Fargione's forthcoming book will combine personal history with his modern interpretations of Italian cooking. (Michael Palmer) One way to judge a city’s food scene is from the perspective of the publishing industry and its interest in printing books by local cooks and chefs. By that standard, the District has practically become world class, with recent or forthcoming volumes from Mike Isabella , Barton Seaver , Bryan Voltaggio , Carla Hall , Todd and Ellen Kassoff Gray and Pati Jinich .

Now you can add one more to the list: Enzo Fargione .

The chef and owner of Elisir in downtown Washington just signed a deal with the Arizona-based Keith Publications to publish a hardcover volume titled “Visual Eats: A Behind the Scenes Look at Modern Italian Cooking.” Fargione expects the book, with recipes for nearly 100 dishes, to hit shelves in the first half of next year.

The book, Fargione tells All We Can Eat, is motivated by neither cash nor ego. He says he didn’t even receive an advance. (“Even if I did, I won’t tell you,” he adds.)

“I always wanted to write a book about my personal interpretation of modern Italian cuisine,” says Fargione, 43. “I always wanted to do something like that — trying to send a clear message about what I do.

“Unless you write ‘Kitchen Confidential’ or ‘The Da Vinci Code’ or ‘Harry Potter,’” he adds, “you don’t make much money.”

Though packed with Fargione’s modernist Italian recipes, “Visual Eats” will also focus on the chef’s childhood in Turin, Italy; his relationship with celebrity chefs (inside the kitchen and out); and his take on the food press. (Disclosure: Fargione interviewed me for his book.)

Post-election greetings to all. Maybe you’re sleep-deprived after a night of watching balloting returns, but I’m not allowing that as an excuse to miss some great reads:

●Steakhouses hit the sauce — Victorino Matus explores the current trend that goes way beyond A.1. and Worcestershire.

●Barbecue’s identity crisis — Jim Shahin visits a foodways symposium to find out whether barbecue is losing its defining regional traits.

●The other food trucks — The rolling lunch wagons that serve the area’s construction crews occupy a fiercely competitive niche, Amanda Abrams finds.

And won't you stay awake long enough to jump into today’s Free Range chat? Besides the usual crew, we’ll welcome special guest Tanya Steel, editor in chief of Epicurious.com and author of “The Epicurious Cookbook,” which hit the bookstores last week. Bring your culinary questions, opinions, whatever. It all starts a noon. In the meantime, I’ll entertain you with a question from last week’s chat:

My husband and I just returned from a trip on the Riviera Maya and had some interesting desserts at our resort. One, a “cheese pie,” had the consistency of cheesecake but tasted like some type of savory cheese that I can’t put my finger on. Another looked like a creme brulee but also had that same savory taste. Any thoughts on what these might be?

A sign of the times: post-Sandy relief efforts from unexpected places, like the Limp Lizard in suburban Syracuse, N.Y. (Jim Shahin for The Washington Post) On Sunday afternoon, searching for nothing more than lunch, I came across a sign of the times, both figuratively and literally.

The literal message was a poster at the Limp Lizard barbecue restaurant in suburban Syracuse, N.Y., seeking donations for volunteers leaving Wednesday for New Jersey to help with post-Sandy relief efforts. The figurative message was that we are all in this together.

Syracuse, which Superstorm Sandy avoided, is a solid five-hour drive from New York City, even further from New Jersey. I asked Chuck Orlando, owner of the three Limp Lizard’s restaurants, what motivated his gesture. “Do you have roots in Jersey?”I wondered.

“No,” he replied. “When I was a little kid, we used to go down there sometimes.”

He went on to tell me that he, his wife and their four daughters spent part of last summer in Wildwood, N.J. “It was just a great time,” he said.

When he watched the devastation wrought by Sandy along the Jersey shore, he called the people from whom he rented the beach house to see if they were all right. They were, he said. But as he watched the TV coverage of the vicious winds and rains, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he should do something.

He got on the phone and called around to his suppliers for donations. “This was at 8:30 Halloween night,” he said. “By 9 the next morning, we had enough pork to feed 3,000 people.” The suppliers donated, as did the Limp Lizard itself. A local bakery donated the buns.

Bowled over by the results? California Tortilla's Presidential Burrito Bowl campaign predicts victory for Obama in two swing states. (California Tortilla) File this under “What Is It Good For? (Absolutely Nothing!)”: Two locally owned fast-casual chains have released the results of their presidential dining polls, and it’s officially a draw. (Is there a Supreme Court for Fast-Casual Dining Poll Ties?)

Customers at California Tortilla, the quasi-Mexican chain based in Rockville, have sided with the incumbent in the Presidential Burrito Bowl campaign: Obama’s Chicken Teriyaki Luau Bowl (grilled chicken, teriyaki sauce, stir-fry veggies and grilled pineapple) won at all 33 reporting stores in the chain’s Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District and Virginia region. In a scandal rivaling Florida’s famous hanging chads, the chain is not releasing the vote totals in the contest at this time.

Regardless, this would appear to be good news for Barack Obama. California Tortilla claims its dining poll has successfully predicted the past four presidential elections, dating back to Bill Clinton’s 1996 campaign. In 2008, for instance, spokesman Michael Schaffer says customers favored Obama’s dish 51 percent to 49 percent for John McCain’s. Obama ultimately won the election with more than 52 percent of the popular vote.”Nearly spot-on, no?” Schaffer e-mails.

Then again, perhaps California Tortilla’s customers were merely turned off by the bowl tied to Mitt Romney: the Mexican Mitt-Loaf Bowl, featuring meatloaf and mashed potatoes. (Nothing screams quasi-Mexican like meatloaf.)

There is some hopeful news for the contender, however.

District Taco looks to open its third location in the former Yes! Organic Market on Pennsylvania Avenue SE. (Osiris Hoil/District Taco) Six months after they opened their first storefront in the city that serves as the taqueria’s namesake, District Taco owners Osiris Hoil and Marc Wallace have signed a lease for a second Washington location.

District Taco plans to open its latest operation in the former Yes! Organic Market at 656 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. The owners are aiming for a January/February launch date on their third brick-and-mortar location, following their original taqueria in Arlington and their D.C. debut on F Street NW.

“Capitol Hill is just an area we really want to be in,” Wallace told All We Can Eat. “To be honest, we focused on Capitol Hill” almost exclusively for the next location. Wallace says District Taco has other “irons in the fire” for possible locations.

“We don’t have a number” in mind for total locations, Hoil adds. “What we do have is a passion for it. . . . If we see that our restaurants are working, we’ll go for the fourth one. If we see that the fourth one is working, we’ll go for the fifth one. And on and on.”

“One taco at a time,” Hoil says, “and one restaurant at a time.”