Julie Powell blogged her way through cooking every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking; a book deal and movie followed. Are food bloggers thrilled for her? Hardly; Powell is a foodie infidel who must be stopped.

Penelope Cruz turns 35 today. Jay Leno is turning 59. Jessica Alba is 28. Former Secretary of State Jim Baker turns 79. Famed chef Alice Waters is 65. Author Harper Lee is 83. Actress Bridget Moynahan turns 38. Ann-Marget is turning 68. Wooster Group director Elizabeth LeCompte is 65. Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon is turning 56. Famed defense attorney Ted Wells is turning 59. Golfer John Daly is 43. And the rapper Too Short turns 43 today.

Alice Waters wins: The First Family agreed to to grow its own vegetables for the first time since World War II, citing the very educational benefits the Berkeley restaurateur has long touted.

Oh look, it's that nutty Berkeley chef Alice Waters, telling 60 Minutes we should all eat non-poisoned food. Doesn't she know organic produce is a "luxury," in Lesley Stahl's words? It's a recession!

Ah, California, that prodigious producer of fruits, nuts, and flakes. Alice Waters, the famous Chez Panisse chef, has seized on the national craze for bailouts to demand organic, unprocessed school lunches for all.

Could stress and anxiety over the state of the economy explain why so many celebrity chefs are getting a bit belligerent as of late? Anthony Bourdain went out of his way to launch a verbal assault on Alice Waters recently. And the war between Mario Batali and Gordon Ramsay has been heating up in recent days, too. Apparently, Batali made some critical comments about the Hell's Kitchen star more than a year ago, a move that prompted Ramsay to start calling Batali "fanta pants" in honor of the orange shorts he's long been fond of.

Hah, the Obamas brought their own personal home chef with them to The White House. And oddly that bit of crazy elitism will please all the hippies.

• You can't afford to eat there any more, but you'll be pleased to hear that Daniel is still a four-star restaurant, according to Frank Bruni, who says Adam Tihany's recent redesign is "genuinely gorgeous." [NYT]
• Jason Pomeranc's Thompson LES is opening a rooftop bar. [GS]
• Gramercy Tavern gives away free $24.07 gift cards, chaos ensues. [GS]
• Chocolate Bar is re-opening at a new location in the West Village. [NYO]
• Kevin Adey is taking over as chef at Park Slope's Bussaco. [TONY]
• Your Tony Bourdain rant o' the day: "Alice Waters annoys the living shit out of me... There's something very Khmer Rouge about [her]." [DCist via Eater]
• Spotted: Adam Platt's photo appears in Conde Nast Traveler. [Eater]

• Time Out's annual "Top 100" list is now online. [TONY]
• Frank Bruni hands out three stars today to Drew Nieporent's Corton thanks to Paul Liebrandt's ability to find "the sweet spot between disciplined cooking and intricate, imaginative leaps." [NYT]
• The good news/bad news for John Dory. [Eater]
• Alice Waters, Ruth Reichl, and Danny Meyer have volunteered to join Barack Obama's unofficial "kitchen cabinet." [Feedbag]
• La Cave des Fondus (where wine is served in baby bottles) is open. [NYM]
• As predicted, Upstairs is closing at the end of the year. [DBTH]
• One bonus to the recession: lobsters are cheaper than ever. [NYT]

Alice Waters is giving a book reading today in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood. If anyone's feeling brave, go there and ask her what she served at Larry and Lucy's wedding on Necker Island.