Say it isn't so: is it the end of Patricia Unterman's tenure at the SF Examiner? Last week, we could not find her review, and emailed her asking what's up, to no avail. This week, the food section in the Examiner website again links to the Fodor dining guide or to DineSite.com. The old url takes you now to the Ex front page. Did the Examiner drop her column? Was she abducted? Did she choose to enjoy the pleasures of retirement? We sure hope none of the above, it would be a sad loss for the food lovers in SF. At least we can still read her in her excellent guide or eat at her restaurant.

No one can really replace Patty, but making a very impressive effort, we find Marcia Gagliardi of the TableHopper newsletter. It comes out on Tuesdays, cutting the grass under the feet of the Weeklies, the Chron food section, and our little paws too. And it is charmingly addictive, with a mix of reviews, insider information, new openings and tips, and tons of fun. It is so well made we cannot believe our luck to find this mailed for free to our inbox. The Northside, one of the free neighborhood rags, has picked up the column. Hopefully it won't be steered too much towards the North side, the Marina is overrated as a foodie destination. The TableHopper site has the absolute best concierge feature, which we tried out: ask what kind of place you need for your special dinner, and you shall receive a personalized restaurant suggestion. Ain't it cool or what?

Picture of Marcia Gagliardi from www.tablehopper.com.

Other place to get your food scoop, dished by the food lovers for the food lovers: Chowhound of course, which just announced it was purchased by CNET Networks. Which means that the antiquated software Chowhound was using will be unplugged from life support, and a new makeover is in the works. Hopefully it also means the end of the pleas for donations "to pay for bandwidth," wink wink, if you know what we mean. If you don't, don't worry: us neither. But consider the cost of web hosting a site which receives 100,000 visitors a day, and each page is 350kB, both less than say, gothamist, multiply, subtract revenues from adsense, and a two-book deal, factor in the generosity of food addicts, and we reach our own conclusions. Chowhound is an amazing resource due to the collective knowledge of the participants in the forum, and we cross our fingers that it will stay this way. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but we would not be surprised if someone had plenty glasses of bandwidth to celebrate.

Next week Tuesday, Harold McGee will moderate a talk about charcuterie at the commonwealth club. He is the author of the bible of scientific cooking, On Food and Cooking, the science and lore of the kitchen, which explains which temperature breaks the collagen when you cook meat or what chemical reaction happens when you add lemon juice. You thought you were making mayo? Actually, you are "transferring emulsfiers from the yolk particles to the oil droplet surfaces." We'll spare you the physics of surface tension. Anyhow, panel participants are the Who's Who of salumi making in the bay area: Paul Bertolli, formerly of Oliveto, founder, Fra'Mani Handcrafted Salumi, Chris Cosentino, executive chef, Incanto and John Piccetti, owner, Columbus Salame, so if you have a spare pig to butcher, or just an Italian last name, go attend. Info here.

McGee focused on how sciences can be used for better cooking, but how about economics? That's a science too. Berkeley professor Brad DeLong speculated that the parsimonious use of cinnamon in recipes was an artifact from the historically high price of spices in general and cinnamon in particular. Meaning that the rules which govern the restrained use of cinnamon were defined when cinnamon was a luxury. Since it is now a commodity, these rules are obsolete, and shouldn't cinnamon --and a lot of it-- be inserted in our diet? Economists would think so, and this week we learn the experimental answer is yes. Says DeLong: Coffee, tea, anything having to with apples, and bread are greatly improved by adding lots and lots of cinnamon. Glad we cleared that up.