The New York Restaurant Cookbook: Recipes From the City's Best Chefs is an armchair tour of the most cutting-edge culinary city in the world. The book features recipes for the signature dishes from over 100 of the New York City's best restaurants, all selected and painstakingly adapted by respected food journalist Florence Fabricant.

The new version just out from Rizzoli has been updated with 30 all-new recipes from the most important restaurants in Manhattan, and its surrounding boroughs, on the scene today. Recipes are divided into eleven separate chapters including Appetizers; Soups; Salads; Pasta & Rissoto; Eggs, Sandwiches, Pizza & Brunch; Seafood; Poultry; Meat; Side Dishes; Desserts; and Drinks.

Highlights include Union Square Cafe's Grilled Filet Mignon of Tuna, Brooklyn's hip The Grocery's Seared Foie Gras with Asian Pear and Endive Salad, the iconic Second Avenue Deli's comforting Chicken Soup and the newly minted Fig & Olive's fresh Zucchini Carpaccio recipe. There are also chef's tips, wine and beverage suggestions, an exhaustive sources list, and full directory of restaurant addresses.

Celebrity chefs may make a fortune but chefs across the country make more modest salaries and those salaries got a little smaller in 2008. StarChefs.com, the online magazine for culinary insiders, recently conducted its fourth annual Salary Survey and found that after four years of increases culinary industry salaries dropped. Executive chef salaries went from $77,611 to $74,869, a drop of 3.5 percent. Chef/owners saw an even bigger decline, a change of 9.7 percent, from $94,288 to $85,179. But even they aren't suffering as much as the pastry chefs. The masters of sugar and chocolate saw their salaries slide nearly 13 percent from an average of $53,017 to $46,228 below the US median household income of $50,740.

If you want to make money as a chef, aside from getting your own television show or book deal, the money is in being an executive chef at a country club or a hotel where salaries are significantly higher. A hotel executive chef makes an average of $84,443, a country club chef makes $81,328 but an executive chef at an independent fine dining restaurant brings in an average of $74,620. Chefs in big cities make the most but surprisingly Miami has the highest reported average salary for executive chefs at $90,333. You can read the full report at the Starchefs website.

Given the current state of the economy and the fact that many are looking to take dining out off their lists of expenses, 2009 isn't likely to bring an uptick in these numbers.

It seems whenever there's some kind of exorbitantly expensive food there's an ingredient that almost always makes an appearance: truffles. This sandwich, called LE "SANDWICH" TIEDE A LA TRUFFE FRAÎCHE, and created by French chef Michel Rostang, is no exception. It will appeal to purists mostly as it is amazingly simple: fresh truffles are sliced and placed on toasted country bread with salted butter. The sandwich sits for two nights (so the flavors can marinate together) and then the whole thing is lightly grilled on both sides. That's it. Heck, if you have some spare truffles lying around you can make this at home instead of a grilled cheese or something. Or maybe not. 98 €

There are many people in the world who fly frequently and as such are often subject to airline food, despite it's nasty reputation of being nothing but reheated cardboard. Some airlines, however, are seeking to change that in a major way for their first class passengers -- even to the extent for some of having a chef on board (Gulf Airlines) and serving exotic gourmet dishes.

Among others Singapore Airlines offers a choice of Dom Perignon or Krug champagne, several airlines serve caviar as appetizer, and Malaysia Airlines serves their meals on fine china. Would you (or do you) choose your airline based on the first class meal options?

When you think of a picnic you probably picture simple food like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a basket of fruit in a park somewhere, but that's not what comes to mind when you ask some of the world's top chefs. From locations as normal as a park in Brooklyn to as fun as a hot air balloon miles above the world, and food tastes covering everything from fried chicken to oysters, you can find it all on this list of top chef's dream picnics.

What's your dream picnic? Reading this list I don't think I could choose!