R.J. Cooper's "24" tasting menu abruptly ended this month at Vidalia. Putting together this year's Young & Hungry Dining Guide was an exercise in managing the chaos of the local dining scene. Several places that had all but secured a spot on my list of the 50 most fascinating restaurants — Inox, Teatro Goldoni, and [...]

Good morning, Y&H Nation. We're running behind today in more ways than one. Y&H is still neck-deep in this year's Young & Hungry Dining Guide, so the blog may be a little thin over the next couple of days. Work with us here, folks. In the meantime, here are the most-popular items from last week: [...]

UPDATED: 5:13 p.m. 8/9/2010 R.J. Cooper, the chef who won a James Beard award in 2007 while helming the Vidalia kitchen, has abruptly left the downtown restaurant. Cooper confirmed his departure this afternoon but declined to provide further details. Cooper did say that he would try to resurrect his celebrated "24" tasting menu elsewhere while [...]

The Columbia Room, Derek Brown's prix-fixe cocktail counter hidden behind the Passenger, is bringing in outside chefs for a series of tag-team dinners. The details are predictably complicated and fussy.  According to a press release, "Each chef will join Derek Brown behind the bar and prepare two dishes that Derek will pair with hand crafted [...]

Mexican chef Patricia Jinich influences the next generation, her son Julian As noted earlier today — and sorry to keep rubbing this in, if you haven't made those brunch reservations yet — Mother's Day is this weekend. I thought I'd take the opportunity to ask some chefs and cooks what kind of influence their mothers [...]

Sterling caviar with “pappardelle” Note: Because of limitations in the design of the Young & Hungry column for the Web, we're re-running the story in the blog so you can enjoy the full impact of Darrow Montgomery's photography. Tasting table. Chef’s table. Degustation menu. Whatever you call it. this multi-course meal is considered the turbo-charged [...]

Y&H feels so cheap. I did much the same thing that I accused Eater.com of doing — ginning up a little controversy at someone else's expense to generate hits. My "fan" letter to the food site drew attention from coast to coast and elsewhere. The item was the clear winner of the week. Take a [...]

R.J. Cooper's foie gras parfait, part of his "24" menu at Vidalia Twice R.J. Cooper found himself at Bryan Voltaggio's Table 21 at Volt, and twice the Vidalia chef found himself impressed. "Bryan crushed me a couple of times," says Cooper, his choice of words providing a brief glimpse into his old college jock persona. [...]

The rest of the non-profits around the metro area — you know, the ones that don't have their hand in Haitian earthquake relief — must feel like the location scout for Avatar. Really damn underappreciated. But in this economy, many non-profits are getting hit with a double whammy: The need for their services has increased, while [...]

Yesterday, readers of the Young & Hungry newsletter (hint, hint: sign up at right) got first word on who won the D.C. Dish Hall of Fame. Today, we tell everyone the results of our debut contest, which we launched back in October with the idea of sussing out the dishes that best define the D.C. metro area. [...]