Photos by Jeremy Parzen

Houston native and Food & Wine magazine executive wine editor Ray Isle (left) spent the last few days eating his way through Houston. Our city's restaurant scene has "captured the national media's attention," he told me, "because it combines the global and the local."

My 80-year old mother may not know his name but she knows his face.

"You mean that handsome young man who talks about wine on the Today show with Kathie Lee [Gifford] and Hoda [Kotb]?" she asks when I mention that I'm having lunch in Houston with Food & Wine executive wine editor Ray Isle.

But hey, let's cut Ray some slack: My mother isn't exactly totally up to speed on the highest-profile wine writers in our country today. But she does watch morning television religiously.

Thanks to his monthly columns and frequent appearances on national television, Ray is known to more American wine lovers than any other U.S. wine writer working today. And his work not only reflects the heightened levels of wine connoisseurship in our country, it also shapes and informs the American wine palate on a scale unimaginable even a few short years ago.

Yesterday, Ray sat down with me at The Pass & Provisions on Taft for a sampling of its menu and a chat about his visit this week to Texas, where he spoke at the Austin Food & Wine Festival and spent some time catching up with family and eating his way through Houston.

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The King had peanut butter and banana sandwiches. King B has Frenchy's chicken and boudin.

Houston's favorite son -- you didn't know Beyoncé is also known as King B? -- has been getting plenty of attention recently for her new songs, "Bow Down" and "I Been On." Some of the attention is positive: The Root praised the anthem for Beyoncé's "turn as a rapper," and Jezebel is calling the spliced-together tracks "totally new and totally different."

Some of the attention, of course, is negative. The Washington Post accused Beyoncé's first new tracks in two years of being anti-feminist, and Rush Limbaugh -- the guy who's been successfully trolling Americans for years -- agreed. Limbaugh hilariously "misinterpreted" Beyoncé's command of "bow down, bitches" to mean that she was bowing down to her husband, rapper Jay-Z, telling listeners on his radio show that "[b]ecause she married a rich guy...[Beyoncé] now understands it's worth it to bow down."

What can't be misinterpreted in the song, however, is King B's love for Frenchy's.

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Check out which local chef sure looks a lot like a Spice Girl, who might be hosting a game show in his spare time, and who we think is a long-lost triplet:

See also:
- 12 Celebrity Chefs Who Have Cartoon Doppelgangers
- 13 Celebrity Chef Doppelgangers

Photo by Mai Pham

13. Kaz Edwards vs. Joshua Jackson

We could swear Uchi's Chef de Cuisine starred on Dawson's Creek before culinary school.

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Photos courtesy of Lucille's

In addition to being an all-around BAMF, Smith also rocked some spectacles which I seriously covet.

The subject of this week's cafe review, Lucille's, frustrated me so much over the course of three visits that I struggled this week to find much nice to say about it in my weekly review advance (the post you're reading right now which -- hopefully -- directs readers to each week's restaurant review).

Determined to find something positive to focus on -- after all, I wanted desperately to like Lucille's, especially after a terrific first visit back in September -- I decided to discover what I could about Lucille Bishop Smith, the woman for whom Lucille's is named.

Smith was chef/owner Chris Williams's great-grandmother and a Texas culinary pioneer. And while she may not be as well-known as women who tore up Texas kitchens -- such as Helen Corbitt or Zephyr Wright -- Smith was a force of nature herself.

"Women have carved out their own niche by inventing or developing products that arose out of their experiences as women," writes Mary Beth Rogers in the introduction to Legendary Ladies of Texas, in which Smith is cited as one such lady.

"Lucille Bishop Smith invented the first hot biscuit mix," writes Rogers, "and led the way for a new food industry."

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We've taken a look at the Sexiest Men in the Kitchen (meatballs, anyone?). Now it's the ladies' time to turn up the heat.

Check out the Top 5 Hottest Female Chefs:

It's like you can see the crazy in her eyes...

5. Nadia Giosia

As in, "Nadia G." As in, the wild and slightly psychotic Italian but Canadian-born chef, singer and host of Nadia G's Bitchin' Kitchen.

This sultry chef started out with a Web series before bitchin' her way onto slightly bigger screens with shows on the Cooking Channel and on Food Network Canada. With dirty blond hair, big red lips and a bad-girl attitude, Nadia teaches us how to rock out in the kitchen, all while wearing three-inch stilettos.

...and then she does things like this:

So yes, she may be nuts -- but sometimes, a little crazy can be hot. Right?

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It's getting hot in the kitchen, and not just from the flames.

Check out the Top 5 Hottest Celebrity Male Chefs that make our flames broil:

Double your pleasure...

5. Govind Armstrong

Armstrong's dreamy locks first made our hearts flutter on shows like Bravo's Top Chef and Top Chef Masters and the Food Network's Iron Chef America. Dubbed the " Culinary King of Los Angeles," the chef owns the popular 8 oz. Burger Bar and is the author of a steamy cookbook, Small Bites, Big Nights: Seductive Little Plates for Intimate Occasions and Lavish Parties.

With his sexy, laid-back vibe and killer smile, we wouldn't mind joining him for a seductive, "big" night of our own...

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Paula Deen is too easy of a target for the ire of the Internet. She cooks with copious amounts of butter, and has just that right mixture of cheerfulness and Southern sass to drive people crazy. Then, this past week we found out she has been living with diabetes.

Not that having diabetes is a personal flaw, but even as she showed people how to cook delicious foods with near-toxic levels of fat and sugar, she was suffering the consequences of it. Let's be honest, though: She wasn't holding a gun to anyone's head forcing them to buy industrial globs of butter to cook with. It's called free will, people. I love all those prison shows on MSNBC, but I don't have any desire to go to jail.

Today the cooking show host and surrogate crazy aunt to millions turns 65 years old, and in the spirit of the day, we found a few GIFs for you to stare at , well, really to be entranced by. Remember last year's hit meme, Paula Deen Riding Things? It's back y'all, and now it can move!

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The three Pura Vida labels and the limited edition Extra Anejo

Wednesday, we spoke with Stewart Skloss of Pura Vida Tequila and learned a little about how his brand got started and what makes Pura Vida stand out from the big names in tequila. Today, we talk food and "The Gibbons."

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Founder Stewart Skloss with a bottle of the Pura Vida Anejo

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I didn't expect to actually meet with Stewart Skloss when I contacted the offices of Pura Vida Tequila. I especially did not expect to meet with him the week of Cinco de Mayo and the launch of their radio station, the first ever "fueled" by a tequila company.

The history of Pura Vida begins with a 20-year-old Skloss traveling through Mexico and stumbling across a town called Tequila, Mexico. He and his traveling companion, a U.S. diplomat, turned this adventure into a venture known as Dos Hermanos. But that was short-lived, as at that age he "had the attention span of a Mexican jumping bean."

Stewart went on to become successful in business, but the idea of a brand of tequila never left him and so arrived Pura Vida 20 years later.
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A cell phone-lit dinner is what you often see looking around restaurant dining rooms in the Western world these days. Sounds romantic, doesn't it? Everywhere, there's that blue glow highlighting the blemishes, under-eye bags, and chins of diners who send electronic messages through invisible radiowaves in the air.

As a server, I frequently witness members of the same party texting away while dining, and it's just as common in the case of couples as larger groups. At times I can't help imagining scenarios in which some phone users are Twittering about the extra lettuce on a salad or updating their Facebook status about how fascinating a date is. But truly, it's depressing how common it's become to blatantly show disinterest toward one's dining companions by not being fully present.

Weekly tip from your server: Hang up your phone and eat.

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