• PETA is getting involved in the Frankenmeat debate by offering a $1 million to the “first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012.” Yeah, good luck with that. [NYT]

• Mark from Top Chef worked Public’s table at last week’s Taste of the Lower East Side. [Gothamist]

• Playboy has launched a nationwide search for Olive Garden servers to pose in an upcoming pictorial unimaginatively called "Girls of Olive Garden." [NYP]

• The very study that was used by the Health Department to crusade for mandatory calorie posting in food chains may now be used by defense lawyers to undermine the law’s future. [NYS]

• Some Lower East Siders are not stoked about Bruce Willis opening the Bowery Wine Company, so they’re going to buy a pig, name it Bruce, and then eat it. [NYP]

• Wine bars are everywhere, and, thankfully, they’re a lot less stuffy than they used to be. [NYT]

Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee chose T.G.I. Friday’s when a Times reporter offered to take him to lunch anywhere in the city, but Huck ultimately settled for the Olive Garden. [NYT via Serious Eats]

The Food Network’s ratings are hurting, which might help to explain why Emeril Live got canned. [NYT]

How do Thomas Keller and Mario Batali fare against McDonald's when it comes to calories? Keller's veal breast and polenta and Batali's pork loin are worse for you than a Big Mac, but who cares? [WSJ