A food guide for surviving suburban offices

Conde Nast, eat your heart out. You might have a couple of fancy-pants cafes, but ad agency Mullen, tucked away in Wenham, Mass., has its own cookbook. And it's not one of those sad little every-employee-submitted-a-favorite-recipe jobs made up mostly of chili and artichoke-dip recipes. "Mullen: The Cookbook" is the product of VP-Executive Chef Liz Walkowicz. (By the way, what's with this compulsive need to give every single person at an agency a VP title?) Apparently, Chef Liz and her staff do such a bang-up job that visiting clients suggested the cookbook, which includes enthusiastic quotes from Mullen employees Shea Kelly, Robin Kim, Jess Pearson, Sheila Leyne and Jay Courtney among others. Oh, and recipes for items such as cranberry-nut muffins, spicy corn chowder, crab-stuffed filet of sole and chocolate mousse. Compare that to the choices Adages faces when we venture into our office "cafeteria": two vending machines offering a fine selection of today's favorite sodas, candy bars, chips and pirated Hostess products. Then again, we work in Midtown Manhattan, mere steps away from some of the city's finest Irish cuisine (by which we mean Guinness). As communications director David Swaebe said in his note accompanying the Mullen book, it's "much needed when your agency is located in a town with more horses than people." Lad-mag cover girl proves the media world is, indeed, a small one We all know publishing is a small world. And it's an odd world, as well. Look no further than FHM's contest for Miss FHM. No, we're not talking about a secret rendezvous at the party held at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone in Manhattan. Adages left that bit of ogling and imbibing to our Freeloader colleagues (check out AdAge.com/mediaworks for snarky criticism of the most recent industry booze-fests). An FHM source relates this odd tale involving the newly crowned Miss FHM, Diana Chiafair of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. When FHM President-Publisher Dana Fields saw the young lass's name, it rang a bell. Dana, as you may recall, was at Wenner Media for 17 years, including a stint as group publisher of Rolling Stone, Men's Journal and Us. And how did she get her start there? She was hired by a fellow named Dan Chiafair, who was then the New York ad manager. Chiafair not being a common name, Dana placed a few phone calls and, lo and behold, Dan Chiafair is the father of the current Miss FHM. Dan and Dana, we're told, reunited at the Miss FHM party last Wednesday. Next stop on the Tony Bennett's 20-city tour? Your living room We here at Adages have a way to go before retirement (32 years, 1 month, 4 days and, as of this writing, 3 hours), but after seeing AARP: The Magazine's breakfast-hour concert at Rockefeller Center with Tony Bennett, we already have something to tell our grandkids. As the first skaters of the winter season glided by the Sea Grill's windows, we were treated to a three-song set from the golden-throated great himself. Bennett announced that his upcoming 20-city tour will be a partnership with the AARP that could result in one lucky fan getting a private living room performance from Mr. Bennett. Yeesh! We haven't witnessed a performance that intimate since Beck played the Knitting Factory in October, but even that seems like a basement frat party compared to watching Tony Bennett from the comfort of your La-Z-Boy. Did Y&R fudge Ann's bio? Ann Fudge did a remarkable job at Y&R. Says who? Said her official bio, circa early 2005. "It would be hard to overstate the impact that Ann Fudge has had on both the work Y&R produces and the people who produce it," the bio bubbled. "The results have been, to put it mildly, remarkable." (Remarkable account losses, for example?) The laudatory words about her Y&R accomplishments were, to put it mildly, missing from the current official bio when we scoped it at yr.com last week after Ms. Fudge announced her departure. A Y&R spokesperson said, "We updated all the bios on the website this year and they are all straight career chronologies now." Good move. Contributing: Andrew Hampp, Bradley Johnson Send recipes to kwheaton@crain.com

A food guide for surviving suburban offices

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