Gordon Ramsay

Who: Manager and co-owner with her husband, Greg Russell, of West Philly's Zocalo restaurant, featured on "Kitchen Nightmares," 8-10 p.m. Friday on Fox. From: Morelia, central Mexico Now: Williamstown, N.J. Age: 49 Kitchen connection: Mary and her chef-husband met as employees at Zocalo in the '90s. She made the tortillas and chips. He worked the line. In 2008, they bought the place. Having a 'Nightmare': The Russells aren't sure how chef Gordon Ramsay's producers found them, but the couple are glad they did. "It's necessary sometimes for someone to come and teach you how to run a business," said Mary.

If the accents coming out of the television during the 11th season of the Fox cooking competition Hell's Kitchen sound familiar, that's because at least five of the 20 chefs have ties to the Philadelphia area. The premiere is 8 p.m. Tuesday. "Oh, there was a lot of Philly there," said Zach Womack, 34, of West Philadelphia, a cook at The Cambridge on South Street.Also competing are Jacqueline Baldassari, 27, of Florence, Burlington County, executive chef at Ivy Inn in Princeton; Drexel University student Cyndi Stanimirov, 25, of Willingboro, a chef at the Madison in Riverside, Burlington County; Brasserie Perrier alumnus Michael Langdon, 33, of Hanover, Pa., executive chef at Huntsville Golf Club in Shavertown, Luzerne County; and Allentown native Jessica Lewis, 26, who left a finance career with Vanguard in Malvern and now cooks at Bagatelle NYC. A sixth chef - if you count York, Pa. - is Jon Scallion, 27. Early buzz has the solidly built, bearded Womack playing a key role in the season, whose premiere - including cooking sequences - was taped before an audience in Las Vegas.

Who: Tommy DeFino. Co-owner (with wife Dina) of Chiarella's Ristorante on Passyunk Avenue, and subject of "Kitchen Nightmares," Friday 8-10 p.m. on Fox. Age: 47 From: South Philly Now: South Philly School: A graduate of St. Monica's and St. John Neumann, he went to Temple, for a while. He explained: "I had a bad temper and got kicked out. I should've been a judge or a lawyer. " Watch for: His dramatic scene atop the Ritz-Carlton hotel, face-to-face with Billy Penn (and Chef Gordon Ramsay)

What do you do when you have an earnest, hardworking owner and staff, a business with an ethical mission and mixed reviews from your clientele? I suppose you could hope that the Fox network's Gordon Ramsay and his "Kitchen Nightmares" reality TV would return to Philadelphia to take you from tough culinary love to emotional meltdown. That's what happened when Ramsay and company invaded the Hot Potato Cafe last month. (If the Fishtown eatery had ditched the frozen potatoes as I suggested in my review two years ago, they would have spared themselves a heck of a lot of reality.

Former CBS 3 anchor/reporter Tamsen Fadal and husband Matt Titus are divorcing after nearly five years of marriage. The pair started a matchmaking business called Love Consultants, have written several relationship books together and appear regularly on TV talking about love and giving advice. Fadal and Titus now live in New York, where she works as morning anchor on PIX11, but they met in Philadelphia when Fadal worked for CBS3 and Titus was a trainer and briefly owned a cosmetic enhancement salon.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show (3 p.m., NBC10) - Colin Farrell; Janelle Monae; Greyson Michael Chance. The Oprah Winfrey Show (4 p.m., 6ABC) - Lisa Kudrow, Brooke Shields, and Emmitt Smith trace their family histories. MasterChef (9 p.m., Fox29) - Amateur chefs compete to become a culinary master and earn the title of MasterChef in this new competitive reality series hosted by intimidating chef Gordon Ramsay. Contestants are put through a series of challenges designed to test their palates, food knowledge, passion, and culinary skills.

If that shouty chef from "Hell's Kitchen" were an ordained Buddhist priest, he might be something like Edward Espe Brown. The subject of Doris Dorrie's documentary, "How to Cook Your Life," and author of the popular Tassajara cookbook series, Brown is a gentle, sensitive soul who knows his ingredients and has definite ideas about how things should be done in the kitchen. And he can get pretty impatient, especially for a Zen master, when people don't do things his way. That's where the similarities to Gordon Ramsay end. Brown teaches spiritual well-being along with food preparation, and he's a warm, funny and often quite insightful guru most of the time.

Philly restaurants worth visiting, local chefs worth following - based on TV worth watching. 1. "Iron Chef" Jose Garces Philly's most televised chef won't be slowing down any time soon. But you can, at J.G. Domestic, his laid-back American joint in Cira Centre. 2929 Arch St., 215-222-2363, www.jgdomestic.com . 2. Good Dog Bar Locals love the cheese-stuffed burger. Guy Fieri of "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" goes for the duck pot pie. 224 S. 15th St., 215-985-9600, www.gooddogbar.com . 3. Kevin Sbraga "Top Chef" season 7 winner wins again with his months-old rustic-chic bistro.

Think of the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France as the Olympics for artisans whose crafts do not normally lend themselves to cutthroat competition. One such area is pastry chefs, and every four years, the best and brightest French concocters of confections gather in Lyon for a to-the-teeth battle for sweet supremacy. Veteran documentarians D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus - the team behind the Oscar-nominated "The War Room" (1993) - focus their lens on this aspect of the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France in their new doc "The King of Pastry.

If the accents coming out of the television during the 11th season of the Fox cooking competition Hell's Kitchen sound familiar, that's because at least five of the 20 chefs have ties to the Philadelphia area. The premiere is 8 p.m. Tuesday. "Oh, there was a lot of Philly there," said Zach Womack, 34, of West Philadelphia, a cook at The Cambridge on South Street.Also competing are Jacqueline Baldassari, 27, of Florence, Burlington County, executive chef at Ivy Inn in Princeton; Drexel University student Cyndi Stanimirov, 25, of Willingboro, a chef at the Madison in Riverside, Burlington County; Brasserie Perrier alumnus Michael Langdon, 33, of Hanover, Pa., executive chef at Huntsville Golf Club in Shavertown, Luzerne County; and Allentown native Jessica Lewis, 26, who left a finance career with Vanguard in Malvern and now cooks at Bagatelle NYC. A sixth chef - if you count York, Pa. - is Jon Scallion, 27. Early buzz has the solidly built, bearded Womack playing a key role in the season, whose premiere - including cooking sequences - was taped before an audience in Las Vegas.

"I cried myself to sleep on more than one night," chef Christina Wilson said about the pressure of shooting "Hell's Kitchen," the new season of which premieres on Fox at 8 p.m. Monday. While it was an intense experience, Wilson, of South Philly, who attended West Chester and Temple on basketball scholarships, says her competitive sports background helped her deal with the pressure of competition and cameras in her face all the time. "Yes, he has a mouth; yes, he's intense, but this is a man who has mastered this craft.

Former CBS 3 anchor/reporter Tamsen Fadal and husband Matt Titus are divorcing after nearly five years of marriage. The pair started a matchmaking business called Love Consultants, have written several relationship books together and appear regularly on TV talking about love and giving advice. Fadal and Titus now live in New York, where she works as morning anchor on PIX11, but they met in Philadelphia when Fadal worked for CBS3 and Titus was a trainer and briefly owned a cosmetic enhancement salon.

STELLA , THE BUXOM host of "Saturday Night Dead" on KYW-TV from 1984 to 1990, was inducted into the HorrorHound Hall of Fame at the annual convention in Columbus, Ohio, over the weekend. Stella, the "Maneater from Manayunk" a/k/a Karen Scioli , was excited to meet fellow horror Elvira , Mistress of the Dark, and have what she called, "A meeting of the cleavage," but was disappointed that Elvira didn't show up in character and was inducted under her real name, Cassandra Peterson . Stella now works on "Goth Mothers of Transylvania," which can be found on YouTube.

Who: Manager and co-owner with her husband, Greg Russell, of West Philly's Zocalo restaurant, featured on "Kitchen Nightmares," 8-10 p.m. Friday on Fox. From: Morelia, central Mexico Now: Williamstown, N.J. Age: 49 Kitchen connection: Mary and her chef-husband met as employees at Zocalo in the '90s. She made the tortillas and chips. He worked the line. In 2008, they bought the place. Having a 'Nightmare': The Russells aren't sure how chef Gordon Ramsay's producers found them, but the couple are glad they did. "It's necessary sometimes for someone to come and teach you how to run a business," said Mary.

Who: Tommy DeFino. Co-owner (with wife Dina) of Chiarella's Ristorante on Passyunk Avenue, and subject of "Kitchen Nightmares," Friday 8-10 p.m. on Fox. Age: 47 From: South Philly Now: South Philly School: A graduate of St. Monica's and St. John Neumann, he went to Temple, for a while. He explained: "I had a bad temper and got kicked out. I should've been a judge or a lawyer. " Watch for: His dramatic scene atop the Ritz-Carlton hotel, face-to-face with Billy Penn (and Chef Gordon Ramsay)

Philly restaurants worth visiting, local chefs worth following - based on TV worth watching. 1. "Iron Chef" Jose Garces Philly's most televised chef won't be slowing down any time soon. But you can, at J.G. Domestic, his laid-back American joint in Cira Centre. 2929 Arch St., 215-222-2363, www.jgdomestic.com . 2. Good Dog Bar Locals love the cheese-stuffed burger. Guy Fieri of "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" goes for the duck pot pie. 224 S. 15th St., 215-985-9600, www.gooddogbar.com . 3. Kevin Sbraga "Top Chef" season 7 winner wins again with his months-old rustic-chic bistro.

Emily Lopez, a junior working toward her interior-design degree at Drexel University, was making a presentation at a high drafting table the other day, with preliminary plans of a restaurant space unfurled before her. Her assignment, for the sake of this class, was to design a restaurant for hothead celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, in, of all places, Suburban Square. Her professor, Chris Sheffield of SLDesign in Kensington, is teaching his specialty, restaurant design, from conception to opening night.

PATTI LaBELLE 'S attorney has labeled as "frivolous on its face" a suit filed in New York against the singer that seeks damages for injury and alleges that she threw water at a mother and her baby, screamed at them, and tried to punch the mother. Allen Arrow, who has represented the soulful songbird for more than 40 years, says, "Unfortunately, this is another case of individuals and their attorney targeting someone who is in the public eye. "Above all else I can say with complete certainty that she is a loving mother and a caring human being who adores children.

Here is an excerpt from Craig LaBan's online chat:   Reader: Gut feeling, how do you think Tryst will be received? C.L. : I've been out of town since Tryst opened as a replacement for Le Bar Lyonnais below Le Bec, so obviously, I haven't had a chance yet to visit. I think it's a good idea to give Le Bec a fresh draw - even downstairs - and chef Nicholas Elmi certainly has the talent worth highlighting. Lyonnais was a great spot for well-cooked bistro classics (quenelles, steak frites, etc.)