To thoroughly enjoy the glory that is Top Chef Texas, we welcome comedian Max Silvestri, who will be here every week to take us through the season.

If you thought that a setting change would speed up the interminable funeral march toward this season's end, your thoughts were very wrong. Having milked Texas's tourism councils for as much money as they could spare, Bravo has headed north to British Columbia, taking some extra government funds in exchange for Tom and Padma saying "British Columbia" 500 times during each of the finale's nine hours. Whistler looks like a very pretty place, but it's light on kitchens, and all that makes for a pre-finale that is surprisingly focused on gimmicks. Bravo, these guys have slogged through so many hours of bullshit reality hijinks, so can we please watch them cook now? No, we can't? Alright.

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Here is a video montage from Conan O'Brien that pays tribute to the bite-and-drop Valentine's Day chocolates — the pieces in the box that nobody really likes. You know, things like mint gel, carob marzipan, brandy tomato, spam, and of course, sand.

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Pici Enoteca, LA [Photo: Muy Yum/Flickr]

· Organic Milk Low as Demand Up and Farmers Struggle [AP]
· What Would Boston Do to Bring in Top Chef? [Eater Boston]
· Chinese VP Gets High-Calorie, Bacon-y Iowa Statehouse Dinner [The Daily]
· Are Food Magazines in Decline? [Chow]
· The Swimsuit Model Dessert Survey [GSNY]
· Gwyneth Paltrow: Corporate Shill For Int'l Garbage Food [Videogum]
· P.F. Chang's to Acquire Majority Stake in True Food Kitchen [NRN]
· Charles Phan to Open Creole Restaurant on the Embarcadero [Eater SF]
· One Year In: Niko's Cobi Levy, James London, and Kwang Kim [Eater NY]
· Five New NYC Cocktails to Try This Month [Eater NY]

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· What's the Deal With Elevation Burger? [SE]
· Please School Me on Caviar [CH]
· Five Guys vs. In-N-Out? [CH]
· Wendy's New Hidden Upcharge [Yelp]

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On the day that elBulli would normally have started a new service season, Ferran Adrià debuted an exhibit on his now-shuttered restaurant at Palau Robert, the historic Barcelona building and exhibition space. He confirmed reports that the exhibit will stop in London and New York next year after it completes its run in the Catalonian capital.

In an interview with El País, Adrià also shares new details on elBulli Foundation, which will open its doors in 2014. He hopes that it will become a "Wikipedia of high cooking with free access to all of its content," and says that "we can't have a gastronomic revolution every five minutes, so what we need to do now is look back and establish a foundation to preserve that and keep it alive."

· El primer día de la fundación de Ferran Adrià [El País]
· All Ferran Adrià Coverage on Eater [-EN-]
[Photo: Tejederas/El País]

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Here are nine Japanese-inspired restaurants across the United States that offer mind-blowing omakase menus. There are the traditionalists and those that stick to the basics (Naoe in Miami, Sushi Den in Denver), uni auteurs (Soto in New York), luxe show-stoppers (Urasawa in Los Angeles, Shaboo in Las Vegas), and entries from non-Japanese chefs that fall into the category in pretty virtuosic ways (Uchiko in Austin, O-Ya in Boston).

Be sure to nominate your favorites in the comments, and now, to the full list:

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Soft-spoken British chef and name-lending enthusiast Gordon Ramsay has been booted from Laurier BBQ, the historic Montreal restaurant he signed on to consult for in 2010. According to a report in the Montreal Gazette, the restaurant's owner Danny Lavy is severing all ties to the TV chef because Ramsay was "too busy to come to the restaurant" and hadn't been in since August. Lavy is in the process of removing all traces of Ramsay branding from the business, and the restaurant's website and Twitter account have been deleted.

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Goodness, is it hot in here? Must be because the Eater Hottest Chef contests are on to the final round of voting. Look at all the hotness up there. Or, click below to vote on the hottest chefs in your area, and check back here next week when the winner of each city's contest will go head-to-head to win the coveted title of Hottest Chef in America.

Go on, you know you want to look.

· Boston · New York · Philadelphia · Washington, DC · Atlanta · Miami · New Orleans · Houston · Austin · Dallas · Chicago · Denver · Las Vegas · Los Angeles · San Francisco · Portland · Seattle ·

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