Dan Kluger called in from New York, where he is Chef/Owner of Loring Place. His new book is Chasing Flavor, a primer on elevating home cooking to chef level. We talked about lamb and Artesia Restaurant, and compared Domino's Pizza to Papa John's. People prefer Domino's by a wide margin.

Nicole Dorignac, the Grocery Goddess, checked in for her weekly report on what's hot and what's not in grocery world. We talked about printed grocery bags and holiday dishes and the Mom's Throwdown was daube and spaghetti. The Connell sisters still beat Nicole, even though she brought in her brother-in-law for reinforcement.

No Stan Meadows this week. He's in Death Valley with no signal. We did talk about tasso and Thomas Keller, Alex Patout and the benefit of guidebooks for travel.

We talked about lump crab meat and popovers and the Bistro at Maison de Ville.

It was another lady chef from the Kitchen Queens series on Channel 12. Christie Plaisance from Bouligny Tavern checked in. And we talked about all the new foods brought back to Europe by Christopher Columbus, on this Columbus Day.

Nicole Dorignac called in for her grocery report, and the throwdown was Turley Poulet. We talked about Walgreens soda fountain on the birthday of Charles Rudolph Walgreen. And we talked poor boys on Poor Boy Day, kumquats, and  Valencia Spain.

Today is National Basil Day and yesterday was National Bay Leaf Day, so we talked about herbs. There was a technical glitch that prevented Nicole Dorignac from doing her grocery report, so she'll be on tomorrow. And we reminisced about old restaurants.

Stan Meadows called in from Las Vegas for his weekly report on the food in the heartland of America. Stan has been researching shrimp cocktail since the origins of it is traced to Vegas. He's had a few for his research and gave us the ratings

Back to back interviews today, the first from NOCHI and the second about cheese. October starts National cheese month, and who doesn't love that?

Our guest was Sue Zemanick, the owner of Zasu and former chef of Gautreau's. Se traced her career path from er home of Pennsylvania through New York and here in New Orleans. And we talked about McDonald's and french fries and file gumbo.