Q&A with the food futurist.

Week of October 30, 2006: Sheep Station, Tinto Fino, Cafe Cluny, and Bar Matignetti.

There’s something very appealing about having the run of a place after the cell-phone-packing one-o’clockers have cleared out. These restaurants do not close between lunch and dinner.

What do local gastronomes get when you cross a wet Italian summer with a strong euro? An abundance of pricey white truffles.

Developed by University of Minnesota breeders in 1960 and introduced in 1991, the Honeycrisp apple is an extraordinarily crunchy cross between the Macoun and the Honeygold.

Centovini and Bread Tribeca bring simple, hearty Italian downtown.

A Cornell professor with a bread fetish comes to town and separates the wheat from the chaff.

The setting’s so-so, but the food at the French master’s first New York outlet? C’est magnifique.

Fairly bursting at the seams with assorted vitamins and minerals, not to mention beta-carotene, the humble carrot is a true super food, even if eating a gargantuan amount could turn skin temporarily yellow like a bad bronzer.

For deliciously ostentatious swank that’s infinitely cheaper than a status handbag, you must try the $85 black-truffle pizza on the new “Brasserie” menu in the bar at Café Gray.