The Wednesday Wrap: Food News to Go

The Swifty  Lazar of the Food World: Allen Salkin profiles Lee Schrager, food festival booker extraordinaire. [NY Times]

"The Imperfect Hostess": Denise Martin profiles Padma Lakshmi, who, "despite her bountiful and broad-based food experience, she still struggles with being taken at face value." [LA Times]

Look Out, Cupcakes...: Rebekah Denn offers a nice overview of Seattle's artisan ice cream scene. [Seattle PI]

Seasoned with Sass: Laura Reiley catches up with Paula Deen during a sold-out swing through Tampa. [St. Petersburg Times]

Hugh Did It!: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's brilliant River Cottage Meat Book won Cookbook of the Year at the James Beard Foundation Awards. [James Beard Foundation]

Fit for a King?: Higher prices, increased fuel costs, and overall economic woes are keeping consumer's from celebrating this year's Copper River salmon run. [Seattle Times]

Bruni Beat: Ago, the restaurant in the new Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca, comes in with a no-star rating of "poor." "This restaurant isn't in the hospitality business. It's in the attitude business, projecting an aloofness that permeated all of my meals there, nights of wine and poses for swingers on the make, cougars on the prowl and anyone else who values a sort of facile fabulousness over competent service or a breaded veal Milanese with any discernible meat." A "Poseidon Adventure of wine spills," an hour-delayed reservation, and the worst seat in the house probably didn't help matters. [NY Times]