Chow 13 Profiles Food Movers and Shakers

Courtesy of Chow.com, illustration by Frank Stockton.

Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione searches for the lost brew.

​Chow.com, that home for intrepid foodists popularly known as Chowhound, published the Chow 13 last week, its list of the 13 most influential food fighters of 2009. The article is essentially 13 mini profiles complete with a host of graphic novel-like illustrations. And it's a really fun read.

Among the bakers dozen are Christina Tosi, Momofuko's pastry chef who turns candy bars and potato chips into humorous desserts; Dogfish Head beer founder Sam Calagione, who the article at one point equates to J. Peterman (lol); Ryan Farr, one of the stars of the West Coast's butchering craze; Josh Viertel, the catalyst behind Slow Food USA's organized rise; and Novella Carpenter, who may be the reason why suburbanites are these days raising chickens in their backyards.

Give the Chow 13 a look - you may just read about someone you've never heard of before. As an aside, I learned another thing from Chow today: Fish sauce goes bad, apparently in as little as nine months. Time to throw out my three-year-old bottle.