Adventures in Urban Eating: Steve Dolinsky's podcast Chicago Public Media and Steve Dolinsky

Chicagoan Joan Reardon has spent the past few years pouring over the personal letters between Julia Child and her penpal/friend Avis DeVoto. If it wasn't for DeVoto, Child's seminal book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking might have never reached bookshelves.

It wasn't exactly an Oprah-on-James Frey-intensity interview, but the 15 minutes I spent with Michelin Guide Director Jean-Luc Naret still didn't have him apologizing for any of the perceived inconsistencies from this year's first-ever Chicago edition, but rather, defending his group of inspectors a

Paul Bartolotta has had success pretty much everywhere he's ever worked.

Amanda Hesser has written for The New York Times for years.  She's currently an Editor for the Sunday Magazine, but has also spent the past five years sorting through the Times' extensive archives (back more than 150 years) and pulling together the greatest recipes, ever.

I've been a recreational cocktail enthusiast for the past year or so, and I continue to be drawn to these new compendiums about our cocktail culture. Whereas Dale DeGroff is considered one of the Masters, Tony Abou-Ganim is certainly on par with the best of the best in the U.S. these days.

Barbara Lynch loves vegetables. She'll eat pretty much anything from the ground that's been harvested or picked by some local farmer. But she's also a savvy restaurateur and one of the most talented chefs - male or female - in the country.