Mind of a Chef, the PBS TV series, has just announced that Season 4 will star Gabrielle Hamilton, chef of Prune in New York City and author of Blood, Bones and Butter and the recent Prune cookbook. Hamilton is certainly one of the most compelling figures in the food world right now (check out our interview with the chef a couple of months back), so it ought to be a fascinating season. This season will feature two chefs — the second star will be announced in upcoming weeks. 

There's an all-ranch-dressing restaurant coming to St. Louis. So. Not so smug about your West-Coast-is-the-best-coast attitude now, are ya???

The tipping debate continues … and continues … and will never end. (Seriously, just Google “abolish tipping,” and see how long this debate has been going on.) Today, Eater has an op-ed from an anonymous server about why he or she does not want to give up tipping in exchange for a “living wage.” 

Lucky Peach has a video on how to dice a perfect onion with Rustic Canyon chef Jeremy Fox. (Oh, and if you missed it, it really is worth reading the long profile of Fox that Lucky Peach ran last week online and in the current issue in print.)

In opening and closing news: Don Chente has opened a location downtown, the  L.A. Times reports on Mint Leaf opening soon in North Pasadena, Food Republic is just finishing up an “Italian American week,” and had a report on Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo's upcoming restaurant of Fairfax (with quotes from moi!), Zagat has some facts on Knuckle and Claw, which is now open in Silver Lake, Eater reports on Ox & Son now soft open in Santa Monica, as well as giving good gossip about Barnyard in Venice, which is now apparently closed after the chef and entire staff walked out. 

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