Last week Mike Von Burg was promoted to the chef of Armani's Restaurant atop the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay located at 2900 Bayport Drive in Tampa. Mike has been with the Hyatt since 1996 and was previously the assistant sous chef at Oystercatcher's Restaurant also located at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay. He is currently at work on a new menu (but don’t worry, the antipasti bar isn’t going anywhere)—still Northern Italian, but not as fancy. The restaurant is also scheduled to undergo a renovation in January. The position of chef was left vacant by Valentin Castaneda’s departure on Sept. 26.

Now here's an interesting concept: Chef Tom Colicchio said he will turn a private party room in his highly rated Craft eatery in New York into a 32-seat restaurant-within-a-restaurant every other Tuesday, with guests served a prix-fixe meal prepared by Colicchio himself. Prices will range from $125 to $150 per guest, depending on the ingredients Colicchio chooses, according to the announcement. The meals will consist of “Tom’s personal, no-holds-barred cooking,” done in a display kitchen, according to a statement. Now that's going to be a tough reservation to nab.

And, um, my friend Dave Davisson at Re/creating Tampa brought this lovely tidbit to my attention. Ljubomir Erovic is author of the new The Testicle Cookbook - Cooking With Balls, in case you're looking for a recipe for testicle pizza or battered testicles (those two words together make one wince, eh?). And reader Bob Woerner just zapped me this link to his brother-in-law's commentary on the cookbook. Too good to pass up, but I'm immature that way.