The U.S. Tennis Open started today. A mixed blessing, like new pencils or new jeans—it's a treat but an indisputable reminder that summer's almost over. To take the edge off of the longer nights and chillier air, Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia and his wine-expert wife, Cathy, have provided F&W with a few lighthearted tennis wine-pairing tips. Rosés to match your tennis skirt, anyone? Check it out here. For the New Yorkers among us, the Mantuanos will be serving wine-bar snacks at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center today through September 7.

French-born Ludovic (Ludo) Lefebvre has made Los Angeles his home for the past few years, with stints at L’Orangerie, Bastide, and of late, the much-buzzed about, though temporary, Ludo Bites, where he served up supertiny ingenious plates at Breadbar three nights a week. Here, Ludo talks about Lavo, his new restaurant opening in the Palazzo in Las Vegas next month.

On his reinterpretation of Mediterranean classics: “It’ll be a Mediterranean bistro, with traditional flavors from Spain, the South of France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Morocco. But while I’m not changing any flavors, I’m working a lot with texture and technique. Instead of a traditional Greek salad with crumbled feta cheese, I’ll have a frozen mousse of feta. For a Caprese salad, instead of sliced tomatoes, I’m making a cherry tomato confit.”

On the secret to great pizza dough: “I’m very proud of my pizza dough. It’s very thin and very crispy, with a nice char on the bottom that we make with a wood-fired oven in the kitchen. I’ve learned the most important aspect of pizza dough is the water—and we have a twist with that, but I can’t tell you what it is."

On the ultimate pizza-topping combination: “Lobster, black truffle, truffle oil, crispy potato, caramelized onions and a black truffle cheese from Italy—inspired by a dish of whole lobster, black truffle and potatoes served at Alain Passard’s L’Arpège in Paris while I was working there. I thought, Why not turn this into a pizza?”

On his newest spice mixture: “When I was at Bastide, I was known for vadouvan. Now I’m creating my own black curry with Mediterranean flavors: black olives, dates, espresso, piment d'Espelette, garlic, lemongrass leaves. I’m going to serve it with lamb kebabs.”

On new cooking equipment: “We have a new machine called a Gastrovac. It’s like a vacuum machine that lets you fry. It gives superconcentrated flavor, and I love to use it for vegetables because it keeps their color. For my Caesar salad, I’m cooking ribs of lettuce with olive oil, lemon juice and anchovies in the Gastrovac.”

On where in Vegas he’s going to surf: “Good question. My surfboard is still in L.A. Maybe I’ll just blow up a raft in my pool.”

The hottest table in Paris this year was arguably Hidden Kitchens, an “underground” restaurant inspired by Naomi Pommeroy’s Sunday Supper in Portland, Oregon. Braden and Laura (they keep their last names a secret), a superyoung Seattle couple, moved to Paris and started cooking Sunday dinners in their apartment for 10 to 12 privileged guests at a time, mostly expats and food-obsessed, restaurant-blog-reading visitors. An e-mail would be sent the day before the meal revealing their address. The 10-course feast centered around dishes showcasing American ingredients and flavors and French techniques. Chef Daniel Rose of Spring and star chef Guy Savoy were among their first customers.

After serving 1,287 people and more than 12,000 courses, Braden and Laura are spending the summer road-tripping through the U.S. before returning to Paris to move into a larger, more grand space on the Palais Royal, right near the Louvre. The new restaurant will open in December with the same menu concept, and Braden says they’ll keep the name Hidden Kitchens even though this new restaurant won’t be a secret. One tip: Start booking now.

Braden updated me from the road as he and Laura ate their way through Minneapolis, Chicago, Buffalo, New Haven, Boston, New Hampshire and New York City. So where do expats eat when they come home? Next week, he will give F&W an update on his cross-country eating itinerary. His one clue: “We are testing our cholesterol limits with big greasy breakfasts, hot dogs, buffalo wings, huge stacks of pancakes and giant deli sandwiches.”

Rumors have been flying around for a while now that Chicago chef Art Smith might be cooking for Senator Barack Obama in the White House should he win the presidency. Here's one Obama dining habit that has been confirmed: His favorite restaurant is Rick Bayless's haute-Mexican Topolobampo in Chicago, according to an article this weekend in the Wall Street Journal. Now that's one choice we can stand by: F&W chose Bayless to be part of our incredible first class of Best New Chefs way back in 1988 (other winners for that year include Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud).

Some of Bayless's stellar Mexican recipes:
Creamy Enchiladas with Chicken, Tomatoes and Green Chile
Guacamole Three Ways: Simple, Herby or Luxurious 
Corn Tortillas
Carne Asada with Black Beans
Roasted Fresh Chile Salsa

Wow. Sweet peas, tangy mint, crunchy macadamias and buttery white chocolate. Smooth coconut milk, floral kaffir lime, peppery coriander and sugary watermelon. Creamy Anson Mills grits folded with a spinachy borage puree and a piquant nasturtium foam. Last night I got to eat some of the most exciting, delicious combinations I've tasted anywhere, let alone at the James Beard House. At the foundation's first vegetarian dinner in more than 20 years, Jeremy Fox of Ubuntu in California's Napa Valley, an F&W Best New Chef 2008, pretty much knocked our socks off. And then his wife—Ubuntu's pastry chef, Deanie—knocked us all flat with her unbelievable vegan (vegan!) carrot cupcakes with teeny-tiny candied carrots on top. (All the produce came from Ubuntu's biodynamic garden—is it Rudolf Steiner's gardening methods that pack such incredible flavor into a matchstick-sized baby root vegetable?)

The energy of the event was so refreshing. Beard dinners can get a little staid, but the terrace during the cocktail hour felt more like the Barney's warehouse sale than a formal dinner; guests snatched up the demitasse cups of that watermelon and coconut milk velouté like they were Jimmy Choos at an 80-percent discount. My elbows got a little bruised. During the main meal we settled down a bit, but the atmosphere still resembled a happy kindergarten class at recess, the way we all chattered away about the food. Some things didn't quite work; I was a little perplexed by the fried egg that came with unctuous porcini "coq au vin," and I wasn't that nuts about the French beans that came with grilled peach "panzanella." But I was delighted to be so challenged, surprised and sated by just about every last dish put before me. It's now been said many places, but the Foxes are some seriously talented chefs.

After bringing Spain's distinct flavors to Philadelphia with his genius restaurants Amada and Tinto, superhot young chef Jose Garces has decided to take on the food of Mexico. Back in February, Garces called me raving about the taquerias, tequilas and nightlife in Mexico City. He hade been there researching his new restaurant, Distrito, which opens this Monday. Here, he gives some cheeky hints at what we can expect:

I received a fluorescent green lucha libra wrestling mask in the mail as a preview to Distrito. Is that a hint that we can expect live lucha libre fighting?
"One of the walls in the restaurant is made from more than 650 masks that we got from Mexico. It is really striking and sets a fun, lively tone for the restaurant. As for the actual fighting, I can’t make any guarantees, but never say never."

Why did you choose the name Distrito?
"Mexico City is known in Mexico as the Distrito Federal, or capital district. Since so much of our inspiration came from the vibrant culture of that city, the name is an homage."

Is there a signature dish you'll be making? Any personal favorite on the menu?
"My favorite dishes include esquites—sweet corn, queso fresco, chipotle and lime; atun ceviche— big eye tuna with serrano-coconut sauce and a tecate lime sorbet; and the hamachi “estilo OG”— tacos with yellowtail, chipotle remoulade, avocado, red cabbage and lime."

Do you think Distrito will change the way we think about Mexican cuisine in the U.S.?
"Yes, on several different levels. We’re taking real traditional Mexican cuisine and sticking to those traditions. We’re keeping it fresh and light. We’re not Americanizing the food in terms of flavors or portions."

Will California's Mexican-food snobs feel satisfied here?
"Yes, I have fish tacos for them! I’ll put our menu up against any Mexican kitchen in California."

Mexico is known for its excellent tequilas. How many will you be serving?
"We have more than 60 varieties of tequila, which we’ll be serving in a variety of ways including flights and, of course, fresh house-made margaritas with juices we’ll squeeze daily."

Will you have any Mexican wines?
"Yes, as of now we have one on the list. It’s a red blend, a 2005 meritage from Jubileo in Guadalupe, Mexico. But we will be adding more."

I hear that there may be a secret karaoke room; can you comment? If you had to sing karaoke, what is your song of choice?
"Now that is still a rumor, but let’s just say that if there is a secret karaoke room, you’ll find me singing 'The Wheel' by the Grateful Dead."

I just flew in from four days in British Columbia, but I feel like I've come back from a mini-tour of East Asia—foodwise, anyway—minus the major jet lag. My friends and I started most of our mornings in and around Vancouver with a lazy dim sum breakfast—how I'd opt to start all my mornings for the rest of my life if there were eight dozen hours in a day. While we ate our way through several dim sum spots (both Cantonese and Shanghainese), my favorite was Shanghai River, in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond. I watched cooks in a glass-enclosed kitchen roll out superthin dumpling wrappers to make soup-and-minced-pork-filled dumplings and had two bowls of creamy soy bean soup filled with deep-fried dough.

Our evenings were usually dedicated to Japanese food, including that odd East-meets-West Vancouver hybrid, the Japa Dog. When we visited the street vendor, there was a line of Japanese tourists with cameras slung around their necks waiting to try one of the daikon or dried-seaweed-topped hot dogs. At the sprawling Tojo's, I ordered omakase; more than any of my sushi I liked my cooked dish of pan-sauteed halibut cheek in an orange rind sauce. But what might have been the most surprising dish of the trip was my last: the almost-black ramen broth at Motomachi Shokudo, the new restaurant by Vancouver's ramen king, Daiji Matsubara, whose original noodle house, Kintaro, is just a few doors down on Denman Street. The cause for the disconcerting color: bamboo charcoal, used as a digestive supplement in Eastern medicine. Whether the charcoal soup's healthful properties were real or myth, it was unexpectedly delicious, with fresh noodles, tender pork, and chewy bamboo shoots.

The plight of the honeybee is all the buzz this year, with its mysteriously dwindling population getting a mention in the new M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Happening, and inspiring Häagen-Dazs to create a honey-flavored ice cream and fund bee Colony Collapse Disorder research.

The August issue of Food & Wine pays homage to the bee with eight delicious, honey-centric recipes and a primer on the best single-varietal honeys on the market.

Fairmont has also jumped on the save-the-bee bandwagon. In June, more than 100,000 bees checked in to the roof of the Fairmont Royal York hotel in Toronto. The hotel partnered with the Toronto Beekeepers Cooperative to create a rooftop apiary to house three hives, and the hotel’s executive chef will be sourcing his honey straight from the roof.
 
Fairmont also plans to add bee colonies to two other Canadian properties this summer: the Fairmont Algonquin in St. Andrews and the Fairmont Winnipeg.

Our August issue, out now, includes a fun guide to local flavors with delicious in-season recipes  from 15 locavore chefs. We tapped all 15 for their favorite local ingredients and had trouble whittling their generous suggestions down to a mere 45 . To round the list out to an even 50, here are five more, traveling across the U.S. from east to west:

1. Nesenkeag Farm
Tony Maws of Craigie Street Bistrot in Cambridge, MA, gets fresh cranberry beans from this charitable, nonprofit organic farm in New Hampshire; it also hosts an annual on-farm poetry reading.

2. Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket
Everyone knows about Manhattan’s Union Square Greenmarket, but all the cool people (like chef Andrew Feinberg of Franny’s) go to this Brooklyn location on Saturdays for its Ronnybrook Farm Dairy milk and Blue Moon trout.

3. The Velvet Tango Room
Douglas Katz of Cleveland’s Fire Food & Drink gives the nod to Paulius Nasvytis and Orva Fuston’s bar for its fantastic “local” cocktails with house-made bitters and vermouths.

4. Jolie Vue Farms
At this Houston-area farm, lawyer-rancher Glen Boudreaux feeds his free-roaming Berkshire and Duroc pigs pecans, making them “some of the tastiest pigs you’ll ever eat,” says Monica Pope of Houston’s t’afia.

5. Lagunitas IPA
Joseph Humphrey of Cavallo Point’s Murray Circle in Sausalito, CA, gets right to the point: “Nothing beats a Lagunitas IPA with cold oysters!” Amen.

On Tuesday, I blogged about F&W Best New Chef 2004 Dominique Filoni's upcoming Philly restaurant, Parc. I also got him to share his tips for perfect fries—just in time for July Fourth festivities:

How Filoni will make his fries at Parc: "There’s a guy I work with who was with me at Lacroix [at the Rittenhouse in Philly]. I call him Mr. Potato Head. We went through about 20 different ways to cook fries to find the best method to use at Parc."

His tips for crispy, golden brown fries:
1. Rinse really well "After peeling the potatoes (ideally Kennebec) and cutting them in quarter-inch slices, rinse them two or three times. Leave them in water overnight in the fridge, then rinse again. The water should be clear on the last rinse, so when you fry them, the exterior won't burn."

2. Use soybean oil "It holds its temperature better than other oils for a nice crisp, plus, it has a neutral flavor."

3. Fry twice "After blanching the potatoes in oil, we let them first cool on a rack, then in the fridge for a couple of hours so they're really cool. Then we refry again for extra crispiness."