Jamie Lauren

Sorry buddy.

Stevevoght @ Flickr

We asked, they answered. Five SF chefs tell us what to buy, what to bring, when to brine and what to eat the morning after.

Tim Luym, chef/owner, Poleng Lounge

You’re invited to a potluck Thanksgiving: what would you bring?
I would bring rice. I can eat rie with anything and most people don’t serve rice with turkey for Thanksgiving. But imagine: rice, turkey, gravy, stuffing, cran! Better than potatoes.

Last night at the CUESA Sunday Supper I learned the following: that Gialina owner Sharon Ardiana is opening a new restaurant (though she doesn't have a space yet), that Mark Dommen's next whole beast meal will be devoted to suckling pig, that Bar Tartine will serve housemade English muffins when they open for breakfast in three weeks (and that chef Chris Kronner isn't sleeping much)

Absinthe's burger: Spend more and get the extras.

Welcome to the 2009 Burger Bonanza wherein two girls eat 20 of the city's best burgers, on the path to burger enlightenment. The 10 best will then be chosen to be featured—in ranking order—in 7x7's September magazine issue. Burgers must fit our "fancy burger" parameter: made with beef and available as part of the regular dinner menu at upscale restaurants in SF. Beyond that, we're open to suggestions, which we hope you will leave in the comment box below!

10 a.m. on day four of PBFW is a brutal time for demo, but a hung over Jamie Lauren and Stefan Richter rallied to the occasion (with the help of a bottle of wine and some Journey tunes) and cooked up an asparagus salad and a chocolate mousse. Of course, the majority of the audience could care less about the cooking—it was Top Chef unplugged time, a chance to experience Stefan’s unrequited love for Jamie first hand.

The chef enjoying a rare sit-down meal.

Courtesy of Jamie Lauren

Being a chef, people are constantly surprised by what I eat (or don't eat) over the course of my work week ... to be completely honest, the last thing Iwant to do when I am at work is eat. Being surrounded by food all the time generally makes me very uninterested in having a meal on a daily basis. Here's a list of everything I ate this week.

Monday: My day off. Probably the one day when I actually eat two meals. Usually on Mondays I try and get together with friends, since it's really

CEO Jeremy Stoppelman writes in defense of Yelpers like these.

Gloomy Little Cloud at Flickr

Welcome to our exciting new partnership with Eater. For this weekly Friday column, Eater editor Paolo Lucchesi gives his opinionated report on all the restaurant news that's fit to print, including chef gossip, openings and closings, Top Chef updates and the latest pizza slingers.

Madhur Jaffrey gave me the inspiration for my Indian burger

Courtesy of Jamie Lauren

Get out of the kitchen and read something, will ya?

As a chef, I think one of the most important things you can do is to continue learning. This can be accomplished in several ways, including doing a stage at another chef's restaurant, watching interesting food shows on TV (and by interesting, I mean Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmerman, not Rachel "EVOO" Ray), and by reading books. Lots and lots of books. I have a ton of food-related books, mostly piled in my office at work, because there's no place to put them in my little apartment. Behold a list of my favorites:

She may look friendly enough, but give her some dirty silverware or a clueless server and watch out!

Courtesy of Jamie Lauren

I obviously go out to eat a fair amount. If you have been following my blogs, you will know that I am not a big fan of cooking at home in my downtime and usually prefer to have someone else do it for me. This week I amuse you, the reader, with a list of my pet peeves about diningout. I'm not going to name names, because that would be rude, but here are some things that I consider to be simply unacceptable.