We are utterly thrilled when readers want to hang out and talk – whether it's amongst themselves or in response to pieces we've posted. We want Eatocracy to be a cozy, spirited online home for those who find their way here.

Consider the daily Coffee Klatsch post as your VIP lounge – the primary comments thread for readers who'd like to chat about topics not related to the articles we're running. That way, everyone knows where to find each other, and each post's comments section remains on topic.

Though he lives in Colorado now, Jeff Austin will always call Chicago home, and that, perhaps, is a rather unlikely place to spawn a professional mandolin player. On the other hand, the Windy City is ripe for churning out foodies, and if you follow Jeff on Twitter, you’ll know that food is one of his favorite topics.

Most people, however, simply know him as one-fourth of the Nederland, Colorado-based Yonder Mountain String Band with which he tirelessly tours to audiences around the world.

When the progressive bluegrass band rolled through Atlanta on their current Cabin Fever Tour, CNN joined Jeff for dinner at Rathbun Steak where we managed to order probably enough food to heartily feed everyone in attendance at their sold out show at The Tabernacle. Alas, nothing was left but bones...

You chose dinner tonight.  Why Kevin Rathbun Steak?
My before-show meal 99 percent of the time is steak and a pile of greens.  It was recommended to me extremely highly by somebody I trust 1000 percent with a restaurant recommendation.

Explain – if you can – just what the hell we ate tonight.
It was an array of food porn, including jalapeño creamed corn, smoky braised greens and lobster fritters.  We had steak for three and steak for two.  There's four of us – it's completely logical.  And they were gone.  There's nothing left.  I actually picked up the bone at one point and was chewing on it.

How do you like your steak?
Medium rare for the cuts that they're serving here, which were absolutely butter-meat.  I think to go further than that would be a little disrespectful to the animal and to the process.

Do you have any food rituals before you go on stage?
I keep it to a protein and a green.  Every now and then a little shot of some silver tequila.  Eating before a show is so important because it sets the tone for the entire experience.  I don't stand still on stage - I jump around like a friggin' pogo stick.  I need something to burn off.  Like tonight, I'm jacked.

What are your special requests for catering backstage?
I usually take a buy-out so I can go get dinner by myself.  I have a list going on about five, six years on my phone of restaurants.  So if we go somewhere our tour manager every now and then will go, "What do you got?"

Where did you develop your culinary interests?
Growing up it was just my mom and I, so I was kind of a latchkey kid.  I was allowed as much PBS as possible, so I was fascinated with Julia Child, The Frugal Gourmet (Jeff Smith), Martin Yan - he's like an Elvis to me. If I could ever meet him I would flip because that was the beginning of my fascination with Asian food.  He was so entertaining and charismatic.

We also lived in a homeless shelter; I lived in St. Sylvester's Catholic Charity Shelter in Chicago.  My mom was working four jobs and places were still too expensive to live.  It really made me appreciate food in a big way.  I ate from the city pantry very often. You know, you go down to the Rolling Meadows pantry and you walk in and you show your Catholic charity's "we're poor" card and they give you your bag and you fill it up and that's your food.  That's why now when somebody asks, "Would you like more truffle butter?" I not only say yes, but I genuinely understand what it means to be without.

What's the best meal you can remember from being on the road?
Best meal of my entire life – sorry Mom, sorry everybody – was at Le Chemin des Eaux in Chomelix, France, seven years ago.  Lunch.  Lasted for three hours - the most magical and amazing experience.  We were doing the Rendezvous Festival in Haute-Loire – it was the whole band, the whole crew. There was this cold red wine in thick green bottles. "This wine is fantastic.  Where is it from?" And he points down the street and up the hill.  "Oh, these eggs are incredible.  Where are they from?" And he said, "Oh, if you listen you'll hear them in the back of the restaurant."  We watched them walk across and pick the greens to put into our salad.  The best meal I've ever had in my life.  Hands down.

What are your guilty pleasures on the bus?
I'm a gummy bear freak.  There's a place called the Candy Shoppe – Concourse B, Denver International Airport – they have these little gummy strawberries.  They suck me in and I can't help it.  That, and little tiny microwavable soup cups, because sometimes when you wake up and you just feel like crap – three and a half minute later (smiles).  It's so processed.  It's so over-salted.  But sometimes, you just need it.  As far as fast food – I'd rather not eat.  I'll grab an extra ground lamb and peas and stash it in the fridge for those times when you pull off and there's nothing.  And people are looking at you going, "Where did you get that?"  "Oh, you mean these ribs? From the little smokehouse in Lexington?  I got my tricks."

When the tour ends do you cook at home?
I cook pretty much every day when I'm at home. God, I love doing fried chicken.  God, I love doing ribs.  I love doing steak night for myself at the house.  I have a salad dressing I'm pretty proud of.  I make my own pasta.  I make my own butter.  I make my own ketchup and mayonnaise and all that stuff.

You live in Colorado, but are from Chicago originally.  What do you miss from home?
The diversity.  I'm very blessed to live where I live – I love the silence and the peace – but I miss turning the corner and hitting a killer Korean restaurant.  I miss walking down the street to my fishmonger.  That kind of stuff almost wants to drive me to go back to Chicago.

Do you have any food addictions?
Chips and Dean's French onion dip.  Can't do without them.  It's just a childhood thing.  Chips and dip – it's so good.  When I have had a couple of long, long weeks on the road and I get out of the bus on a day off and I crawl right into the hotel room, the first thing I do is find out where the best Chinese place is in town and I order a bag of food that I eat for the entire day.

Have you tried to give up any foods?
Fried foods.  I've lost thirty pounds over the last year.  It's the hardest thing giving up fried foods.  We were in Nashville last night – you finish the show and there's a table full of Prince's Hot Chicken Shack.  Yeah ... I had some.

What's the strangest thing you've ever put in your mouth? Food.
Fish head soup with eyeballs in San Francisco.  I thought, "I'm here.  Let's do it."  My palate as far as texture has really grown up.  Marrow is one of my favorite things in the world.  Anything involved with the face or the head.  Head cheese. Cheeks. Jowls.

Do you have a simple recipe you can share.
For steak night for one or two: Rub for your steak with equal parts: Fresh cracked black pepper, smoked Hungarian paprika and smoked kosher salt.

I know these may sound like fancy ingredients from a fancy place, but, you can get these from pretty much any general grocery store or organic market. I recommend a ribeye cut - dry-aged - however, a basic grocery store cut ribeye will work perfectly.

Rub whatever cut you have with intention with the steak rub and let it come to almost room temperature on your kitchen counter - almost 45 minutes or so.

I know it may seem like a long time but allowing your meat to warm up for a while will stop it from overcooking; the less temperature stress on your steak, the better.

Grill your 1-inch to 1-1/2-inch steak at the highest heat possible on your grill for a total of 7-8 minutes - 4 minutes max per side. Time is your friend. Remember, your beef will continue to cook while it rests so don't overdo it, OK?

Once you are done grilling, try this salad dressing alongside your steak:

Pinch of tarragon
Pinch of kosher salt
Dash of smoked paprika
One or two shots of hot sauce - Frank's, Crystal, any good cayenne sauce
Two shots Worcestershire sauce
3-4 grinds fresh black pepper
1 tsp agave syrup
1 1/2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
4-5 Tbsp olive oil

Combine in a shallow bowl and whisk until combined. Best if tossed with watercress or baby arugula.

Allow steak to rest for 10-15 minutes. Serve salad alongside for the perfect pre-show meal or a great steak night for two.

Recently, nearly 30 thought leaders in the seafood, restaurant and sustainability worlds came together to have a conversation about how chefs can embrace seafood sustainability in a greater, more mainstream way.

“Thought for Food: A Discussion on Sustainable Seafood” was facilitated by James Beard award-winning chef and author John Ash, widely respected as a sustainability pioneer. Participants came from a variety of backgrounds: chefs, NGO leaders, journalists and other members of the food industry vanguard.

Each brought a different perspective to the buzz-worthy subject of "conscious cuisine," an idea brought to the forefront by New York Times journalist and author Mark Bittman. In his book, "Food Matters, Guide to Conscious Eating," he explains conscious cuisine as the idea that one deliberately chooses deliciously prepared food that is not just good for you but is also produced with a keen appreciation for the health of and respect for the planet.

Today, consumers are more naturally curious about the provenance of their food and its method of production, and retailers have found a way to make these types of conversations part of the every day. More and more people want to know where their tomatoes were grown and who picked them. They also genuinely care about the quality of life of the cow that yielded that T-bone. But fewer customers think about the sustainability and origin of the seafood on the menu, other than perhaps where the fish were raised.

While some chefs are leading the charge and embracing sustainability at every level, others have been slower to come around on the subject.

As Scott Nichols, PhD of aquaculture innovator, Verlasso, said, “We can’t keep depleting our oceans. To continue to eat fish, we need to raise them in an ecologically responsible manner, benefitting both the consumer and the species - not just capture them. With a current worldwide population exceeding seven billion people - estimates for 2050 push that number to nine billion - effectively sourcing quality fish has come to the forefront of the international discussion on sustainability.”

As the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported in 2008, “Fish provided more than 2.9 billion people with at least 15 percent of their average per capita animal protein intake.” That is a small percentage of people, consuming a whole lot of fish. Coupled with the fact that the USDA 2010 Dietary Guidelines recommend doubling the consumption of seafood from 3.5 ounces to eight ounces per week, it is easy to conclude that aquaculture will play a key part in helping to feed a hungry world.

Salmon, that nutritional powerhouse that consumers go to for brain and heart health, was the species that opened the discussion on the importance of sustainable seafood. Until recently, chefs only had two sources of salmon they could put on their menus: wild-caught and farm-raised.

Salmon, like tuna, is just one type of large fish that depends on several levels of the food chain for survival. In essence, each fish needs to consume many smaller fish to thrive. As Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia states, “A pound of tuna represents roughly a hundred times the footprint of a pound of sardines.” And given our growing population, this is just not a reliable method for increased seafood demand.

Yousef Ghalaini, executive chef of New York’s Imperial No. Nine adds, “Those chefs who do opt to put wild salmon on their menus say that it is harder to prepare - being lower in fat - and some diners find the flavor too intense.”

Most farm-raised salmon, on the other hand, is raised in an environment where every life stage is controlled: quantity of eggs fertilized, number of fish per pen, diet and harvest.

The detractors to this method, however, are clear: Farm-raised salmon also demand high levels of feeder fish for their diet.

Nichols notes, “This ratio is termed ‘fish-in, fish-out’ and typically translates to four pounds of fish needed to produce just one pound of farm-raised salmon.” Adding to the sustainability conundrum, many of these feeder fish are considered consumable on their own, as opposed to being used as feed for salmon.

In recent years, environmental groups like Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) FishWatch have brought increasing attention to both wild fisheries and traditional aquaculture, which has led to improvement in the industry. But, much remains to be done to make aquaculture healthy and sustainable. These are facts that every "Thought for Food" participant could agree upon, which led to the discussion of the third solution: harmoniously raised salmon, a new category that has emerged just this past year.

Verlasso, located in the cold waters of Patagonia, is the only company producing harmoniously raised salmon. With standards guided by the World Wildlife Fund’s sustainability goals, the company aims to change the way the world gets their salmon. Situated away from the threat of pollutants, industrial waste or other contaminants, Verlasso raises its salmon with a very low pen density of four fish per ton of water. This environment allows each fish to be identified and monitored carefully to ensure a healthy life.

The harmoniously raised salmon also have a unique diet that reduces the fish-in fish-out ratio by 75 percent. This innovative process replaces fish oil with yeast, rich in Omega-3s, making Verlasso salmon markedly more sustainable. The pens are also allowed to rest for months between production cycles, a process akin to farmers letting fields go fallow and ameliorate themselves from the rigors of production. The results have been significant.

“The quality is exceptional,” notes Chef Ghalaini, who recently started serving harmoniously raised fish. “This salmon is like nothing I’ve ever had access to before. The scales are tight, the gills are beautiful, the eyes are glassy – all indicators of a fish that has led a great life.”

At Imperial No. Nine, he serves Verlasso salmon two ways: raw, in a salmon and tuna tartare with Sriracha and Hawaiian-style poi, garnished with chives. Chef Ghalaini makes this from the belly of the salmon, which has both a flavor and texture that “really pops with a clean bite.” The salmon he serves hot is seared with a horseradish crust, plated on a bed of celery root purée and Brussels sprouts. “The bite of the horseradish is totally balanced by the unique sweetness of the salmon.”

The "Thought for Food" participants discussed another important point: it is one thing for the chef to advocate sustainability, but how do we convey this message to our customers?

As Chef Ash remarks, “That’s the $64,000 question. You have to do it so carefully and thoughtfully. Diners are really coming to restaurants to enjoy themselves. They do not want to be preached at...because you can turn people off. Chefs need to set the stage for it, but the waitstaff are the real touch point to the diners.”

Chef Ghalaini concurs, “We take the time to educate our servers about this fish. They have tasted it raw, and they have tasted it cooked. They have seen for themselves how different it is. And it is my responsibility, as a chef, to make sure that happens so they can tell the customers.”

Chef Bun Lai of Miya’s Sushi in New Haven, Connecticut, was another "Thought for Food" participant. The recipient of the 2011 Seafood Ambassador Award from Monterey Bay Aquarium for his leadership in the Sustainable Seafood movement, his restaurant has been named one the country’s ten most sustainable restaurants.

Chef Lai echoes Chef Ghalaini’s sentiment that the entire restaurant team must be on board with the tenets of sustainability if that is an issue the chef cares about and strives to uphold.

He adds, “The food we chefs choose to use ultimately affects the health and happiness of not only our dining guests, but that of the producer, everyone involved in getting that product to us, the environment and the planet as a whole. As a food artist, that is how I base every decision in my restaurant. I only hire staff who are ideological and philosophical in what they do. They must realize that everything we do is connected in a larger way.”

With such a commitment to sustainability, Chef Lai is continuously looking for producers, partners and models to further the ideal all the way down to the customer. Among the several perspectives discussed, Chef Lai says, “I came out of the 'Thought for Food' discussion reconsidering farmed salmon. I have admired Chef Ash for a really long time, not just for the food he prepares, but for his philosophy and his principles. ...There is great progress happening in the world of sustainability so I think it’s important to keep one’s mind open to improvements in science and technology.”

As a chef who teaches at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone and serves on the board of the Chefs Collaborative, Chef Ash has sustainability advice for those chefs just coming up through the ranks: “It’s the old saw about getting to know your purveyors. Get to know your farmer. As the great Kentucky poet and farmer Wendell Berry once said, 'You gotta know where your food comes from and know the person behind where your food comes from.'”

Chef Lai takes it one step further and encourages those same chefs to embrace sustainability because he has seen how it makes him a better chef: “In ‘confining’ myself to the tenets of sustainability – in everything I do – I find I am more creative. I like how this passion inspires me to be better.”

• Panda Express, one of the fastest-growing chains in the U.S., is moving on up and out of the food court. - NPR

• This just in: Taco Bell no longer wants you to "Think Outside the Bun." Instead, they urge you to "Live Mas." - Ad Age

• And after the party, it's the after-party drink. Pass the digestifs! - New York Times

• Bill Gates announces $200 million in grants toward agricultural productivity; urges the United Nations to help farmers in impoverished countries more. - Star Tribune

• A new study shows that if you can't pronounce the wine, you think it's worth more. Rkatsiteli must be real expensive then. - Globe and Mail

Go bananas over this sweet, sweet bread because February 23 is National Banana Bread Day!

If you've got a bunch of bananas wasting away on your counter and you're thinking about giving them the heave-ho, STOP in the name of banana bread! You'll never have a better excuse to grab a fork and mash up old bananas than this moist quick bread.

When baking soda and baking powder gained popularity in the 1930s, the landscape of breads, cakes and cakey breads changed forever. Although there is evidence that housewives in the 1700s experimented with a type of banana bread using pearlash, both Pillsbury and Chiquita published recipes for banana bread in 1933 and 1950, respectively.

The home baking revolution that swept the U.S. during the early 1960s carried banana bread on its wave of explosive popularity, and it soon became a staple in households everywhere. Variations including raisins,chopped walnuts or pecans and chocolate chips also continue to thrive.

Get even funkier with your banana bread making and bake peanut butter banana bread, featuring one of the best combinations known to man. It's a little bit fruit serving, a little bit of protein, and a whole lot of love.

We are utterly thrilled when readers want to hang out and talk – whether it's amongst themselves or in response to pieces we've posted. We want Eatocracy to be a cozy, spirited online home for those who find their way here.

Consider the daily Coffee Klatsch post as your VIP lounge – the primary comments thread for readers who'd like to chat about topics not related to the articles we're running. That way, everyone knows where to find each other, and each post's comments section remains on topic.

Mindful parents - and there are many of them - know the drill when it comes to eating out with children. They stick to family friendly restaurants, know the signs of an oncoming outburst and won’t hesitate to scoop up their children at first wail. That is if they decide to take the kids out in the first place.

Those parents wish restaurants didn’t need to publicly state policies for dealing with unruly children or even ban them outright. They shudder when the media shines a spotlight on establishments that go that route; the controversy gives parents a bad name.

“I think it's unfortunate that a restaurant would need written rules,” said Britt Reints, a freelance writer and mother of two. “I can only imagine that comes after having too many parents not respect the dining experience of other patrons.”

The controversy was reignited last week after Grant Central Pizza in Atlanta added a disclaimer to its menu asking parents to take crying children outside, out of respect to fellow patrons.

Whenever a restaurant assumes a public stance on dealing with unruly children, it risks alienating customers. But it’s a chance more and more restaurants are willing to take, with increasing support from the parenting and non-parenting public.

“I have children and I support grant central's policy 300 percent. I wish more eating establishments had the good decency to stand up and say no more to uncontrolled and undiciplined [sic] children,” one commenter said on the restaurant’s Facebook page, where owners thanked people for supporting them “during this nationwide controversy.”

“We plan to eat in at Grant Central more often now. Thank you! We love kids, but parents need to take responsibility for occasional bad behavior,” another commenter said.

McDain’s Restaurant and Golf Center in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, drew national attention last summer after deciding to ban children under six. Less than a year later, owner Mike Vuick said he is reaping the benefits of a sound business decision: sales are up 22 percent and he’s looking for more wait staff.

The restaurant lost some regular customers, but they were replaced by a new crop of customers searching for a relaxed atmosphere, according to Vuick.

“We’ve had nothing but quiet dinners, and not a day goes by that I don’t get e-mails from people thanking me or congratulating me,” he said.

A number of factors played into the decision. Increasingly, parents seemed unwilling to stop children from running around the dining room or remove them if they were screaming or making noise. Polite nudging from staff was met with indignant responses, and in extreme cases, people stiffing them on checks.

“I did it on behalf of parents who left their children at home expecting to have a nice dinner at a quiet venue,” Vuick said. “I knew it could backfire but it was a risk I was willing to take because I felt there would be enough people who’d appreciate what I was doing.”

He has nothing against children, he says; it’s just a function of the kind of business he wanted to run.

“There are plenty of places where families can go and it’s implicit that the dining experience will be subjected to noise and they have coloring books and playgrounds,” he said. “There are plenty of those around and only a handful of places like mine.”

Indeed, some chains have family friendly built into their brand. For example, some parents go to The Cheesecake Factory because they know that children who require high chairs will be greeted with the complimentary “baby plate” sliced banana, freshly baked bread and an orange as soon as they are seated.

“The Cheesecake Factory strives to provide our guests with phenomenal service, and servers are trained to customize their approach for each situation, focusing extra attention on the needs of families with young children,” spokeswoman Susan Pasarow said in an e-mail.

Simply providing a children’s menu and crayons also goes a way, blogger and mom Rebecca Levey said. Other necessities include high-chairs, amenability to customized menu items like plain pasta, fast service, plastic cups and stroller parking, she said.

Responsible parents also travel with an arsenal of toys and electronic devices to keep kids occupied, she said.

“Families tend to travel in similar circles,’ said Levey, who runs the site, KidzVuz.com, which lets children rate and recommend games. “Parents tend to know the places that can accommodate them. because most don’t want to be in the position.”

Family friendly places are also prime training grounds for instilling manners, Reints said, from treating wait staff courteously and saying please and thank you to speaking in a low voice and using good manners.

“I think the key thing is to take your kids to restaurants often if you want them to learn how to behave,” she said. “The more experience kids having in these public spaces, the easier it is to bring kids to less "family friendly" restaurants, knowing your children will know how to behave.”

For millions of allergy sufferers across the country, someone else's snack can mean a deadly attack. Now one more major league team has been added to the roster of baseball parks offering dedicated peanut-free seating at some games.

The Milwaukee Brewers announced in a press release that there will be a 100-seat peanut-controlled area at Miller Park for games on Monday, May 7, Thursday, July 26 and Friday, September 14, with tickets available for pre-order starting March 1 at Brewers.com/peanutcontrolled. Because the entire venue will not be peanut-free, those seated in the area will be required to sign a waiver.

Miller Field is just the latest venue joining the growing trend of Major League ballparks making special accommodations for peanut-sensitive guests, who can suffer symptoms ranging from mild irritation, to potentially deadly anaphylactic shock from consumption of or exposure to the food. The special seating has proven especially popular with the parents of children with food allergies.

As CNN Health previously reported, a 2011 study in the journal Pediatrics reaffirmed the growing problem of food allergies among young people. Researchers found that eight percent of children under 18 in the United States have at least one food allergy. In the past, estimates had ranged from two percent to eight percent, adding to the growing body of evidence that increasingly more children have food allergies.

Among those with food allergies, about 39 percent had a history of severe reaction and 30 percent were allergic to multiple foods. The most common food allergen was peanuts, followed by milk and shellfish. Allergy to peanuts and tree nuts is the leading cause of fatal and near fatal food-allergic reactions. About one percent of the general population is affected by peanut and tree nut allergies, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Roughly half of major league teams, including the Brewers, Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners, Washington Nationals, St. Louis Cardinals and others will host peanut-free games this season. Most of them employ intensive measures to ensure the safety of their guests.

U.S. Cellular field, which is hosting its inaugural peanut allergy-friendly event for the White Sox's home game against the Baltimore Orioles on April 17, suggests a "least peanut-exposed path" to the dedicated section, while vendors at Busch Stadium ensure that vendors will halt the sale of peanuts and peanut products in their specially assigned zone and will not allow fans seated there to consume them.

Representatives for Miller Field told Eatocracy that "The [peanut-free] area itself will receive a thorough power wash and cleaning prior to the games." Management at Nationals Park, which offers four dates with $25 tickets to thoroughly-cleaned "Party Suites" takes that a step further, ensuring that emergency medical technicians are on site to deal with any issues, and substituting canola oil for peanut oil throughout the venue on designated allergy-free days.

While expert opinion varies greatly about the actual risk outdoor peanut exposure holds, websites like Free to Enjoy Baseball (peanut free and more) and The Nut-Free Mom and Facebook communities Chicago Cubs Fans for Peanut Free Baseball and Peanut-Free White Sox Baseball like closely track and applaud efforts made by major league ballparks - even if they are not fans of the teams themselves.

One commenter on the White Sox group put it in a nutshell writing, "Awesome! Congrats!! I am 100% in support of this...(and by that I mean the Peanut-Free part, not the White Sox part!!) :)"

Read more on food allergies and sensitivities and catch up on all peanut allergy coverage on Eatocracy

• How waiters read your table. - Wall Street Journal

• More sugar could sour your happiness project. - The Atlantic

• "It’s interesting that this is happening in Texas, the land of beef and cattle." The University of North Texas boasts the nation's first vegan college cafeteria. - The Dallas Morning News

• A survey of the nation's best chefs on the worst cooking in America. Spoiler: They kind of dig Outback Steakhouse in a bind. - Esquire

• To eat like a local or not to eat like a local - and the "it's not the same" mentality when local delicacies are consumed outside their place of origin. - Guardian