Put the hamburger down. That beef patty? It may have been rinsed with ammonia to kill the E. coli. Those tomatoes? They’re not really red, just genetically modified to look that way. And the ketchup? It’s one of countless products, including batteries and diapers, made with processed corn.

Such are the lessons of Food, Inc., a documentary that arrives in theaters tomorrow. The film, directed by Robert Kenner, breaks down any illusions of red barns and white picket fences and introduces viewers to the multinational corporations that largely control what America eats.

There are scenes depicting chicken houses where chickens have never seen sunlight and feedlots where tightly packed cattle wade through their own feces. But the real focus of the film, featuring The Omnivore’s Dilemma author Michael Pollan and Fast Food Nation’s Eric Schlosser, is the human cost. The food in our pantries is produced cheaply and efficiently, but as an ominous narrator says, “If you knew, you might not want to eat it.”

Last night, the second installment of Top Chef Masters pitted four more celebrity chefs against each other: Wiley Dufresne, the mutton-chopped molecular gastronomer behind New York's WD-50; Elizabeth Falkner, the Susan Powter-haired owner of San Francisco's Citizen Cake; Graham Elliott Bowles, a tattooed Chicago chef that calls his cooking style "punk rock"; and Suzanne Tracht, a Los Angeles chef who looks like she's spent some time in Lindsay Lohan's tanning bed. In other words, plenty of fodder for our IM conversation during the show. 

• On Monday, the Washington City Paper’s Tim Carman spilled that Citronelle chef/owner Michel Richard might open a restaurant in the former Maestro space in the Tysons Corner Ritz-Carlton. For a time, it looked like British chef Gordon Ramsay would move into the dining room, vacated in 2007 by Fabio Trabocchi. But Carman got ahold of documents that Michel Richard Restaurants sent to potential investors laying out plans of a “10-year primary lease.” Even though Mel Davis, Richard’s publicist, brushed off the rumors, Tom Sietsema wrote on Washingtonpost.com’s Going out Gurus blog that the chef told him “maybe, maybe, maybe.”

• Frank Hankins, owner of Atlas District coffee/wine bar Sova, announced that he’s strengthened his wine and cocktail lists with the help of restaurant veterans Derek Brown and Dan Searing. Brown, former sommelier at Citronelle and Komi and current lead mixologist at the Gibson, was instrumental in luring Jamie MacBain—well known in Portland, Oregon, for his inventive cocktails—to tend bar.

• Teddy Folkman, the chef at Granville Moore’s, made his Food Network debut in July when he beat Bobby Flay in a throwdown of steamed mussels. DCist tells us that he’ll appear again on the TV channel in June, when the 2009 season of The Next Food Network Star begins. For the last six weeks, Folkman has been filming the show, in which the winner earns his or her own show on the Food Network.

• Tim Carman of Washington City Paper reports that Michael Kosmides and Jose Garcia, owners of Teatro Goldoni in downtown DC, will be opening a Mediterranean restaurant at 19th and I streets, Northwest. Teatro’s chef, Enzo Fargione, who has resurrected the Italian restaurant from the dead, will help the owners with their new venture, which is slated to open in December.

Is Johnny Monis this year's Rising Star Chef?

No matter how long the lines get each year for, say, one of Thomas Keller’s smoked-salmon cornets, or how many chefs awkwardly stare at their feet on the silly red carpet, the annual James Beard Awards ceremony remains one of the food world’s most hotly anticipated events. This spring’s gala—co-hosted by pocket-size Iron Chef Cat Cora, garlic-obsessed TV chef Emeril Lagasse, and as always, a random actor (last year, Kim Cattrall; this year, Stanley Tucci)—will be held May 4 at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall. The nominees were announced this morning—on Twitter, naturally—and we’re happy to report there are many locals to root for.

Johnny Monis, who opened Dupont Circle’s Komi five years ago at age 24, is once again nominated for Rising Star Chef. Among others, Monis is up against Sean Brock of Charleston’s McCrady’s, the restaurant where Monis started his career. The Best Chef Mid-Atlantic category is dominated by local folks: Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve, Peter Pastan of Obelisk and 2 Amys, and Vikram Sunderam of Rasika.
 

If you’re still mourning local girl Carla Hall’s loss on Top Chef, we have some good news for you: There’s a new culinary reality-TV show with not one but many Washington contestants to root for. The Chopping Block, which airs Wednesdays on NBC, features two-person teams competing for a $250,000 prize, which they’d use to open their own restaurant. The show stars Marco Pierre White, a screaming, pot-throwing, foul-mouthed British chef who trained the famously short-tempered Gordon Ramsay.

Washington contestants include Mikey Torres, executive chef at Gifford’s Ice Cream, and partner Chad Phillips as well as Alex McCoy, head chef and bar manager at Rugby Food and Spirits, and his brother, Nate McCoy. And then there's Vidalia events coordinator Khoa Nguyen, 29, and his cousin Denise, 22. We admit we had high hopes for the pair, but in a surprise twist they closed out the first episode by standing up to White and walking off the show. 

We recently hung out with the cousins, who talked about their restaurant dreams and just how scary White can be.

The crazy in Carla has won us over. You go, Big Bird!

In her monotone, dragging voice, Leah opens this episode by telling us that cooking is the only thing she’s ever been able to do really well. Winning, she says, would be a validation of her hard work. Do we sense a sliver of enthusiasm?

Long-haired chef Wylie Dufresne, known for his quirky molecular gastronomy at Manhattan’s WD-50, is on hand as the guest judge. He’s obsessed with eggs (who knew?), so for the Quickfire Challenge, the chefs have an hour to create an egg dish that “will surprise our egghead,” says Padma, laughing.

Red in the face, Fabio exclaims, “I’m pissed!” when Dufresne puts him in the bottom for his sunny-side-up eggs two ways. He’s joined Hosea, who tried too hard to incorporate eggs into a Japanese-style breakfast, and Leah, whose potato ravioli were too heavy and greasy. Stefan (obviously) lands in the top with a whimsical eggs two ways—a poached eggs Benedict and a panna cotta with a mango “yolk.” But it’s Carla’s green eggs and ham that takes the cake for its playfulness.