Even at the moment of their greatest glory, the city's chefs can't get away from the problem of food costs. Wall Street Journal reporter Elva Ramirez went to the Beard Awards on Sunday and asked some chefs what to do about rising food costs. Masaharu Morimoto is all for cooking in big batches and then freezing it all away. “Bigger is better,” the big-box chef says, unsurprisingly. “Cook one time. Save gas, save energy.” Not everyone agreed with this Swanson program, however. Michael Psilakis, as one might expect, sung the praises of offal as a solution: “It's really a test of a true chef to take something that may not be the best part of an animal and make something beautiful with it.” David Chang, asked about the subject, doesn't give an inch: Let people pay more — they'll just appreciate the food more. “We'll have a better food culture … Just because [food is] more expensive, don't compromise and buy an inferior product.” Frozen dinners, offal, the stiff upper lip … if these are the best solutions chefs can come up with, we better start just eating canned corn and be done with it.

Chefs Talk Quality and Cost at the James Beard Awards [WSJ]

Rising food costs are so universal that they've jumped from the Times' "Dining" section to the "Metro" section. The paper reports today on several budgeting strategies undertaken by local restaurants, including a Chinese restaurant in Queens that makes you order rice; an Upper West Side brunch place that charges extra for walnuts and raisins on your French toast; and a Barbadian joint in Queens that now serves smaller portions of pudding and souse. How are your favorite spots cutting back to stay in business? Tell us in the comments box.

As Costs Keep Rising, Restaurateurs Find Creative Ways to Cope [NYT]

The local pizza place should be one of the few beneficiaries of tough economic times, as cheap but satisfying slices have always been a staple of the pressed and penurious. But that’s not the case, according to the Daily News. Pizza joints are being squeezed by rising costs. Flour prices have tripled, mozzarella has gone up 25 percent, paper costs are skyrocketing, and that’s not all: “The rising cost of ingredients comes on top of the price hikes everybody is dealing with; insurance, gas, electric, and water and sewer bills are soaring.” And because everyone expects pizza to be cheap, even small rises in price hurt business. “Nobody makes money,” laments the eponymous owner of Vinny Vincenz.

Pizza Makers Say Their Slice Shrinks [NYDN]

New York is used to being the repository of everything good there is to eat in the world: Scottish langoustines, Tasmanian crabs, Campagnan burrata, Spanish ham — you know the drill. But the global gravy train may be over for a while or at least slowing down. A well-researched piece in The Village Voice lays out the causes of the current price crisis (the Euro exchange rate and the Iraq war are connected to it) and the choices facing the city’s chefs. Do you charge an arm and a leg and keep the luxe ingredients or have a competitive price and give truffles the heave-ho? Nobody seems to have gotten to the bottom of it yet, but we’re betting somebody is willing to pay blood for (Umbrian olive) oil.

How Chefs Are Dealing With the Tanking Dollar [VV]