Robert Greene’s book ‘The 48 Laws of Power’—an update of Sun-Tzu and Machiavelli that has taken hold in the hip-hop community—talks about the tactical dangers of ‘outshining the master’, as I learned from Nick Paumgarten’s latest article in The New Yorker. This weekend I got the chance to see the upshot of such ambition, and take a break from my usual freelancer’s diet of pizza by the slice, cold cereal, and bagels, by tagging along as a group of Portland, Oregon’s top chefs visited New York City. Late last week, Leather Storrs and Greg Smith, chef and sous chef of Noble Rot, along with Scott Dolich and David Padberg of Park Kitchen, rolled in with about 600 lbs of Oregon-made goodies to prepare and serve guests of the James Beard House on Saturday. The anticipation mounted from Thursday as the posse prepped for the big meal, mainly in the way that chefs seem to enjoy most when not actually at the stove: by insulting, quizzing, or laughing at each other, eating out on the town, smoking, drinking, or generally behaving badly.  Read the rest of this entry »