How well do you think you know Martha Stewart? Find her unusual taste in wall decor, her two alternative careers, and the awards she received that had nothing to do with cooking.

1. Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray hate each other, thanks to a heated feud that started in 2006. Rumor has it that Rachael hung a sign on her door that says: “Martha doesn’t live here.”

2. Martha collects taxidermied animals.

3. Martha set the Guiness record for most number of people with the same name in the same room, thanks to an episode in her show when she invited hundreds of “other Marthas” .

4. Though she can perfectly pair her wine with her dish, her favorite drink is a vodka martini.

5. People magazine named Martha one of “50’s Most Beautiful Women” in 1996. Not her first magazine award: she was one of Glamour’s “Best Dressed College Girls of 1961.” (She begun modeling in high school to put herself through college.) She graduated from Barnard.

6. If she didn’t start her media empire, Martha would’ve made a fortune in Wall Sreet. She was one of the first female stock brokers, getting her license in 1968.

Female celebrity chefs are a man’s dream: they cook just like mom (and even better), but make an apron look hot.

Of course, not all celebrity chefs make the cut (sorry, Martha). In a survey of the sexiest celebrity chefs men showed a definite preference for sultry beauties like
Giada De Laurentiis of Everyday Italian (called “a true beauty”) and Nigella Lawson. Rachael Ray made the top 3, but mostly for her physique.

Hide the kitchen knives — celebrity chefs Jessica Seinfeld and Missy Chase Lapine have gone into a war.

Lapine started it, calling Seinfeld a plagiarist for copying recipes. Seinfeld’s book, Deceptively Delicious has been hitting bestseller lists for its creative ways of incorporating healthy ingredients into kids’ favorite meals. It’s the same concept behind Lapine’s own new release, Sneaky Chefs.

Seinfeld’s husband, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, lashed back, calling her “wacko.” “Now she’s accusng my wife of a Watergate-style break-in at Harper Collins [the publisher].”

There are so many celebrity chefs and so many TV programs on the air nowadays that it can be hard to choose which ones to tune in to. A family for our family is the Barefoot Contessa. She is such a wonderfully elegant yet appealingly normal person, rather like we’d all like to be. She’s the perfect host and yes, her recipes are delicious and easy to make. You can make great dishes simply by following along as she tells you what to do from the TV screen.

One of the most interesting things about Ina Garten is that growing up, she wasn’t even allowed to be in the kitchen. For those viewers who’ve never been in the kitchen before, take heart. Just look at where Ina Garten is now and you’ll be inspired too - she had a successful restaurant which she later sold to her employees and still has quite a successful online food business aside from her TV shows.

Ina Garten gives very clear, simple instructions. Just make sure to listen well since she has a rather soft voice. Try her Grilled Lemon Chicken Skewers With Satay Dip. The recipe below is coutersy of the food network and is truly delicious!

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (4 lemons)
3/4 cup good olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves, or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 pounds boneless chicken breasts, halved and skin removed
Satay Dip, recipe follows

Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme. Pour over the chicken breasts in a nonreactive bowl. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight.

Heat a charcoal grill. Grill the chicken breasts for 10 minutes on each side, until just cooked through. Cool slightly and cut diagonally in 1/2-inch-thick slices. Skewer with wooden sticks and serve with Satay Dip.

Satay Dip:
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
2/3 cup small-diced red onion (1 small onion)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger root
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons good red wine vinegar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice

Cook the olive oil, sesame oil, red onion, garlic, ginger root, and red pepper flakes in a small, heavy-bottomed pot on medium heat until the onion is transparent, 10 to 15 minutes. Whisk in the vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, peanut butter, ketchup, sherry, and lime juice; cook for 1 more minute. Cool and use as a dip for Grilled Lemon Chicken skewers.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

Many adults don’t want their kids in the kitchen. They are afraid that the kids will get hurt. They might burn themselves or cut themselves while working on a dish. Parents have a 101 fears about what could happen to their kids and they often see the kitchen as an accident prone area.

What many parents often don’t realize is that kids want to be in the kitchen, helping to make the meals. They love being legally messy - as most dishes can be. They enjoy getting to taste everything first and putting their hands in things. Best of all, they enjoy being with you and experienceing the joy of watching the family relish their cooking.

Get your kid started on making great meals from your kitchen. Make it a family affair. Use recipes from cookbooks like Emeril Lagasse’s “There’s A Chef In My Soup!” There’s A Chef In My Family!” or There’s A Chef In My World!” and you may be amazed at how well your kids do, how delicious the food is and how easy it was to make.

If there is one celebrity chef who is getting major media exposure, it is Rachael Ray. This non-traditional (read not a professional chef or trained in a culinary school) cook went from teaching shoppers a few basic recipes in a cooking demo class to having multiple shows on the Food Network, books and Magazine. You can literally spend everyday with Rachael Ray though it isn’t likely to be in person through these sources.

Her magazine, Everyday With Rachael Ray, is a very useful resource. The recipes included aren’t just a list of ingredients and instructions. Each one has pictures as well so that you know what your finished product is supposed to look like. There are recipes for kids, 30 minute meals, meals for cooking once a month with friends and easy to prepare meals. Just a little something for everybody.

The magazine and its contents are just like Ray herself. It is fun, easy to read and understand. The recipes are easy to follow and result in delicious meals that don’t take forever to make or any major cooking skills.

One area that is very important when you are a regular traveler is the food area of any airport. You sometimes have a lot of time to kill between flights and you may want to grab a bite to eat while you wait. Thankfully, gone are the days when you would have to make do with just greasy food or the vendo machine.

If you are flying out from the T.F. Greenstate Airport in Rhode Island, you will get to enjoy the food made by Wolfgang Puck. Opening in October, the Wolfgang Puck Gourmet Express is an open-air style cafe. The menu includes the chef’s famous pizzas, soups and salads for traveler’s enjoyment. Yummy!

The time may not go any faster (this is definitely beyond Chef Puck’s abilities) but thanks to his creativeness and dedication to quality, the waiting will definitely be a lot tastier. You may not even notice the time because the food is sure to be good.

When a chef achieves celebrity status, certain expectations arise from the masses. The first is that they can cook. The second is that should they have a restaurant business or be involved in one, their restaurants should be superb places that meet at least the basic minimum standards for health and food. They can have a rating of so so but never a zero. That is just unthinkable for many.

Unfortunately, Antony Worrall Thomspon’s latest pub has gotten a zero from the food hygiene inspectors. A spokesman for the health department for the West Wilshire District Council said that all they were interested in is ensuring that each place they rate meets the hygiene standards.

Thompson says that the rating was unacceptable. It was made in December when the pub was being run by a different chef, who has already been sacked. He points out that he merely set up the menu and had an agreement to make a once a year guest appearnce at the pub. It was the pre-christmas rush at the time and they were undermanned.

Would anyone say these are valid reasons? All that Thompson can do is improve the service and try to get a better rating the second time around.

It is the nightmare of everyone. You go out. You are having the time of your life at one of the most important functions of the year. Then someone barfs on you and ruins the mood. Worse, an advisory has come out that one of the caterers in Chef Puck’s team, who catered the party you went to, has been diagnosed with acute Hepatitis A. Health officials say though that Chef Puck’s team has been very cooperative and done their best to keep it from contaminating the food and their patrons.

There were hundreds of guests at the Oscars party, any number of whom may have gotten the disease. There are three other parties as well that may be affected since Chef Puck had helped prepare food for three other events that day, including the party for Sports Illustrated.

The instructions are simple. Anyone who was at a party that Chef Puck catered for needs to look back and recall if they ate any raw or uncooked food. If they were barfed on, they are also at risk. If either of these two things has happened to them then they need to go to their personal physician and have an immune globule shot.

Everybody needs to eat, that we all know. It is a requirement of living. Cooks all over the world know this and strive to present the best possible tasting dishes under any circumstance, even when you work in a submarine.

James Martin recently got to try out the new galley of the HMS Ambush and was surprised at how spacious the galley was. He said it was bigger than most galleys he’d seen and was very well arranged, with the refrigerators and freezers easily accessible. He also noted that everything was well thought out and made to last.

James Martin got to try out the galley, preparing pancakes with a nautical rum sauce. On hand to assist him was Royal Navy Chef Andy Patton of the HMS Turbulent. Chef Patton noted that this galley was bigger than any he had used in the past 11 years. He notes that everything is conveniently placed and is a very comfortable work environment.