• Jean-Robert de Cavel: The popular James Beard-nominated chef left the Maisonette in July after maintaining the the restaurant's Mobil five-star standard for seven years. But instead of seeking fame and fortune in New York or another big city, he's planning to open a restaurant in the former downtown Pigall's location in the spring. The chef is staying because he loves Cincinnati — and Cincinnati loves him.

        • Cincinnati Chili Pepper Club: An informal group that gets together to grow chiles, eat fiery food, laugh and drink beer. My kind of club.

        • Weisenberger Mill Grits: Yellow and white, these grits are ground by the Weisenberger family in Midway, Ky., to cook up deliciously toothsome and corny. Even a Yankee could tell the difference between the Weisenberger grits and the instant version.

        • Wilmington Banana Split Festival: Latrobe, Pa., also stakes claim as the birthplace of the banana split, but the seat of Clinton County sticks by its story that restaurant owner Ernest Hazard invented the majestic ice cream sundae in 1907 — and throws a festival in June to celebrate the accomplishment.

        • Parker Beam: He is one of only two members of the famous Beam family who's still making bourbon (his son, Craig, is the other). Master distiller at Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown, Ky., for 26 years, Mr. Beam's Evan Williams 1992 Vintage Single Barrel was named “American Whiskey of the Year” by Food & Wine magazine.

        • Microplane zester: The stores are filled with expensive, sometimes useless kitchen gadgets. Here's a simple tool that costs less than $15 and grates ginger and zests lemons perfectly.

        • Northern Kentucky Water District Tap Water: Our taste teams rated Buffalo wings, chocolate Easter rabbits, baguettes and deli party platters this year, but the most surprising result came from a water taste test in July. Not only did the Northern Kentucky water gush past four other municipal water samples, it bested the top-rated bottled spring water (Wild Oats) in another blind test.

        • Chocolate baklava: Not everyone at the Panegyri Festival in Finneytown believed baklava should be drenched in chocolate, but Greek immigrant baker George Sias of Cheviot changed their minds. He sold out of his decadent desserts in a matter of hours.

        • The Beiersdorfer family: Bill and Hilda Beiersdorfer and their sons have been raising peaches, apples and other fruit on a rolling orchard near Guilford, Ind., for more than 30 years. At their best, the ripe, juicy peaches are almost as sweet as the owners.

        • Pit to Plate BBQ: Dianne Creech admits she didn't know much about making barbecue until she opened her Mount Healthy restaurant last year. But with a 2-ton steel smoker from Texas and intense, on-the-job training, she and her crew make perhaps the best real barbecue in town.

        • Walt Scarborough: The festival vendor taught me to fry fish fast at his Shiska-Haus booth during Cincinnati's Oktoberfest. But I don't think I could ever learn to pitch the blackened redfish and “gumbalaya” to the crowds with the same verve and style of this fearless huckster.

        • White truffle oil: Drizzle the seductively musky flavors of this special ingredient on just about anything and it will taste better.

        • Nancy Bentley and Ron Barrett: Against the advice of some, this couple moved from Oregon to Ripley to raise grapes at their Kinkead Ridge Vineyard and make cabernet sauvignon, syrah and other varietal wines. They are determined to prove Ohio wine can be judged with the best.

        • Gastronomica: For this new, smart food-oriented magazine, editor Darra Goldstein assembles provocative stories, poetry and photo essays — without recipes and slick advertising.

        • Jada Dunwoody-Brent, Yen Hsieh, Lilia Rodriguez, May Bsisu and Karla Addington-Smith: These women of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds gathered on a November evening to prepare dishes of their homes and homelands for a “new American Thanksgiving.” They showed us, even in the worst of years, we all have something to be thankful for.

        • La Mexicana Taqueria: Finally, simple, fast and authentic Mexican food has arrived in the Tristate. Owners Ray and Susy Garcia prove fresh ingredients make the best tacos, burritos and tamales.

        • Aunt Della's tomato preserves: Pat Brennan of Fort Thomas showed me how to make her aunt's old German specialty — chunked tomatoes preserved with sugar, cinnamon and lemon. But when her basement began to flood because of a construction accident, I had to pick up the spoon and stir. The preserves still turned out fine.

        • Chef's Dinner Club: We'll try not to pat ourselves on the back too enthusiastically for coming up with this idea. We call members of “the club” late in the afternoon to ask if we can bring a chef to their home to fix dinner. The resulting stories are educational — the chefs demonstrate how to improvise with ingredients on hand — and entertaining. One chef swallowed his pride and used Velveeta to make dip, one wore devil's horns for a Halloween episode, and another made dinner with the help of five rambunctious children. More than 200 readers have signed up for the Chef's Club, so we plan to keep inviting ourselves over for dinner a while longer.

        • Dominic Palazzolo: More than a decade after his beloved wife's death, Mr. Palazzolo honored her by publishing a cookbook of her favorite recipes. Friends and strangers have asked for so many copies of Recipes in Remembrance of Rose Marie, he published hundreds more books at his own cost — and turns the profits over to charity.

        • Church fish dinners: What better way to break the slushy, gray gloom of February than with hearty Lenten dinners of macaroni & cheese, coleslaw and steaming, pearly fried cod. This year, we judged the fish dinners cooked and served by the volunteers of Hartzell United Methodist Church in Blue Ash to be the best in the Tristate.

        • Church chicken dinners: A warm weather version of fish dinners, these summer fund-raisers feature fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh corn and a bevy of homemade desserts. Among the lasting impressions of 2001 was the sight of volunteers under a tent at St. Aloysius in Shandon furiously shucking hundreds of ears of corn for their chicken dinner, and the opportunity to meet Tillie Hoffbauer, who has been making the famous chicken dressing for St. Paul's Church picnic in New Alsace, Ind., for more than 40 years. “I don't get tired of making it,” Ms. Hoffbauer told us. “It's only once a year.”

DEMALINE: Theater
GELFAND: Classical music
KIESEWETTER: Television
MCGURK: Best movies of 2001
NAGER: Pop music
Anime artist to speak at CAC
Warm reward for those who brave cold
KENDRICK: Alive and well
Rhino's baby steps are huge
Tuned in to Taz
New year puts new wines on my palate
No-frills steak old hat at Maury's, F&N
The Best Tastes of 2001
Get to it