Time Out Chicago - Chicago, IL, USA - As Top Chef airs its Windy City episodes, Features Editor Laura Baginski, Eat Out Senior Writer David Tamarkin and Comedy/Time In Editor Steve Heisler will be tracking its progress. Check back weekly for recaps and plenty of well-deserved snark (on the show’s behalf), and hit up the comments.

Chicago! The culinary capital of the world! Thanks for the kind words about our city, Jennifer Biesty (my vote for the contestant with the most appropriate last name), but if that’s true, wouldn’t Top Chef Chicago pick a less stereotypical, pedestrian dish for its first quick-fire challenge than deep-dish pizza?

But while the challenge

South Bend Tribune - South Bend, IN, USA - Anthony Bourdain suffered quietly as he dined on wart hog -- encrusted with sand, fur and fecal bacteria -- in the African country of Namibia.

Bourdain, host of the Travel Channel's "No Reservations," finished the meal knowing he would become terribly ill. But who was he to complain as a VIP guest of the same arid landscape where Angelina Jolie delivered Brad Pitt's baby?

Spitting out nasty bits of wart hog would be rude to the locals he was dining with.

Taking culinary risks is nothing unusual for Bourdain, a former New York City chef and obsessive gastronome whose appetite for food and

Daily Press - Newport News, VA, USA - Anthony Bourdain suffered quietly as he dined on wart hog — encrusted with sand, fur and fecal bacteria — in the African country of Namibia.

Bourdain, host of the Travel Channel's "No Reservations," finished the meal knowing he would become terribly ill. But who was he to complain as a VIP guest of the same arid landscape where Angelina Jolie delivered Brad Pitt's baby?

Spitting out nasty bits of wart hog would be rude to the locals he was dining with.

"The chief is there in front of his whole tribe offering you his very best," Bourdain said. "Show respect. I'm lucky to

Jaunted - USA - If there's one thing Chef Anthony Bourdain knows, it's food. But it'd take some serious persuading to shovel a lot of what he devours on the Travel Channel's No Reservations down our hatch. Sewer rats, beef tongues and meal worms anyone?

Luckily, the man knows how to travel, and he's made it easy to follow his lead. The No Reservations website includes online itineraries for adventurous palates. He's delivered salvation to travelers in search of soup dumplings in the streets of Shanghai, along with wealth of hotel options. And he offers up local flavor and advice from Ghana's Ministry of Tourism

TV Squad - Santa Monica, CA, USA - The reason I like Anthony Bourdain are many. For one, he knows a lot about food but he's not pretentious about it. Two, he isn't afraid to try bizarre foreign foods. And three, he's really blunt and honest about the state of the food industry and the whole celebrity chef culture. He also happens to be a good writer (check out his mystery stories too).

Our friends over at Gadling.com have an interview with Bourdain. Justin asks him about his early experiences traveling overseas, the one time he ate street food that forced him to go to the doctor, and where

World Hum - Manhattan Beach, CA, USA - Long before World Hum was acquired by the Travel Channel, we were fans of Anthony Bourdain and his show No Reservations. We wrote about his experience in Beirut and his Graham Greene worldview. We even went so far as to call him a street-thug-poet-chef. Gadling just posted an interview with Bourdain, whose new season starts tonight. “What right minded person would NOT travel the world if and when given the chance?” Bourdain told the site—quite reasonably, we think—via e-mail. “I began to travel seriously as soon as I COULD. It took a successful book—and an indulgent network to allow me

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription) - Milwaukee, WI, USA - Yes, Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" is a travel show that focuses on the host eating his way through various exotic locales.

But the series - which returns tonight at 9 on the Travel Channel with a China trip that begins in Shanghai - is much more than that description hints at.

It starts and ends with Bourdain, a chef's chef, whose Kitchen Confidential" offered an insider's look into the New York restaurant biz. The book made him a celeb and got him a Food Network show.

This Travel Channel series stands out from much of food and travel television because Bourdain is a

TV with MeeVee - Burlingame, CA, USA - "No Reservations" is a new movie starring Abigail Breslin as the winsome child who melts icy restaurateur Catherine Zeta-Jones' heart. It's getting mixed reviews. Slate says it's terrible, redeemed only by Abigail Breslin's stellar work, while BuzzSugar says it's actually quite good.

Bourdain I don't care. The "No Reservations" I want to see is the TV series on the Travel Channel, starring chef/writer/badass Anthony Bourdain. He travels the world in search of the ultimate gastronomic experience, whether that's curry in Rajasthan, noodles in Vietnam, or fermented shark in Iceland. A new season begins Monday, July 30th, with a trip to Shanghai.

Bourdain

Springfield State Journal Register - Springfield, IL, USA - It was the freakish art on the cover of Anthony Bourdain’s “Les Halles Cookbook” that inspired Michael Higgins to get his first and only tattoo.

He and another chef at Maldaner’s saw the toque-wearing skull that was wielding crossed chef’s knives on the hardcover edition “and we said, ‘That would be a great tattoo,’” said Higgins, who owns the restaurant at 222 S. Sixth St.

Using that art as a jumping-off point, he and tattoo artist Kevin Veara of Black Moon Tattoos, 1009 W. Edwards St., embellished the Bourdain design with flames, a crossed spoon and fork and the words “Born to

Celebrity Baby Blog - Forest Hills, NY, USA - While blogging about his surprise at enjoying the reality show Next Food Network Star, celebrity chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain mused that maybe his judgment has been skewed by life with his new daughter, Ariane, born April 9.

Is it because I watch Next Food Network Star with a three-month-old girl on my lap that I find it increasingly compelling?  Is it because I'm looking through a pink tinted prism these days that I'm finding Bob Tuschman [a judge on the show] sympathetic?

Whether it's the butterfly mobiles dangling from my ceiling -- the onset of early dementia, or long delayed side

New York Magazine - NY, USA - John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, has been going online anonymously on Yahoo Finance bulletin boards for seven years to blast rival Wild Oats and talk up Whole Foods stock. [NYT]
Related: Did Michael Pollan Throw the Whole Foods Debate? (Just Asking)

Magnolia Bakery, closed for less than a day for having only one sink, has now been reopened after promising to install another one. [Eater]
Related: A Sad Day for Overhyped Pastries: Magnolia Shuttered [Daily Intel]

Anthony Bourdain is warming up to The Next Food Network Star. As a matter of fact, you could say that he’s become a devoted fan: “Whether it's