Dogfish Head founder and president Sam Calagione may be one of the best known folks in the craft brewing industry. And chances are, if he meets you, he will remember your name.

What does Room 11’s Dan Searing think about the 48-ounce martini? Is it really different from the punches he discusses in his book, The Punch Bowl? We sat down with him to find out.

Up the Green Line past Pleasant Plains, I’m supposed to meet BARTENDERHULK at some new speakeasy on the corner of Brockway and Ogdenville. The bar itself is normal for what you find all over D.C.: backlit spirits, TVs overhead, 15 stools along a wooden bar, a mix of craft and crap. But the “man” behind the bar looks out of place. Green and shirtless, he has a musculature that suggests too much time with steroids. Every now and then he shouts at customers…

Wolfgang Puck is probably one of the most well known chefs in America, and became one of the first “celebrity chefs” in the U.S. with his opening of Spago. Born in Austria, he trained in France before coming to the U.S., making a stop in Indianapolis before settling in Los Angeles. Along with running catering operations (he is the official caterer of the Academy Awards Governor’s Ball), writing cookbooks, hawking his own line of wares on QVC, playing himself and voicing characters in movies (he’ll be playing Chef Smurf in The Smurf Movie), he owns over 15 restaurants, including The Source, located in the Newseum. Between wine dinners, we were able to catch up with the charming chef to ask him about his path to becoming a chef and what inspires him.

Just like our interview with Timothy Dean last week, this interview has spoilers — but only if you’re behind on your TiVo-ing. If you’re trying to maintain a spoiler-free atmosphere, feel free to check out our June interview with Warren, which was conducted before the season kicked off….

Alain Ducasse with Adour DC Chef Julien Jouhannaud (left) and wine director Ramon Narvaez (right). (Josh Novikoff). France’s world-renowned Alain Ducasse was in town to re-launch the menu of his restaurant, Adour DC at the St. Regis. The hotel is now sans scaffolding, and the restaurant has made a few tweaks to make its menu more accessible. A handful of plates can now be ordered as half portions, including a deep red tuna tartare…

Chef Michael Mina in the kitchen at Bourbon Steak. Photo courtesy Amber Pfau. Now that we know the outcome of the 2009 Capital Food Fight to benefit D.C. Central Kitchen, we have to wonder whether Chef Michael Mina was laying it on a little thick last week when he said he was scrambling to try out some recipes that he could whip up in 10 minutes. Mina wound up the big winner at the…

WARNING: This post contains Top Chef spoilers, albeit from last week’s episode. Read no further if you are behind on this season. Zaytinya’s Mike Isabella heard those fateful words, “please pack your knives and go” on last week’s episode of Top Chef. The chefs were brought to host Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak kitchen to ogle and plan a dish using the choicest cuts of meat in Las Vegas, only to be told by guest judge…

Garrett Peck, author of ‘The Prohibition Hangover’ It was at a Christmas dinner several years ago that booze book author Garrett Peck had his “a-ha moment” about writing The Prohibition Hangover. It being a celebration, Peck opened a bottle of 1997 Burgundy—but his grandmother, a product of the Great Depression and the aftermath of the temperance movement, would not indulge. Peck made do—he and his mother split the bottle—but the seed was planted. Why…

Bread has become a big topic recently. According to health codes, retail sales cannot be made from foods produced in a home kitchen unless that kitchen is on a farm. So it makes sense that there are covert home businesses, such as that of my friend, Joe (not his real name) who runs an underground artisanal bread baking business. Joe received a diploma in the Art of International Bread Baking at the French Culinary Institute…