The take-away from three days and nights at the Culinary Institute of America's food conference -- "World Casual: The Future of American Menus" -- comes the notion that the food of tomorrow will be a big mash-up of tastes and flavors all on one plate.

Twenty years ago hardly anyone knew the name of a chef in a restaurant. Status and power belonged to the guy at the door (rarely was it a woman). That was who you needed to know and, more vitally, who you wanted to know you.

For decades in New York, Indian food traditionally has been burdened with a reputation for being "cheap and cheery," and its restaurants are largely confined to pockets of "curry ghettos" around the city.

Vetri is the real deal: a philanthropic, guitar-playing, accomplished, brilliantly modest chef who owns three restaurants, has two cookbooks, runs a million-dollar foundation, and by happenstance embodies the "six perfections" that a Bodhisattva must generate.

Nation's Restaurant News has published the findings of a new Market Force survey that asked Americans to rank their favorite casual-dining chain resta...