Iron Chef

  Craig LaBan: Jose's ever-growing and multi-belled restaurant empire (Amada, Tinto, Distrito, Chifa, Village Whiskey) is a chat-room's favorite. But this visit is timely, because Sunday was the debut episode of his quest to become the Food Network's Next Iron Chef . Garces handily won the first challenge, to create a comfort food starter, with an Ecuadorian stew of annatto chicken broth and queso fresco. Things got scary in the next round with the some frightening ingredients ranging from duck tongues to unlaid chicken eggs.

FAME-SEEKERS know there's no such thing as bad press. As long as you're on a page or a screen, you're making headway. Just ask Kim Kardashian. Or Snooki. But what if you're a chef or restaurant owner? Should you go on a reality show called "Kitchen Nightmares," where hot-headed, food-spitting British chef Gordon Ramsay will rip your menu and then rip you a new one? Do you really want 3 million viewers, including potential customers, peeking into your pantry, watching you lose your cool in the cooler, thinking your kitchen is a . . . nightmare?

IN THE FOOD business, there's not much that's trendier than a food truck. Maybe gluten-free pastry. Or garlic scapes. Or waiters with mustaches. That's about it. Breakfast through dinner, mobile culinary units have in recent years multiplied nationwide. In our town, the campuses of Temple, Drexel and Penn have long been home to falafel, kielbasa and soul-food vendors. Today, they also host trucks and carts serving gourmet grilled cheeses, breakfast tacos, pork bulgogi and vegan banh mi. Last year, LOVE Park became a temporary residence to a mess of mostly newbie trucks proffering wood-grilled pizza, custom burgers, Trinidadian doubles, single-origin coffee, red velvet cupcakes and "Iron Chef"-approved tacos.

Great 30th birthday gift for an ambitious TV anchor: Rise from Market No. 17 to 4. CBS3 has hired Erika von Tiehl , turning 30 Wednesday, from CBS's Miami stations to fill the morning seat next to Ukee Washington . ( Liz Keptner's old job.) Von Tiehl, a Pasadena, Calif., native, told me that she started seven years ago, fresh out of Loyola Marymount, working out of a "single-wide trailer next to a cow pasture" in Eureka, Calif. (TV market No. 195). Two years later, she was in Buffalo (No. 52)

The half-dozen applicants for Philadelphia's second casino license touted the merits of their proposals Tuesday before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Flashy videos with images of the city's skyline, its iconic attractions, and its smiling residents were standard fare. The first four groups - led by local developer Ken Goldenberg, South Philadelphia businessman Joseph Procacci, a partnership between regional casino operators Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment Inc. and Cordish Cos., and gaming giant Penn National Gaming Inc. - gave it their best shot.

T ANYKA RENEE , who plays for the Philadelphia Passion, is one of eight Lingerie Football League players to be pictured in the shower in the February Playboy . Renee, of Jamaican descent, wears nothing in the magazine, but wears No. 12 on the football field, where she plays offense and defense for the Passion. The Connecticut native works as a nutritionist in New York and stays in Philadelphia four days a week during the season. The Passion, undefeated this season, takes on the Tampa Breeze Jan. 29 in Jacksonville.

They're treasures amid the trash - great television shows smack in the middle of that vast programming wasteland called summer. Impossible, you say? Think again. Before you channel-surf, give a look at these shows: "Nightline in Primetime," ABC, 10 p.m. Thursdays. This is "Nightline" with a twist. Host Ted Koppel turns to inventive correspondent Robert Krulwich to present a series of prime-time programs exploring how man and technology interact. And don't expect your typical "Nightline.

Penn Station in New York City became a gigantic ad for Philadelphia last weekend as the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. installed 225 "With Love, Philadelphia" ads, even wrapping station steps. A GPTMC rep said Philly was the first U.S. destination ever to "dominate" the Manhattan transit hub. The rep said it cost upward of $325,000 for the ads, which will be exposed to six million station users through February. The GPTMC is in the midst of a $1.2 million winter publicity blitz.

Every father has to share his daughter someday. It just happened a lot sooner than I expected when my 11-year-old, Alice, recently informed me that I was no longer the sole person responsible for her budding interest in a culinary career. After toting her along on hundreds of restaurant reviews since the time I could tuck her under the table in a car seat, I wondered who the other scoundrel could be. But as I watched the flicker of fanciful cakes from the TV screen twirling in her smitten brown eyes, I knew.

Burgers with a Greek twist - a mix of lamb, kalamata olives and feta cheese with garlic sauce - make for a quick meal with incredible flavor. The recipe is from Cat Cora's Cooking from the Hip: Fast, Easy, Phenomenal Meals (Houghton Mifflin, $39.95). Cora, the Food Network's first female Iron Chef and executive chef of Bon Appetit magazine, uses bread crumbs (she favors panko, a Japanese flaked type) to help keep burgers and meat loaves moist and tender. Greek Lamb and Olive Burgers With Garlic Sauce (Makes 4 servings)