pepsi Throwback: Right Back Where We Started
3. The University of Florida Arrives, Dines, and Dashes
4. Watch the Deleted Eamonn's Segment from Bourdain's 'No Reservations' Show on D.C.
5. If Not Expansion Plans, What Is Ben's Next Move? Think Shipping.
   

The state medical examiner in Fairfax has ruled the 32-year-old Girardot's death a suicide.

"He was a master of his trade, creative, quiet, refined and poised—all qualities that made him unique," wrote Elizabeth Mullins, Ritz general manager and area vice president, in an internal memo forwarded to Young & Hungry. "His dedication, patience and work ethic set him apart. Jerome built strong relationships with his teammates and encouraged everyone to achieve their highest potential. He will be sadly missed."

According to an old Ritz-Carlton bio, Girardot "was born in northeastern France and began his culinary career there at an early age." It continues:

He honed his pastry skills and began to specialize in chocolate while working and training in Aix-en-Provence in southern France. His artistry took him to St. Thomas where he spent two years as first cook and assistant pastry chef at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas. Promoted to pastry chef, he relocated to The Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City. In 2003, Chef Jérôme Girardot became pastry chef at The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C.

In addition to desserts after a meal, guests and local residents may enjoy chef Girardot's chocolate confections during the annual Chocolate Decadence Buffet held in the Lobby Lounge throughout February and March. The popular event features more than forty different types of chocolate creations in dark, milk and white flavors, plus tempting chocolate beverages both hot and cold.

Former Ritz-Carlton publicist Dusty M. Lockhart remembers how Girardot used to say that, "Anything you can see or imagine I can create in chocolate." And he could, she says. He created D.C. monuments, Christmas trees, and even 50-inch-tall Easter eggs out of chocolate.

Girardot's talent caught the attention of the Post's Tom Sietsema during a recent re-review of the Westend Bistro by Eric Ripert, which is located inside the Ritz.

"As with the savories at Westend Bistro, desserts seduce the eyes," Sietsema wrote. "Created by Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin and executed by Jerome Girardot of the Ritz, the gems include carrot cake, treated to a fondant of goat cheese, and sweet potato tart, garnished with meringue buttons, in elegant pieces: jigsaw puzzles for the discerning sweet tooth. Frozen passion fruit mousse is gently sweet, lightly tart and wholly refreshing, thanks to the inclusion of a grapefruit sorbet laced with fresh rosemary."

Girardot "was very quiet, so he didn't go into the spotlight much," says Lockhart. "He was not about the spotlight. He was about the food."

I raise this tricky question after reading Marian Burros' blog item today in the New York Times, which reports that the Ritz-Carltons in D.C. are replacing the traditional pillow mints with cookies based on a Family Circle magazine recipe by First Lady-to-Be Michelle Obama. Among other interesting bits of info, Burros drops this little grenade:

The magazine tweaked the recipe, the hotel tweaked the recipe and so did this reporter.

Never mind Burros' alterations; that was just for the blog. But both Family Circle and the Ritz's chefs tweaked the recipe? The question, for me, is, how much did they tweak? I mean, after a certain point, the recipe stops being Michelle Obama's, right?

Unless, of course, you're trying to market how special your hotel package is during the inauguration.

Photo by Flickr user JAGwired.