Does Wolfgang Puck belong in a Museum? Jane Dornbusch in the Boston Herald looks at Puck's catering firm taking over the food service for Boston's Museum of Science, which is already featuring Puck's pizzas, pastas and Chinois chicken salad.

Out in California, we're getting into Salmon season...except there is a problem. Regulations forbid the commercial landing of wild California Pacific salmon from the usual fishing grounds off the Northern California coast for the month of June. So what is the solution? Alaska Salmon. This extensive article looks at the varieties of Alaska Salmon, what questions to ask when buying it, a glossary of the varieties available on the market and tips for preparing it, including the following:

Fat content affects flavor because fat is the major flavor carrier. Fat, like marbling in beef, turns out a tender or tough piece of meat depending on how long you cook it.

Most frozen fish lose quite a bit of moisture when thawed because of cellular breakdown.

Other factors -- how the fish was handled after it was caught, whether it's left on the bone and with the skin on before cooking, for example -- also affect taste and cooking method.

So if you've sworn off the Atlantic farmed Salmon, it appears that the Alaska variety can work quite nicely...if you know how and what to get.



Peter Meehan chronicles The Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, which opens this weekend. Barbecue in the big city? You betcha, and there are many advantages that the city has, which you wouldn't get in a country place...



With an eye on better personal health, the University of California Press has published "The New American Plate". Sue Ontiveros has a review in the Chicago Sun Times.

The team knew it had its work cut out. For one, they knew that this cookbook had to shatter the myth that health food is dull and strange, lacking in taste. Forget the "health" food at those old hippie havens of the late '60s and early '70s. The recipes in this book aren't that.

The book looks interesting,and the review is quite thorough.

Cathy Sagon has a look at how supermarkets are conducting studies which will help consumers get what they need quicker and check out as fast as possible.