"This drink literally makes you start to salivate"

If you hate your job, stop reading this, because there are some jobs that are cooler than yours. Like medical marijuana testers. Or that secret shopper position nobody on earth knows how to get. Or the job of Talia Baiocchi, a wine reviewer for WineChap.com who basically goes to the most notable restaurants in NYC to review their wine lists. Not a bad gig. Talia—a hipsterish girl, not a chap—recently completed a marathon of on-the-job drinking, having visited more than 30 restaurants in Manhattan in the past 30 days. And she got drunk on their wine for free. We caught up with her to find out more info on WineChap and, of course, to check on her liver.

Jim Lahey is a bread man. After a trip to Italy while he was in art school studying to be a sculptor, Lahey realized that baking was his true calling. In 1994, he opened Sullivan Street Bakery, which now provides bread for over 250 of the city's best restaurants including Jean Georges, Babbo and Gramercy Tavern. In 2008, Lahey opened his first restaurant, Co., where he turned his signature bread into artisanal pizzas. Famous for his no-knead method, Lahey is trying to spread the word with his recently published book, My Bread, as well a more personal approach: baking lessons at Sullivan Street Bakery. Over lunch at Co., the loquacious baker with "major A.D.D." spoke with me about the importance of good reviews, culinary influences, and his idea of the most bitter, foul taste in food: effort.

Ah, New Yorkers: we're pretty cool when it comes to having celebrities in our presence, or at least, unspoken rules dictate that we should be. If you're not, you're either a tourist, or new to town, in which case: get out of my way, I have to get to work/lunch/the subway. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule: The Obama Family. So when we got word that the First Lady was having lunch at Gramercy Tavern (literally, around the corner from BlackBook HQ), like hell we weren't going to get the chance to be twenty feet from the place. Editorial reaction, pictures of the scene, and Ms. Obama's exit? Oh yes.

As vice president of operations and new business development of Craft Restaurant Group, Katie Grieco works shoulder-to-shoulder with famed chef and Bravo's most recognizable Top Chef personality, Tom Colicchio. Overseeing the Craft, Craftbar, Craftsteak and 'wichcraft locations nationwide (New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Las Vegas) Grieco often has her hands full. She gets the job done one restaurant at a time.

Doug Psaltis, the newly installed executive chef and partner at Smith’s -- Cindy Smith and restaurateur Danny Abrams' (The Mermaid Inn) Greenwich Village American bistro -- explains what "comfort food" is to him, why he left high-end French cuisine for chicken and grits, and whether or not he'd rewrite his (fairly controversial) book, given a chance.

Jonathan Benno, chef de cuisine at Thomas Keller's Per Se Restaurant at the Time Warner Center in New York, on the downside of popular gastronomy, BMW motorcycles, and escaping the kitchen to make time for the fam.

Forget spiked egg nog, pumpkin-based drinks, and all those other seasonal libations. Don’t even think about a chilled beer or frozen concoction unless you plan on spending the night perched over your heater. Instead, head to one of the spots below where the mixologists are whipping up specialty cocktails for sun-deprived-drinkers.

As if winning an Oscar and having an Apple wasn't enough, Gwyneth Paltrow is trying to steal our thunder by listing her favorite New York restaurants in her latest GOOP newsletter. That's what we do, Gwyneth! How would you like it if we started doing yoga? When she did it for L.A., we let it slide as a mid-life crisis/nervous breakdown, but now she strikes again. Problem is, she's not very good at it. After the jump, a list of Gwyneth's favorite NYC restaurants, followed by her vague reasons why. Luckily, you can click on each restaurant to find out what it's really about.

Sometimes you’ve got the urge to splurge ...