Dan Macdonald

It's a Southern thing. This isn't the sort of dessert that is eaten every week. One day soon I hope people will appreciate the fact that there is Southern cuisine that comes from places other than New Orleans and Miami. Is this dish healthful, no. Is it inventive, yes. It's the sort of dessert that any home cook can make and be the hit of a dinner party. That's Paula's audience. She serves them well.

As it happens, Sara is coming to Jacksonville for a celebrity chef thing at one of the malls. I am talking to her on Tuesday.I usually don't do this, but what the hey — anyone have any questions they'd like to ask her?

Recently I had the chance to talk to Kathleen Finch, VP of Programming at Food Network. Here's the link: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stor..._18162227.shtml Cut for space was the news that Rachael Ray's upcoming wedding will NOT be on the Food Network. Although Finch would love to have such a show based on the success of Paula Deen's wedding. Ray has declined the network's offer.

The conversation about comped meals and hiding the reviewer's identity intrigues me. I'm the food editor in Jacksonville, Florida. It's a growing city with new restaurants opening all of the time.As food editor, my picture is in the newspaper so I do not do the reviews. We do not have a full-time reviewer. I have three freelancers. I assign and edit the reviews.The newspaper pays for the meal. Like many newspapers this size, we go only once. A return trip is paid for only if the first was a horrendous experience. As a result, the restaurant reviews tend to be favorable. They describe the room, give examples of menu items and prices. The reviewer may actually sample only four appetizers and four entrees and four desserts (eating off the plates of their guests). The newspaper will not pay for wine and balks at reciepts that come in at more than $150. As food editor, I am the person the public calls and e-mails for restaurant advice. Because the newspaper does not pay for me to eat, I have not dined at many of the newer restaurants in the area. In fact, if my wife didn't have a much better paying job than myself, my dining experiences would be even fewer. What this is all leading to, as we discuss ethics, do you think that the quality of food coverage and expertise at the midsize newspaper is lacking? Are we serving the reader if we are restrained economically from going to a restaurant more than once or if the food editor only knows about a restaurant from what the review said?

Great. They've made the recipes useful, now they can do something about the magazine's design. It's the most frustrating publication. Stories interrupted by pages of ads that masquerade as editorial copy. Cutlines meld into pictures to the point that they are unreadable. The magazine is a mess.

KPurvis is so right (as she is about most things) about first person and food writing. When I came into the field six years ago, we told the readers that I wasn't a cook but I wanted to learn. So my columns at first were often stories about my kitchen mishaps. I relied upon my neighbors to provide the cooking success stories. Over the years, the column evolved to the point that if I don't write about a neighborhood happening for awhile, readers ask if I have moved. First person has allowed me to make a strong connection with readers — many of them men. I can't tell you the number of times I have been in a sports bar, watching a game next to a stranger when through casual converstion or by recognizing me from my picture (right again Kpurvis) the stranger wants to talk to me about food. I've missed a lot of basketball games since taking on the food beat.