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."

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.

This week NYC hosted the Fancy Food Show, a sort of fashion show to the food world where specialty food companies debut new products and shop for distribution, and media types can get a sense of upcoming trends. The biggest crowds huddled around the new sodas and iced teas (now that Coca Cola has bought Glaceau for $400 million, and invested a rumored $100 million in Honest Tea, I think it's safe to say there's money to be made in both). Here are five favorites I thought you might enjoy sipping over the holiday weekend (great with Dominique Filoni's perfect french fries):

1. Bionade
Organic lightly carbonated drinks from Germany with cool flavors like Elderberry & Lychee, exotic fruits that should be turning up more often in the soda aisle.

2. Fentiman's
We covered this British company's dandelion soda in our March 2007 issue; also try their Victorian Lemonade, Orange Jigger and Shandy. Irresistably bubbly and not too sweet.

3. Dry Soda 
This Seattle company launched in 2005, and comes in four clean flavors (kumquat, lavendar, lemongrass and rhubarb). This fall they'll debut Juniper and Vanilla, both designed by F&W Best New Chef 2006 Jason Wilson of Seattle's Crush.

4. Hi*Ball Energy
Kate Hudson, Orlando Bloom & Adam Brody have all been spotted drinking it, and with good reason - it's an energy drink from San Francisco that actually tastes like identifiable fruits like
grapefruit, orange and berry.

5. Wise Acre Frosteas and Frostbites
Frozen tea popsicles from a new Maine company, in fun grownup flavors like honey, jasmine green tea and (sweetened) yerba maté.

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."

I try to send our superstar features intern, Kaitlyn Goalen, to as many fabulous lunches as possible. So I felt a little Devil Wears Prada–esque when she came back from a recent event telling me she had to drink hairspray. To my relief, the beauty-based concoction tasted great, as did the rest of the meal that followed. Here, Kaitlyn reports:

A few weeks ago I watched, horrified, as a grown man poured a healthy dose of hairspray into a glass, gave it a club soda floater and a twist and downed the whole thing in a single gulp. I expected some gastrointestinal unpleasantness to ensue, but the gentleman assured us that his hairspray cocktail could do him no harm—on the contrary, it was good for him. This whole spectacle was part of a luncheon to launch Intelligent Nutrients, a new food-grade, USDA certified–organic beauty line from the founders of Aveda. The hairspray Houdini was none other than Mr. Aveda himself, Horst Rechelbacher, who has paired up with a team of organic farmers and food chemists to create fragrances, hair products and eventually makeup items that are free of toxins and full of antioxidant-rich and immune-boosting ingredients like cumin seed oil, bergamot, and grapefruit—all grown on the Intelligent Nutrients farm in Minnesota.
    
The lunch, designed to underscore the line’s edible ingredients, included a mixed-vegetable salad spritzed with pumpkin seed oil and Intellimune Oil from the Intelligent Nutrients lab and infused mint lemonade sparklers with red grape and raspberry flavors.

After enjoying Intelligent Nutrients on my salad, I took them home and tested them. One favorite scent, Focus, is reminiscent of a Tahitian cup of tea with notes of chamomile, jasmine, ylang ylang and citrus. Another, Seductive, has warming scents of nutmeg, cloves and vanilla.  

Fragrances, hair and body care products are now available at select Aveda salons; the Intelligent Nutrients makeup line will launch in September.

Two of Philadelphia's favorite food stars—F&W Best New Chef 2004 Dominique Filoni and super prolific restaurateur Stephen Starr—will make a much anticipated homecoming when they debut Parc, a French brasserie slated to open on Rittenhouse Square on Bastille Day (July 14th). While Starr has spent his four-year-hiatus from Philly launching restaurants in Manhattan and in Atlantic City, Filoni has spent the past two cooking at Seasons Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C. I recently chatted with the French-born Filoni to learn more about Parc:

Concept: "It will be more French than in France. We're not going to be a fake brasserie."

Inspiration: "In Paris, La Coupole is an institution, a rendezvous point, and La Brasserie Lippe is still where all the artists and intellectuals go. I also like the brasseries that Paul Bocuse opened in Lyon: Le Nord, L'Est, Le Sud and l'Ouest. They each serve about 200 people an hour."

Menu: "We're going to make our own pâté, our own chicken liver mousse, our own bread. For our escargots, we'll use six ounces of hazelnut butter for eight escargots—it's going to be a heavy dish, and very flavorful."

Boston’s South End keeps getting hipper. Every time I return to the charming neighborhood in my college town, I discover new chocolate shops, design stores and restaurants.

Last weekend I was in the city for the Red Sox game (and Celtics celebration), and even though I was craving a Fenway frank, I made time to swing by the much-buzzed-about South End restaurant the Beehive. The space and concept were inspired by and named for a 1920s artists’ residence in the Montparnasse district of Paris, and the downstairs truly feels like an artist’s studio, with live music performances and local art hanging on the walls. Despite the fabulously designed interiors, my friends and I were lured outdoors to a patio table because we wanted to try the new “urban picnic” menu.

My friends and I were handed a list of about a dozen simple yet delicious-sounding items, and after much back and forth, we checked off the Sicilian tuna with artichokes and sun-dried tomatoes, Manchego cheese with honey, tuna tartare and seasonal red cherries. Within minutes, our server dropped an oversize picnic basket on our table. Tucked inside were adorable glass jars containing each of our dishes, along with two butcher-paper-wrapped French baguettes. After a round of Beehive juleps (made with two rums and a drop of honey) arrived, we passed around jars, taking forkfuls from each and battling for the last scoops of our favorites (there aren’t plates, so things got a little messy, which was part of the fun). It was the perfect prelude to a game—satisfying, yet not so overwhelming that I couldn't make room for my ballpark dog by the sixth inning.

Our excellent Lily Barberio food intern Emily Carrus, formerly part of the pastry team at the Modern and a baker at Levain Bakery, shares the following news: 

Good news, chocolate-lovers: technology—or at least IBM—is on our side. Turns out this mega tech company recently partnered with Mars, maker of some of America’s favorite candies, to develop better cacao trees. By reworking cacao’s DNA, IBM hopes to produce trees that can flourish even through poor growing conditions like drought and damaging fungi growth. This is good news not just for the mid-afternoon chocolate craver, but also for cacao farmers worldwide, who face economic stress when unhealthy cacao harvests can’t generate enough income to support their communities.

The announcement seems to come at a pertinent time. Just minutes before learning of this partnership, I came across an article in the Chicago Sun Times about how Americans are still feeding their sweet tooths by indulging in their favorite treats despite the not-so-great economy. Candy sales are even up from last year, according to the National Confectioners Association. Clearly, demand for cacao won’t diminish any time soon.

Chocoholics who can’t wait for the IBM project to get off the ground may want to stock up on their favorite chocolate bars and candies, just to be safe. Or, there’s always Askinosie’s C-Ration, a cleverly packaged month (or even year’s) supply of dark chocolate—good to keep on hand for emergencies.