Food and politics salad.

A White House Chef Who Wears Two Hats

TWICE a month, President Obama’s senior policy advisers gather at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to hash out strategies for improving the health of the country’s children. Among the assistant secretaries, chiefs of staff and senior aides sits an unlikely participant: a bald, intense young man who happens to be the newest White House chef.

His name is Sam Kass. And when he’s not grilling fish for the first family or tending tomatillos in the White House garden, he is pondering the details of child nutrition legislation, funding streams for the school lunch program and the best tactics to fight childhood obesity.

Full article:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/dining/04kass.html?_r=1&ref=dining

Two weeks waiting list to try the sake…..

Las Vegas.

Forgo sushi for the aburiya-style (grilled) Japanese food at Raku, the fifteen-month-old restaurant on Spring Mountain opened by former Megu chef Mitsuo Endo. Make reservations at least two weeks in advance, or miss the rush (and spy on off-duty chefs) by going late-night.