The Onion’s video podcast has been absolutely killing the popular food landscape lately and the feedbag story is no exception.  Funny, I don’t remember seeing this on the behind-the-scenes tour at Taco Bell!  Someone at The Onion must have made a run for the border lately, because they recently took a shot at Taco Bell’s ingredients (without resorting to the obvious Soylent Green joke, thankfully).

Also in their cross-hairs:  the crowd at Denny’s, for whom I still have more respect than the folks at Olive Garden.

- The press release fairy sent word today that the new season of Top Chef will debut on August 26th.  You can meet and greet with the new chef’testants thanks to a video introduction from Bravo.

- In addition to a delicious-looking recipe for a manchego-stuffed pork burger, the new edition of Food Network Magazine says that their poll found: “Nearly 60% of chefs said they’d want their own cooking show.”  In possibly unrelated news:  little did I know a few weeks back when I tossed around chef Jose Garces’ name for food TV consideration that the scuttlebutt on the street would be that he missed his James Beard Award presentation to attend a Food Network-related engagement.

After the jump:  we double the amount of coverage we’ve given to this season’s Next Food Network Star (in other words, we have two items) and we look at food celebrity footwear…and I promise it has nothing to do with Crocs.

- Who has the best chances of winning Next Food Network Star?  ODDS ARE you don’t care enough about any of the finalists to give a damn!  (See what I did there!?!?!  Odds…like in betting.)

- While checking out an interview with NFNS‘s recently-axed Katie Cavuto, I found this nugget:  “After her stellar performance on the Rachael Ray Show, as well as showing her chops when it came to cooking for kids, America was stunned when she was eliminated by the judges this past Sunday night.”  The only thing stunning about Katie’s elimination this past Sunday was that she hadn’t already been eliminated a couple of weeks ago.

- Nigella Lawson is an internationally-respected entrepreneur and a renowned expert on food who has time and again demonstrated a seriousness and…LOOK!  SHE’S WEARING TRENDY SHOES!