Mercat a la Planxa's Jose Garces flays Bobby Flay on Iron Chef [Philly City Paper] Applebee's "owns riblets." Wonderful; another reason not to go. [NYT] Joanna MIller delves into a vegetarian nicoise salad. [My Vegetable Blog] A teaser for Paul Kahan's upcoming the Publican. [Drive-Thru] Food Chain on Alliance Bakery Break-In [Food Chain] TOC reveals the secret of Carnivale's Mojitos. [TOC] Chris Borelli of the Tribune braves the opening of the Aurora Sonic [Tribune] TOC's......

Just added to the list of participants for September's Chicago Gourmet event are Koren Grieveson of avec, Jose Garces of Mercat a la Planxa, the Hearty Boys duo of Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, Takashi's Takashi Yagihashi, Christophe David of NoMI and Terrance Brennan of the soon-to-open Chicago location of his Artisanal Bistro and Wine Bar.......

We know that Chicago is a restaurant hot spot. While out-of-town writers particularly tend to maintain the clichés (earned, mind you) of Chicago being a steak and potatoes, deep dish pizza town, out-of-town chefs know the real score. The cover story to yesterday's Sun-Times food section was about the flood of celebrity chefs opening restaurants here in the upcoming months. Laurent Gras is opening L2O, Jose Garces' Mercat a la Planxa is one of the......