The younger generations are culinary savvy. They want exotic flavors, they love to cook, and they know the difference between Himalayan and Hawaiian sea salts. These young foodies have created a market for culinary academies for kids. From Berkeley, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Washington, D.C., there are a ton of kiddie culinary academies that teach young students the art and science behind cooking. Many of them offer after-school or weekend programs to accommodate busy schedules. Restaurants are also getting in on the action and offering classes to youngsters, including cooking in a working restaurant kitchen.

Many places even offer vegetarian cooking classes specifically for kids! Equinox Restaurant in Washington, D.C., has kids' vegetarian cooking class, and the city of Taylor, Michigan, sponsors a vegetarian cooking class for Taylor's aspiring chefs.

If you know of a young gourmand or have a kid who loves to spend time in the kitchen, let him or her know about our "Cooking With Kids" contest, which gives kids the chance to put their cooking skills to the test and win some fantastic prizes!

If your experience in public schools was anything like mine, then you will have similar horror stories about the shockingly bad food. During my years in high school, I was already vegetarian, so lunch for me was often tater tots, plain baked potatoes, iceberg lettuce, and a side veggie—if I was lucky. Not exactly what I would call a wide variety of mouthwatering choices.

It has been a long time since I chowed down on anything off one of those plastic trays, and the food in some schools has since improved immensely. I recently read an old post on 101 Cookbooks about the Oxbow School, which in 2005 had a chef from Chez Panisse(!) whipping up school lunches—and she always included a vegan or vegetarian option.

For those of you who can't coerce chefs from the nation's most famous restaurants into wearing hairnets in Lunch Lady Land, don't worry. There are other ways to get healthy vegetarian options into cafeterias.

Great new resources, such as the Earth Voice Food Choice manual, walk students, teachers, and parents through the steps necessary to get these options on their school's menu. The manual provides recipes as well as tips for promoting the options to students and explains the problems that poor diets cause. Following the advice of the manual is a surefire way to get healthier, tastier options into any cafeteria.

While stalking the Green Olive Media Web site yesterday—which does beautiful design and PR for restaurants, and I wish to god there were someone doing this with the same degree of success for veg restaurants—I found out that this year's list of James Beard award nominees has been announced. Although not surprised, I was happy to see that Hugh Acheson from Five and Ten in Athens, Georgia, is nominated for Best Chef in the Southeast. Many of you who read the blog regularly probably already know that I lived in Athens for many years and that I love the delicious vegan plate that Five and Ten creates.

I was, however, surprised to see one vegetarian cookbook nominated for an award and a few more things I love on the list. Here's a quick rundown of what stood out to me:

•How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman: Nominated in the "General" section of the James Beard Foundation Books Awards.

•Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways to Incorporate Whole & Natural Ingredients Into Your Cooking by Heidi Swanson: From the blogger who delivers great pictures and recipes at 101 Cookbooks, a large number of which are vegan or vegetarian. She's nominated in the "Healthy Focus" section of the James Beard Foundation Books Awards.

•Chow.com: Nominated in the "Website Focusing on Food, Beverage, Restaurant, or Nutrition" category. It is by far my favorite online food site—next to this one, of course—because of the great blogs, recipes (many vegan), and videos it offers from a youthful point of view.

•Top Chef Season 3: The Bravo show hosted by Tom Colicchio and Padma Lakshmi is nominated in the "Television Food Show, National and Local" category. I've been a fan since season one, when I would watch every week with a few of my favorite people. Season four in Chicago just started and is featuring a few of the most famous in the food world, including Wylie Dufresne of wd-50, Rick Bayless, and Anthony Bourdain—and we're only a few weeks into the season.

You can learn more about James Beard, the great culinary figure the awards are named for, and the scandalous past of his foundation in The United States of Arugula: The Sun-Dried, Cold-Pressed, Dark-Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution by David Kamp.

Over the last couple of months, I've noticed lots of vegan food mentions popping up all over the mainstream media. It has become increasingly common to see vegan recipes and books presented in a positive light, right alongside those that feature meat, dairy products, and eggs. Here are just a few recent vegan mentions I've noticed:

•Vegan Sashimi Wins on Top Chef: In the "Quickfire Challenge" judged by Daniel Boulud, Dale won with vegan sashimi that showcased his knife skills.

•Epicurious Tours Moby's Kitchen: In a short video series, Moby gives a tour of his kitchen, talks about his favorite kitchen equipment, and makes vegan blueberry pancakes.

•'Knit Night' Cupcakes on Martha Stewart: VeganYumYum is without a doubt one of the best food blogs out there, and its creator was even invited to make her "Knit Night" cupcakes on The Martha Stewart Show back in February.

•Heather Mills to Host Vegan Cooking Show: Also announced in February is that Heather Mills, ex-wife of Sir Paul McCartney, has landed her own cooking show, and it will be all vegan. I don't know when or where it will air, but you can read a few more details here.

This is just a short list of recent vegan food news, and of course, it doesn't include the recent James Beard nomination for a vegetarian cookbook, which I told you about last week, or the vegetarian recipes that pop up in Gourmet magazine often.

Please let me know if you have other veg food news items to add to the list!