You want that recipe for Lark's chocolate madeleines or chicken liver parfait? Listen up.

For years, people have been asking Lark chef John Sundstrom about writing a cookbook. He's finally going ahead with one, but not in the way you might expect. Rather than going with a big-name publisher, Sundstrom started a Kickstarter campaign this week to do the project himself, aiming to raise $33,000 from supporters for a Lark cooking app and cookbook. Contributions start as low as $10, earning donors anything from access to recipes and videos up to cooking classes ($250) or having Sundstrom cater your dinner party ($5,000). The James Beard award-winning chef hopes donors will participate in the book, taking opportunities like test-driving recipes and voting on which should make it into the final version.

Self-publishing used to be the route of writers who couldn't get a contract with a traditional publisher. A lot has changed since those days. It no longer carries the same stigma -- at least, not always. I still wanted to run the idea past a few publishers I know who are, coincidentally, holding a conference today on the future of the cookbook.

This guy is one of the top chefs in Seattle, I told them. Plenty of publishers would love to sign him on for a traditional cookbook.

"Is he nuts?" I asked.

Hot Cakes photo by queen-o'-good-taste Nancy Leson, a fellow fan

Autumn Martin, former head chocolatier at Theo Chocolate, won hearts with her Hot Cakes business from the minute she started selling her molten chocolate cakes at farmers markets in 2008. The bake-it-in-a-jar combination of adorable and scrumptious couldn't be beat.

In the years since, Martin has added an ambrosial array of new products, from pocket pies to chocolate toffee cookies to salted caramel sauce (and even a vegan version of that last one). In addition to her farmers market booths, her treats are now distributed several places around town. And before too long you'll be able to find them almost whenever you please, because Martin now has a lease on her own brick-and-mortar shop.

TV food personality Andrew Zimmern scouted out Seattle for his latest episode of "Bizarre Foods America," which will air on the Travel Channel Monday night. What sorts of disgusting degustations did he dig up?

Some of his Seattle finds were par for our usual TV-show courses, like hauling up geoducks and experimenting with a $20,000 Slayer espresso machine. ("This looks like it could put a man on the moon!") The extra fun came with a trip to the Modernist Cuisine laboratory for dishes like infusion-of-everything-bagel-in-a-glass, and a bucolic journey to Sea Breeze Farm, where Zimmern ate cheese and charcuterie... and... raw cow placenta...and...fresh chicken blood. Most touching, to me, was his shift teaching students to prepare ox hearts and sweetbreads at Fare Start, giving sound advice and support to cooks who have faced some of the same hard knocks he has in life.

I asked Zimmern a few questions about his travels here. I fear I may have insulted him when I asked if George Page of Sea Breeze, whose farm work I have appreciated myself in the past, was punking him by offering up the glass of just-slaughtered chicken blood. I was just struck by the gleam in Page's eye... and, I guess, maybe the idea hit my own "bizarre" trigger in a way the other Sea Breeze thirst-quencher, a glass of colostrum, did not. Here are his e-mail answers and his kind words about our lovely city:

Chili spice photo by David Dickey

The secret to the best chili in town? I still haven't found a bowl that beats the one at John Howie's Sport restaurant. Even better, Howie is generous about sharing the secrets behind that chili, freely giving up the recipe years back when I asked him to help out with some Super Bowl winners. His Texas-style brew is all meat, no beans, and the knockout flavor comes from a generous mix of spices -- ancho, chipotle, habanero, and mild chili powders, along with coriander, basil, and some other surprises. Pineapple juice lends it acidity and a note of sweetness. Best of all, it's a breeze to make.

So let's say you gamble on opening your own restaurant in these tight economic times. And then let's say you win the hearts of critics and locals alike, and Bon Appetit magazine calls your place one of the best new restaurants in America, and Food and Wine magazine calls you one of the best new chefs in America, and diners are practically ready to pay ransoms for reservations at your fried chicken dinners, which also happen to get short-listed among the best in the country.

What's next?

In the case of Spring Hill in West Seattle, and owners Mark Fuller and Marjorie Chang Fuller, the answer is that you make a big change. Say goodbye to Spring Hill as you know it. Starting Feb. 8 the 4-year-old restaurant will shift into a new incarnation called ma'ono, a "fried chicken shop and whiskey bar" specializing in the sort of Hawaiian and mid-Pacific comfort food that Mark Fuller loved growing up in Kauai. Same address (4437 California Ave. S.W.), same owners, same chef.

Here's what Marjorie Chang Fuller had to say about the change:

One list ranked Seattle food safety lawyer Bill Marler among the most powerful food figures in America. Photo by Ken Lambert/Seattle Times

Who are the most powerful people in America when it comes to food? According to The Daily Meal, the Nifty Fifty is topped by the president of the Food Network, Brooke Johnson, who beat out Thomas Vilsack (#2), secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Next in the top 5 are Jeremy Stoppelman (co-founder and CEO of Yelp), Mike Duke (president and CEO of Walmart), and Indra Nooyi (chairman and CEO of PepsiCo).

A few Seattleites made the Meal's cut.

Barbecue joints fall into that small subset of restaurants where a divey look can be seen as an attraction instead of a warning sign. However, the Mountlake Terrace address of Gabriel's Fire had gone beyond that point, spending years shifting from one failing restaurant to another, until even a Yelper commented that the building seemed doomed. I barely noticed when a new sign went up a few months back. Then food writer Sonja Groset gave a gustatory sigh of pleasure after a dinner stop there, and I realized that Gabriel's Fire is the same place that had drawn fans for years in a Ballard storefront, including a cheer from meat maven Leslie Kelly. Instead of just driving by the next time, I drove off with a sublime brisket sandwich, another filled with pulled pork, and a couple sides (a bit smaller than I expected, at $3.50 for 6 ounces of mac 'n cheese, but good). Later, Monty Slimp, who owns the place with brother Gabe, filled me in on their northward move.

For the past few months, I've enjoyed watching Mario Batali talk one-on-one -- that is, type one-on-one -- with seemingly every fan he's got. They've been asking him on Twitter about the best proportion of cooking water to polenta (5:1), whether semolina flour is safe for diners with wheat allergies (no way), recommendations on where to eat in Barcelona (this place), whether to use black or white truffle oil for a pasta cream sauce ("neither!!"), and just about every other interaction imaginable. He's been spending more time discussing ravioli fillings and supplying the Twitter equivalent of posing for photos (e.g., "@mariobatali, can you wish my buddy Tim a happy birthday?") than I'd expect from anyone with a day job, let alone an Iron Chef with a restaurant empire and a daily TV show and a family.

So many restaurateurs, whether celebs or not, outsource tweets to impersonal PR firms and restrict themselves to boring and more boring; announcing promotions and daily specials and brightly commenting on the weather. I asked Batali (by email, if you're wondering, not DM) how he got to the point where he's having real conversations; the point where he looked as busy answering questions from followers on New Year's Eve as the Butterball line on Thanksgiving. Here's what our local son had to say: