Elina Shatkin

Like chef Craig Thornton of Wolvesmouth fame, we often find ourselves gawping at the humiliation "Hell's Kitchen" contenders must endure. Unlike Thornton, we can tolerate it in more than 20-minute doses. The recent season 8 finale with Nona Sivley beating out blame-game expert Russell Kook was a doozy. We're pretty......

Darth Vader's branded coffee may not be organic and fair trade, but Rob Zombie's is. While the Sith Lord shills an African and Indonesian blend "hand roasted by Stormtroopers," the dark lord of metal offers a Peruvian blend and a dark French roast, both of them organic. Zombie also beats......

--Your official Christmas miracle: Senate passes food safety bill. Slate --Lada Gaga's meat dress, anti-energy drinks, dousing yourself in ginger ale, megalobster and human milk make NY Times' annual Year In Ideas. --Chocolate bunnies free to roam EU, court says. Just-Food --After 20 years, Florida food aid program closes due......

Bloated with absurdly extravagant baubles, even the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog pales in comparison to the Iron Dog 05 Huraxdax. At $4 million, this gold-plated, wood-fired range is the world's most expensive stove. (Iron Dog also makes a cheaper version in silver for the profligate penny-pincher.) Designed by sculptor Joseph......

Downtown Los Angeles has one less British pub to kick around. Less than a week before Christmas, the five-year-old Royal Clayton's, located across the street from Church & State, has shut its doors. Their farewell Tweet offers some consolation: a promise to relocate. To all our Loyal Patrons we want......

Chick-fil-A broke ground this morning on its highly anticipated Hollywood franchise, which we revealed last week. Located at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue, it will be Los Angeles' second Chick-fil-A location when the eatery opens in the summer of 2011. (The first is located near USC.)   Shortly after 10......

Long awaited La Monarca, which we previewed last month, soft-opened its new Santa Monica location today -- in plenty of time to pick up a slice or maybe a whole Rosca de Reyes for Dia de la Candelaria on February 2nd. The popular bakery already has outposts in Huntington Park......

While fro-yo pioneer Pinkberry has experienced a chill in the Los Angeles market over the past year or so (the West Hollywood, Venice, Hollywood and Los Feliz locations have all closed), two of its imitators are making inroads: Yogurtland and Menchie's. Yogurtland improved on Pinkberry's model by charging less, adding......

Best known for chef Carrie Cusack's sweet and savory pies, the best pie at recently opened simplethings' may be the one receiving the least attention: the whoopie pie. Though richly deserved, the whoopie pie's return to glory has been long in coming. Now, at least a year into the trend,......

We suspect that if Darth Vader were around to see the way his name has been shamelessly used to sell coffee to Empire drones, he'd Force choke the lovable nerds at ThinkGeek as quickly as he brought Admiral Motti to heel. But, like Jesus, a lot of things have been......