Most Bites readers are, by this point, familiar with the magician Allan Benton, whose act is all smoke and ... well, here's what the man himself says, in this Southern Foodways Alliance video: "What I'm doing any hillbilly can do in their backyard. It just takes a tiny bit of knowledge, a little bit of salt and sugar, and a lot of time. That's the only thing." Suffice it to say two years is more time than a lot of us could wait on a ham. And while we're on a Benton kick, check out this shorter, more impressionistic video below — in which Benton is constantly interrupted by the ringing of a rotary phone:

• Bobby Flay on Facebook
• Do you wish Bobby Flay was around to tell you what to do?

The Bobby Flay Project is looking for food entrepreneurs who have left their previous career to start a bricks-and-mortar food business. (And I assume that "left their career " means "lost their career in the recession.")

The plan seems to be to follow the entrepreneur as he or she opens the business, so the business can't be operating yet.

Three key points of eligibility:

* The entrepreneur must have little or no prior professional culinary experience.
* The entrepreneur mus be planning to open a brick-and-mortar space where there will be walk-in customers (restaurant, bakery, sandwich shop, etc.)
*The business can't be operating yet, though the entrepreneur must be aiming to open this year.

If you fit those criteria, assemble the information on your timeline, budget, menu and team. Write up a line or two about what's at stake for you in this endeavor (why you are doing it and what risks, financial as well as personal, you are taking). The network is "highly interested in the human-interest angle of your story."

Email your assembled information to foodtvshow@gmail.com.

Get a little info on the competition at the show's Facebook page, or look 'em up on Twitter, @RockShrimpProd.

I got to view a screening copy, and I can promise that the show makes Nashville look like a really great place to get a drink. (Like I didn't know that already.) Host Zane Lamprey and his drinking buddy Steve McKenna travel the country visiting bars and sharing cocktail recipes from some of the nation's best mixologists. There's even a drinking game that viewers can play along with as they watch each episode, but it sounds a little dangerous to me.

Our fair city acquits itself very well in tonight's episode, which features some of my favorite bartenders. After a visit to Ole Smokey Mountain Moonshine Distillery (NOT IN NASHVILLE! Gatlinburg. As if!), Zane sets out to meet and drink with Nashville alcognoscenti: Lauren Todsen of Whiskey Kitchen, Neil McCormick of Yazoo, Nancy Golimbisky of 12 South Taproom, James Hensley of The Patterson House, City House's Stephanie Melidis and Ben Clemons of No. 308. Or as the boys over at Cream call it, a Thursday night.

Zane and Steve even find time along the way to skate a few laps with the Nashville Rollergirls and compete in one of the show's traditional wacky challenges.

Today on Today, Travel + Leisure features director Nilou Motamed dished out some culinary travel tips, including three picks in our fair city. Can you guess what we're known for, besides our "foodie scene"? Here's a hint: Motamed says she's sure Taylor Swift loves eating at The Catbird Seat. That may be true — Taylor's palate has probably developed since her Spaghetti Factory days. But talk about a missed segue: Catbird chefs Josh Habiger and Erik Anderson met while cooking at the acclaimed Alinea in Chicago, the first restaurant mentioned in the segment.

Anyway, nice to see Nashville get some pins on the national food map, with nods also to Yellow Porch and their site-grown salad ingredients, and Mas Tacos Por Favor's tortilla soup. I've just embedded the 615-centric clip above, but you can watch the whole thing, Parisian macarons and all, at the Today site.

Been hoping to catch a glimpse of yourself on the TV with a face full of food? Well, today from noon-2 p.m., the Food Network Canada show Eat Street will be at it again, filming the gourmet Mexican food truck Yayo's O.M.G. outside the Conexion Americas office at 800 18th Ave. S., on Music Row.

Eat Street, as you'll recall, is the food truck-centric program that filmed three Nashville trucks last June. Riffs' segment aired about a week-and-a-half ago, and while you can't view it online here in the States, I hear there's a jury-rigged version floating out there somewhere. I hear Grilled Cheeserie's segment will air next week Nov. 22.

In the meantime, rumor has it a certain alt-weekly writer will be interviewed during today's lunch service, but you didn't hear that from me.

The Bites staff got quite a kick out of this. Good to see celebrity chefs have a sense of humor about themselves. If you're at work, put on those headphones ...

The following Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m., Barbie Burgers is scheduled to make an appearance. The episode airing at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 Nov. 22 will include a visit with The Grilled Cheeserie.

Meanwhile, the Eat Street crew is coming back to town next week to investigate more Nashville food trucks. On Twitter, Eat Street lists next week's itinerary: Hoss' Loaded Burgers, YaYo's OMG, Smoke Et Al and I Dream of Weenie. The show says it will start filming in Nashville on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

• This guy wants YOU to vote for a Nashville food truck

The three Nashville contenders could certainly use our help: Mas Tacos Por Favor (43), Riffs Fine Street Food (137) and Moovers and Shakers (76) were all out of serious contention as of this morning — but that's nothing a little Music City Internettin' couldn't remedy. Each vote also counts as an entry into a sweepstakes for tickets to the New York City Wine & Food Festival. (And if you're in the mood for voting for food trucks, head over to our Best of Nashville ballot.)

So Nashvillians: You've stood in line for their food, now stand behind your favorite food truck and show them some digital support so they can win a bunch of money and maybe share a green room with Bobby Flay or something. Voting ends Sept. 12.

[The Great Food Truck Race]

• http://hartoandco.com/

My latest crush is not on a big Food Network celebrichef with a snazzy kitchen/studio loaded down with the latest in culinary toys. I have just discovered a 24-year-old New Yorker transplant from San Francisco who is so darned cute and incredibly funny in her tiny apartment kitchen, that I can't stop watching her YouTube videos over and over. Her name is Hannah Hart, and her online cooking show is titled "My Drunk Kitchen."

So far, Hannah has eight episodes of her single static camera series in the can, ranging from her premiere where she drunkenly attempts to make a grilled cheese sandwich (she realizes halfway through that she doesn't have any cheese) to her latest attempt to make ice cream by shaking a snack-size bag full of milk and vanilla inside another sandwich size plastic bag. Her Ben and Jerry efforts are seriously impaired by her consumption of two bottles of Rose ("it tastes like white wine, but pink") and a couple of falls from the counter as she attempts kitchen parkour.

• Travel Channel
• Adam Richman hangs with some AT&T employees eating hot chicken at Prince's. His "Man v. Food Nation" episode on Nashville airs Wednesday

The episode airs at 8 p.m. Wednesday. We haven't seen it yet, but based on the synopsis, the show's "Nashville travel guide" and two slideshows posted here and here on the Travel Channel site, it looks like it includes visits to Prince's Hot Chicken Shack and Rooster's Texas-Style BBQ and Steakhouse. The "Funny Moments in Nashville" clip reel also features Nashville's venerable Pancake Pantry.

The concept of the new show is that rather than just taking on the ridiculously huge portions or insanely spicy foods himself, Richman now uses his 59 episodes of experience to coach amateurs as they attempt to tackle these gastronomic challenges.

At Rooster's, he served as adviser to country duo LoCash Cowboys as they tackled "The Roost Challenge": That's a 72-ounce sirloin, a large baked potato, two slices of Texas toast and a big salad, and it's not like they shared the plate. As Dana pointed out in her recap of the event, that's nine pounds of meat between the two of them!