Digging in

Last week I read, in the Sun-Times Showcase section, that celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, star of the shows, "Hell's Kitchen," "The f Word," and "Kitchen Nightmares," has signed a deal for a new show on Fox, tentatively titled "Master Chef."

In it, Ramsay will attempt to take people who have no experience in the food industry into expert cooks. The contestants will whip up dishes that will then be judged by a panel of expert chefs. Are they kidding? Really? I'm sure that Fox will have no trouble finding people to take part in this because people will do anything to get on TV, but what sort of masochistic person, with no professional kitchen experience, would ever subject themselves to the foul-mouthed, short-tempered Ramsay? It's one thing for Ramsay to shout and swear at professionals who can't run a restaurant or cook food worth putting in front of a paying guest but I don't see how his act will work on those who haven't worked in kitchens before. Restaurants, like bars, are among the best places in the world to work, but much like newsrooms, the folks who work in these places are quite a different breed. Everyday behavior in working restaurants (like newsrooms) might get you fired from just about any other workplace, with the exception of perhaps a pirate ship.

I predict lots of tears, some people storming out of the kitchen, some on-camera asides from the contestants remarking about how mean Ramsay is, and maybe a few people who will swear and scream back at him. Fox may as well call it, "So You Think You Can Cook?" The carnage could be horrible. And I can't wait to tune in.

The news was announced via email this afternoon: After 40 years, Don Roth's Blackhawk in Wheeling, is closing.

The surf-and-turf restaurant of Spinning Salad Bowl fame will serve its last meal on New Year's Eve.

"With my 90th birthday on the horizon and none of my children in a position to assume responsibility for the family business, it will be better to close Don's last restaurant while it still is a going concern," said Ann Roth, Don Roth's widow, in a statement.

Could you eat sausage pizza -- and only sausage pizza -- for an entire month?

Craig "Pizza Boy" Scharoff (pictured) could -- or rather, did.

Scharoff entered into a bet with his co-worker, Ron Kaplan, back in September, that he would eat sausage pizza for every meal during the month of October. It was one of those "If you could eat one thing for the rest of your life... " discussions that just took on a life of its own, Kaplan says. "After talking about it for so long, I decided to challenge Craig and everyone here egged him on ... At first, I never thought he could do it but when he ordered that Dominos very early on, I knew I was in trouble."

Kaplan laid out the specifics: sauce and other fillings optional; no pizza variations (e.g. French bread pizza, pizza-flavored Hot Pockets); no salads, side dishes or dessert, and so forth.

Kaplan, conveniently, is one of the moderators of the food chat site, LTHForum, where this whole thing has played out for the past several weeks, with photographic evidence posted by Kaplan of much of Scharoff's intake.

The payoff for all of Scharoff's effort? $2,000.

The twist: Around lunchtime today, Kaplan announced that he and Scharoff have donated the cash to the Northern Illinois Food Bank. And Kaplan is now dusting off an old treadmill to give to Scharoff.

If you're not already sick of Halloween candy -- make that, if you're sick of that waxy, pedestrian, drugstore stuff filled with stabilizers and subpar ingredients -- check out today's story and recipes from Anita Chu's Field Guide to Candy. Better yet, check out the book.

I've been toting around the pocket-sized guide for weeks now like my 4-year-old does her nubby, floppy bear. There were only so many recipes I needed to test for the sake of the story, but now that that's in the can (and I'm off my sugar high), I can scratch my itch for Chu's version of Almond Joys, one of the world's greatest candy bars.

Chow's take on the DIY Halloween candy story, meanwhile, also tackles the Almond Joy as well as the three other big guns in the candy world: Twix, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Snickers. At a glance, Chu's recipe appears more doable. But then, Chow gets points for its printable wrappers and super cool cross-sections of the chocolate bars (which reminds us of how much we love looking at cross-sections of food).

Happy homemade Halloween.

The inimitable Ina Pinkney of Ina's, 1235 W. Randolph, is one of three chefs up for a Golden Bowl Award from the culinary organization Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. The award, to be presented in Washington D.C. this weekend, recognizes excellence in baking and pastry arts.

While the nomination alone makes her giddy, here's what really tickles Pinkney: She and 20 fellow female chefs will get a tour of the White House kitchen Sunday from White House commander-in-chef Cris Comerford, she says.

"I'm going to call David Axelrod," Pinkney says. "He was a regular here [at her restaurant, Ina's], as was Rahm Emanuel and Valeria Jarrett. So I'm going to see if David's working and see if I can get a glimpse of the West Wing!"

She says this with a laugh, but she's serious. And don't think she doesn't have pull.

In 2007, the Wall Street Journal named her West Loop restaurant one of the nation's top power breakfast spots. Pinkney says that's because she never feeds the press tidbits on her powerful dining guests and because "it's very, very quiet and the tables are far apart. The deals get done."

Daley eats there. Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda have eaten there. Judy Baar Topinka just announced her candidacy for state comptroller there Sunday, with a photo in our paper to boot. ("Republicans don't tip as well, but they're still welcome here," Pinkney had to explain to a Democratic friend who groused about this to her.)

Some of you also may remember that Pinkney ran for mayor in 2007.

Ok, so she kind of did it cheekily at the suggestion of a regular customer, after Jesse Jackson Jr. and Luis Gutierrez dropped out. In her monthly newsletter mailed out to customers in December of that year, she offered up a list of city departments she would create if elected (our favorite: the Dept. of Snacks and Morale).

It was after a call from one alderman, a visit from another and a call from Daley's chief of staff that she realized, "they had no sense of humor whatsoever" -- and formally threw her toque in the ring as a write-in candidate.

Pinkney got 2,302 votes. "And three unannounced inspections from the city that day."

"Even now, it makes me laugh," she says.

You know, Ina, 2011 is coming up fast.

Oh, she knows. "And I keep saying, 'You never know,' " she says.

It was bound to happen: Bravo is launching the pastry chef edition of Top Chef!

Auditions for "Top Chef: Just Desserts" are getting underway nationwide this week, with a casting call today in Chicago that runs until 2 p.m. at Wells on Wells, 1617 N. Wells. Producers there also are auditioning for the seventh season of the original "Top Chef" series (which has chefs from at least one uber-high profile Chicago restaurant licking their chops.)

All this on the heels of Bravo's announcement to bring "Top Chef Masters" back for a second season.

We are loving the idea of Top Chef, the dessert edition. Desserts are a universal weakness for most Top Chef contestants. We can only imagine what wacky challenges the Bravo execs have in store for the pastry chef-testants but something tells us it isn't going to be a .... cake walk.

Those of you who couldn't get enough of "Top Chef Masters" can rejoice: Bravo is bringing it back for a second season.

Not surprising, considering the series snagged the highest rating for first season shows for Bravo (also, Rick Bayless, who can forever lay claim to being the first Top Chef Master, told us back in August after the series finale that the chefs for season two had already been lined up.)

Of course, "Masters" was made all the more exciting because of Bayless' big victory. And let's not forget the delightful appearances of Graham Elliot Bowles and Art Smith, who made it to the final six.

Host Kelly Choi will return as will judges Gael Greene, James Oseland and Jay Rayner. They'll be joined by "Top Chef" judge Gail Simmons.

The closing of Gourmet naturally had me considering the relevance of newspaper food sections. Not that I wasn't already. Ads are down, budgets are down, the number of pages are down.

In a conversation I had with Ruth Reichl, the now-defunct magazine's editor-in-chief, I couldn't help but ask for her take on whether what I'm doing (and indeed, what she did at the Los Angeles Times before her restaurant critic years) matters. Here's what she said that didn't make it into today's story:

"One of the things that's incredibly short-sighted on the part of many people who put out newspapers is they feel like if advertising isn't there in the section, it doesn't deserve to live. But if readers are interested, it deserves to live. And there's more indication that readers are more interested now in food than ever before."

A production glitch resulted in a major goof in today's cover story by reporter Misha Davenport, who gamely posed with a basket of veggies for our money shot. Read the full version as it should have appeared at suntimes.com/lifestyles/food.

They're at it again. LTHForum, the chat site for food lovers, doled out its awards for Great Neighborhood Restaurants last night to 18 Chicago area eateries and bakeries (see the full list here). For the first time this year, the group also recognized Great Neighborhood Resources, giving the nod to five food-related shops, including Northwestern Cutlery and the Spice House.

Picking up their awards at the dinner at Marie's, 4127 W. Lawrence:

Hoosier Mama Pie Co. owner Paula Haney, with her husband and 21-month-old twins in tow, offal-loving hubby/wife team Rob and Allison Levitt of Mado; Spice House owners Patty and Tom Erd, and Pastoral's Greg O'Neill and Ken Miller.

Dobra Bielinski of Delightful Pastries, another winner, delighted us with the news that she's opening a second bakery at 1710 N. Wells on Nov. 1. She and the Pastoral team also will have a presence at the Chicago French Market inside the Ogilvie Metra station.

This is the fifth year of the GNR awards, which began, as LTH-er David Dickson said, "with the question of, 'Where should I go eat?' " Forum members nominate and vote on places that have that certain culinary je ne sais quoi.

It was the first year I had the pleasure of chowing with LTH members at their awards dinner. Marie's is a pizza joint attached to a liquor store. It has red booths and paneled and mirrored walls. Its pizza is the stuff of dreams.

One might be inclined to judge a book by its cover and pass up Marie's, were it not for the enthusiastic eaters who make it a point to seek out these neighborhood gems. Chicago needs places like Marie's -- but it needs a forum like LTH just as much.