Chef

The menu at Bel Air's Pairings Bistro changes throughout the year, evolving to highlight the best products from each season. This spring, Chef/owner Jon Kohler is serving small, succulent spring chickens, roasted and served with fresh peas and local mushrooms. Pairings Bistro 2105 Laurel Bush Road | Suite 108 | Bel Air, MD 21015 410-569-5006 | pairingsbistro.com Roast Poussin with Wild Mushrooms and Spring Pea Ragout Serves 6 Poussins: 6 poussins (spring chickens, preferably from KCC Natural Farms in Forest Hill)

Celebrity chef Maneet Chauhan of the Food Network show "Chopped" will be at Ouzo Bay for a dinner event on April 20. Her people tell us that it's "a reservation-only dining experience. Guests will enjoy a three-course, prix-fixe meal for $95 a person, including a specialty cocktail crafted by Chef Chauhan. The appetizers and entrees will have a wine pairing, and guests will receive a copy of Maneet's book 'Flavors of My World.' Chef Chauhan will also be mingling with the guests.

People flock to Pimlico Race Course on the third Saturday in May for the excitement, for a good party or for a stiff Black-Eyed Susan. The bill of fare, though, hasn't been high on the list of attractions since the Coolidge administration. The Maryland Jockey Club is looking to have the food at this year's race make the kind of lasting impression fans haven't seen since 1997, when Silver Charm, Free House and Captain Bodgit were separated at the finish by less than three feet.

Who had whom in a headlock is the focus of a dispute between a Baltimore chef and a diner. The parties in the argument are Kevin Perry, the chef and co-owner at Liv2Eat, a restaurant in the Riverside neighborhood of South Baltimore, and Wesley Doyle, 42, of Baltimore, who was dining at Liv2Eat on Friday with his wife and their two children. Perry, who is 34 and lives in Annapolis, and Doyle have filed criminal complaints, each charging the other with second-degree assault. Perry also charged Doyle with reckless endangerment and affray, which is similar to disturbing the peace.

Three Baltimore chefs will make their James Beard House debuts on May 30 when they prepare a Chesapeake Bounty dinner for the James Beard Foundation. The chefs, Chad Gauss ( The Food Market ), Cyrus Keefer ( Birroteca ) and Sajin Renae ( Fork & Wrench ), are behind three of the most popular and well-reviewed restaurant openings of 2012. The menu for the Chesapeake Bounty dinner has not been finalized. The Chesapeake Bounty dinner is one of more than 200 culinary events open to the public that take place at the James Beard House in New York City throughout the year.

On Friday, "Top Chef All-Stars" winner Richard Blais joins Henry Hong and John Shields on the 1 p.m. hour of Midday with Dan Rodricks (WYPR, 88.1) to discuss recipes and cooking tips that help home chefs step up their game in the kitchen. Blais is the author of "Try This at Home: Recipes From My Head to Your Plate," which has been lavished with praise-filled blurbs from the likes of Andrew Zimmern ("Richard has created a book that I wish I had written - a book that will inspire not only professionals to look at food technique and flavor in a different way, but that any casual cook can work out of each and every day. ")

Heavy Seas Alehouse has announced the lineup for its third guest chef dinner to benefit the Ullman Cancer Fund for Young Adults The chefs this time include, in addition to Heavy Seas Alehouse's own Matt Seeber, Sisha Ortuzar of Riverpark, a Tom Colicchio Restaurant in New York City; Matthew Peterson of City Zen & Sou'Wester in Washington and Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen. The guest mixologist is Imbibe Magazine's 2013 Bartender of the Year Ryan Maybee of the Reiger Hotel Grille and Exchange in Kansas City, Mo. The Guest Chef Dinner is 6:30 p.m. June 26 at Heavy Seas Alehouse, 1300 Bank St. Tickets are $100.

On Friday, Feb. 1, award-winning New York chef, restaurateur and cookbook author Seamus Mullen joined mystery writer, columnist and book reviewer Jennifer Vido, of Harford County, for her 8th Annual Author Dinner for Arthritis. Vido has been living with rheumatoid arthritis since she was a child and advocates for the 1.1 million Marylanders living with arthritis. The event was sponsored by Andrew McMeel Publishing. Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in 2007, Mullen was determined to change the way he ate to help his body fight the RA. His cookbook, Hero Food, was released last year and focuses on foods that reduce inflammation in the body.

This finale was unlike anything we've ever seen, and clearly produced by some kind of fill-in crew. The entire episode was done in Iron Chef style “live” from a Kitchen Stadium-esque set with a hooting and hollering audience. This episode was also edited in a frenetic, choppy way that left me edgy and confused. The challenges and dishes were not clearly introduced, so much so that I was pretty sure at one point that I had missed the first 30 minutes of the show. But enough griping ... on with the finale.