Sometimes I just want to smack certain people across the head, and this latest idiocy involving NY's Pearl Oyster Bar's Rebecca Charles and her former sous chef Ed McFarland and "intellectual property"--a.k.a. the menu--has my palm craving a good impact tingle. Someone so foolish as to sue over place settings and Caesar dressing is plain annoying, but even more foolish is the fact McFarland considered copying his ex-boss like that. He has some nerve. But still, I think every restaurant owner should be wary of employees replicating their methods.

F*** him, too.

Um, Mr. Man, swearing is part of every industry. In every profession profanity is prominent, whether it be muttered under one's breath or said out right. The latter does nothing for either party--the instigator and the recipient--and in fact it could worsen any given situation. In such a heated (so to speak) environment as a kitchen, I find it especially crucial to keep one's temper. And people like Gordon Ramsay, whose gotten a lot of recent press for filial negligence and profanity, who throw around four-letter words like prepositions really in effect get less respect than those who prefer to handle a situation maturely. In Ruhlman's Soul of a Chef Thomas Keller admitted to having quite a temper in the French Laundry's earlier days, and later came to realize it got him nowhere. It just made both parties angrier. He has come to control his rage and keep it in check, and the restaurant runs much more smoothly. Still, Ramsay is sticking to his belief that profanity is "essential" in this industry.

Venus vs. Mars

I don't believe that men are better chefs than women, nor do I believe women override men. Women do, however, tend to serve up fare that's distinctly more comforting, more soul-satisfying than men, who, as it states in this great article, like to show off a little (or a lot) more, i.e. Grant Achatz and Ferran Adria. Not to say that this is all bad; we need insane restaurants. There are exceptions to the rule, of course: more robust women that pack a wallop, and men with a slightly more feminine touch. And I think that these more, how shall I say, delicate men make food as satisfying as a grandmother's, plus a bit of artfulness. Bradley Ogden and Dennis Leary come to mind, and even I prefer to prepare more humble cuisine. "Mama Food."